Napoleon

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade September 2001

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Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. This was only a few months after France had annexed the island. He had 7 brothers and sisters, and his father was a lawyer whose family stemmed from the Florentine nobility. His original nationality was Cursican-Italian. In 1779 Napoleon went to school at Brienne in France. There he took a great interest in in history, especially in the lives of great ancient generals. Napoleon was often badly treated at Brienne because he was not as wealthy as his fellow classmates, and very short. He also did not speak French well, because Italian was spoken on Corsica where he grew up. He studied very hard so that he could do better then those who snubbed him.

Napoleon attended the Ecole Military School in Paris in 1784 after receiving a scholarship. This is were he received his military training.

He studied to be an artillery man and an officer. Napoleon finished his training and joined the French army when he was 16 years old. He was appointed to an artillery regiment , and commissioned as a lieutenant. Once again he was not well liked by his fellow officers because he was short, spoke with an Italian accent, and had little money. Napoleon spent little time with his regiment. He was more concerned with trying to free his home land of Corsica, witch had been taken with force by France. Soon after being commissioned his father died, and he was forced to provide for his family. Napoleon spent the next seven years reading the works of the philosophers, and educating himself in military matters by studying the campaigns of the great military leaders of the past.

The French Revolution and the European war that followed broadened his sights...