Napoleón Bonaparte

Napoleón Bonaparte Biography

Napoleon Bonaparte, was a French military and emperor, recognized for being a republican general during the French revolution. He was also the mastermind of the coup d’etat of 18th Brumaire that made him the first consul of the Republic on November 11, 1799. He was also the conqueror of a large part of European territory in the early nineteenth century and was considered as one of the greatest military geniuses in history.

Napoleon was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, a city on the Italian island of Corsica, which had been converted to French territory shortly before. He was the son of Carlos Bonaparte and María Ramolino.

When he was 10 years old, Napoleón Bonaparte and his brother José moved to Brienne-le-Château, with the aim of starting their studies at the military school. At the end of the basic studies, he went to the “Ecóle Royale Militaire” where he studied artillery. After graduating in September of 1785, he was commissioned as second lieutenant of artillery, taking possession of his new obligations in the month of January of 1786.

During the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Napoleon was in Corsica, where he supported the Jacobin faction and was appointed the second commander of the National Volunteer Guard of the island. He was also the first to use telecommunication systems, the so-called “Chappe line of traffic lights” created in 1792.

In 1793, he would obtain the promotion to Brigadier General, thanks to his merits of war; and in 1795, he saved the National Convention (the French republican revolutionary government) from a Parisian insurrection.

On March 9, 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte married Josephine de Beauharnais. Days after his marriage, Napoleon took command of the French Army in Italy, which he successfully led in the invasion of that country. He also restored slavery again, which had been abolished since 1794.

“There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.” Napoleon Bonaparte

In May 1797, he founded a third newspaper, published in Paris, called “Le Journal de Bonaparte et des Hommes Vertues”.

Around March of 1798, Napoleón Bonaparte proposed to carry out an expedition to colonize Egypt, at that time an Ottoman province, with the objective of protecting the French commercial interests and cutting the route from Great Britain to India. A year later he gave a coup d’état and proclaimed himself First Consul.

In the year 1804, he became Emperor and began to invade many countries in Europe. He won major battles such as Austerlitz in 1805, Jena in 1806 and Friedland in 1807. He failed in the campaigns against Russia and Spain.

Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig on October 19, 1813, by an alliance led by England and exiled on the island of Elba.

In March 1815, he would return to France, formed a new army to regain his empire, but was defeated again at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815.

On July 15, 1815, Napoleon was captured and banished by the British to the Island of St. Helena in the Atlantic, where, with his small group of followers, dictated his memories and criticized all his captors.

Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821, in St. Helena, the United Kingdom at the age of 51, because of a stomach ailment with heaviness, so much that it was thought to be a stomach cancer. His remains were buried in St. Helena and in 1840 his remains were repatriated to France.