Other historians assert that he was 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 metres) because he was measured on a British island 28 years after the French adopted the metric system. He was actually 5 foot 2 inches (1.58 metres) tall, slightly below the period's average adult male height, depending on the source chosen. In 1803, he was mocked in British newspapers as a short-tempered small man. This view was fostered and encouraged by the British, who waged a propaganda campaign to diminish their enemy in print and art, during his life and after his death.

Common folklore supposes that Napoleon compensated for his lack of height by seeking power, war, and conquest. The Napoleon complex is named after Napoleon, the first Emperor of the French. Both commonly, and in psychology, the Napoleon complex is regarded as a derogatory social stereotype. It is characterized by overly aggressive or domineering social behavior, and carries the implication that such behavior is compensatory for the subject's physical or social shortcomings. The Napoleon complex myth, known informally as small people syndrome, is a syndrome normally attributed to people of short stature. Not to be confused with Napoleonist syndrome.īritish propaganda of the time promoted the idea that Napoleon was short.