The Concept of Leadership. Military and Political Leaders. Julius Caesar. Spiritual and Religious Leaders. Napoleon revolutionized military organization and training, sponsored the Napoleonic Code , reorganized education and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy.
Napoleon was the fourth, and second surviving, child of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer, and his wife, Letizia Ramolino. Around the time of Napoleon's birth, Corsica's occupation by the French had drawn considerable local resistance.
Carlo Buonaparte had at first supported the nationalists siding with their leader, Pasquale Paoli. But after Paoli was forced to flee the island, Carlo switched his allegiance to the French. After doing so he was appointed assessor of the judicial district of Ajaccio in , a plush job that eventually enabled him to enroll his two sons, Joseph and Napoleon, in France's College d'Autun.
Eventually, Napoleon ended up at the military college of Brienne, where he studied for five years, before moving on to the military academy in Paris. In , while Napoleon was at the academy, his father died of stomach cancer.
This propelled Napoleon to take the reins as the head of the family. Graduating early from the military academy, Napoleon, now second lieutenant of artillery, returned to Corsica in Back home, Napoleon got behind the Corsican resistance to the French occupation, siding with his father's former ally, Pasquale Paoli.
But the two soon had a falling out, and when a civil war in Corsica began in April , Napoleon, now an enemy of Paoli, and his family relocated to France, where they assumed the French version of their name: Bonaparte. Napoleon stood about 5 feet and 7 inches tall, making him slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time.
Much has been made of Napoleon's height, and legends claim that he was unusually short, giving rise to the term "Napoleon complex," an inferiority complex sometimes associated with people of short stature. The turmoil of the French Revolution created opportunities for ambitious military leaders like Napoleon. The young leader quickly showed his support for the Jacobins, a far-left political movement and the most well-known and popular political club from the French Revolution.
Ultimately, these acts led to the rise of Maximilien de Robespierre and what became, essentially, the dictatorship of the Committee of Public Safety. The years of and came to be known as the Reign of Terror , in which many as 40, people were killed.
Eventually the Jacobins fell from power and Robespierre was executed. In , the Directory the French Revolutionary government took control of the country, a power it would it assume until After falling out of favor with Robespierre, Napoleon came into the good graces of the Directory in after he saved the government from counter-revolutionary forces.
However, in December of that same year, Napoleon achieved what is considered to be one of his greatest victories at the Battle of Austerlitz, in which his army defeated the Austrians and Russians. The victory resulted in the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine. Beginning in , Napoleon sought to wage large-scale economic warfare against Britain with the establishment of the so-called Continental System of European port blockades against British trade.
In , the French defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram, resulting in further gains for Napoleon. During these years, Napoleon reestablished a French aristocracy eliminated in the French Revolution and began handing out titles of nobility to his loyal friends and family as his empire continued to expand across much of western and central continental Europe.
In , Russia withdrew from the Continental System. In retaliation, Napoleon led a massive army into Russia in the summer of In September, both sides suffered heavy casualties in the indecisive Battle of Borodino. Retreating Russians set fires across the city in an effort to deprive enemy troops of supplies. After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving, exhausted army out of Moscow.
During the disastrous retreat, his army suffered continual harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army. At the same time as the catastrophic Russian invasion, French forces were engaged in the Peninsular War , which resulted in the Spanish and Portuguese, with assistance from the British, driving the French from the Iberian Peninsula.
Napoleon then retreated to France, and in March coalition forces captured Paris. On April 6, , Napoleon, then in his mids, was forced to abdicate the throne.
With the Treaty of Fontainebleau, he was exiled to Elba, a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy. He was given sovereignty over the small island, while his wife and son went to Austria. On February 26, , after less than a year in exile, Napoleon escaped Elba and sailed to the French mainland with a group of more than 1, supporters. On March 20, he returned to Paris, where he was welcomed by cheering crowds.
Napoleon raised a new army and planned to strike preemptively, defeating the allied forces one by one before they could launch a united attack against him. In June , his forces invaded Belgium, where British and Prussian troops were stationed. Personally, he was a man of simple tastes, preferring to wear a military uniform. Yet he knew the people wanted a show, so he wore extravagant outfits and lived in fancy palaces.
He was willing to use religion for his purposes — portraying himself as a Muslim to the Egyptian Muslim, as an atheist to the French revolutionaries, and as a Catholic to the European Catholics.
Personally caring little about religion, he used it to appeal to whatever people group he needed. Napoleon was also very involved with the French press. The newspapers were under tight control, and if they published anything with which the emperor did not agree, they would be shut down. He was very cognizant of how the papers shaped public opinion, and would often write columns for the newspapers to make sure they espoused exactly his views.
In those columns he was far from honest. Bonaparte exaggerated whenever he thought necessary, inflating his victories and covering up his defeats. When he ran for control of France in popular elections, he won in landslides. Yet he, and doubtless countless Bonapartists under him, still felt it necessary to fake the election results, making them even more favorable than they actually were.
Many of the early qualities worked together to give him an incredible charisma and popularity with his soldiers and people. When he escaped from his exile on the island of Elba and landed on the shores of France, he soon met the 5 th Regiment of the French army, who had been sent to capture him.
Kill your Emperor, if you wish. On the battlefield, he carried with him an aura of victory, even in the worst situations. He exuded confidence to his troops, inspiring them and assuring them that victory was certain. They were fighting under the man that had turned their country into a world power — one of the greatest generals in world history.
Off the battlefield he demonstrated care for his soldiers. He would often inquire after their welfare, making sure that they had the food and supplies they needed. These factors gave him incredible popularity in France. People still loved him even after his downfall. For years Napoleonic memorabilia was banned in France, but people still smuggled it in. One of my ancestors was a soldier under Napoleon, one of his Old Guard. He immigrated to America after Waterloo, but he still said that if he heard that Napoleon had turned to France, he would drop his new life and return to Europe to fight under his old commander.
It was these seven characteristics that allowed Napoleon Bonaparte to achieve one of the most remarkable careers in the world. However, as he grew older, his abilities began to fade. He gained a lot weight, his health began to decline, and with it, his capacity for work. His pride and belief in his own destiny began to push him into wars he was not able to win, and his force of character turned into stubbornness. Although the older Napoleon was not the same as his younger self, he was still a force to be reckoned with.
Even after he was defeated by the coalition, he escaped from the island of Elba, and in the Hundred Days regained control of France before being finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. Thanks this information was very useful. This helped me get my work done.
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