Napoleon Book Review

The ideas of modern war can lead back to the 18th century during a certain campaign by a French military leader. This military leader was named Napoleon Bonaparte. He started a campaign against Western Europe that defined war and his strategies echoed throughout time up until the Second World War. His strategic plans were legendary up until his biggest mistake, which was invading Russia during its winter during the battles in the Waterloo Campaign.

Before you can get into how he became a military genius you have breakdown how is life really was before his military career began. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on August 15th 1769 to Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer and political opportunist, and his wife, Marie-Letizia Buonaparte. The Buonaparte's were a wealthy family from the Corsican nobility, although when compared to the great aristocracies of France Napoleon's kin were poor and pretentious. Due to his parents connections he was able to enter the Military academy in Brienne in 1779. He moved to the Parisian Ecole Royale Militaire in 1784 and graduated a year later as a second lieutenant in the Artillery. When the civil war broke out the Buonaparte's fled to France and adopted the French version of their name Bonaparte. When the political situation in France flipped around, Napoleon was tried for treason, but if not for his roots in politics, he would have been executed but his families connections saved him from death. In 1795 Napoleon became a hero again and helped fight the revolutionary forces off. As a result of that, he grew to be one of the most respected military leaders in France.

In 1796 Napoleon was given control of an Italian army which helped defeat Austria. After that campaign he returned to France as a bigger hero than he originally was, but had to leave in 1798 to Egypt and Syria in order to threaten England's imperialistic rule in Africa. Napoleon and his army returned in the August of 1799. Shortly after he took part in the Brumaire coup of November 1799, finishing as a member of the Consulate, France's new ruling triumvirate.

In the Novel by Robert M. Epstein, his military background was identified and how he planned his attacks were broken down so that the average person could understand them. He was the individual who introduced the ideas of modern warfare to the global affairs. The definition of modern warfare according to the author is thus:

"A war is modern when it has all of the following characteristics: a strategic war plan the effectively integrates the various theaters of operations; the fullest mobilization of the resources of the state, which includes the raising of constrictive armies; and the use of operational campaigns by opposing sides to achieve strategic objectives in the various theaters of operations. Those operational campaigns characterized by symmetrical conscript armies organized into corps, maneuvered in a distributed fashion so that tactical engagements are sequenced and often common understanding of operational methods. Victory is achieved by the cumulative effects of tactical engagements and operational campaigns."

Napoleon was the first military leader to introduce warfare on different fronts at the same time in order to defeat the enemy. In his campaigns he introduced the ability of a military to fight in two or three different locations at the same time during a war while keeping them organized. By giving each division and battalion a general he was able to keep in command of those generals who commanded his troops. He gave them a set of orders which they followed, in order to have a swift military plan and victory. That is considered to be the point at which war became modern throughout the world.

But that is the opinion of the Author; there are other people like myself who do not believe that Napoleon was the one that paved the path for modern warfare to begin. Some historians and scholars believe that the introduction of new and advanced technology was the reason why war became modern. This is what I believe was the reason of the modern armies, navies, etc. to begin to arise. Technology was the reason why some wars began and why some ended and that is what should be examined when you think about after the Napoleonic wars.

You can trace the use of technological superiority throughout history to be the reasons why certain countries won certain conflicts. The roots of modern warfare could be seen during the wars of religion when armies had more advanced weapons then just spears and arrows. When they started using catapults and new weaponry the opposing forces defeated the side which didn't have enough engineers to think up new advancements to put them ahead.

All the wars since 1815 have been decided by the superiority of the opposing forces technological standings. The Crimean War that lasted from 1854 till 1856, and the death told was about 750,000 men, which is more then any other war from the Napoleonic war till World War one. The reason why the Russians lost this war is because of