Napoleon

Guidance to Freedom or Just Another Tyrant?

When most people think of Napoleon Bonaparte they think of either a tyrant emperor or a brilliant war strategist. Maybe both are right but in whatever conclusion any person comes to, they will know he was a small man who accomplished many great things. Napoleon conquered countries and developed a mass empire, which led to his celebrity like fame. He was a man that respected cultures and every religion and even cried when his men died on the battlefield. Bonaparte was an amazing person who drove himself with great ambition to become one of the greatest leaders ever in history.

In life every great leader has had their own story to tell. Napoleon was born a Corsican, at Ajaccio, in 1769. He had seven brothers and sisters and he was also a descendent from the Florentine nobility. He moved to France and started school at the age of nine. At school he was picked on because of his Italian accent and because of his influent French. When he turned sixteen he joined the French artillery and became a lieutenant in a short period of time. Napoleon spent the next seven years reading the works of philosophers and educating himself in military matters, by studying the campaigns of great military leaders of the past. He then became a general and then in 1795 was appointed to stop an uprising in Paris and seceded in doing so. After stopping the uprising he was then given the position of commander in chief of the interior French army in Italy. In 1799 he was elected as the First Consul of France because the people were sick of the directory. He rose up in power in the military and also politically. He then formed his own empire and won many battles with his brilliance.

Bonaparte was an intelligent man with an extrodinary memory, while staying very open minded toward other people’s beliefs. As Vox states “When he had an hour for diversion, he not infrequently employed it in looking over a book of logarithms […]. So retentive was his memory of numbers, that sums over which he had once glanced his eye were in his mind ever after (69).” If I lived in his empire I would at least respect Napoleon for his brilliance, his ability to memorize information, and his will to learn more. Although, Napoleon still had his flaws. He was still only human ...

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...gh his extremely successful Italian campaigns, his revolutionary changes in the French government and battles against the Third Coalition Napoleon gave France total domination over Western Europe. France then became a great nation because of Napoleon’s brilliance and achievements as a leader.

Works Citied

Blair, Victor. Napoleon, The Man, Encapsulated. 10 Dec. 2002

Britt, Alber Sidney. The Wars of Napoleon. New Jersey: Avery Publishing Group Inc., 1985

Holtman, Robert. Napoleonic Propaganda. New York: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1969

Holtman, Robert. The Napoleonic Revolution. New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1967

Markham, Felix. Napoleon and the Awakening of Europe. London: The English Universities Press Ltd., 1954

Miller, Tom. Before Brumaire: Napoleon’s Development as a Ruler. 10 Dec. 2002

Naylor, John. Waterloo. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1960

Vance, Thomas. The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Historians. 10 Dec. 2002

Vox, Maximilien. Napoleon. New York: Grove Press Inc., 1960