Napoleon Bonaparte

 

* Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821

 

*Napoleon was born on a French rules island of Corsics (in the Mediterreanean)

 

* He was not part of the aristocracy. He was a commoner but attended schools with the priviliged. It was a great discouragement to not find acceptance by the upper class students. He struggled with the idea that he was brighter than most of his classmates but did not receive the recognition due to his lack of status. This drove him to study harder and fueled his ambitions.

 

* In 1789 Napoleon was a French lieutenant during the French Revolutionary war.

 

* He fought the British in 1793 and helped drive them out of Toulon. The French Revolutionary War years proved to be successful ones for Napoleon. He finds himself on the battlefield.

 

*1799 he helps overthrow the weakened Directory.

 

*1802 Napoleon names himself First Consul for life.

 

*1804 he named himself emperor of the French. At his coronation he grabs the crown out of the popes hands and places it on his own head. This signifies that Napoleon wanted to show he was above the recognition from the pope. He wants to show himself under the authority of no secular or religious individual.

 

*1812 He invades Russia. This is a majjor miscalculation by Bonaparte. His troops are defeated by the winter, rather than the russian army.

 

*Exiled to Elba

 

*1815 defeated at Waterloo (short lived return) The Duke of Wellington (Britain) with the alliance of Austria, Prussia and Russia stop NApoleon once and for all.

 

*He died in exile in 1821 (on Saint Helena island)

 

Who was Napoleon?

 

His Golory Days

 

*He said, "I am a supperior individual."

 

*He said, " Since one must take sides, one might as well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates, loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat than be eaten."

 

In Exile

 

Paraphrase- *He said, "I know men and Jesus Christ was no mere man. I, Charlemagne, Hannibal, and others have devoted our lives accumulating power, and we have no followers. Jesus Christ has died, and at this very moment millions would die for him."

 

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