Napoleon Bonaparte - Biography, Achievements and Quotes

Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the latter stages of the French Revolution and its associated wars in Europe. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the Napoleonic Code, has been a major influence on many civil law jurisdictions worldwide, but he is best remembered for his role in the wars led against France by a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars. 

He established hegemony over most of continental Europe and sought to spread the ideals of the French Revolution, while consolidating an imperial monarchy which restored aspects of the deposed Ancien Régime. Due to his success in these wars, often against numerically superior enemies, he is generally regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time, and his campaigns are studied at military academies worldwide.

Napoleon was born at Ajaccio in Corsica in a family of noble Italian ancestry which had settled Corsica in the 16th century. He trained as an artillery officer in mainland France. He rose to prominence under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the First and Second Coalitions arrayed against France. He led a successful invasion of the Italian peninsula.

In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and installed himself as First Consul; five years later the French Senate proclaimed him emperor, following a plebiscite in his favour. In the first decade of the 19th century, the French Empire under Napoleon engaged in a series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—that involved every major European power. After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe, and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances and the appointment of friends and family members to rule other European countries as French client states.

The Peninsular War and 1812 French invasion of Russia marked turning points in Napoleon's fortunes. His Grande Armée was badly damaged in the campaign and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig; the following year the Coalition invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon spent the last six years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena. An autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer, but there has been some debate about the cause of his death, as some scholars have speculated that he was a victim of arsenic poisoning.

