"I am the Revolution"
 

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He crossed the Alps. He fought over sixty battles and only lost eight. He reformed France. He conquered more than half of Europe.  

  

“The revolution is over…”  

  

  

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the French Isle of Corsica in 1769. He was often severely punished by his mother. However, this caused him to admire and respect his mother greatly, and made him resilient and hardworking, traits that would help him in later life. He once said of his mother “She faced everything – the privations and the fatigue. She endured everything. There was a man’s head on her woman’s body.” At age nine he was sent to the military academy of Brienne, where he was bullied extremely for his poor French and Corsican accent. His experience at Brienne helped mould the man that he would become. At age sixteen (and only 5”2) he graduated from the Military Academy in Paris and became Second Lieutenant in an Artillery Regiment. He studied strategy, tactics, and public speaking. By the time he was twenty-eight, he was Brigadier-General.   

  

He staged a Coup-d'état known as the Coup of 18 Brumaire, from which he became First Consul in 1799. Napoleon then wrote the Napoleonic Code, the new law system in France. He coronated himself Emperor in 1804 in a lavish ceremony at Notre Dame. He was only thirty-five years old. In 1803 Napoleon famously sold France’s Louisiana territory in North America to the United States for fifteen million dollars, abandoning the idea of a French empire in the Americas, to raise money for future wars. Between 1803-1815 France fought against seven successive coalition wars, aimed at removing Napoleon from power. Napoleon was exiled to Elba, on April 6, 1814, at the age of forty-five, but escaped less than a year later. He embarks on the Hundred Days Campaign, which capitulates with the catastrophic Battle of Waterloo, in June 1815. Finally, Napoleon Bonaparte is exiled to St Helena where he lives for six years before dying on May 5th,1851, at the age of fifty-two.  

  

Napoleon is notable in countless ways, including for his revolutionary military strategies, which are still studied today. He fought over sixty battles, losing only eight. One of his most used and successful strategies was speed and manoeuvrability. He would rush through his enemies’ centre, splitting them in two with dizzying speed, then defeating them on separate occasions. He obtained this speed by living off the land rather than carrying supplies and using the Corps system. He divided his army into smaller ‘Corps.’ These Corps could function as their own army, as they had their own infantry, cavalry and artillery. The other European powers used the old strategy of keeping their army concentrated, therefore making advances slower. They also carried wagons of food and other supplies, while Napoleon lived off the land, by taking food from pastures, villages, and other areas. These strategies were used in the Battle of Ulm, where Napoleon encircled the Austrian troops, neutralizing, sixty-thousand soldiers and thirty generals. Napoleon is quoted to have said “I have defeated the Austrians by simply marching.”  

  

Another of his strategies was the element of surprise. Napoleon was an expert in setting and executing traps. This was used to devastate the Russian and Austrian troops at the battle of Austerlitz. Here, Napoleon intentionally left the defensive position on the Pratzen Heights. This was to be the bait for his trap. He then intentionally weakened his right flank, while massing his troops on the left behind a veil of morning fog. The combined Russo-Austrian forces claimed the Pratzen Heights, and attacked his right flank, as intended. Then, Napoleon swung around, reclaiming the Pratzen Heights and cutting their line in two. The Russians began to flee to his right flank, and he pinned them against a frozen lake. They ran onto the ice, which Napoleon smashed with his artillery. His sixty-thousand troops defeated almost ninety-thousand Russian and Austrian troops.  

  

His final strategy was Combined Arms Warfare. He understood the importance of infantry, artillery, and cavalry, and he used this to his advantage. In his own words, “Infantry, cavalry, and artillery are nothing without each other; therefore, they should always be so disposed in cantonments as to assist each other in case of surprise.”  

  

A huge part of Napoleon’s success on the battlefield was due to his extensive study of past great generals, analysing their strategies but also their mistakes. He is quoted stating “Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne and Fredrick the Great. This is the only way to become a great general…” And now modern tacticians and strategists study his campaigns and battles, upholding him as a master general, just like his heroes. 

