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Napoleon Bonaparte

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Just a heads up, this is a history paper, not artistic literature. I just needed a place to put this so I could acess it from my home computer, so ignore this unless you're really interested in Napoleon Bonaparte...

The Rise and Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte and War

Napoleon Bonaparte was born into a noble Italian family and sent off to a military school in France at age 9.  He wasn't a particularly notable student, though he did well in mathematics. As he grew older, he was selected for an elite military academy that he graduated from after only a year. Although his schooling wasn't anything out of the ordinary or surprising, he quickly worked his way up to captain of the French artillery when he was merely 23 years old.

While in Corsica, Napoleon became part of a radical political organization called the Jacobins. This group wished to make France a democracy. However, after the execution of King Louis XVI the governor of Corsica threw a hissy fit and named the Bonapartes outlaws. Apparently he was a big fan of the French monarchy or something, but either way, the family fled to France where Napoleon was once again a part of the French army.

Napoleon led the army to his first victory at the Toulon harbor, where they fired down at the British navy from a high vantage point until the fleet was forced to withdraw. This is how Napoleon earned the title of general at only age 24. As the word spread like mold in an abandoned house, a riot broke out at the royal palace. Seeing as Napoleon was the Superman of France, he was called to control the situation. He fired a cannon into the mob at point blank range, effectively clearing the streets. This slaughter of hundreds was later known as the "whiff of grapeshot". We can only assume that this is because "the day Napoleon fired a cannon at his own people" was too long. For this act of bravery, he was promoted to major general.
It was at about this point in 1796 that Napoleon decided it was time to settle down, and he married a girl by the name of Josephine. This settling down phase lasted only a few days before he was off to the Italian French boarder to attack the Austrian forces there. Being the modest man he was, he thought that he would tie up the Austrian army in Italy and let the bigger armies win the war, but it was not to be. In less than a year's time, Napoleon had defeated 5 armies, each of which was larger than his own, and signed the Treaty of Campoformio, enlarging Frances territories and almost single handedly winning the war. He returned to Paris and his wife, and was again welcomed as a hero; however, they had wasted all the promotions they could muster on his less impressive feats.

Napoleon had a very clever battle strategy that helped him to his many victories. He would send out only a small portion of his army, wait until the time was right, then attack full force at his enemy's weak spot. Apparently he had some sort of internal military clock to guide him because he always seemed to know the perfect time to send in the troops.

Napoleon knew that he wanted to end up working in the government eventually, but he also knew that he didn't have quite enough influence for that just yet.  He was offered a position at the head of an invasion on England, but declined. He opted into an Egyptian invasion instead, in the hopes of destroying British trading with the Middle East. He won the Battle of the Pyramids, but lost to Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and was stranded in Egypt. Since there was nothing else to do and Turkey, Great Britain, and Russia had formed an alliance and declared war on France, Napoleon took his troops to Turkish Syria. They were defeated again, so the headed back to Egypt because he had heard that a Turkish army was planning an invasion there. By this time Napoleon's luck had returned and he lead his troops to victory at Abu Qir against the Turks.

His glory was short lived as the work of a hero is never done. He got word that Austria, Britain, and Russia had formed a coalition against France who, without Napoleon to lead them, was defeated in Italy. He left his troops under the command of General Jean Kleber and sailed off into the sunset for France.

By the time he made it to Paris, so had word of his victory, and the people rejoiced as they had begun to lose confidence without their hero. They were so happy in fact, that Napoleon became dictator almost immediately upon his return. This act was later referred to as Coup d'état of Eighteenth Brumair. After this had happened, Napoleon set his sights for something a little nobler: peace.

He marched his troops across the Alps, then through the Great St. Bernard Pass before finally reaching Po Valley in northern Italy in May of 1800. He managed to catch the Austrians by surprise, and after their victory at Marengo Napoleon's goal was met. The Austrians signed the Treaty of Luneville, strengthening the aforementioned Treaty of Campoformio. The British decided to get in on some of the treaty signing action before all the good ones were gone; so the signed the Treaty of Amiens. They were weakened by all the warring and it was their best option, and since Russia had already dropped out of the coalition against France in 1799 Europe was at peace for the first time in 10 years.

