Napoleon And His French Army example essay topic

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte is considered to be one of the greatest conquers and captains of modern times. In history perhaps no one person has ever aroused so many intense opposite emotions. Perhaps no one had ever claimed as much of the admiration, fear, and hatred of all men as did Napoleon. Napoleon was a man with many sides.

He started many of his challenging voyages and defeats as a young child and they continued throughout his life. He had many accomplishments and many defeats that affect the world in which we live. Napoleon plays a very big part in history. Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, at Ajaccio, in Corsica. His parents were Charles Marie Bonaparte and Marie-Letitia Ra molino who also lived in Corsica... Although Corsica was Napoleon's home most of his schooling was conducted in France.

On December 15, 1778, at the age of nine, Napoleon left Ajaccio to go and study the French Language at a school in Brienne. Later, at the age of sixteen, Napoleon decided to enter the artillery so that maybe his brains and industry would balance his lack of outward advantages. On October 28, 1785 he joined the LA Fere located in Valence. A little over ten years later he decided to get married to Josephine de Beauharnais from Martinique in the Indies. After many years of marriage, Napoleon realized that his wife was getting older and he had no heirs, so in 1809 he divorced her to look for a younger bride.

In 1810 he met and married Archduchess, Marie Louise the eighteen-year-old daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria. During their marriage Napoleon and his new wife conceived one child, a boy also named Napoleon. Napoleon was a man known for his greatest powers and successes as a leader. One of the many successful things Napoleon did early in his life was develop a highly successful military strategy. His tragedy consisted of starting a battle with an enemy while holding his forces back.

He would then look for the enemies weakest points and throw all his strength against that point. This newly developed strategy helped him to win many of his attacks such as his attack on and defeat in Italy against Austria and his battle and defeat in Egypt against the Turks. After Napoleon's defeats in Egypt he returned to France where he seized control of the French government in November 1799. After ten years of revolution the French wanted a strong leader like Napoleon. After all the years of turmoil the French people had went through, Napoleon was now looking for peace for his country. He led his army on a famous march where he defeated the Austrians.

Along with peace in Europe Napoleon did other things to help the French people. One of the biggest and most well known is the revision of many French laws into codes. One of the most famous codes, Code Napoleon, still forms the basis of the federal civil law today. After many years of dictatorship, Napoleon was growing very restless with simply governing France. He believed he could help the French better if the people would give him the power to do so.

During this time he was warring with many countries. After proving to France that he was a strong leader by defeating many troops Napoleon was voted the emperor of France in 1804 by the French Senate and the people. Later that year Napoleon was able to crown himself. After becoming the emperor in 1804 Napoleon was unstoppable.

He was out to protect and please the people of his country. He was able to defeat almost any barrier set in his way. He defeated many countries such as Austria, Russia, and Prussia. After each victory Napoleon continued to enlarge his empire. In 1806 Napoleon began to feel very powerful and important, thinking everything would always go in his favor. That year he issued two decrees, the Berlin Decree and then the Milian Decree.

He did not realize that both of these decrees were the beginning of his fall from power. In 1808 the Peninsular War broke out when Spain and Portugal rebelled against French rule. British troops joined the fight against France where tens of thousands of French soldiers died. This loss damaged Napoleon's honor greatly. Napoleon then decided to attack Russia. This war resulted in many casualties but no one won the battle that took place in Moscow.

His men where worn out and on his departure out of Moscow many died from illness and starvation. Of the 600,000 men he began his journey with, 500,000 where now dead. When he returned from Moscow he fought and won a battle against Austria, Great Britian, Russia, Prussia and Sweden. In October the two sides fought again. This time Napoleon lost and retreated to France. On April 11, 1814, Napoleon gave up his power as emperor of France.

He was then sent away to Elba in Italy where he began planning his return to France. In February 1815 he returned with many new followers from Elba. When he arrived in Paris his old followers began to hail him again as emperor. After his return Napoleon said that he would not make war, but the allied leaders considered him an enemy and once again preparations for war started. On June 16, Napoleon and his troops defeated Blucher. On June 18, Napoleon attacked Wellington at Waterloo.

This battle is one of history's most famous. Many charges were made by thousands of men and just when it seemed like the British forces were losing, Blucher's troops came in and joined forces with Wellington. Napoleon and his French army suffered a serious defeat. Napoleon tried to escape but he failed and surrendered at Rochefort to Frederick Lewis Maitland. He was sent away to the British island of St. Helena where he spent the rest of his life telling his friends of many of the events that took place in his lifetime.

In 1821 on May 5th Napoleon died of cancer and was buried on the island but was later moved to the banks of the Seine, as were his wishes. In the eyes of many, Napoleon is considered to be one of the greatest military commanders in history and a power-hungry conqueror. During his time of conquering, Napoleon attempted to build a federation of free people in Europe united under a liberal government. He intended on achieving this by putting all the power in his own hands. However, in the states he created, Napoleon granted constitutions, introduced law codes, abolished feudalism, created efficient governments, and fostered education, science, literature, and arts. Napoleon still remains one of the outstanding figures of his time even though he was selfish in his power and had some occasional defeats.

Today in the world in which we live many people look back at Napoleon as a legend. Although he has many lasting affects on the world and holds a very important part in history, today that kind of aggressive dictatorship would not be tolerated. When people look back at Napoleon's leadership they think of all the needless wars and lives that were lost due to his obsession with power. Today, people would not want to live under the strict control of any form of government like dictatorship.

When many people think of this form of government they are very cautious because with dictatorship comes a very restricted life. People do not want any one individual to have all the power because bad decisions are made sometimes and the people have to pay. People would rather have control of their own government instead of it having control of them.