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Napoleon

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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French general and political leader who became Emperor of the French as Napoleon I in 1804.[1] He was born in Corsica in 1769[2] and died in 1821.[3]

Early life

Napoleon was born Napoleone Buonaparte at Ajaccio, Corsica, on 15 August 1769.[3] The year before, Genoa had handed Corsica over to French rule.[2] "He was the second son of a family that claimed Italian noble blood."[2] His father, Carlo (Charles), sided with the French and had the family's noble rank recognised.[2] This allowed Napoleone and his elder brother Joseph to go to school in France.[2] Emsley notes that the family lived in towns and were educated in the ideas of the Enlightenment, rather than being mountain peasants.[4] His mother, Letizia, known as "Madame mère", is often thought to have had a strong influence on him.[5]

In April 1779 he started at the military academy at Brienne.[3] He spent five years there,[2] and in 1785 he became an artillery officer, a branch of the army seen as technical rather than glamorous.[2] He spoke with a strong Corsican accent[2] and as a young man he admired the Corsican patriot leader Pasquale Paoli.[6] After a quarrel with Paoli, the whole family had to leave Corsica for France in 1793.[6]

Rise to power

In 1798 Napoleon led a French invasion of Egypt, and that year he won victories there and captured Alexandria and Cairo.[7] Black describes the expedition as the first successful sea-borne invasion of Egypt since the Romans.[7] On 24 August 1799 Napoleon left his army in Egypt and returned to France by sea.[8] After a coup in November 1799 he became First Consul and general-in-chief.[8]

In 1800 he made a surprise invasion of northern Italy[9] and defeated Austria at Marengo in June.[10] That summer he chose four legal experts to draft a Civil Code.[11] In 1802 he was elected president of the Italian Republic.[12]

Emperor

Napoleon became Emperor in 1804.[1] The painter Jacques-Louis David celebrated this in The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon (1805–7).[13]

The Civil Code

Before the Revolution, France had about 360 local legal codes.[11] "The Commission of Legislation of the Council of State held 102 sessions to discuss the Code."[11] On 21 March 1804, 36 separate laws were joined together as the Civil Code, which was renamed the Code Napoleon in 1807.[14] It kept the Revolution's ending of feudalism and of inherited privilege, and kept equality before the law.[14] It also made the father the head of the family.[14] Other codes followed, including codes for civil procedure (1806) and commerce (1807).[15] Emsley writes that the Code lasted.[16]

Wars in Europe

In 1805 Napoleon outmanoeuvred the Austrians at Ulm and won at Austerlitz.[17] Prussia was defeated at Jena and Auerstadt on 14 October 1806.[18] "By the Treaty of Tilsit of July 7, 1807, Alexander I had reached an agreement that left Napoleon dominant in western and central Europe."[19] Napoleon won again at Wagram in July 1809.[20]

In 1812, after the Battle of Borodino, he entered Moscow, which was undefended, on 14 September.[21] On 5 December he left his army to return to Paris.[22] In October 1813 he was heavily outnumbered and badly defeated at Leipzig.[23]

Elba and Waterloo

In April 1814, under the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Napoleon kept the title of emperor and was given the small Mediterranean island of Elba to rule.[24] The island is about 19 miles long and just over six miles wide.[25] He landed there on 3 May 1814.[3]

On 1 March 1815 he landed in France with a few hundred followers and set off for Paris.[25] On 13 March the powers meeting at Vienna declared his return illegal.[26] He invaded Belgium on 15 June 1815.[27] "Waterloo was a double defeat for Napoleon: he failed on the offensive and was then defeated on the defensive."[28] Black argues that other Allied armies would probably have defeated Napoleon even without Waterloo.[29] After Waterloo he gave up the throne for a second time and surrendered to the captain of a British warship.[30]

St Helena and death

On 17 October 1815 Napoleon and a few companions were landed on the British island colony of St Helena.[30] There he dictated his memoirs.[31] He died on 5 May 1821.[3] His remains were later brought back to France and buried in Les Invalides, Paris, on 15 December 1840.[3]

Legacy

According to Emsley, the system of government that Napoleon set up lasted, and later governments of France took over much of it.[16] After 1815 many people came to see him as a liberal figure, and Emsley argues that his rule was more than a military dictatorship.[32] His wars also influenced later military thinking, notably through the writer Clausewitz.[33]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. xvi, Chronology. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  4. ↑ Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  5. ↑ Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  9. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  10. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  12. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  13. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  15. ↑ Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  17. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  18. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  19. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  20. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  21. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  22. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  23. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  24. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  26. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  27. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  28. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  29. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  31. ↑ Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  32. ↑ Emsley, Clive (2015). Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-138-77702-6.
  33. ↑ Black, Jeremy (2022). The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 194. ISBN 978-1-5381-6370-2.
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