NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
Napoleon I
French Emperor
1769 - 1821
"The most dangerous moment comes with victory"
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte was
born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
Through his military exploits and his ruthless efficiency, Napoleon
rose from obscurity to become Napoleon I, Empereur des Francais (Emperor
of the French). He is both a historical figure and a legend—and
it is sometimes difficult to separate the two. The events of his life
fired the imaginations of great writers, film makers, and playwrights
whose works have done much to create the Napoleonic legend.
Napoleon decided on a military career when he was a child, winning a
scholarship to a French military academy. His meteoric rise shocked
not only France but all of Europe, and his military conquests threatened
the stability of the world.
Napoleon was one of the greatest military commanders in history. He
has also been portrayed as a power hungry conqueror. Napoleon denied
being such a conqueror. He argued that he was building a federation
of free peoples in a Europe united under a liberal government. But if
this was his goal, he intended to achieve it by taking power in his
own hands. However, in the states he created, Napoleon granted constitutions,
introduced law codes, abolished feudalism, created efficient governments
and fostered education, science, literature and the arts.
Emperor Napoleon proved to be an excellent civil administrator. One
of his greatest achievements was his supervision of the revision and
collection of French law into codes.
The new law codes—SEVEN in number—incorporated some of the
freedoms gained by the people of France during the French revolution,
including religious toleration and the abolition of serfdom. The most
famous of the codes, the Code Napoleon or Code Civil, still forms the
basis of French civil law. Napoleon also centralized France's government
by appointing prefects to administer regions called departments, into
which France was divided.
Napoleon's own opinion of his career is best stated in the following
quotation:
" I closed the gulf of anarchy and brought order out of chaos.
I rewarded merit regardless of birth or wealth, wherever I found it.
I abolished feudalism and restored equality to all regardless of religion
and before the law. I fought the decrepit monarchies of the Old Regime
because the alternative was the destruction of all this.
I purified the Revolution."
The widespread notion of Napoleon's shortness lies in the inaccurate translation of old French feet ("pieds de roi") to English. The French measure of five foot two (5' 2"), recorded at his autopsy, actually translates into five feet six and one half inches (5' 6.5") in English measure, which was about the average height of the Frenchman of his day. It is also probable that the men of his Imperial Guard, with whom he "hung out," were very tall, creating the illusion that Napoleon was short.
