The Rise of Napoleon  by fahad khan


Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica. When he was nine, he was sent to France to train in the military. Several years later, as the revolution started to take place, Napoleon became a lieutenant, and decided to make a name for him-self. Which he did…from 1799 to 1815 Napoleon dominated France and Europe. 

In the army Napoleon was very successful. He went from lieutenant to a great general. His first victory was in December of 1793, where he drove the British army out of the French port of Toulon. Later he went against the Austrians. In that battle he got most of the northern Italy. Then as he got power and become successful he went from a general to political leader. He got rid of the weak directory and created the Consulate, a three man governing board.

Two years after becoming the political leader, he had enough power to call him self the Emperor of France. With his power he took the power of the pope. This showed that Napoleon owed his throne to no one but him self. As he was rising in power, he came up with his own style of voting. He called that system plebiscite. It means that a ballot in which the voter says yes or no to an issue. During his power, he united power and strengthened the government.         

Some of the things he did was he modernized finance, he made peace with the Catholic Church in the Concordat of 1801. He told émigrés to return, he gave the peasant their right to land, that they bought from the church and the nobles during the revolution. Another thing he did was “careers open to talent.” One thing Napoleon was remembered for was the ideas on the Napoleonic Code. The code had the Enlightenment ideas of equality for all citizens, religious tolerant. The bad thing was that all the women lost most of their laws that they gained.

From 1804 to 1814, Napoleon did lots of things. He annexed France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Germany. He broke up countries like the Prussian Territory and adding to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. He even put some of his friends and family members on the thrones of Europe, one example was putting his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of Spain. 

In the end Napoleon failed to bring Britain down to their knees. Even though he failed, he was still successful and respected; people celebrated his success by having parades in the streets of Paris. In conclusion, The Great Napoleon was a hero to some, and an evil force to others, but he gave his name to the final phase of the revolution as the Age of Napoleon.