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Napoleon Bonaparte: French Directory
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Napoleon was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica to Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer and politician, and his wife, Marie-Letizia Buonaparte. The Buonapartes were a wealthy family from the Corsican nobility. Napoleon changed his name so it sounded more French.
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When Napoleon returned to France in 1804, because of his reports that made him seem so great, he became emperor. Although Napoleon had lost some battles, he fascinated the French people by telling them about the strange land of Egypt. Napoleon still did not have a child with his wife, Josephine. He wanted an heir to his throne, so he divorced her and married the daughter of the Austrian king. She had his son, Napoleon II, soon after that.
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Napoleon swept across N Italy, forcing Sardinia to sign a separate peace in May, 1796. After his victory at Lodi (May 10), he entered Milan (May 14) and laid siege to Mantua (July, 1796). After the great victories of Arcole (Nov., 1796) and Rivoli (Jan., 1797) and the fall of Mantua (Feb., 1797), Bonaparte began to cross the Alps toward Vienna. However, the slow advance of the northern French armies in Germany and the danger of being cut off in the rear caused him to arrange—without instructions from Paris—the truce of Leoben (Apr., 1797), sealed in October by the Treaty of Campo Formio.
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Napoleon developed relatively few military innovations, although his placement of artillery into batteries and the elevation of the army corps as the standard all-arms unit have become accepted doctrines in virtually all large modern armies. He drew his best tactics from a variety of sources and scored several major victories with a modernized and reformed French army. His campaigns are studied at military academies all over the world and he is widely regarded as one of history's greatest commanders. Aside from his military achievements, Napoleon is ... remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic Code (
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Corsica is boring as hell, so Napoleon joined the French Army as soon as he could. He originally wanted to be in the cavalry, but his superiors told him that the Army didn't use Shetland ponies. Unfortunately, Napoleon didn't realize that they were insulting his height until they were out of the room, so he couldn't deliver a snappy comeback. He next tried the infantry, which turned out to be a bust as well, as everyone assumed he was a drummer boy and wanted to put him up front with the other drummer boys where he would make for a convenient target.
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This Directory, in reward of the services which Napoleon had rendered, and in admiration of his genius, bestowed upon him the command of the army of Italy. Probably Josephine, whom he then married, had sufficient influence with Barras to secure the appointment. It was not popular with the generals, of course, to have a young man of twenty-six, without military prestige, put over their heads. But results soon justified the discernment of Barras.
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