Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica in 1769. The son of minor Italian nobility, Napoleon rose, through his military victories, to become the leader of France. His coronation was in 1804 when he was crowned Napoleon I, Emperor of France. While he is largely regarded as tyrannically ambitious by the people he conquered or threatened with conquest, he is lauded by the French for his many achievements and lasting influence on the country.
Born in Ajaccio, Corsica, Napoleon was the second child of eight. His family left Liguria to settle in Corsica during the sixteenth century. His father was an attorney who was elected to represent the island, a French possession, at the court of Louis XVI. The family’s wealth allowed Napoleon an excellent education. He studied French in France and was admitted to the military academy of Brienne-le-Chateau and afterwards to the prestigious Ecole Militaire. Because he excelled in mathematics it was initially thought he would join the British Royal Navy; however, he trained as an artillery officer. His first commission came in 1785 when he became a second lieutenant in the La Fere artillery regiment.
With the French Revolution in swing, Napoleon began to publish pamphlets which were received favorably by the Robespierre brothers. Due to this connection, Napoleon was named the artillery commander at the siege of Toulon where his actions earned him the command of the artillery in the French army of Italy. His career received its first bump when the Robespierres fall from power. However, his skill and new connections allowed him the be promoted to commander of the entire French army in Italy in 1796, the same year he married Josephine de Beauharnais. During this period Napoleon drove the Austrians from Italy and negotiated a peace that ceded the Low Countries to French control and gave Venice to the Austrians.
Napoleon’s great feats during this time made him popular with the French. He became more involved in politics and also began to publish two newspapers that were read throughout France. His military might made him increasingly powerful politically. Because the French Navy was not ready to engage the British in full force, Napoleon famously traveled to Egypt where he hoped to establish the French in the Middle East. During this period his successful campaign of Egyptian archaeological expeditions uncovered valuable artifacts like the Rosetta Stone.
While Napoleon enjoyed a decisive victory on land at the Battle of the Pyramids, the French Navy was greatly thwarted by the British Navy under the command of Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile. In 1799 Napoleon returned to France. In an effective coup, Napoleon emerged as the leader of France. He was crowned its Emperor in 1804. By 1810 Napoleon divorced Josephine who had not produced an heir and married the Austrian Duchess of Parma, Marie Louise; they had one son, Napoleon II. While leading France, Napoleon continued his many conquests, but his success began to fade beginning with the Peninsular War of Spain and Portugal. Historians believe Napoleon’s greatest failure, however, was the invasion of Russia whereby his army could never quite recover from its losses.
In 1814 Napoleon was forced to abdicate by his marshals. He was taken to the island of Elba where he famously escaped. However, he was finally defeated by the British under the command of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo. He was exiled to the island of Saint Helena where he died, reportedly of stomach cancer, in 1821. Napoleon is best remembered for his military greatness, his emancipation of the Jews from restrictive French laws, and his introduction of a law code—the Napoleonic Code—in France.