Napoleon Case

Devorah

Modern World History

Ms.

January 1, 2013

Napoleon

Napoleon's rise to power started indirectly at a young age. He was sent to military school when he was nine years old and by the time he was sixteen he had graduated and become a lieutenant in the artillery. One day, in October of 1795, he was near the National Convention when the royalist rebels march took place, he was sent to protect the delegates. Napoleon took his men received the rebels with a cannonade which scared them and eliminated the threat. This made him known as a hero and he was recognized in all of France as a protector of the French Republic. In 1796 he was appointed by the Directory the head of the French army and continued on to win extraordinary battles against Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia as well as parts of Italy. A few years later the Directory collapsed, it was suggested to him to try to take up leadership so he and his wife devised a plan. She used her wealthy acquaintances to her advantage quietly while he was trying to convince influential people of his potential. He quickly became a dictator, and continued to make an empire. He wanted an empire and he got one, he continued with victory after victory until he was defeated by a British general in Egypt and he decided he had expanded enough; he was careful to keep that defeat under the wraps though so it didn't take away any of his glory. But later he fought the same general, Horatio Nelson, with a Navy fleet but he failed; this is highly significant because it stopped his plans to control England and made Britain's Navy more powerful for the next hundred years.

Napoleon became a dictator shortly after he rose to power. He started off pretending to be the constitutionally chosen leader of a free republic but that quickly changed. He was viewed as an absolutist because what he said happened, when he wanted something he quickly figured out how to accomplish it. He was a brilliant leader and luckily the things he did weren't bad for France and the other countries he ruled. Although there were some things that he did that affected these countries badly like the Navy being virtually destroyed. He kept France at its greatest power for five years before getting too extravagant. There were also things like the blockade, he did this to be controlling