| Napoleon Biography:
At school Napoleon achieved huge success in mathematics; however he was very poor in humanities. For example, in Latin, he was not good enough and the teachers did not even allow him to take exams. Apart from this, he made quite a lot of mistakes while writing but his pronunciation got better owing to his love for reading. Napoleon was more interested in personalities such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. From an early age, Napoleon worked very hard and read books in different fields of knowledge: travel, geography, history, strategy, tactics, artillery and philosophy.
Owing to the victory (which surprised Napoleon) in the "Queen's Necklace" competition, he was accepted into École royale militaire in Paris. There, he studied the following subjects: hydrostatics, differential calculus, integration and also state law. As usual, he shocked his teachers with his admiration towards Paoli, Corsica and aversion towards France. He used to fight a lot at that time, was alone and had not friends at all. During this period, he was excellent in his studies, did a lot of reading and prepared extensive notes. It's a fact, that still he could not master the German language. Later on, he expressed an extremely negative attitude towards this language and wondered how can one learn a single word. Such an aversion towards the Goethe language, to a large extent, contributed to his lukewarm attitude towards the Russian monarchy, in which Germans played a significant role.
Napoleon's father died on February 14, 1785 and Napoleon took over the role of head of the family, although, according to tradition, the eldest son becomes the family head (the eldest son was not as powerful as his brilliant brother). In the same year, he graduated early and began his professional career in Valence as a lieutenant. In June 1788, Napoleon was transferred to Auxonne. So as to help his mother, Napoleon kept his 11 yr old brother, Louis with him for the purpose of education. Napoleon lived a very poor life, ate twice a day having milk & bread. However, Napoleon never tried to show his dismal financial condition.
During leisure time, Napoleon loved to read and also wrote. Tarle, the Soviet historian and Academician, mentioned that during this period, Napoleon studied more than creating his own ideas. Napoleon read a lot and also diversified literature from novels to textbooks, from the works of Plato to the works of contemporary authors of that period, such as Voltaire, Pierre Corneille, Lavater as well as research articles. Napoleon read the book "The Sorrows of Young Werther" many times. At the same time, Napoleon read articles on military affairs and later on, when he was more interested in politics, his favorite author was Jean Jacques Rousseau and much later - Gilliam Rheinau. Bonaparte exhibited an extraordinary ability to work and diligence. The published works of Napoleon during the period of the revolution ("The Dialogue on Love", "Dialogue sur l'amour", 1791, "Dinner in Bokere", "Le Souper de Beaucaire", 1793) suggest that his political sympathies were with Jacobins.
Beginning of his military career:
Graduating from "École royale militaire" in 1785, Napoleon joined the army in the rank of lieutenant and went through the entire hierarchy of the army ranks of the then France for 10 years. In 1788, Napoleon tried to enrol in the Russian service in the rank of Lieutenant, but was refused by Lieutenant-General Zaborovsky, who led a team of volunteers for a participation in the war with Turkey. Just a month before Napoleon's request for enrolling to Russian Army, an ordinance on taking foreigners into service a rank below the existing rank was issued and for which Napoleon did not agree. In the heat of moment, Napoleon ran away from Zaborovsky, shouting that he would offer his services to King of Prussia: "The King of Prussia would take me in the rank of captain". Bonaparte's first war experience was the participation in the expedition to Sardinia. Troops, landing from Corsica, were quickly defeated, however, the lieutenant colonel, commanding a small artillery battery of four guns, distinguished himself: he put maximum effort into saving the guns, however, they had to be riveted since only small ships remained by the time they reached the coasts. |
August 15 is the birthday of one of the greatest military masterminds of all times, Napoleon Bonaparte. His military genius was accompanied by his ambitions to conquer the whole world. French empire has seen the rise and the blossom under Bonaparte's rule, controlling the whole continental Europe. While Napoleon is mostly remembered as a conqueror and a tyrant emperor, he also developed the Napoleonic code, which laid the juridical and administrative foundations for most countries of Western Europe.
