Napoleon Bonaparte’s historical impact in YOUR LIFE.

“Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me “ - Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon had many amazing moments in his life. But there is one moment that I like a lot. When all the European countries and empires defeated him, he was sent to an island near Italy from France. When Napoleon came back to France from that island, he became France’s new king.

Now, there were about 700–800 soldiers with Napoleon. So, when Napoleon faced the French army, Napoleon stood in front of them. And he said, Here, I am standing in front of you. If there is even one of you who wants to kill his general, emperor, or king, then my chest is open for you. As soon as they heard this, the army in front of him, put their guns down and started shouting. Long live Napoleon! Long live the Emperor! And then the same army that was supposed to stop him, took him straight to Paris.

So who exactly Napoleon was and how did he achieve so much?

A man who had no identity before, but after starting from the bottom, he became the king of France. The story begins on August 15, 1769. It was the day when Napoleon Bonaparte was born. on the island of Corsica. In those days, Corsica was under the Genoa city-state but just one year before its birth, the French took over the island. So, it is said that Napoleon was not originally French, he was from Corsica. Initially, he hated the French because the French had taken over his home and his island. Napoleon’s father was a lawyer and although his parents were of the Corsica nobility, they still did not have much money. And to study, Napoleon’s parents sent him to mainland France. When Napoleon came to France, he obviously remembered his home, Corsica. And he felt very strange here. It is said that people used to tease him here in his childhood.

But whatever it is, in 1785, Napoleon graduated from the French Military Academy. He became the 2nd Lieutenant in the French Army, which was an artillery regiment. which is a small rank of officer and after a few years, the French Revolution started in 1789.

Napoleon had no special role in the French military and he returned to Scotland But at the beginning of the French Revolution, Napoleon had a very good relationship with… Jacobins. During the revolution, the supporters of the king were called royalists and those who opposed the king, who wanted the king to be unregulated, had a large group called Jacobins and their main leader was Max Millian Robespierre. So Robespierre’s brother, Augustine Robespierre, became a relation with Napoleon and that’s why he was attached to the Jacobins Napoleon was still in Corsica but in 1793, Napoleon’s family, got into a fight with the governors of Corsica and that’s why the whole family fled back to mainland France.

So during all this, there was a place called Toulon where French Royalists, that is, people who supported the king of France had locked themselves in a fort and were getting support from the British and Spanish navy. So Napoleon’s aim was to take the fort of Toulon and the royalists who were locked in the fort take them out of the fort and defeat them. So in this way, the siege of Toulon was won by the French military and Napoleon made a huge contribution and after this battle, Napoleon’s rank was promoted to the highest.

The people who were running this government were called the Directory. And there was going to be a convention of Directory, a meeting was going to be held in 1795 in which the Royalists came back to oppose it. Meaning people who support the King. So, the government asked Napoleon to protect themselves from the royalists that you have to protect his assembly and that’s why Napoleon placed his artillery on the roads the civilians, the royalists who were trying to stop the assembly fired with artilleries, on this action of Napoleon which made the assembly successful and the people who were trying to remove the directory they lost and because of this, the government was happy with Napoleon again and they gave him a promotion and now he became the Major General after this promotion.

Then the government sent Napoleon to Italy as commander of the French army. All this time, France was fighting against the other European kingdoms and powers. So in 1796, Napoleon, who was in Italy, defeated Austria in a battle. That’s why in 1797, France made a treaty with Austria, which is called the Treaty of Campo Formio. And after this treaty, France’s territory increased even more. Napoleon’s reputation increased even more.

Next year… The French government, the Directory, offered Napoleon to invade the British island and defeat them and win the war there too. But Napoleon was not a genius just because he could make a strategy on the battlefield. He was a genius because he knew which fight to do and which not to do. Napoleon knew that the French navy… is not strong enough to directly invade Britain So, Napoleon said that he would not directly invade the British island but would attack the British forces in the region of Egypt and the route of the British people to go through Egypt to India the trade routes they trade with India that route. So that’s why in July 1798, the Battle of the Pyramids took place in which Napoleon won and defeated the British But this victory didn’t do much to Napoleon because right after this, the British Navy destroyed the French Navy in the Battle of the Nile After this, in the beginning of 1799, Napoleon put siege around an area of Syria within the Ottoman Empire But this siege also failed and Napoleon thought that the… his army is trapped.

