Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte1769–1821 French emperor and military leader Napoleon Bonaparte is regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history, changing the map of Europe
Trang 1Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte)
(1769–1821) French emperor and military leader
Napoleon Bonaparte is regarded as one of the greatest
military commanders in history, changing the map of
Europe and developing new laws, civil codes, and
edu-cational systems that continue to the present day He is
recognized as one of the most famous men in history,
being the subject of countless biographies, with one
writer suggesting that only Jesus and Adolf Hitler have
had more biographical studies written about them
Napoleone Buonaparte, as his name was known in
Italian, was born on August 15, 1769, at Ajaccio,
Cor-sica, shortly after the island was ceded to France by
Genoa He was the fourth child, and the second
surviv-ing one, of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer, and his wife,
Letizia (née Ramolino) The Buonapartes were
descend-ed from Tuscan nobility who had movdescend-ed to Corsica in
the 16th century, with Carlo Buonaparte marrying his
wife when she was 14 In an interesting twist, Carlo
Buonaparte disliked the idea of French rule over
Cor-sica and joined the nationalist resistance movement of
Pasquale Paoli When Paoli fl ed after his defeat at the
Battle of Ponte Novo on May 8, 1769, ending Corsica’s
brief experience of independence, the Buonapartes made
an accommodation with the French, and Carlo became
the assessor for the judicial district of Ajaccio in 1771
Seven years later, he managed to get his eldest two sons,
Joseph and Napoleon, into the Collège d’Autun
Napo-leon was nine years old
EDUCATION AND EARLY CAREER
Although Napoleon Bonaparte was a Corsican by birth
and ancestry, in later life he never felt a huge affi nity
for the island; indeed he only visited it once after his
rise to power After the Collège d’Autun, Bonaparte
spent fi ve years at the Brienne Military College and
then a year at the military academy in Paris While he
was at the military academy his father died, on
Feb-ruary 24, 1785, leaving the family in diffi cult fi
nan-cial straits Bonaparte graduated in September ranked
42nd in a class of 58, having assumed the position as
head of the family, although he was not the oldest son
Bonaparte had become interested in mathematics and
science
His fi rst military posting was as a second lieutenant
in the artillery, being sent to Valence There he became
extremely interested in military strategy, writing his fi rst
book, Lettres sur la Corse, which expressed some of his
early feelings for the island of his birth He returned to
Corsica soon afterward and in June 1788 rejoined his
regiment By this time he had also become fascinated
by many of the ideas of the Enlightenment, especially those of Rousseau and Voltaire
With the calling of the National Assembly in Paris
in 1789, Pasquale Paoli had been allowed to return
to Corsica, and Bonaparte wanted to go and join him The Corsican nationalist, however, was upset that Bonaparte’s father had deserted his cause, and Bonaparte returned to France, where, in April 1791,
he was appointed fi rst lieutenant of the 4th Regiment
of Artillery at Valence He also became active in poli-tics, joining the Jacobin Club
However, his emotional attachment was still with Corsica, and he returned there but had a falling out with Paoli, returning to metropolitan France, where he had been briefl y listed as a deserter In April 1792 war with Austria broke out, and Bonaparte’s skills were needed
by the artillery Although he was promoted to captain, Bonaparte went back to Corsica yet again There he sided with the Corsican Jacobins who were trying to prevent Paoli from getting Corsica to break away and become independent Condemned by Paoli, the entire Buonaparte family fl ed to the French mainland, adopt-ing the spelladopt-ing “Bonaparte.”
Bonaparte went to Nice, where the Jacobins had gradually come to dominate the republican movement The monarchy had been abolished, and Bonaparte went
to Marseille with his soldiers from the National Con-vention To get to Marseille, he took them to Toulon, where he was appointed commander of the National Convention’s artillery with the support of Antoine Sali-ceti, who was also from Corsica and a longtime fam-ily friend In September Bonaparte was promoted to major and in October became adjutant general He was involved in fi ghting at Toulon in December and forced the British troops there to evacuate the city On Decem-ber 22, 1793, at age 24, Bonaparte became a brigadier-general, one of the youngest generals in modern history,
a feat subsequently bettered only by Francisco Franco
AFTER THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
When Maximilien Robespierre fell from power in Paris
in July 1794, Bonaparte was arrested on a charge of conspiracy and treason As a Jacobin, Bonaparte had been seen as a follower of Robespierre, and even though
he managed to get his freedom, he was not restored to his command but, instead, in March 1795, he was sent
to La Vendée, where he was placed in command of the artillery of the Army of the West Bonaparte was unhappy at the demotion and sought military prefer-ment and even considered, albeit briefl y, leaving France
294 Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte)