My French Army example essay topic

Napoleon Bonaparte 1. I Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1768, in Ajaccio, on the Island of Corsica, and was given the name Napoleon (in French my name became Napoleon Bonaparte). I was the second of eight children of Carlo (Charles) Buonaparte and Letitia Ra molino Buonaparte, both of the Corsican-Italian gentry. No Buonaparte had ever been a professional soldier. Carlo, my father, was a lawyer who had fought for Corsican independence, but after the French occupied the island in 1768, he served as a prosecutor and judge and entered the French aristocracy as a count. 2.

I was Emperor of the French and was considered one of the greatest military commanders of all time. I even conquered the larger part of Europe and did much to modernise the nations I ruled. Through my father's influence, I was educated at the expense of King Louis XVI, at Brienne and the 'Ecole Militaire, in Paris. I graduated in 1785, at the age of 16, and joined the artillery as a second lieutenant. 3.

Once the revolution began I became lieutenant colonel in 1791 with the Corsican National Guard. In 1793, Corsica declared independence and being a French Patriot I moved to France with my family. There I was assigned a captain's position in the army that was besieging Toulon, which was a naval base that was aided by a British fleet and was in a revolt against the French Republic. Soon after my being appointed, Toulon fell. Because of this result I Napoleon Bonaparte, was promoted to brigadier general at the ripe age of 24.4. In 1795 I saved the revolutionary government by dispersing a disobedient mob that was in Paris (stupid peasants) In 1796 I married the beautiful Jos " ephone de Beauharnais, the widow of an aristocrat guillotined in the Revolution and the mother of two children.

5. In my early campaigns in 1796, I was made commander of the French army in Italy. I defeated four Austrian generals in succession each of whom had superior numbers than I had. This forced Austria and its allies to make peace and sign the Treaty of Campo Formio.

Later I led an expedition to Turkish-ruled Egypt, which I ended up conquering. On the down side, my fleet was destroyed by that dastardly British admiral Horatio Nelson, leaving me stranded in bloody Egypt. 6. However I changed the Egyptian government and law, abolishing serfdom and feudalism and guaranteeing basic rights.

The French scholars I had brought with me began the scientific study of ancient Egyptian history. 7. In 1799 I had a flaw in my record, I failed to capture Syria. In order to restore my honour I achieved a smashing victory over the Turks at Abu Qr (Abukir). France, meanwhile, faced a new coalition; Austria, Russia, and lesser powers had allied with our ancient enemy, Britain. I decided to leave my army and return to save France.

While in Paris, I joined a conspiracy against the government. On November 9-10, 1799, my colleagues and I seized power and established a new regime called the consulate. In 1802 the constitution was revised to make me Napoleon Bonaparte consul for life, and again in 1804 to make me emperor. Each change the constitution received made the overwhelming assent of the electorate complete. In order to assure my power I crossed the Alps and defeated the Austrians at Marengo. 8.

After that I then negotiated a general European peace that made the Rhine River as the eastern border of France. I also concluded by making an arrangement with the Pope ending the quarrel with the Roman Catholic Church that had arisen during the Revolution. By doing this it contributed to French domestic tranquillity. I then changed my plans to invade England and turned my Glorious French armies and attention against the Austro-Russian forces, and I then defeated them at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805.9. I Napoleon Bonaparte seized the kingdom of Naples in 1806 and made my elder brother Joseph king. Then I converted the Dutch Republic into the kingdom of Holland for my brother Louis to rule.

Last I established the Confederation of the Rhine (most of the German states) of which I was protector. I had meanwhile established the Continental System, a French-imposed blockade of Europe against British goods, designed to bankrupt what I called the "nation of shopkeepers". 10. My Downfall came in 1812, when my alliance with Alexander 1 had collapsed, I launched an invasion of Russia, which ended in a disastrous retreat from Moscow. The invasion of Russia itself was not obviously the foolhardy expedition it might have seemed. My French Army was logistically the most sophisticated since ancient times and had shown itself capable of operating as far east as western Russia.

In the past, the Russians had been in the habit of giving up as soon as they lost a major field army. And since all their existing commanders had been personally beaten several times by myself, it was expected that with extra men and planning, the same would occur again. 11. The invasion officially began with the crossing of the Niemen River on June 24, 1812. For My combined army of over 500,000 men the campaign got off to a poor start due to the massive loss of horses in the hot weather and the refusal of the Russians to give battle. By the time my army fought its first major battle at Smolensk, it had shrunk by half due to detachments, death and desertion.

By the end of the retreat from Russia I had only 12,000 men left! 12. After that all Europe united against me, and although I fought on, and brilliantly, the odds were impossible. My marshals, in April of 1814, refused to continue the struggle. After that, the allies rejected my stepping down in order for my son to come to power. l was exiled to the Mediterranean Island of Elba. 13.

Not being able to deal with being exiled I made a dramatic comeback. In March of 1815, I escaped from Elba, got to France, and marched on Paris. I did this by winning over the troops sent to capture me. In Paris, I made a new and more democratic constitution. The veterans of my old campaigns flocked to support me. Asking for peace from the allies, but instead they outlawed me.

So as a result I decided to strike first. 14. The result of my striking first was a campaign into Belgium. This ended with the famous battle of Waterloo, where my French army was totally defeated, on June 18, 1815, by the Anglo-German armies under Generals Wellington and Blucher. 15. Once back in Paris, my followers begged me to keep fighting.

Even with that the politicians withdrew their support. With all this pressure I Napol " eon Bonaparte fled to Rochefort, there I ended up by surrendering to the captain of the British battleship Bellerophon. After that I was exiled to Saint Helena, which is a remote island in the south Atlantic Ocean, that is where I resided until my death by stomach cancer on May 5, 1821.