On the other hand, he knew that the government in France was in a state of chaos. The terror is very confusing. Napoleon knew that this was the chance to overthrow the government. So Napoleon left his army in Egypt and returned to Paris. When he came to Paris, the people there welcomed Napoleon with full happiness. He was a great military genius and people thought that he would remove the Paris government and himself… He will do something for us. And Napoleon did exactly the same. In November 1799, Napoleon removed all the big leaders of the Directive. And he created a new type of government in France called the Consulate. There were three consul members in it. The first consul was Napoleon. The most powerful was the first consul.

In 1804, Napoleon… declared himself king he himself held the crown on his head and this is a very famous event because normally the crowns that are placed on the king are generally placed by some kind of Christian priests or some important religious figures But this man himself held the crown on his head to show that he is not inferior to anyone his authority is the greatest.

See how the French Revolution removed the king from France But Napoleon, who came to power after the French Revolution slowly changed the system and made himself the king and brought back the same system which was before the French Revolution But now, the people of France were completely happy with Napoleon Whether he becomes a king or something else.

From 1803 to 1815, this was called the Napoleonic Wars. During this time, Napoleon fought a lot with his army and won almost all the battles. In the year 1800, They defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Marengo. And with this, the reputation of Napoleon, the first consul, became even stronger. The British had also lost and got tired of fighting Napoleon for so long. That’s why in 1802, they signed a treaty of Amiens with Napoleon. And with this, now, in Europe, temporary peace has taken place.

When the peace took place, Napoleon thought that he should work inside France. To see what’s going on inside the house. So, that’s why Napoleon changed the banking system of France. He changed the education system. He promoted art and science. And apart from all these things, the biggest contribution of Napoleon was the Napoleonic Code. Under this code, he completely changed France’s legal system. And even today, the foundation of France’s civil law is taken from the Napoleon court.

So, Napoleon defeated all his competition enemies in Europe, calmed them down and stabilised the internal condition of France. This is why Napoleon contributed a lot in French history and in the entire European history. And this is why the grip of Napoleon in Europe became stronger and stronger.

It is said that Napoleon’s greatest victory was… Battle of Austerlitz. Here he defeated Russia and Russia’s combined armies. After this victory, Napoleon, a holy Roman Empire in Europe, in which many kingdoms were connected, he ended this empire and created a new group called the Confederation of the Rhine. And all the small city-states or empires in this group, all come together into a country which we call Germany today.

So, as I told you, Napoleon had occupied most of the European mainland in his control. But still, there was a power, an empire that was not directly under Napoleon’s control. And that was the British Empire. In 1806, Napoleon wanted to defeat the British. But he knew that he didn’t want to invade Britain directly with his navy. So, he used an indirect method, economic warfare.

Napoleon imposed a new rule on them which was called the Continental System. Under this system, Napoleon said that for all the countries and powers under Napoleon’s control, no country would trade with Britain and would not trade with them for money. Now, all the European powers were afraid of Napoleon and had lost. So, all those people…started following it. The purpose of this was that Britain’s economy would weaken and ultimately, Britain would give in to Napoleon.

In 1807, Napoleon defeated the Russians and after that, he had a treaty with the Russians which was called the Treaty of Tilsit. After that, in 1809, he defeated the Austrians in a battle. Napoleon was winning in all these battles and because of that, the French Empire’s area was slowly growing. But here, there is a twist in the story. As I told you, all the countries that were following the continental system were under the control of Napoleon. But in 1810, the Russian Empire, the king of Russia said that their empire had become very weak. They were not able to make money and they had very few raw materials. So, the Russian king Alexander said that now they would not follow the continental system but would revolt against Napoleon. And he traded with Britain.

Napoleon was very angry because he knew that by using the continental system, he could finally defeat Britain. But if Russia started trading again with Britain, Napoleon would suffer a lot. Then he decided to teach Russia a lesson. Invade. When he was planning the invasion of Russia, many people said that Russia is a very big country so we have to defeat them quickly. And Napoleon planned that he didn’t have to occupy the whole of Russia but he had to defeat Russia quickly and bring Russia to his knees. so that they can follow the continental system again.

