A Little About Bonaparte Essay, Research Paper

Napoleon Bonaparte, also known as the “little Corsican”, was born on August 15,1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was the greatest hero of France. His family had moved there from Italy in the 16th century. His original name was Napoleone and his original nationality was Corsican-Italian. Him in REALITY despised the French. He thought they kept his country down by severe and unjust use of force. His father was a lawyer, and was also anti-French. One reason Napoleon may have been such a great leader and revolutionary because he was raised in a family of radicals. When Napoleon was nine, his father sent him to Brienne, a French military government school in Paris. For one year Napoleon attended the Ecole Militaire in Paris. It was there that he received his military training. He studied to be an artilleryman and an officer. He finished his training and he joined the French army when he was just 16 years old.

Napoleon was assigned to work in Paris in 1792. After the French monarchy was overthrown in August 1792, he was promoted to captain. In 1793 he was chosen to direct the artillery against the siege in Toulon. Very soon after Toulon fell and Napoleon was promoted to brigadier general. He was made commander of the French army in Italy and defeated many Austrian Generals. Soon after this Austria and France made peace, and Napoleon was released from his command, he was suspected of treason. In 1795 he broke up a revolt and saved the French government. He had earned back respect and he was once again given command of the French Army in Italy. He came up with a plan that worked very well (All of his plans worked very well). ?He would cut the enemy’s army in to two parts, then attack one side of them before the other side could help them?.

After this Napoleon was almost impossible to stop. He made an unsuccessful attempt to invade Egypt, in 1799 he returned to France to find the Directory (the French Government) a mess. He overthrew the Directory, and created a new government, in which there were three consuls, and he was the most important one. At this time, everyone in France loved Napoleon, and his power increased. In 1802 France signed a peace treaty with England and Germany, and was now not at war with anyone.

He re-established the University of France, reformed the education system, and he founded the Bank of France. He also made the Napoleonic Code: The first clear, compact statement of the French law. The Napoleonic Code has served as a base for legal systems around the world till this day. He changed the government again and made himself the Emperor of France. He married Marie Louise, the daughter of the Emperor of Austria. He soon had a son by his wife. He now was the ruler of a great empire, and he had 42 million people under his control.

After he tried to invade Russia, his empire began to crumble. And on April 6, 1814 he was forced from the throne. He was exiled to the island of Elba. About a year later, he gathered about 1,000 soldiers and went to Paris and regained power. He ruled for a short time, and then he surrendered to the English. He was exiled to the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic, where he stayed until he died on May 5, 1821. He supposedly died of cancer, but there are rumors that he was poisoned.