Quick Facts
- NAME: Napoleon
- OCCUPATION: Military Leader, Political Leader, Emperor
- BIRTH DATE: August 15, 1769
- DEATH DATE: May 05, 1821
- EDUCATION: College d'Autun, Military College of Brienne, Military Academy in Paris
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Ajaccio, France
- PLACE OF DEATH: St. Helena, United Kingdom
- Originally: Napoleone Buonaparte
Best Known For
Bonaparte is the military general who became the first Emperor of France, who's drive for military expansion changed the history of France and the world.
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Napoleon Bonaparte. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 01:39, Feb 09, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291
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" Napoleon Bonaparte." 2012. Biography.com 09 Feb 2012, 01:39 http://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291
' Napoleon Bonaparte', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291 [accessed Feb 09, 2012]
" Napoleon Bonaparte," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291 (accessed Feb 09, 2012).
Napoleon Bonaparte [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 09]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291.
Napoleon Bonaparte, http://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
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Synopsis
Military general and first Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15,1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica. One of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West, he revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored the Napoleonic Code; reorganized education; and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. Bonaparte died May 5,1821 on St. Helena Island.
Contents
Quotes
What a novel my life is!
(born August 15, 1769, Ajaccio, Corsica—died May 5, 1821, St. Helena Island) French general, first consul (1799–1804), and emperor of the French (1804–1814/15), one of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West. He revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored the Napoleonic Code, the prototype of later civil-law codes; reorganized education; and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy.
The Revolutionary period
Napoleon's many reforms left a lasting mark on the institutions of France and of much of western Europe. But his driving passion was the military expansion of French dominion, and, though at his fall he left France little larger than it had been at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, he was almost unanimously revered during his lifetime and until the end of the Second Empire under his nephew Napoleon III as one of history's great heroes.
Napoleon was born on Corsica shortly after the island's cession to France by the Genoese. He was the fourth, and second surviving, child of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer, and his wife, Letizia Ramolino. His father's family, of ancient Tuscan nobility, had emigrated to Corsica in the 16th century.
Carlo Buonaparte had married the beautiful and strong-willed Letizia when she was only 14 years old; they eventually had eight children to bring up in very difficult times. The French occupation of their native country was resisted by a number of Corsicans led by Pasquale Paoli. Carlo Buonaparte joined Paoli's party, but, when Paoli had to flee, Buonaparte came to terms with the French. Winning the protection of the governor of Corsica, he was appointed assessor for the judicial district of Ajaccio in 1771. In 1778 he obtained the admission of his two eldest sons, Joseph and Napoleon, to the Collge d'Autun.
A Corsican by birth, heredity, and childhood associations, Napoleon continued for some time after his arrival in Continental France to regard himself a foreigner; yet from age nine he was educated in France as other Frenchmen were. While the tendency to see in Napoleon a reincarnation of some 14th-century Italian condottiere is an overemphasis on one aspect of his character, he did, in fact, share neither the traditions nor the prejudices of his new country: remaining a Corsican in temperament, he was first and foremost, through both his education and his reading, a man of the 18th century.
Napoleon was educated at three schools: briefly at Autun, for five years at the military college of Brienne, and finally for one year at the military academy in Paris. It was during Napoleon's year in Paris that his father died of a stomach cancer in February 1785, leaving his family in straitened circumstances. Napoleon, although not the eldest son, assumed the position of head of the family before he was 16. In September he graduated from the military academy, ranking 42nd in a class of 58.
He was made second lieutenant of artillery in the regiment of La Fre, a kind of training school for young artillery
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- In this group:
- Napoleon
- Joséphine de Beauharnais
Napoleon and Josephine
View groupNapoleon did not care for Josephine's given name, Rose, so he renamed her Josephine, which she kept for the rest of her life. He proposed in January 1796 and sent her intensely romantic love letters from numerous posts around the world with the French army. Despite rumors of her infidelity and his jealous temperament, Napoleon and Josephine were crowned Emperor and Empress of the French in 1804. The couple divorced in 1810 after her infertility was confirmed, freeing Napoleon to take a wife who could provide an heir. The couple remained on good terms, with Napoleon once saying that the only thing to come between them was her debts.
Napoleon and Josephine 2 people in this group
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Shorties with Authority 5 people in this group
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Mysterious Deaths
View groupAn unsolved crime never fails to fascinate us, especially when it involves the death of a celebrity. Over the years many famous individuals, from movie stars to politicians to rockers, have died in mysterious circumstances. Conspiracy theories and accusations of foul play abound, but we may never know fact from fiction. Here's a look at some of the most famous mysterious deaths.
Mysterious Deaths 27 people in this group

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