Napoleon Bonaparte

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, after Napoleon was commissioned as a second lieutenant and garrisoned at Valence in Burgundy, he developed the habit of voracious reading, which definitely affected all of his future endeavors; almost every subject was part of his reading, including law, political economy, geography, medicine, political science, the philosophies of Voltaire, and a great deal of history, especially ancient history with an emphasis on Alexander the Great. The author relates that, in October of 1795, as part of Comte de Barras's uprising in Paris against the Thermidorians, Napoleon so impressed Barras that Napoleon was named commander-in-chief of the Army of the Interior. The paper concludes that, having finished the Revolution, Bonaparte proclaimed himself emperor of France, an act that outraged most of Europe and infuriated Ludwig von Beethoven to the point that he tore up his 'Eroica symphony', which was written as a dedication to Napoleon.

From the Paper:

"By 1793, Napoleon, caught in the midst of the revolution, was in Paris when Louis XVI was dethroned. As a result, he joined the government troops who were attempting to capture Toulon, where anti-Revolutionary factions had turned over the great naval base to the British and Spanish fleets. And at Toulon, Bonaparte the artillery officer "accomplished that which he had been trained for in 1784, for he demonstrated himself as a formidable officer, a budding tactician and a born strategist" (Markham, 167). In this atmosphere, Bonaparte placed his batteries in position to bombard both the port and the British fleet, but above all, it was Napoleon's forcefulness and energy that impressed his superiors, which had played an all-important part in the recapture of Toulon. At the age of twenty-four, Napoleon was soon promoted to brigadier general which seemed to indicate that his future would be bright and magnificent."

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