Napoleons Early Life.Napoleon
Bonaparte was born in the Italian republic of Corsica. Napoleon was born into a
wealthy family, his father was a lawyer and a political opportunist. Napoleon’s
great talent let him enter the military academy at Brienne in 1779. He moved to
Parisian Ecole Royale Militaire in 1784 and graduated a year later as a second
lieutenant in the artillery in the French army. Napoleon completed a three year
course in a singular year. Napoleon spent the majority of his first eight years
out of school in Corsica while getting military promotion. In
1795 Napoleon became a hero of France by defending the government from counter-revolutionary
forces. Vicomte Paul de Barras promoted him to a high military office where
there was an opportunity for political entry. Napoleon became very liked within
the French government and he married Josephine de Beauharnais. In 1796 France
attacked Austria and Napoleon was in charge of the Army of Italy in the battle
of Italy where he had a very successful campaign.
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Napoleons Life and Death as a LeaderAfter
he made peace with other European countries, Napoleon kept many of the
revolutionary changes and strengthened the economy that had been so unstable
before him. Napoleon rid the government of corrupt officials and set up lycees
which were government run schools. He also improved public services. Napoleon
also signed the Concordat with the Catholic Church which gave some rights and
power back to the church. Peasants loved having their church back. Napoleon
established the Napoleonic Code in 1804. A code which was based on common sense
and equality, at least for men, instead of custom, social division and monarchy
or theocracy. The code did limit some individual freedom though. Later in 1804
Napoleon crowned himself Emperor. No, really…Napoleon took the crown from the
pope and placed it on his own head to show who was really in charge here. After
crowning himself Napoleon knew he had an empire to build. What’s an emperor
without an empire? Napoleon knew he wanted control of Europe and parts of the
US. Napoleon dominated Europe for eight years. He had many victories but he had
some very significant ones like the battle of Austerlitz where Napoleons army
single-handedly defeated the Austrian AND the Russian army. Napoleon often
offered a peace treaty, where he basically owned your country or you either had
to deal with him and his army. Easy way or the hard way. Napoleon also made
some errors, the French navy also got the worst side of the battle when it came
to the British navy. Since he could not beat Britain he wanted to cut them off,
so he set up a blockade which he called the Continental System, only the French
navy took part in this blockade so you can imagine they lost again. Napoleon
sent an invasion force through Spain to Portugal which angered the Spanish. Not
only did he blatantly march through their country, he also tried to force his
brother on the Spanish people as their ruler. Instead of accepting the brother,
the Spanish fought the guerilla war against the French. Napoleon couldn’t
physically be with the invasion force in Spain so, like every other force
without Napoleon, they failed. Then in 1812 Napoleon decided to invade Russia,
a terrible mistake. The Russians used a
scorched earth tactic where they burned EVERYTHING once they were done with it.
Soon the Russian winter destroyed Napoleons army and when they retreated, the
Russians attacked. After Russia, it seemed like everybody was closing in on
Napoleon and heading towards Paris and soon they were there. Paris was captured
in 1814 by allied forces and went down without a fight. Without much French
public support, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba. Rumors started to
circulate that if Napoleon came back he would be loved and accepted so that is
exactly what he did. Napoleon returned to France in 1815 and became emperor
again. Napoleon reorganized Frances government and military. Napoleons return
to power only lasted 100 days though, he quickly went back to war. In 1815
Napoleon fought the battle of Waterloo in which Napoleon marched into Belgium
where the armies of Britain and Prussia waited on him. He was completely
outnumbered and outwitted by the British and the Prussians. Napoleon had a
terrible lost a Waterloo and this was considered to be his final downfall. Napoleon was then exiled even farther to St. Helen where he spent the final years of his life.
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