Sophia Wiest

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, on the island of Corsica. Napoleon

was considered to be one of the worlds greatest military leader. Napoleon was also the first

emperor of France and conquered most of Europe in the early 19th century. Napoleon

revolutionized the organization and training of the military, and created the Napoleonic Code.

Under this code all male citizens were created equal in primogeniture, hereditary, nobility, and

class privileges. The Napoleonic Code was broken up into three books. The first book deals with

the law of persons, which included the enjoyment of civil rights, the protection of personality,

domicile guardianship, tutorship, relations or parents and children, marriage, personal relations

of spouses, and the dissolution of marriage by annulment or divorce. This code said that women

controlled all family property, and determined the fate of their children. The second book dealt

with the laws of things such as regulation of property rights, ownership, usufruct, and servitudes.

Lastly the third book deals with the methods of receiving rights by, succession, donation,

obligations and settlement with marriages. In the last chapter of the Napoleonic code, the code

regulates a number of contract, legal and conventional mortgages, limitations of actions and also

prescription of rights.

In May 1779 Napoleon began to study at the royal military academy. This is where

Napoleon learned French. Napoleon graduated from the French military in 1785. Napoleon than
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became a second lieutenant in the French Army. Shortly after in 1789, the French Revolution

began. Within three years the monarchies were overthrown by the revolutionaries. During the

Reign of Terror Napoleon was promoted to general in the army. On July 14th, 1793, the citizens

of Paris stormed the Bastille building. This event occurred because the citizens of Paris were

starving and doing nothing about, while the King and Queen were shoving their faces full of it.

At that point in time there was a severe food shortage in France and there wasnt much to go

around. The citizens stormed the Bastille, because they wanted the King and Queen dead.

On March 9, 1796 Napoleon marries a woman named Josephine de Beauharnais.

Josephine was a widow for six years and had two teenagers. Napoleon was in love with

Josephine, but she didnt seem too interested in him. Napoleon was at war most of the time that

they were married. He would write letters to her, but she didnt reply. Napoleon became angry

with her and said if Josephine didnt return to his letters he would come immediately. By 1809,

Napoleon had no offspring of his own with Josephine, so he had their marriage annulled. Their

marriage was annulled on December 15, 1809. On April 2, 1810 Napoleon had his first born son,

Napoleon II.

In summer of 1812, Napoleon led a massive army into Russia. The Russians adopted a

strategy of retreating whenever Napoleons army was trying to attack. As a result, Napoleon

ended up deeper and deeper into Russia, and was extremely unprepared. On their march to
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Moscow, they found the entire population has evacuated. Russia set fire across Moscow. After a

month of waiting for a surrender never came. Napoleon and his army were faced with a Russian

winter, they were starving and exhausted. Napoleon took his starving and exhausted army out of

Moscow. Napoleon had 600,000 troops, but only around 100,000 troops made it out of Russia.

Napoleon was a part of many battles. On February 26, 1815, Napoleon was almost a year

in exile. Napoleon escaped Elba and sailed to France with a group of around 1,000 people. On

March 20th he is back in Paris where he was welcomed by crowds of people. At this point in time

is when Louis XVIII is king. Napoleon began a campaign that is now known as the Hundred Day

campaign. When Napoleon returned he raised a new army, he planned to defeat his allied forces

before they could attack him. In June of 1815 Napoleons army invaded Belgium where British

troops were stationed. On the 16th of June Napoleons army defeated the Prussians at the Battle

of Ligny, but two days later on the 18th at the Battle of Waterloo France was crushed by the

British with assistance from the Prussians.

Napoleon Bonaparte, the former French emperor who ruled over Europe, dies as a British

prisoner on the island of Saint Helena. Its not for certain how Napoleon died some say he left

the island of Saint Helena and never returned, others say he was murdered. I guess we will just

make up our own ending of how Napoleon Bonaparte died.

Sophia Wiest

Work Cited

"Effects of Napoleons Reign - Napoleonic Era & French Revolution." Google Sites. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

History.com Staff. "Napoleon Bonaparte." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web.

12 Dec. 2016

"Napoleon Bonaparte Timeline." Napoleon Bonaparte Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

Napoleonic Code." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 12

Dec. 2016.