However, the Russian emperor Alexander believed that he would not directly fight Napoleon. So when Napoleon took the Grand Army and invaded Russia he had the hope that he would go to Russia and fight the Russian army and defeat them But this didn’t happen. The Russian army was constantly retreating and the area from which they were retreating, they were burning that area which is called the Scorched Earth Policy, The purpose of this was that the Napoleon army was coming from all the areas they were retreating so they didn’t get anything to eat from the ground.

So in 1812, when Napoleon started the invasion of Russia, he thought thatin a few weeks, he would defeat Russia. But now November had come, 1812, and it was getting very cold. And finally, Napoleon had reached Moscow with his army. But when he reached here, he saw that the entire Moscow had been emptied. And there, fire was set. Napoleon knew that he had reached here, he had captured this place. And no representative of the Russian army or Russian emperor is surrendering in front of him. So, in a way, Napoleon had lost even after winning Moscow. And he had understood that there was no point in staying here because the cold had started and there was no reason to stay here and support his army.

So, even after winning Moscow, after staying for a month, he kept waiting for someone to surrender but no one surrendered. Napoleon ordered his army to retreat again. When Napoleon was retreating, he used the same route he used to enter Russia, Then the Russian army started to attack continuously.

So finally, the grand army of France left Russia after this invasion Only 1 lakh people were left and at the beginning of this invasion, there were more than 6 lakh people The entire side of this invasion Napoleon suffered a huge loss. This was the first time Napoleon had suffered such a huge loss. Napoleon knew that he was badly hurt by this loss. The public thought that he was not as special as we thought.

In 1813, Napoleon suffered another huge loss. It was called the Battle of Leipzig or the Battle of Nations. Because in this battle, the Prussians and Austrians… Russians and Swedish people defeated Napoleon. After losing the battle, Napoleon’s army started retreating. But the coalition army had reached Paris. They captured Paris and told Napoleon to leave the throne. The King of France is no more. And with this insult, Napoleon had to leave France. And the coalition army that won these countries, they crossed Napoleon from here to an island called Elba. Napoleon was made the King of this island, but Napoleon knew that it was a great insult because he was given such a small island and they called him the King.

In February of 1815, when Napoleon had not been here for even a year, Napoleon escaped from this island and returned to France. And then the same incident happened, which I told you about at the beginning of this article. The King of France sent his army to stop Napoleon, but when the army saw Napoleon… So they left their weapons and they met Napoleon when Napoleon took the whole army to Paris, The king was already standing there Without any fight, and Napoleon took the throne of Paris back into his hands And he started the Hundred Days Campaign.

Napoleon knew that the countries and powers that had defeated him. They would be united again and try to defeat him. So his plan was that all the kingdoms before get united and attack Napoleon together, he would defeat them one by one. That’s why he invaded Belgium and on 16th June 1815 in the Battle of Ligny, he defeated the Prussians.

But two days after this, on 18th June 1815, there was a battle in Waterloo in which the British used the help of the Prussians to defeat Napoleon’s army once again They forced Napoleon to leave his post, British people knew that once they sent Napoleon to Alba And he came back from there to France. So this time, to be safe They sent Napoleon to a very far island Which was in the south of the Atlantic Ocean, The name of this island was Saint Helena And the British people had complete control over this island.

In October 1815, they sent Napoleon to this island And after 6 years, when Napoleon was 51 years old Napoleon’s death is said to have been caused by stomach cancer. But some people say that the British kept him here and they were slowly adding poison to his food. Ultimately, due to this poisoning, Napoleon’s stomach got sick and he died.

Whatever it is, the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte not only in Europe but also in the world plays a big role. Napoleon’s strategies and techniques are taught in all of them. The principles of Napoleon’s code are still used in France’s legal system.

The biggest lesson from Napoleon’s story is that if a normal person works hard and uses his brain, then he can too become the king of France or any other country. This is what Napoleon proved.

Anyway, if you enjoyed this article and want to know more about Napoleon in detail, then I will recommend a book called Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts.

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