We explain who Napoleon was, how was his military career and his role in the French Revolution. In addition, its characteristics of leader and death.
Who was Napoleon Bonaparte?
Napoleon Bonaparte was A French military and statesmanRepublican General during the French Revolution and, subsequently, Emperor of the French and King of Italy. It was famous for having been controlled by practically Western and central Europe in just ten years of conquests, and considers it one of the greatest military geniuses in history.
In addition to their military feats, He is recognized by his role as emperorat the same time iron and cult. Some historians consider it a tyrant and others an “illustrated despot” that contributed to the modernization of Europe. It is due to the implementation of the Napoleonic Code, one of the best known and most influential civil codes in the world, approved in 1804 and even strictly (although with numerous modifications).
Although his empire lasted only ten years and died in exile, Bonaparte He was a key character in the European history of the nineteenth century. For this reason, it was subject to numerous fictional representations (literary, cinematographic, theatrical) and historical essays, sometimes sharing prominence with her first wife, Empress Consorte Josefina de Beauharnais.
See also: Alexander the Great
The birth of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte He was born in Corsica on August 15, 1769just a year after the Republic of Genoa gave the island to France. He was the son of local nobles: Carlo Buonaparte (1746-1785), lawyer and representative of Corsica in the court of Louis XVI, and María Letizia Ramolino (1750-1836).
Napoleon was the fourth of several children of marriage, but the second to survive childhood, after José Bonaparte (1768-1844). According to his biographers, he was a little sociable childwho liked loneliness to meditate and did not interest the studies too much, except mathematics.
Also I was passionate about classical literature reading And he felt antipathy for the French, whom he considered oppressors of the inhabitants Córcega. At ten years of age, he was sent with his brother José to a military academy in France, in Brienne-Le-Château, where he graduated in 1784. He later entered the Paris Military School, where he graduated in 1785 with artillery studies.
The beginnings of Napoleon Bonaparte’s military career
Napoleon was appointed as an artillery host in the Fère regiment, and served in the garrisons of Valence and Auxonne Until the French Revolution broke out in 1789. He followed the nationalist leader Corsquale Paoli to Corsica, but soon returned to France. In 1791 he was appointed Lieutenant first in an artillery regiment of Valence, and joined the Jacobin Club, one of the most radical revolutionary factions. It is known that Napoleon had read philosophers such as Voltaire and Rousseau, in addition to books on military strategy.
He ascended to Lieutenant Colonel of the National Guard in Corsica, but had a conflict with Paoli, who was his commander in chief, and in June 1793 he had to leave Corsica along with his family to settle in France. Supported the republican cause, which had abolished the monarchy in 1792.
During the beginning of the revolutionary wars, the French Republican Army faced the foreign powers that, together with the French realists, defended monarchical absolutism. Napoleon was recommended by Corso Antoine Saliceti to command the artillery forces that besieged the city of Tolón in 1793. Thanks to the success of this operation, in December of the same year, outside Ascended to Brigade General.
When the National Convention ruled France was replaced by the Board of Directors in 1795, Napoleon became commander of the Army of the Interior of France and Military Advisor of the Board of Directorsafter having contributed to the repression of a realistic and counterrevolutionary revolt in Paris that had risen against the convention. On March 9, 1796, he married Josefina de Beauharnais, a widow of an important general who had died in the guillotine.
Napoleon campaigns in Italy and Egypt
Since he had demonstrated his loyalty to the board, Napoleon was appointed commander in chief of the French army in Italy, for fight the Austrians (who dominated much of Italy) and the army of the pontifical states. During 1796 and 1797, he beat four Austrian generals, whose troops surpassed his army in number.
Thanks to his military victories, he forced Austria to sign the Formio Field Treaty (October 17, 1797) that granted France the control of almost all of Northern Italy, parts of the Netherlands and the area of the RIN. The territories of Venice were distributed between France and Austria, and the Italian territories were converted into republics, grouped into the Republic of Liguria and the Cisalpine Republic. The latter also annexed territories conquered to the pontifical states.
His next campaign took place in Egyptwhich at that time was a province of the Ottoman Empire. The intention was to protect French trade and hinder the access of rival power, Great Britain, to India’s resources, which came through the Suez Canal, in Egypt. The board approved the campaign, which had been proposed by Napoleon. According to some historians, this was due to the fact that they wanted to move this young and ambitious general of the power center away.
French troops could quickly take the Nile Delta, and They defeated the Mamelucos (the local troops of Egypt) in the battle of the pyramids (1798). The French army was accompanied by a delegation of wise and scientists who dedicated themselves to documenting all the antiques that were in the Nile country. During this campaign, Rosetta’s stone was found, which was essential for the decipherment of the hieroglyphic writing and the birth of Egyptology.
However, The French fleet was defeated by the British Navyunder the command of Horatio Nelson, in the battle of the Nile (1798). In 1799, Napoleon’s troops went to Syria to avoid Ottoman advance, but they could not take acre and had to return to Egypt, where, in turn, they were forced to return to France.
The coup d’etat of the Brumario 18
Napoleon He returned from Egypt turned into a military hero and found France in a state of instability and intestine struggles. A foreign invasion was feared after successive defeats in front of the army of the second coalition, composed of Austria, Russia, Naples, Türkiye, Portugal and Britain.
