Approaching the end of our merry band of jolly men we have Napoleon Bonaparte. No insane insylum is complete without one. And with good reason, Napoleon’s impact on the modern world was enormous, not to mention that he too is credited as being one of history’s most gifted generals.

Biography

Our French friend was born in 1769 AD into minor French/Italian nobility. He attende military school at age nine and entered an elite military college at age fifteen and was deemed a prodigy.

He started his military career as a lieutenant at age sixteen. Napoleon proved himself during the siege of Toulon, using his superior knowledge of artillery (which he studied) the town was captured. A little later Napoleon was a commander of the forces of “the Directory” (led by Barras), the prime governing body of France after the French revolution. In Paris, he quelled a rebellion and gained even more popularity with the Directory. Within six months he was a general and highest commander of the French army. And did I mention that in this time he was already engaged (and separated) to the future queen of modern day Sweden and Norway and had a relationship with his Boss Barras’s mistress, whom he married a little later?

Then started Bonaparte’s military campaigns. With the French army, he conquered a rather large chunk of Northern Italy, forced Austria to surrender and took control over modern Netherlands and the Rhineland and finally forcing Venice’s surrender. His use of artillery was revolutionary for the time, and his innate skill at warfare and intelligence gathering (spying) issued a new age in military history.

During warmongering, Napoleon gained influence in French politics. When the Royalist group (enemies of the Directory) in France slowly regained power, Napoleon dispatched one of his generals to purge the government of the royalists. This action was not wholly benevolent; although Barras and the Directory were now in control again, it became dauntingly clear that they were completely dependent on Napoleon. In 1797 Bonaparte returned home after forcing Austria to peace as a conquering war hero and more popular than the Directory.

In 1798 the second part of the conquests started. Eager to get Bonaparte out of France, the Directory green lighted the idea of taking Egypt (which appears to be a popular target) to consolidate trade routes and annoy the British access to India. On route to the desert lands they requested for the opportunity to resupply at Malta. After granted access to the port, the French guns went ablaze and the island was quickly annexed.

The same year the fleet and army landed in Alexandria and the warring began. The general led succesful battles against numerically superior forces and got a solid foothold. On the other hand, the French navy was utterly decimated by the Brits. Eventually the troops invaded what is now Northern Israel. Here his army was struck by an infection of the plague and Napoleon was forced to retreat. To speed things up, Napoleon ordered the controversial poisoning of his own infected men. After another victory in Egypt, Napoleon went back to France.

Back home things were going downhill. France was under attack (but far from defeated) by neighbouring nations under a common banner of ”the Second Coalition” that found an opportunity in an absent Napoleon. The nation was also rather broke. To make a long story short, Napoleon and conspiring members of the Directory first overthrew the government and then Napoleon himself outsmarted the traitors and overthrew them. Installing himself as First Consul (leader) for life.

As a ruler, Bonaparte made numerous changes France, most of which still heavily influence modern laws. He came up with a system for higher education, several tax systems, enabled a national bank, numerous civil laws and even prosecution based legal laws. Napoleon also reinstated slavery.

During his Egypt campaign, Northern Italy was recaptured by Austrian forces, in 1800 Napoleon crossed the alps and destroyed an Austrian force. The persistent mountaineers would still not surrender so general Bonaparte send one of his lieutenants to push Austria a little more. A victory for the French led to a peace treaty later. Uneasy relations with the British cumulated in a war between Britain and France.

In 1804, Napoleon decided it was time to make it official and he crowned himself Emperor of France and a year later King of Italy. The next series of wars are known collectively as the “Napoleonic wars”. The first was against “the Third Coalition”, an alliance between Britain, Russia and Austria. Napoleon defeated the combined Russian and Austrian forces and that was the end of that. Later the “Fourth Coalition” was established between Russia, Britain and Prussia and was also subsequently defeated. Next in line were Portugal and Spain, both defeated and annexed although Spanish guerilla resistance fighters continued to be a nuisance until Napoleon’s eventual exile.

Still not having tasted enough blood, Austria and Britain regrouped AGAIN as the “Fifth Coalition” and again suffering defeat by hands of the French general. Afterwards Napoleon would try the most legendary feat accomplishable by any military commander; invading Russia. In an almost mythical display of ‘death before dishonor’, the Russians employed a ruthless scorched-earth policy. To illustrate; after Napoleon had defeated the forces guarding Moscow, the city’s governor ordered the city to be burned instead of letting it fall into enemy hands. Bonaparte headed back home.

Then the goddamn Sixth Coalition was formed, membering Russia, Britain, Spain, Portugal and later Austria and Sweden. Although still getting whipped in several battle by Napoleon, the combined forces turned out to be too much and the French Empire finally fell. Napoleon was allowed to keep his title of Emperor but he was exiled to the small island Elba in the Mediterranean Sea.

On Elba, in order to prevent boredom, Napoleon became sovereign leader of the small nation enforcing political and economical change to improve the quality of life there. He eventually even formed a small army and navy.  In the mean time, France was now led by a monarch again, namely Louis XVII. 

In 1815 our beloved Frenchman returned to French mainland. King Louis send the 5th Regiment to combat the French usurper under command of Michel Ney, a former lieutenant of Napoleon. Bonaparte then approached the regiment alone and unarmed on horseback and famously claimed;

“Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now.”

Which was met with a “Long Live the Emperor!” and the whole company marched to Paris. He ruled from Paris for a period now referred to as “the Hundred Days”. He was eventually defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the British Duke of Wellington and Prussian Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher.

Napoleon was imprisoned and exiled again, this time to the island of St. Helena, an astounding 2000 km outwards into the Atlantic Ocean. A plan was even formulated to break Bonaparte out and set up an empire is South America, but this was interrupted by his death in 1821.

Legacy

As I hinted at before, Napoleon enforced a series of laws and regulations that have had a major impact on modern policies. Second, Bonaparte enforced the metric system, now the primary system in most of the world (as it should be) with exception of a few countries.

As also mentioned, historians place Napoleon amongst the stars of greatest military commanders ever. His adversary the Duke of Wellington, when asked who the greatest commander was, replied;

“In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon.”

And with that, we live Napoleon as he is and look forward.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 10:02 am and is filed under Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.