Minard's Visualization of Napoleon's Russian Campaign

Overview

This project is an interactive recreation of Charles Minard's famous 1869 flow map depicting Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812-1813. The visualization shows how Napoleon's Grande Armée was reduced from 422,000 to only about 10,000 men during the campaign.

Features

• Interactive visualization with tooltips showing troop sizes at different points
• Temperature chart showing the harsh winter conditions during the retreat
• Accurate geographic representation of the advance and retreat routes
• City markers with historical dates
• River crossings that were critical points in the campaign

Technology

• HTML/CSS for layout and styling
• D3.js v7 for data visualization
• Responsive design that works on different screen sizes

Historical Significance

Minard's original visualization is considered one of the best statistical graphics ever created, combining six types of data in a single image:

1. Size of army (width of the flow)
2. Location/geography (map coordinates)
3. Direction of movement (advancing or retreating)
4. Temperature during retreat (bottom graph)
5. Crossing points of rivers
6. Time/dates of key events

Data Sources

The data is based on Minard's original chart with some adjustments for accuracy based on historical records.

Usage

Open index.html in a modern web browser to view the visualization.