Napoleon's native island - Corsica - has been under foreign oppression for centuries. Since 1300, it belonged to the Republic of Genoa, but the Corsicans stubbornly did not want to put up with this fact, regularly raising uprisings. In 1755, the inhabitants of the island gained de facto independence and founded the Corsican Republic. Desperate to regain Corsica, the Genoese in 1768 transferred the island to the kingdom of France on account of debts. In May 1769, French troops defeated the supporters of Corsica's independence, and the island came under Paris control.

The path to fame

Napoleon was born on August 15, 1769 in the city of Ajaccio in the family of small local aristocrats Buonaparte, supporters of the independence of Corsica. The future emperor had 12 brothers and sisters, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Napoleon grew up a sickly and withdrawn child in love with reading. His native language was the Corsican dialect of the Italian language. He began to learn French when he was almost 10 years old.

Napoleon’s father Carlo Buonaparte, despite relations with supporters of Corsica’s independence, was elected a deputy from the local nobility in 1777 and temporarily moved to France. He took Napoleon with him, placing him first at a college in Autun and then at a cadet school in Brien-le-Chateau. Relations with fellow students at the closed Corsican did not develop at first, but over time, thanks to a tendency to defend his opinion, he moved to the informal leaders of the cadet community.

In 1784, Napoleon entered the Paris Military School, where he studied very successfully. At first, he pointedly emphasized his Corsican identity, but life in France gradually made him change his mind and made him feel like a Frenchman.

  • Napoleon on the throne of Charlemagne
  • © Fine Art Photographic

In 1785, Carlo Buonaparte died. Shortly before his death, the head of the family received a grant for the cultivation of mulberry trees and did not have time to return it. Due to debts, the Buonaparte family was on the verge of a beggarly existence. Napoleon finished his studies ahead of schedule and in the fall joined the artillery service with the rank of junior lieutenant. Due to the need to help his mother with money, he lived extremely poorly, ate only once a day. To solve the problems of the family, Napoleon wanted to enlist in the Russian Imperial Army, where the salary was higher than in France. He was stopped only by the prospect of a temporary demotion.

In 1789, Napoleon supported the French Revolution. He participated in the establishment of revolutionary power in Corsica. Bonaparte later transferred to the emerging National Guard, where he received the rank of lieutenant colonel. However, due to a conflict with local supporters of independence, he left his native island and left for Paris at the disposal of the War Ministry. The rank of lieutenant colonel of the National Guard in the capital Napoleon was not confirmed, and promoted to captain.

Since 1793, Napoleon as a battalion commander took part in the fighting in the south of France against royalists and the British and in Italy against the Austrians. For merits in the capture of Toulon he was promoted to brigadier general. In 1795, he, being an artilleryman, refused to be assigned to the infantry, was removed from the staff and temporarily even removed from the list of current generals. During this period, Napoleon was thinking about joining the British East India Company. But the head of the Directory, Paul Barras, appointed him as his assistant and threw him to suppress the royalist uprising in Paris. Napoleon used cannons on the streets of the capital, won and was promoted to division generals, thus having gone through the entire officer “ranking table” of his time in 10 years.

Commander, First Consul, Emperor

In March 1796, Napoleon married a widow of the executed by the revolutionaries Count Beauharnais and the former mistress of Barras Josephine. Immediately after the wedding, Napoleon, who changed his surname to Bonaparte at that time, left for Italy to command the French contingent there.

  • Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine de Beaujarnais
  • Gettyimages.ru
  • © Spencer Arnold Collection

On the Apennine Peninsula, Napoleon was able to achieve a number of victories over the armies of the Italian states and the Austrians allied to them. Thanks to indemnities and requisitions, he dramatically improved the supply of troops, gaining appreciation from the soldiers. Transferring the war to Austria, Napoleon forced Vienna to sign a peace treaty beneficial to France.

As a result of the Italian campaign, Napoleon gained wealth and popularity in France. He was supposed to lead the French invasion of England, but found this plan unrealistic and recommended that the republic’s authorities invade Egypt, which was considered an outpost on the way to India. Thanks to the atmosphere of strict secrecy, his army was able to cross the Mediterranean without encountering the British fleet. On July 21, 1798, the French corps defeated the Egyptian troops at the Battle of the Pyramids. However, the victory was overshadowed - the adjutants erupted that rumors were circulating in France about Josephine's betrayals. After that, according to the researchers, Napoleon became painfully ambitious, self-centered and extremely suspicious. At the beginning of 1799, he invaded Syria, but could not completely conquer it and secretly departed for France. There he made a scandal to Josephine, but soon reconciled with her.

While Napoleon fought in the east, France was seized by a severe political crisis, and Alexander Suvorov defeated the Napoleonic generals in Italy. In November 1799, Bonaparte dispersed the Council of five hundred (the lower house of the French parliament) and, relying on a small group of deputies, proclaimed a “temporary consulate” in the country. According to the new constitution developed under Napoleon’s leadership, the legislative power was divided between a number of bodies, and the executive was concentrated in the hands of the first consul, which Bonaparte himself became.

At the same time, due to the political intrigues of the Austrian authorities, in 1799, Russian troops were forced to leave northern Italy, setting off on a Swiss campaign. As a result, in 1800, Napoleon returned with the French army to the Apennines and defeated the Austrians, gaining influence in southern Europe. Having made peace with Vienna and London, Bonaparte embarked on domestic political reforms. The Bank of France was created, a unified system of lyceum schools appeared, and most newspapers closed. A powerful police and secret service were formed under the control of the first consul. Bonaparte returned from emigration part of the royalists and allowed to restore pre-revolutionary noble customs. He agreed with the Pope to recognize his authority, and in exchange declared Catholicism the religion of most Frenchmen. In addition, Napoleon carried out fiscal reform and began to encourage the expansion of French industrialists and traders into foreign markets.

