Napoleon Bonaparte
By Zac Jerominski
Early Life
Napoleon was born August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio on the island of Corsica France. Around Napoleons birth the French had a very local stay at the island where his father then started working as the appointed assessor of the judicial district. As a boy Napoleon went to school on the mainland of France. to learn french. Napoleon then graduated from a military academy in 1785. He then became the 2nd lieutenant in a artillery regiment in the French military.
Life in the Military
After returning home to Corsica, Napoleon joined the rebel forces that wanted the French out. He joined back with is dad's former ally, but the two had a falling through so when the rebel war began, Napoleon relocated his family to France. At the age of 26 he commanded the entire french army. The Directory a 5 person counsel that ran France after the French revolution was in uncertainty and was over thrown by a 3 person consulate with Napoleon as head political figure. In 1800 Napoleon defeated on of Frances main enemies, the Austrians pushed them out of Italy and with the Treaty of Amiens it kept the British at bay. Due to this he was able to centralize a new government and instituted reforms to help the people. His legal system is still used in France today. As head of counsel he then claimed himself as the emperor of France.
Ruling France
In 1810 Napoleon married Marie Louise the daughter of the emperor of Austria. He had one son, Napoleon the 2nd and got the title of King of Rome. Napoleon also had 7 other illegitimate children. Frances treaty with Britain only lasted for about a year and fighting was back on. In order to raise money he sold the Louisiana territory to America. In October of 1805 the British demolished the French, but at the Battle of Austerlitz Napoleon won a major battle against the Austrians and Russians. This lead Napoleon lead all out warfare against Britain. First Napoleon went to Moscow Russia where his troops where ill prepared for the long Russian winter and when he got to Russia the whole city was almost completely evacuated, set on fire and later during retreat was almost destroyed by the Russian army. Out of the 600,000 troops that went only 100,000 made it out alive. Later Napoleon was attacked by Austrian, Russian, Prussian and Swedish troops and had to retreat to France. He was then kicked out of the Throne and exiled to Ebla. After less than a year of exile Napoleon returned to take on Britain agian but was crushed and sent into exile for a 3rd time
Later years
In October of 1815, Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena by the British after defeating the French. He spent nearly 7 years on the the island before attracting a stomach sickness or more likely stomach cancer. (When Napoleon was emperor he posed for many pictures with his hand in his shirt. Many believed he had stomach pains for years.) He died on May 5. 1821 at the ripe age of 51 he was buried on the island but later moved in the 1840s to and entombed crypt in Paris with other French military leaders.
During one of Napoleon's military campaigns in Egypt a French solider named Pierre Franicos Buchard Discovered the Rosetta Stone
My Reaction
My Reaction to Napoleon's life as Emperor is wow! I can't all the things he was able to do at such a young age. Like commanding a whole army at the age of 26 is amazing. It really shows how much you can accomplish is such a short time. Oh yea, and he was only 5'6" he was a midget commanding the greatest army at the time. Although I think it was kind of sad how he was sent into exile and then died on the island. I think it would have been cooler if he died in a cooler manor like in blaze of glory taking on 1,000 guys by himself. He is still pretty cool though