The directory was accused of corrupt and unpopular And soon plans arose to execute a coup d’etat to put order in the Republic. These plans were taken to Napoleon by politician Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and, on November 9, 1799 (18 Brumario of the VIII year, according to the French Republican calendar), Napoleon’s troops took control of France. That day and the next, they forced the members of the Board of Directors and dissolved the legislative bodies.
Next, The consulate was established as a governing bodyendorsed by a new Constitution (known as Constitution of the Year VIII) that appointed three consuls to govern the country, Napoleon at the head as the first consul. Then the Constitution of the year X was written, which erected Napoleon as the first life consul.
During the consulate, Napoleon ruled with dictatorial powers but implemented reforms that included the Drafting of numerous legal codes (such as the French Civil Code, also called Napoleonic Code) and the creation of organisms, such as the Bank of France. He also negotiated a reconciliation with the Papacy, by signing the concordat in 1801. The clashes against the Austrian and British troops continued.
The French empire and the Napoleonic wars
Napoleon discovered some conspiracies to kill him and, with the argument of deterring new attempts, an empire established in France on May 18, 1804. It became crown emperor of the Frenchwith the name of Napoleon I, on December 2, 1804 in the cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris, with the presence of the Pope, Pius VII. In 1805, he was also proclaimed king of Italy.
The wars fought by France during the existence of the empire are called Napoleonic wars, and They had the mission of expanding throughout Europe the French dominationas well as the legal values and codes arising in revolutionary France. They were a continuation of the revolutionary wars, which began with the French Revolution. His enemies remained largely to them, although the concentration of power in the figure of Napoleon and the implementation of measures such as censorship had buried democratic principles in France.
Napoleon against coalitions
The main rival of France was still Britain, who declared him again in 1803. In 1805, he formed The third coalition against France, composed of Britain, Austria, Russia and Naples. The French fleet, an ally of the Kingdom of Spain, was defeated by the British Navy, commanded by Horathio Nelson, in the battle of Trafalgar (1805).
But Napoleon’s troops (which were called Great Armée) advanced by the continentGermany crossed, beat the Austrians in the battle of Ulm and occupied Vienna. Then, they defeated the Austrian and Russian armies in the battle of Austerlitz, on December 2, 1805, so Austria had to accept the French domination of Germany (which received the name of Confederation of the RIN) and Italy.
Napoleon imposed a continental block for Britain (1807), which prevented the British from tradeing with the ports that were under French hegemony (which were practically the entire European continent). Then, He occupied Portugal (1807) and Spain (1808)which contributed to the emergence of revolutionary and independence processes in Latin America. The French empire reached its greatest extension in 1810, when the Netherlands were attached. That year, Napoleon divorced Josefina and contracted second nuptials with the archduke Marie-Louise, daughter of the Emperor of Austria.
The death of Napoleon Bonaparte
The French occupation of Spain motivated a guerrilla war against the invader, which was supported by Great Britain. At the other end of Europe, the French troops penetrated Russia and beat the Tsar army in the Battle of Borodino (1812), so they advanced to Moscow. But on the return march, The hard winter and Russian attacks wreak havoc among their men.
A new coalition, composed of Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Spain, Portugal and other nations, lashed out at Napoleon’s army. This was defeated in the battle of Leipzig in 1813, and After the allies occupied Paris, Napoleon had to abdicate in 1814 and was sent as exile to Elba Island. This allowed the restoration of Bourbon absolutism in Europe.
The return of the Bourbon monarchy in France generated a lot of rejection, a circumstance that Napoleon took advantage of returning to France with his personal guard. He landed in Cannes on March 1, 1815, some Republican peasants and the soldiers who had to arrested him joined him, and on March 20 he managed to settle in Paris.
This began a period known as the One hundred daysin which Napoleon managed to be a ruler of France again and directed his last military campaign against the European coalition. It was finally defeated in the battle of Waterloo (in the current Belgium), in June 1815by an army led by the Duke of Wellington and Marshal von Blücher. He was forced by internal pressures to abdicate and was sent by the British to the island of Santa Elena, in the South Atlantic, where he lived exiled until his death, which occurred on May 5, 1821.
Napoleon Bonaparte stature
The image of Napoleon is that of a man of short stature. However, measured 1.68 meters, a little more than average of his time in France.
Two reasons are usually proposed to explain the dissemination of Napoleon’s short stature. One is the fact that Napoleon himself had determined that The soldiers of the Imperial Guard, who used to accompany him when he was emperor, had to measure no less than 1.78 meters. This made the emperor look small compared. In addition, in 1796 he had won the nickname of “Little Cape” (Caporal Petit), as a gesture of affection and esteem of their classmates for their military value, which could add to confusion.
The other reason has to do with the political propaganda of the time, in which He was portrayed as a small character by English cartoonists. To this is added that, after his death, the measurements made to his body using a metric system in the autopsy were misunderstood in England, where it was understood (and then spread) that measured 1.57 meters.
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References
- Bell, Da (2015). Napoleon. To Concise Biography. Oxford University Press.
- Ellis, G. (2000). Napoleon. New Library.
- Godechot, J. (2022). Napoleon I. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
- Mikaberidze, A. (2022). Napoleonic wars. A global story. Awakens Ferro Editions.
