7.3 napoleon part i
TRANSCRIPT
Early Life• He was born
Napoleone di Buonaparte in the town of Ajaccio on Corsica, France, on August 15,1769. He later changed his name to the more French sounding Napoleon Bonaparte.
• He came from a family of minor Italian nobility who moved to Corsica in the 16th century when the island was under the control of the Republic of Genoa.
• He attended a military school near Troyes, France when he was 9 years old.
• 1784, Bonaparte was admitted to the elite École Royale Militaire in Paris, where he completed the two-year course of study in only one year.
• Upon graduation in September 1785, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant of artillery and took up his new duties in January 1786 at the age of 16.
• Having joined the army of the new government when the Revolution broke out, Napoleon was given a chance for glory in October 1795.
• Royalist rebels marched on the National Convention on October 3, 1795.
The Tuileries Palace photographed in 1860, before it was torched in 1871 and eventually demolished in 1883.
Napoleon is ordered to defend the Tuileries where the delegates were.
October 5, 179513 Vendémiaire Year 4
• Napoleon seized artillery and used the cannonade to repel the attackers.
• Napoleon boasts that he cleared the streets with a “whiff of grapeshot.”
• Napoleon becomes a hero and savior of the French Republic.
Napoleon and Josephinea love story
• Josephine was a Reign of Terror widow who was “connected” to many of the influential policy makers of the French government (most notably Paul Barras).
• Napoleon may have initially began an affair with Josephine to take advantage of her connections.
• Love letters sent from the both however tell a different reason for their affair.
• Napoleon and Josephine married on March 9, 1796… two days later, Napoleon left to lead the Army of Italy.
• Affairs on both sides will cool passions and Josephine’s inability to give Napoleon a child, and the need for a political alliance with Austria, will prompt his divorce from Josephine in 1810.
Italian Campaign• 1796- the Directory
(led by Paul Barras) appointed Napoleon to lead a French army against Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia.
• Bonaparte took command of the French "Army of Italy" on 27 March 1796, leading it on a successful invasion of Italy.
• He gained the nickname of "The Little Corporal" (le petit caporal), a term reflecting his camaraderie with his soldiers, many of whom he knew by name.
• While campaigning in Italy, General Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics. He published two newspapers (for the troops in his army) which were widely circulated within France as. In May 1797 he founded a third newspaper, published in Paris, entitled Le Journal de Bonaparte et des hommes vertueux.
Egypt 1798-1799• In March 1798, Bonaparte
proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire, seeking to protect French trade interests and undermine Britain's access to India.
• Napoleon’s army was unsuccessful and was pinned down in Egypt.
• His naval forces were soundly beaten by the British naval officer Admiral Horatio Nelson August 1-3, 1798 in the Battle of the Nile.
• Despite his defeat, Napoleon was influential enough to keep his failures out of the French newspapers.
• His fame continued to grow and the words “the general” became synonymous with Napoleon.