Realizing the inevitability of a clash with his main Western European rival, Britain, Napoleon refused to support the colonies in the Western Hemisphere and sold it to Louisians by the Americans. In 1804, a new civil code was ratified in France, which went down in history as the Code of Napoleon. Its provisions were further borrowed by dozens of other countries. After the suppression of a number of conspiracies, on May 18, 1804, a new constitution was adopted in France, according to which Napoleon became emperor of the French.

Victories and defeats

On December 2, 1804, Napoleon was crowned imperial crown. However, conflicts erupted more and more in his family - Napoleon's mother and brothers and sisters did not like Josephine and her children from her first marriage.

In 1805, a great war began in Europe. Napoleon lost British dominance at sea, but offset this with victories on land. On December 2, he defeated the Russian-Austrian army at the Battle of Austerlitz. By forcing Austria to sign a peace favorable to France, Napoleon strengthened his position in Central Europe. He began to appoint his relatives and military leaders as heads of puppet states in Germany and Italy.

“Napoleon’s hands were both his knowledge of military affairs and the blindness of the old world - after all, then his first victories were considered random. But after luck near Austerlitz no one thought that, ”said Viktor Bezotosny, Doctor of Historical Sciences, in an interview with RT.

According to the military historian and publicist Alexander Shirokorad, Napoleon created maneuverable and very mobile artillery from scratch, perfected weapons, ensured stable interaction of the army with the fleet and transferred it to self-supply.

In 1806, Napoleon entered the war with Prussia and Russia. But the hostilities were difficult for Bonaparte - a number of battles did not allow to identify the winner. As a result, on July 7, 1807, Napoleon made the Peace of Tilsit with Alexander I.

Having received guarantees of peace in the east, Napoleon proposed that Spain divide Portugal. And then, taking advantage of the presence on the Spanish territory of his troops, he made the Spanish King Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII abdicate, making his brother Joseph the new monarch.

In 1809, Austria declared another war on France. Napoleon won again and deprived Vienna of access to the Adriatic Sea. However, the victory this time was given to him very hard. The actions of the British fleet against the French merchants and the constant wars exhausted the economy and caused a crisis in France. The capture in 1809 by Napoleon of the possessions of the Pope led to the excommunication of Bonaparte from the church and a sharp decline in his personal prestige. At the same time, Russia expressed obvious dissatisfaction with the inability to trade with Great Britain, and Alexander I did not give Napoleon, who divorced Josephine, the hand of his sister Anna.

In the summer of 1812, Bonaparte assembled a Great Army of 450 thousand people and invaded Russia, in the western armies of which there were less than 200 thousand military personnel. But Russian troops retreated inland, exhausting Napoleon with small battles and not giving him a general battle. Due to robberies and violence, Russian peasants rose en masse to fight against the invaders.

  • The French retreat through the Berezina of 1812
  • © Peter von Hess (1844)

The battle of Borodino on September 7, 1812 did not make it possible to identify a clear winner: the Russian troops retreated and then left Moscow, which the Great Army entered on September 14, but soon, deprived of supplies and hungry, it was forced to leave the city. The retreat for Bonaparte turned into a series of brutal defeats. Only about 25 thousand soldiers and officers returned from Russia to France with Napoleon.

But once at home, Bonaparte quickly gathered a new 300,000th army. However, its combat effectiveness was lower than that of the old Napoleonic guard. Despite the individual successes of Napoleon, he was no longer able to maintain control of Europe, while the joint actions of Russia, Austria and Prussia were successful for the anti-Napoleonic coalition. On October 16-19, 1813, the French army was defeated in one of the largest battles of the 19th century - the Battle of the Peoples near Leipzig. March 31, 1814 troops of the anti-Napoleonic coalition entered Paris. A week later Bonaparte abdicated and tried to commit suicide. However, the poison did not work, Napoleon survived and received the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea from the victors.

“Napoleon was let down by pride. The idea to create a world empire was too tough for him. Plus, Russia became the only power that could oppose the Great Army of Napoleon, ”Viktor Bezotosny emphasized.

However, friction soon began between the winners. Taking advantage of this, on February 26, 1815 Bonaparte fled from the Elbe and raised French troops. To enlist the support of the bourgeoisie, he developed a new liberal constitution for the country.

However, France was not ready for a new war. On June 18, the Anglo-German army defeated Napoleon in a battle near the Belgian village of Waterloo.

  • © Sadler William “The Battle of Waterloo”

Bonaparte again renounced power and sought political asylum in the UK. But the British authorities did not want to leave Napoleon in Europe and sent him into exile to the remote island of St. Helena. There, the former emperor worked on his memoirs. He was in constant depression and died on May 5, 1821 - according to the most common version, from stomach cancer.

“An important aspect of Napoleon’s activity is the creation of the state of France, because until 1789 there was only the French kingdom, consisting of several large provinces under the sole authority of the monarch. Each province had its own parliament, its own taxes, its own laws, its own language. The unification of France began with the era of the French Republic, but ended precisely in the time of Napoleon. Only after 1814 a single French nation was formed, ”said Alexander Shirokorad in an interview with RT.

In turn, the doctor of historical sciences, professor Natalya Tanshina, in a conversation with RT, emphasized that “Napoleon is a man who made himself. He sincerely believed that nothing was impossible, and this faith in himself, charisma, which he was definitely not deprived of, largely determined his success, and, accordingly, all his brilliant victories. ”

“Historians absolutely agree that modern France was created precisely by Napoleon,” said Natalya Tanshina. “He himself said:“ My true glory is not that I won forty battles, ”Waterloo will erase the memory of all these victories. But what cannot be forgotten, what will live forever is my Civil Code. ”