We explain who Napoleon was, what his military career was like and his role in the French Revolution. In addition, we explain his characteristics as a leader and his death.
Napoleon was famous for conquering almost all of Europe in ten years.
Who was Napoleon Bonaparte?
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French soldier and statesman, republican general during the French Revolution and, later, emperor of the French and king of Italy. He was famous for having taken control of practically all of Western and Central Europe in just ten years of conquests, and is considered one of the greatest military geniuses in history.
In addition to his military prowess, He is recognized for his role as emperor, at the same time iron and cultured. Some historians consider him a tyrant and others an “enlightened despot” who contributed to the modernization of Europe. He is responsible for the implementation of the Napoleonic Code, one of the best-known and most influential civil codes in the world, approved in 1804 and still in force (although with numerous modifications).
Although his empire lasted only ten years and he died in exile, Bonaparte He was a key figure in 19th century European history.. For this reason, he was the subject of numerous fictional representations (literary, cinematographic, theatrical) and historical essays, sometimes sharing the spotlight with his first wife, the empress consort Josephine de Beauharnais.
The birth of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte Born in Corsica on August 15, 1769just a year after the Republic of Genoa ceded the island to France. He was the son of local nobles: Carlo Buonaparte (1746-1785), a lawyer and representative of Corsica at the court of Louis XVI, and Maria Letizia Ramolino (1750-1836).
Napoleon was the fourth of several children of the marriage, but the second to survive infancy, after Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844). According to his biographers, he was an unsociable child.who liked solitude to meditate and was not very interested in studies, except for mathematics.
Also He was passionate about reading classical literature and he had antipathy for the French, whom he considered oppressors of the inhabitants of Corsica. At the age of ten, he was sent with his brother Joseph to a military academy in France, at Brienne-le-Château, where he graduated in 1784. He later entered the military school in Paris, where He graduated in 1785 with artillery studies.
The beginnings of Napoleon Bonaparte’s military career
During the French Revolution, Napoleon joined the Jacobin club.
Napoleon was appointed second lieutenant of artillery in La Fère’s regiment, and He served in the garrisons of Valence and Auxonne until the French Revolution broke out in 1789. He followed the Corsican nationalist leader Pasquale Paoli to Corsica, but soon returned to France. In 1791 he was appointed first lieutenant in an artillery regiment in Valence, and joined the Jacobin Club, one of the most radical revolutionary factions. Napoleon is known to have read philosophers such as Voltaire and Rousseau, as well as books on military strategy.
He rose 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 with his family to settle in France. He supported the republican cause, which had abolished the monarchy in 1792.
During the beginning of the Revolutionary Wars, the French republican army faced foreign powers that, together with the French royalists, defended monarchical absolutism. Napoleon was recommended by the Corsican Antoine Saliceti to command the artillery forces that besieged the city of Toulon in 1793. Thanks to the success of this operation, in December of the same year, he was promoted to brigadier general.
When the National Convention governing France was replaced by the Directory in 1795, Napoleon He became commander of the army of the interior of France and military advisor to the Directory., after having contributed to the repression of a royalist and counter-revolutionary revolt in Paris that had arisen against the Convention. On March 9, 1796, he married Josephine de Beauharnais, widow of an important general who had died by guillotine.
Napoleon’s campaigns in Italy and Egypt
Bonaparte defeated the Austrians and forced them to sign the Treaty of Campo Formio.
Since he had demonstrated his loyalty to the Directory, Napoleon was appointed commander-in-chief of the French army in Italy, to fight the Austrians (who dominated much of Italy) and the army of the Papal States. During 1796 and 1797, he defeated four Austrian generals, whose troops outnumbered his army.
Thanks to his military victories, he forced Austria to sign the Treaty of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797) which gave France control of almost all of northern Italy, parts of the Netherlands and the Rhine areaThe Venetian territories were divided between France and Austria, and the Italian territories were transformed into republics, grouped into the Ligurian Republic and the Cisalpine Republic. The latter was also joined by territories conquered from the Papal States.
