Napoleon Bonaparte. A man of many words. Many describe him as being almost superhuman in his military and government achievements. He came to symbolize order after the chaos and excesses of the revolutionary decade, with its civil state or in other words, conflict, confiscations and arbitrariness.
Napoleon was an emperor my class focused on immensely. He was quite an interesting man. Born on the 15th of August 1769, he was born into an impoverished family of Corsican nobles, one year after the French foreign minister purchased the Mediterranean island for France from Genoa. He moved on to be a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He's noted today for his several major achievements while in power.
The first of many other significant achievements made on Napoleon's part was, as you guessed, The Coup of 18 Brumaire. Political, yes. Napoleon took the power of France in 1799 by the "Coup d'etat" other known as 18 Brumaire (November 9-10). 1 month after Bonaparte's return to France from the important, though militarily unsuccessful Egyptian campaign, he brought home the news to his nation that he was the First "Consul" out of three from 1799 to 1804. Replacing it with the French Consulate, it was the adoption of a constitution under which the First Consul, a position of Bonaparte, had the most power in the French government. Being a First Consul of France was huge as you could imagine. And as a fact for your knowledge, historians do view this as what ended the French Revolution.
Code Napoleon, known as "The Napoleonic Code", was also very remarkable. Being both legal and political, it was set up the same year when Napoleon took the power of France; 1799 as a constitution that had also set up the prefectorial system, with its parallels to the earlier system of nominees by the King (intendants) seen during the Ancien Regime. Napoleon also set up the state control which drafted legislation, described by French Novelist M.H.B Stendhal as "the 50 least stupid Frenchmen". You may not already know this, but the state control ALSO reorganized the civil law code, which became known as "Code Napoleon" further entered into force on March 21, 1804.
So what was Code Napoleon you may ask? It was more so based on "equality" before the law and in taxation meaning things like citizenship, family and property. It basically made the authority of men over their families stronger, deprived women of any individual rights, and reduced the rights of illegitimate children. This may sound mad, but all male citizens were also granted equal rights under the law and the right to religious dissent, but colonial slavery was reintroduced.
Eye-opening don't you think? But you could say during this time, slavery was sadly a big thing. As you would know from history class, many men in Africa were being kidnapped often be forced into slavery in the American colonies. And if that wasn't already enough for you, Napoleonic Laws, remained the basic law of France and are still used in other parts of the world, including the province of Quebec in Canada. Luxembourg and Belgium too. Eek.
The Siege of Toulon was another. At the same time as the Terror in 1793, Napoleon was involved in the attack on the Mediterranean port of Toulon. His military engagement made it all so outstanding. "In which the young artillery officer Napoleon Bonaparte won his first military reputation by forcing the withdrawal of the Anglo-Spanish fleet, which was occupying the southern French city of Toulon and its forts." (Britannica). Because yes the French Republic won the war. So it sticks out quite significantly for Mr. Bonaparte.
The Battle of 13 Vendemaire Victory was also another. Also known as "Whiff of Grapeshot", it was a battle between the French Revolutionary troops and Royalist forces in the streets of Paris. The battle ended as a milestone in history for ending the French Revolution. Grapeshot as a form of ammunition from a cannon in Napoleonic times, and it is a quote from Napoleon describing how he dispersed crowds with cannon fire, the mobs. He fired grapeshot into the crowd, and so a “whiff of grapeshot” refers to that very incident.
You could also mention that Napoleon laying down the foundation of French education was a big one. Or when he escaped exile in Elba to become Emperor once again, which didn't make too many people happy with him. The 3rd Coalition "Genius" was another and so was when France was seen as the dominant power of all. All of which makes Napolean so great and powerful.
So you can see here in this blog that I have written, Napoleon both had his ups and downs, like any leader, but he successfully waged war against various allies, you could say, of European nations and expanded his empire. Truly superhuman. Truly remarkable!
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