The French government guillotines Louis; Napoleon laments, "Had the French been more moderate and not put Louis to death, all Europe would have been revolutionized. Even with his horse shot out from under him, Napoleon liberates the French port of Toulon from monarchist forces; is promoted to brigadier general at age As some of his patrons are executed during France's Reign of Terror, Napoleon is imprisoned on suspicion of treason but released 11 days later for lack of evidence.
He remains faithful to the ideals of the Revolution. He uses artillery to quell an insurrection in Paris, saying, "The rabble must be moved by terror. After a coup, Napoleon becomes first consul; in he is declared emperor, to be succeeded by an heir. Enemy forces take Paris and restore the monarchy as Napoleon retreats from Moscow; he is exiled to Elba, which he calls an "operetta kingdom. He dies of cancer at age 51 on St. Helena; while in exile there, he had said, "If I had gone to America, we might have founded a State there.
There was no denying that the Battle of Waterloo had been catastrophic. Except for the Battle of Borodino, which Napoleon had fought in Russia in his disastrous campaign, this was the costliest single day of the 23 years of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Between 25, and 31, Frenchmen were killed or wounded, and vast numbers more were captured. Within a month, the disaster cost Napoleon his throne. A vast amount of literature has explored why Napoleon fought such an unimaginative, error-prone battle at Waterloo. Hundreds of thousands of historians have pored over the questions of why he attacked when, where and how he attacked.
Yet years after the fact, a different question must be asked: Why was the Battle of Waterloo even fought? Was it really necessary to secure the peace and security of Europe? It was not his second language, but his third. Napoleone di Buonaparte was born on August 15, , on the island of Corsica; for centuries a backwater province of Genoa, it had been sold to the French the previous year.
He grew up speaking the corsicano dialect and Italian, and his name was Gaulified to Napoleon Bonaparte as he and his family painfully accommodated themselves to French rule. In fact, he was extremely anti-French until the age of 20, going through a period of adolescent angst in which he identified them as the enemy of his beloved freedom-loving Corsica.
His antipathy for the French notwithstanding, the youthful Napoleon primarily identified with the Enlightenment and the dreams of Rousseau and Voltaire.
That both were forced into exile by the French State only increased their appeal for him, as did their praise for the Corsican experiment that had been snuffed out the year before Napoleon was born. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
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Interactives Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Related Resources. Escherichia coli E. View Article. Educational Resources in Your Inbox. Educational Resources in Your Inbox Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Although the French emperor was able to raise another massive army, this time it was short on both cavalry and experience.
Napoleon won some initial victories against his enemies, but he suffered a crushing defeat in October at the Battle of Leipzig. By the following March, Paris had been captured and Napoleon was forced into exile on the island of Elba. In Napoleon made one more attempt to take power but was overcome at the Battle of Waterloo.
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