His next campaign took place in Egypt.which at that time was a province of the Ottoman Empire. The intention was to protect French trade and to hinder the access of the rival power, Great Britain, to the resources of India, which arrived through the Suez Canal, in Egypt. The Directory approved the campaign, which had been proposed by Napoleon. According to some historians, this was because they wanted to remove this young and ambitious general from the center of power.
French troops were able to quickly take the Nile delta, and They defeated the Mamelukes (the local troops of Egypt) at the Battle of the Pyramids (1798). The French army was accompanied by a delegation of scholars and scientists who dedicated themselves to documenting all the antiquities found in the Nile country. During this campaign, the Rosetta stone was found, which was essential for the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing. and the birth of Egyptology.
However, The French fleet was defeated by the British navyunder Horatio Nelson, at the Battle of the Nile (1798). In 1799, Napoleon’s troops headed for Syria to prevent an Ottoman advance, but were unable to take Acre and had to return to Egypt, from where they were in turn forced to return to France.
The coup d’état of 18 Brumaire
Napoleon drafted the Constitution of the year X, which made him consul for life.
Napoleon He returned from Egypt a military hero and found France in a state of instability and internal conflict. A foreign invasion was feared after successive defeats against the army of the Second Coalition, made up of Austria, Russia, Naples, Turkey, Portugal and Great Britain.
The Directory was accused of being corrupt and unpopular and soon plans arose to carry out a coup d’état to restore order to the Republic. These plans were brought to Napoleon by the politician Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and, on 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire of the year VIII, according to the French republican calendar), Napoleon’s troops took control of France. That day and the following, they forced the members of the Directory to resign and dissolved the legislative bodies.
Next, The Consulate was established as a governing bodyendorsed by a new Constitution (known as the Constitution of the Year VIII) which appointed three consuls to govern the country, with Napoleon at the head as First Consul. The Constitution of the Year X was then drafted, which appointed Napoleon as First Consul for life.
During the Consulate, Napoleon ruled with dictatorial powers but implemented reforms that included the drafting numerous legal codes (such as the French Civil Code, also called the Napoleonic Code) and the creation of organizations, such as the Bank of France. He also negotiated a reconciliation with the Papacy, through the signing of the Concordat in 1801. Clashes against Austrian and British troops continued.
The French Empire and the Napoleonic Wars
The French Empire reached its greatest extent in 1810.
Napoleon discovered some conspiracies to assassinate him and, with the argument of deterring new attempts, established an empire in France on May 18, 1804. He was crowned emperor of the French, with the name of Napoleon I, on December 2, 1804 in the Notre Dame Cathedral, 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 French domination throughout Europe, as well as the values and legal codes that emerged in revolutionary France. They were a continuation of the Revolutionary Wars, which began with the French Revolution. His enemies remained largely the same, 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
France’s main rival remained Great Britain, which declared war on it again in 1803. In 1805, the The Third Coalition against France, made up of Great Britain, Austria, Russia and NaplesThe French fleet, an ally of the Kingdom of Spain, was defeated by the British fleet, commanded by Horatio Nelson, in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).
But Napoleon’s troops (who received the name of Grande Armée) advanced across the continentcrossed Germany, defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Ulm and occupied Vienna. They then defeated the Austrian and Russian armies at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805, forcing Austria to accept French domination of Germany (which was called the Confederation of the Rhine) and Italy.
Napoleon imposed a continental blockade on Great Britain (1807), preventing the British from trading with the ports that were under French hegemony (which were practically the entire European continent). Then, 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 extent in 1810, when the Netherlands were annexed. That year, Napoleon divorced Josephine and married for the second time Archduchess Marie-Louise, daughter of the Emperor of Austria.
The death of Napoleon Bonaparte
Bonaparte’s remains rest in the monument of Les Invalides, in Paris.
The French occupation of Spain motivated a guerrilla war against the invader, which had the support of Great Britain. At the other end of Europe, French troops entered Russia and…