Napoleon Bonaparte Research Paper

Considered one of the world’s greatest leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica in 1769. He started military school at an early age, that set him on the right track. In 1785, at the age of sixteen, he finished school and became a lieutenant in the artillery. He then joined the army when the revolution broke out. Later in 1799 Napoleon rises to power and becomes the first french emperor. Napoleon worked to restore stability to post revolutionary France. He centralized the government, instituted reforms in such areas as banking and education, he supported science and the arts and he established a new relationship between church and state. Napoleon was a great ruler overall but his desire for success and power

After his navy was destroyed at Trafalgar in 1805, Napoleon realized that if his empire was never going to be secure, unless he defeated Britain. With no military, Napoleon knew a direct assault was impossible, so he decided to wage economic war against the British. His plan to bring Britain down was called the Continental System. In November 1806, Napoleon set up a blockade that restricted any trade or communication between Britain and other European countries. This would theoretically destroy Britain but Napoleon’s blockade was not tight enough. While the blockade weakened British trade, it did not destroy it. British had a stronger army and responded with their own blockade which was better and stronger than the French and it actually worked. As a result Britain had the dominant navy, and was more effective in blockading France than the French were in trying to take down Britain. This hurt Napoleon’s empire more than its

French and Russian rulers suspected each other of having competing designs on Poland. So in June 1812, Napoleon led his army into Russia. His army was made up of soldiers from the several nations now under his control. Napoleon expected a short war, to punish Czar Alexander I for his misbehavior in leaving the Continental System and other reasons. Napoleon took about 600,000 men into Russia. He planned to confront the Russian army in a major battle, the kind of battle he usually won because he knew he had a strong army. Alexander knew this and he used a clever strategy to trick Napoleon: instead of facing Napoleon's forces head on, his army would simply keep retreating every time Napoleon's army tried to attack. In rage, Napoleon would follow the them again and again, marching his army farther into Russia. This dragged on much longer than Napoleon expected. Napoleon had brought few supplies, even by the standards of the short campaign he had planned for, since he expected his army to be able to live off of the land they were in, as he would usually do. The Russians, however, adopted a "scorched-earth" policy: whenever they retreated, they burned the places they left behind so there would be nothing left for the enemy. Napoleon's army had trouble finding supplies, and it grew weaker the farther it marched. Finally in September the armies clashed and after hours of fighting the Russians loose and allow