Napoleons Invasion Of Russia example essay topic

Napoleon was born on August 15th, 1769 in Ajaccio (Capital of Corsica) which is an island 70 miles west of Italy. His parents were Carlo Bonaparte and Letizia Ra molino. They got married when Carlo was 18 and Letizia was 14, this was in 1764. Letizia was the one who was always putting food on the table, Carlo was way to lazy. His father was interested in politics. Napoleon got sent to military school (Brienne Military Academy) in 1778.

He hated it; his peers were constantly making fun of him. They mostly made fun of him for being a Corsican; this would make him love his homeland more. Because of the young men constantly making fun of him he would get very angry and his anger would bottle up to the point of explosion, this is how many young men got black eyes. Young Napoleon was transferred to the Ecole Military de Paris (Paris Military school). The reason he was transferred is because of his brutality. At the Brienne Military Academy he had created at brutal war game, complete with bloodshed.

He would get his "men" in a team and attack other teams with snow and rocks and ice. He would press them into a ball and throw them at the other teams. At this time, his father, Carlo had died from stomach cancer. Napoleons new school was very rich and luxurious.

Each student had it's own servant. He strongly objected how luxurious the school was. He wrote a letter to the war minister complaining that the school made officers "soft". He graduated as Second Lieutenant Bonaparte at age sixteen. After he graduated he was sent to an artillery regiment at Valence in southeast France.

He was very excited to get posted for artillery. Napoleon knew that it was his best chance of getting promoted to major or captain. When he got there he learned a different story. He learned that people that are like him (Non-French) were not aloud to get promoted to major or captain. Before he could get to his regiment he had to do three months of basic training. At basic training he learned what soldiers want and how to punish them.

This would be useful later in life when he became a very high-ranking officer. In September 1786 he was aloud to go see his family. When he got off of his boat his family was very impressed, after all they haven't seen him in eight years. The townspeople loved him too; He was the first Corsican graduate of the Ecole Militaire de Paris.

His mother still looked at him the same and, still, frequently whipped him when he misbehaved. In 1788, when he was supposed to be sent to return to duty he actually got sent to the Artillery Training School at Auxonne. During that year he learned all he needed to know about cannons. The more he learned about them, the more he liked them. He called them "Engines of Death" which protected the brave soldiers. He studied many books about war, geology, and other subjects.

His favorite book was the Social Contract written in 1762 by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Because of this book he hoped for a constitution limiting the kings power and guaranteeing people rights. Which is ironic because Napoleon would later be a dictator and the book is based on aristocracies and democracies. At the end of the eighteenth century the French revolution had spread chaos across France. Lazy King Louis XVI did little to help France. It is said that his favorite pastimes were hunting, where he killed 1,274 deer and 189,251 smaller animal, this would take a lot of time doing.

His other favorite pastime was rolling pellets of dirt from between his toes and flicking them at anyone who came in his range. He spent France's money on his personal luxuries. His wife and daughter were the same way. They were always buying expensive jewelry and expensive dresses. Nobles were also treated very well. That is the reason why 21 million peasants decided to revolt.

On July 14th, 1789, Paris crowds stormed the Bastille. This started a chain reaction that would lead to the wars of the French revolution. In this war, nations fought because they hated each other and one side had to go down in defeat. Because of the French revolution, France's military was in big trouble, it was very unorganized and lacking serious supplies. A mob of Paris rebels charged the palace of King Louis XIV (who had already escaped). Napoleon had stopped in Paris and saw the bloodbath.

He (of course) didn't like what he saw so he picked up his little sister who was in Paris and headed for Corsica. When they got to Corsica they all had to move to France because of a conflict between Napoleon and a Corsican political leader. When he came back France was in a state of total war. France won many of its battles and drove invaders from French soil. The French fought to spread their ideas of revolution and to prevent Europe from entering another dark age. Because of the turmoil of the army, it was a lot easier to move up in command.

Napoleon moved from Second lieutenant to major in just two years. His artillery commander was badly injured and Napoleon was chosen to take the position. As commander, he masterminded a plan to take the city of Toulon. It worked and he was promoted to Brigadier General. The government of France was then overthrown by more revolutionaries. He got demoted to gunner and took sick leave to Paris for a different job.

He didn't get one so he took a job in Turkey to reorganize their artillery. Right as he was about to leave, his luck changed. He was asked if he would protect Paris with 5000 men against the 30,000 suggested peasants. He took the job and slaughtered the peasants using cannons.

This was his route to power. Napoleons invasion of Russia was doomed to failure. Taking over Russia is a nearly impossible goal; the weather alone could destroy large armies. Because of the weather, the czar of Russia invited the French invasion. His plan was to let Napoleon enter Russia with as few battles as possible and let him get deep into Russia and let the weather do his dirty work. His plan worked well and Napoleon marched right into Russia just in time for winter.

The winter caused disruption, and the French retreated. As they retreated the Russians followed them and killed many of them. Many of Napoleon's officers persuaded him not to invade Russia, but because of Napoleons arrogance, many French men and women lost their lives. Almost all of Napoleons advisors encouraged him that it was an impossible feat. They knew that the weather was severe and that they would need more time to build up supplies. The main point of the invasion of Russia was to show Britain who's boss.

It would have been a lot easier to just invade Britain. If Napoleon had waited and built up supplies then maybe he could have done better in Russia. He lacked a lot of supplies and knew very little about Russia's winter capabilities. Also while waiting for supplies to surplus he could have realized a new way to invade Russia. He could have used boats and traveled to lands like present day Iraq or Afghanistan and marched north to Moscow, this would have been a lot easier and he could have conquered land on his was up there.