When he wasn't off saving France from riots or creating peace, Napoleon was actually a pretty decent ruler who came up with a set of laws that to this day still forms the basis of French law. The Napoleonic Code (as it was later referred to) was a list of seven different codes that included some ideas from the French Revolution itself such as religious tolerance. Another thing that Napoleon did for France was divide up his power. He separated the land into areas called departments, then put a person called a prefect in charge of each department. This centralized France's government, and made it easier to control. In 1802 the people of France seemed satisfied with his progress and voted him in as emperor, which he later crowned himself to be in Notre Dame Paris.

Napoleon's dreams of peace soon lost there luster and he decided that he was more interested in expanding France than being on his fellow Europeans' good sides. Europe seemed to notice the way Napoleon was staring at them lately and got together a little group of Austria, Russia, and Sweden together to join Great Britain in a new and improved coalition against France. Napoleon wasn't too intimidated, and for good reason, because he soon captured the Austrian army in Ulm, Germany. He then won another battle against Austrian and Russian forces in Austerlitz.

Prussia saw the struggle and decided to lend a hand to Russia, but proved to be of little assistance in battles at Jena, and Auerstedt. Napoleon demolished the Russian army again in Friedland, the defeated Austrian armies at both Wagram and Vienna. Napoleon was feeling high and mighty with all his new territories. He delegated authority of his new land out generously to his siblings. The Napoleonic Empire had reached its height.

While Napoleon was making great strides on the battlefield, his home life left much to be desired. He was unable to have any children by Josephine, and was fast becoming worried that all the hard work he put into creating an empire would be for nothing with no heir to inherit it. He solved the dilemma by divorcing his wife and remarrying. His new bride was a much younger and higher up girl than Josephine (an 18 year old Archduchess to be exact) by the name of Marie Louise, who soon gave Napoleon a son. He chose to name his son after his biggest idol. The young Napoleon was given the title of king of Rome.

Napoleon seemed to want to punish Britain even more for its behavior, so he issued the Berlin Decree (which held no tolerance for British ships in ports under French control), and the Milan Decree (which prevented ships of neutral nations from carrying British goods). These two decrees became known as the Continental System, and were Napoleon's attempt at destroying British trade; however, Portugal, a long time BFF of Great Britain, refused to obey the Berlin Decree, and later paid the price for their actions when Napoleon took control of Madrid and made his own brother king of Spain. This was not to last though, as all good things must eventually come to an end, and Napoleon had reached his peek. It's a long fall from the top, and Napoleon hit every rock on the way down.

In 1808 the Spanish and Portuguese started the Peninsular War with France, which Britain soon joined, not wishing to miss out on any possibility of beating France. Napoleon lost tens of thousands of his soldiers in this war, and along with the Spain and Portugal territories, much of his pride. Soon after this defeat, Russia withdrew from the continental system, which Napoleon seemed to interpret as a threat to France. After all the years of fighting, France's army was weak, but Napoleon still managed to get together a massive army of about 600,000 men to invade Russia. As they fought, both sides lost many people, but the battles seemed to not have a clear winner as the Russian forces kept retreating further and further into Russia. When Napoleon's army finally reached Moscow, they found it almost abandoned. The Russians had left their capitol city, and burned all of its resources in the hopes of driving out Napoleon's army. Napoleon however, had other hopes in mind, and waited for a peace treaty that would never come. When at last Russia's bitter cold winter and starvation set in, the French army started its long journey home. Of the 600,000 that left, only about 10,000 returned.

The French people still supported Napoleon, though less enthusiastically, while France's enemies found hope in his latest defeat. Upon return home, Napoleon was faced with the alliance of Russia, Prussia, Britain, Austria and Sweden once again. He took the offensive in Lutzen, and even managed to win there as well as Bautzen and Dresden before losing at Leipzig. He retreated to France and the allies followed him, and captured Paris in 1814.

Napoleon gave up the throne and was exiled to Elba, where he was made ruler of the island. His wife and son were sent off to live under the care of his wife's father, and he never saw either ever again. A year later, he returned to France with about 1,100 followers from Elba, where he was welcomed back warmly as a hero and emperor.

Immediately upon his return, Napoleon created a new constitution that restricted his power and claimed that he would not attack the allies, but the allies saw him as an enemy and a disturber of the peace. This started Napoleons last war, the Hundred Days and Waterloo. After his defeat, he was banished to a barren British island called St. Helena, where he would live out the remainder of his days. He began documenting his life in his memoirs, and eventually died of a stomach ulcer that was probably cancerous.
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XVinfeX's avatar
Oh my gosh this is soo beautiful!! :D

You inspire me in everything

...I love you o.o