  

During Napoleon’s many successful conquests, he set up French sister states, which turned Europe from a squabbling mess of tiny city-states to a cleanly run and organised continent. This was the foundation of modern Europe. He created modern Germany, disbanded the massive Holy Roman empire and many other oppressive empires, into democratic, fair countries like Germany and Switzerland.  

  

Napoleon also made Paris what it is today. It was Napoleon that created the beautiful boulevards so iconic to Paris, L’Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, started the L’Arc de Triomphe and other incredible feats that define modern Paris. He created the right-hand driving system and paved, extended and expanded French roads, and improved water supplies and the sewer system. He wanted to make Paris a bustling capital to rival ancient Rome. The Louvre was known as the Napoleon Museum, displaying much of the Art he collected during his conquests. 

  

Napoleon was notable for reforming the French education system. The pre-revolution education system was based on social status instead of talent, much like the rank system in place in the military. His education system was fair and equal, aiming to build a strong nation with a foundation in science, mathematics, military, and political sciences. The University of France was founded by him in 1808. He is also renowned for creating a calm environment after the chaos of the French Revolution. 

  

Another of Napoleon’s major notable achievements was writing the Napoleonic Code. On March 21, 1804, after four years of rigorous writing and refining, Napoleon enacted the Napoleonic Code. He achieved this by firstly overthrowing the biased and ineffective Directory and replacing it with the much more effective and balanced French Consulate, with him as First Consul for Life. This coup would have never succeeded, however, if not for the French Revolution, as the aristocracy would have never let Napoleon rise above the rank of Captain, because the system was based on social status rather than talent. The Napoleonic Code successfully removed these biases and formed the first rational and equal legal system in Europe. It encompassed many concepts including that all men are equal before the law, separation of church and state, it abolished the old system of social hierarchy and replaced it with meritocracy, protection of private property, guarantee of individual and family rights and also made efforts to improve communication and transport. Napoleon exported the Code as he went across Europe. These areas included Germany, Prussia, Russia, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands, just to name a few. This code is the basis of western law. Famed historian Andrew Roberts also agrees with this statement, stating “The ideas that underpin our modern world – meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, sound finances, and so on – were championed, consolidated, codified and geographically extended by Napoleon. To them he added a rational and efficient local administration, and end to rural banditry, the encouragement of science and the arts, the abolition of feudalism and the greatest codification of laws since the fall of the Roman Empire.”  

  

During the 1900’s, many European and Latin-American countries voluntarily adopted the Napoleonic Code. Some countries that adopted the code and still use it today are Haiti and the Dominican Republic, while other countries have created a close version of this code, such as Bolivia and Chile. These in turn were copied by Columbia and Ecuador, followed closely by Argentina. Louisiana, the only civil-law state in the United States, has a civil code that is still closely connected to the Napoleonic Code. Napoleon himself regarded the Napoleonic Code as one of his greatest achievements stating “My glory is not that I won forty battles and dictated the law to kings… Waterloo wipes out the memory of all my victories… But what will be wiped out by nothing and will live forever is my Civil Code.”   

  

Napoleon Bonaparte was a formidable force, a brilliant strategist and tactician. He shaped history dramatically and formed our modern world. His invincible character and determined ambition fuelled his drive to conquer. This stemmed from his childhood, and his strict upbringing. He was bullied at Brienne because of his status, accent, and bad French. This caused him to develop a defensive arrogance. He was a voracious reader, who loved to study history, music, and science. He feared that he would be perceived as weak, so every treaty he made, he extracted as much money as he could. This left him with many enemies. Eventually, these arrogant, over ambitious traits would lead to his downfall, although Napoleon Bonaparte has earnt himself a notable place in world history, just like his heroes.  

  

  

“…I am the revolution”  

 – Napoleon Bonaparte