Superb Facts About Napoleon Bonaparte

• His family was of minor Corsican nobility. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named Corsica’s representative to the court of Louis XVI in 1778, where he remained for a number of years. 
• The dominant influence of Napoleon’s childhood was his mother, (Maria) Letizia Ramolino. Ahead of her time, she had her 8 children bathe every other day at a time when even those in the upper classes took a bath perhaps once a month. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious boy, nicknamed Rabullione (the “meddler” or “disrupter”).
• As a boy, Napolean hated the French. Yet later on in life, he made a career serving in the French Army and eventually became Emperor of France.
• He graduated from the Paris Military Academy and became a Lieutenant in the French Army at the very young age of 16. That is 5 years earlier than most graduates.
• The Rosetta Stone is a very famous archaelogical discovery that helped scientists decipher ancient heiroglyphics. It was found as a direct result of Napolean conquering Egypt.
• In 1799, he staged a coup d'état amidst the turmoil of post revolutionary France and installed himself as First Consul.
• In 1804 he was proclaimed Emperor by French Senate
• In 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the elite École Militaire in Paris
• At one time he did to consider an application to the British Royal Navy to further his naval ambitions, but chose against it.
• Bonaparte was put under house arrest in August 1794 for his association with the Robespierre brothers.
• From 1803 to 1815, France was engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, a series of major conflicts with various coalitions of European nations. In 1803, partly as a means to raise funds for future wars, Napoleon sold France’s Louisiana Territory in North America to the newly independent United States for $15 million, a transaction that later became known as the Louisiana Purchase.
• In October 1805, the British wiped out Napoleon’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar. However, in December of that same year, Napoleon achieved what is considered to be one of his greatest victories at the Battle of Austerlitz, in which his army defeated the Austrians and Russians. The victory resulted in the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine.
• Beginning in 1806, Napoleon sought to wage large-scale economic warfare against Britain with the establishment of the so-called Continental System of European port blockades against British trade. In 1807, following Napoleon’s defeat of the Russians at Friedland in Prussia, Alexander I (1777-1825) was forced to sign a peace settlement, the Treaty of Tilsit. In 1809, the French defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram, resulting in further gains for Napoleon.
• During these years, Napoleon reestablished a French aristocracy (eliminated in the French Revolution) and began handing out titles of nobility to his loyal friends and family as his empire continued to expand across much of western and central continental Europe.
• For Napoleon, the return to France meant a return to service with the French military. Upon rejoining his regiment at Nice in June 1793, the young leader quickly showed his support for the Jacobins, a far-left political movement and the most well-known and popular political club from the French Revolution.
• It had certainly been a tumultuous few years for France and its citizens. The country was declared a republic in 1792, three years after the Revolution had begun, and the following year King Louis VXI was executed.
• Ultimately, these acts led to the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and what became, essentially, the dictatorship of the Committee of Public Safety. The years of 1793 and 1794 came to be known as the Reign of Terror, in which many as 40,000 people were killed. Eventually the Jacobins fell from power and Robespierre was executed. In 1795 the Directory took control of the country, a power it would it assume until 1799.
• All of this turmoil created opportunities for ambitious military leaders like Napoleon.
• By 1812, Napoleon had wiped out the last traces of the Holy Roman Empire and conquered most of Europe.
• However, his next invasion of Russia proved very costly as his army suffered in the harsh winter near Moscow.
• On 18 March 1814, the allies marched into Paris and Napoleon was forced to abdicate on 6 April 1814.
• In 1810, Russia withdrew from the Continental System. In retaliation, Napoleon led a massive army into Russia in the summer of 1812. Rather than engaging the French in a full-scale battle, the Russians adopted a strategy of retreating whenever Napoleon’s forces attempted to attack. As a result, Napoleon’s troops trekked deeper into Russia despite being ill-prepared for an extended campaign. 
• In September, both sides suffered heavy casualties in the indecisive Battle of Borodino. Napoleon’s forces marched on to Moscow, only to discover almost the entire population evacuated. Retreating Russians set fires across the city in an effort to deprive enemy troops of supplies. 
• After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving, exhausted army out of Moscow. During the disastrous retreat, his army suffered continual harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army. Of Napoleon’s 600,000 troops who began the campaign, only an estimated 100,000 made it out of Russia.
• At the same time as the catastrophic Russian invasion, French forces were engaged in the Peninsular War (1808-1814), which resulted in the Spanish and Portuguese, with assistance from the British, driving the French from the Iberian Peninsula. 
• This loss was followed in 1813 by the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of Nations, in which Napoleon’s forces were defeated by a coalition that included Austrian, Prussian, Russian and Swedish troops. Napoleon then retreated to France, and in March 1814 coalition forces captured Paris.
• On April 6, 1814, Napoleon, then in his mid-40s, was forced to abdicate the throne. With the Treaty of Fontainebleau, he was exiled to Elba, a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy. He was given sovereignty over the small island, while his wife and son went to Austria.
• Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, but, a year later broke away with a 1,000 men and reclaimed the leadership of France.
• Napoleon was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington.
• His second exile was to the island of Saint Helena, where he died six years later.
• Napolean's final defeat was at the Battle of Waterloo during the War of 1812. It is believed that had he attacked earlier in the day when the weather conditions were more favorable, he would have had a better chance of winning. 
• However, because he was suffering from hemmorhoid pain and constipation that morning, he delayed his attack as the weather worsened. As a result, he lost and was banished to an isolated island for the rest of his life.
• On February 26, 1815, after less than a year in exile, Napoleon escaped Elba and sailed to the French mainland with a group of more than 1,000 supporters. On March 20, he returned to Paris, where he was welcomed by cheering crowds. The new king, Louis XVIII (1755-1824), fled, and Napoleon began what came to be known as his Hundred Days campaign.
• Upon Napoleon’s return to France, a coalition of allies–the Austrians, British, Prussians and Russians–who considered the French emperor an enemy began to prepare for war. Napoleon raised a new army and planned to strike preemptively, defeating the allied forces one by one before they could launch a united attack against him.
• On June 22, 1815, Napoleon was once again forced to abdicate.
• Although he was sick with a stomach ulcer near the end of his life, when he died, the cause of death was a mystery.
• Others believe that Napolean was poisoned by mouth. It was known that Napolean drank liquids made with bitter almonds. He also took a drug called calomel. This drug supposedly reacts fatally with bitter almonds.
• After his death, some people were given locks of his hair. In 1960, chemical tests were performed on some of these locks and relatively large amounts of arsenic were detected.

Superb Quotes by Napoleon

• “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
• “Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength.”
• “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”
• “Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.”
• “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
• “Imgination rules the world”.
• “History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
• “Death is nothing; but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”
• “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”
• “I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.”
• “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon.”
• “He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”
• An Army of lions commanded by a deer will never be an army of lions.
• Death is nothing; but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• Die young, and I shall accept your death-but not if you have lived without glory, without being useful to your country, without leaving a trace of your existence: for that is not to have lived at all.
• Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
• History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
• Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
• The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
• “If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.”
• “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
• “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
• “History is written by the winners.”
• “Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
• “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.”