Napoleon+Bonaparte

**Biography of Napoleon Bonaparte**

-__Born on Augus____t 15, 1769__ -__Died May 05, 1821__

Boyhood
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 on Mediterranean Island of Corsica, he was the fourth child and the second son of Carlos and Letizia Ramolino Buonaparte. His parents came from a noble Italian families. Father was an eloquent lawyer and a prominent citizen of Corsica. As for his mother she was beautiful and strong-willed. At age nine years old his parent send him off to military school. Often teased from other kids, Napoleon become very devoted about graduating school, and soon after he graduated school at age 16 on 1785. He became a lieutenant in the artillery. Napoleon stood 5 feet 2 inches (157 centimeters) tall, about average for Frenchmen of his time though most French generals and states men were taller. Napoleon ended up earning the nickname __//le Petit Caporal//__ (the little corporal) in The Battle of Lodi in 1796, near Milan Italy.

Lifetime
Napoleon had great energy and ambition. In 1779 he entered a French military school at Brienne (now known as as//__Brienne-le-Chateau)__// town in France near Troyes. Napoleon excelled in mathematics. In 1784 Napoleon was chosen for the elite military academy //Ecole Militaire// in Paris, and graduated a year later. In 1785 Napoleon also received a commission in the the French Army, as a second Lieutenant of artillery, while he briefly attended traditionally the royal artillery school in Auxonne near Dole. In 1792 Napoleon was promoted to first lieutenant and a captain in 1792.

He personally directed complex military maneuvers and at the same time controlled France's press, police system, foreign policy, and domestic affairs. He chose capable subordinates and rewarded them generously with medals, wealth, military rank, and titles of nobility.

In 1804, as thousands watched, the new emperor took the crown from the pope and placed it on his own head. With this gesture, Napoleon signaled that he was more powerful than the Church, which had traditionally crowned the rulers of France. Not to long Napoleon wanted to control the rest of Europe and to reassert French power in the Americas. He visioned his western empire including Louisiana, Florida, French Guiana, and the French West Indies.

In 1789, when the idea o the Revolution came of eventually, enslaved Africans in the colony demanded their rights too, in other words their freedom. A civil war erupted, and enslaved Africans under the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture seized control of the colony.

In 1792 Napoleon was promoted to first lieutenant and a captain.

In 1793, Paoli declared the Bonapartes outlaws after the French government executed King Louis XVI of that same year on January. So the family fled and where Napoleion returned to the French Army. In June of the same year, a group of Jacobins led by Maximilien Robespierre gained control of the French government. Cities revolted against the new regime. British naval fleet aided the rebels. Napoleon positioned the artillery on high ground overlooking Toulon's harbor and fired down the British ships. Successful victorious Napoleon was named brigadier general at the age of 24.

In 1794, Robespierre fell from power and was executed. In August, Napoleon was imprisoned for about a week. After his release he returned to the army.

In 1795, the year called the "whiff of grapeshot" Napoleon was in paris when angry mobs there tried to attack the ruling National Convention at the royal palace called the Tuileries. Napoleon defended the palace with canon fire that killed or wounded hundreds of people and quickly clearing the streets. This cannon laer became known as the "whiff of the grapeshot". Hailed as a hero, Napoleon was promoted to major general.

The year 1796, Napoleon married Josphine de Beauharnais, a beautiful woman of French descent from Martinique in the West Indies. Josephine was the leader of fashionable French society. She was six years older than Napoleon and had two children by her previous marriage. As France been at was with much of Europe. Napoleon left Paris to take command of French army on the Italian-French border--an underfed, ill-equipped force of about 38, 000 soldiers. Hoping to tie up Austrians force in Italy, while larger French armies won the war by marching through Germany and attacking Vienna Austria's capital. In 1797 Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, which enlarged France's territory.

In 1801, Napoleon decided to take back the colony and restored its productive sugar industry. However French forced were devastated by disease, and the rebels proved to be fierce fighters.

In 1803, Napoleon decided to cut his losses in the Americas, and sold all of the Louisiana Territory to the President Jefferson of United States, by purchasing the territory for $15 million. Having abandoned his imperial ambitions, Napoleon turned his attention to Europe. Fearful of his ambitions, the British persuaded Russia, Austria, and Sweden to join them against France. In a series of brilliant battles, they caused the commanders of the enemy armies foresee heavy losses.

By 1805, Austria, Russia, and Sweden had joined the United Kingdom in a new coalition against France. Later that year around September, Napoleon led his troops into Germany. October, he captured an Austrian Army at Ulm. December, he demolished Austrian, Russia armies at Austerlitz. But earlier that year, Admiral Nelson had destroyed the fleets of France and Spain, France's ally. This victory gave the United Kingdom control of the seas and ended any chance of Napoleon's invading the United Kingdom.

In 1806, Prussia joined Russia in mounting a new campaign agaist France. In October, Napoleon's forces overwhelmed the Prussia army at Jena and the nearby Auerstadt. In June of 1807, Napoleon demolished Russian armies at Friedland. In 1809, he defeated Austrians agian at Wagram, near Vienna. This victory enlarged his empire. He gave his sister Elisa the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and annexed to France, which covered of what are now Slovenia and Croatia.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In 1809, Napoleon had issues about what would come about of his vast empire after his death. Josephine who was now 46 years old, had no children by him, and Napoleon had no heirs. That December, he divorced Josephine to marry a youger woman. April of 1810 he married a 18 year old Archudches Marie Louis, daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria. 1811 they had a son that was named after his father Napoleon, who was give the title of king of Rome.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Three of Napoleons major mistakes were in November 1806, Napoleon set up a blockade- a forcible closing ports- to prevent all the trade and communication between Great Britain and other European nations. In 1808, his second costly mistake. in an effort to get Portugal to accept the Continental System, he sent an invasion force through Spain. For six years, bands of Spanish peasant fighters, known as __guerrillas,__ struck at French armies in Spain. The guerrillas were not an army that Napoleon could defeat in open battle. They workded in a small groups that ambushed French troops and then fled into hiding. Napoleon lost about 300,000 men during this __**Peninsular War.**__ His last mistake Napoleons's most disastrous cam in 1812. Alexander I had become Napoleon's ally The Russian czar refused to stop selling grain to Britain. Napoleon and his Grand Army of more than 420,00 soldiers marched into Russia. Russia retreated, they did a practice called __schorched-earth policy.__ This involved burning grain fields and slaughtering live- stock so as to leave nothing for the enemy to eat. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">But his ambition led him to overextend his power. Downfall also resulted in part from feelings of nationalism in areas invaded by French troops and from economic hardship brought on by Napoleon's attempts to exclude British good from continental Europe. Other factors that contributed to his downfall bitter reaction to the taxes and __//conscription//__ (the draft). He imposed across his empire and opposition to Napoleon of many of Europe's royal rulers.