NAPOLEÓN BONAPARTE:
HISTORY’S ULTIMATE
SELF-MADE MAN
Jim Werbaneth
La Roche College HIST1014
14 October 2011
The Early Life of Napoleone di
Buonaparte
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Born in Corsica 15 August 1769.
Family origins were in the minor Italian nobility.
Commissioned in the French royal army in 1785.
Problematic early career, fighting sometimes for,
and sometimes against, anti-French Corsican
rebels.
• Lengthy leaves of absence from the French
army.
The Making of Napoleón Bonaparte
• French Revolution 1789.
• Republican sympathies, and connections with
the Robespierre family; recommended to
Maximilien Robespierre by his brother in 1793.
• Planned French victory in Siege of Toulon,
September-December 1793.
• “A whiff of grapeshot” in defense of the National
Assembly against a Royalist mob, 3 October
1795.
Napoleón’s First Italian Campaign
Napoleón’s First Italian Campaign
• Napoleón assigned to Army of Italy in
1795 in order to consign him to obscurity.
• Army in terrible condition when Napoleón
took command.
• Conducted brilliant campaign to drive
Austria out of northern Italy and threaten
Vienna.
Napoleón’s Egyptian Adventure
• Invaded Egypt in 1798.
• Defeated Mamelukes at the Battle of the
Pyramids
• Fleet destroyed by Horatio Nelson in the Battle
of the Nile.
• Abortive invasion of Syria.
• Abandoned his army on 24 August 1799 to
return to France and seize power.
• Failures in Middle East spun to look like victory.
The General’s Home Life
• Married to older woman, Joséphine de
Beauharnais.
• Incapable of bearing more children.
• Loved her, but unfaithful.
• She was unfaithful to him.
The First Consul and Ruler of
France
• Seized power in Paris on 9 November 1799.
• Major accomplishments:
– Invention of Egyptology ― Brought scientists,
scholars and artists to Egypt.
– Legal reformation and the Napoleonic Code.
– Institution of metric system.
– Emancipation of Jews.
– Second Italian Campaign and Battle of Marengo in
1800.
Empereur Napoleón 1er
Empereur Napoleón 1er
Empereur Napoleón 1er
• Crowned himself Emperor of the French
on 2 December 1804 in Notre Dame de
Paris.
• Emperor of the French, NOT Emperor of
France.
• Placed himself on an equal footing as the
oldest dynasties of Europe, as a self-made
monarch.
Napoleón the Warlord
• Years of Victory
– 1805: War with Austria and Russia, Victory at
Austerlitz.
– 1806: War with Prussia, Victories at Jena and
Auerstadt.
– 1807: Polish Campaign against Russia and
Prussian refugee units ― Meeting with
“Brother Emperor” Alexander I at Tilsit.
• Continually opposed, to the end of his
career and even his life, by Britain.
Napoleón the Warlord
• Years of Decline
• 1808: War with Austria, Battle of Wagram
– Divorce of Empress Joséphine
– Marriage to Marie Louise ― Now son-in-law
of Emperor Joseph I of Austria
– Birth of “King of Rome” and establishment of
dynasty
• Start of Peninsular War 1807-1814.
Napoleón the Warlord
• Years of Decline
– 1812: The Russian Campaign
– 1813: The War of German Liberation: Conflict
with Russia, Prussia, Austria
– 1814: Campaigns in northeastern France
• Fall of Paris 31 March 1814
• Abdication and exile to Elba
The Emperor Returns
• Return from exile 1 March 1815.
• Return to power 20 March 1815.
• Declared an international outlaw on 13
March.
• Battle of Waterloo 19 June 1815.
The Emperor In Exile ― Again
• Sent to British island of St. Helena in the
South Atlantic.
• Isolated from European affairs and family
― Marie Louise and young son taken to
her family in Vienna.
• Died 5 May 1821.
– Natural causes?
– Murder?