Emperor of the French Napoleon Bonaparte Napoléon Bonaparte (French) Napulione Buonaparte (Corsican) | |
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| Born | Napoleone Buonaparte 15 August 1769 Ajaccio, Corsica, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 5 May 1821 Longwood, Saint Helena, British Empire |
| Cause of death | Stomach cancer |
| Known for |
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| Field of study | Military tactics and French politics |
Napoleon Bonaparte, also known as Napoleon I, was a French military general, dictator, and monarch. He was born on the island of Corsica, raising up the ranks of the French Armed Forces. He participated in the French Revolution, later leading the Coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799, establishing himself as a dictator under the title "First Consul of the French Republic". He finally proclaimed himself Emperor of the French in 1804, establishing the French Empire. He invaded and conquered many of the feudalist powers in Europe, nearly bringing the system to its knees and exporting the bourgeois revolution every where he went.[1][2]
The Marxist understanding of Napoleon is divided as some see him as a progressive who brought feudalism to its knees, whilst others say he betrayed the French Revolution by making himself a dictator and later monarch.[3][4] On top of this, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels never wrote on Napoleon, although the former did write about his nephew Napoleon III.[5]
According to France24, the Bolsheviks considered Napoleon to be a great revolutionary, stating that "During the Soviet period, the Bolsheviks glorified Napoleon as a revolutionary akin to Lenin, and while that image of him changed after the Soviet collapse, his popularity in some circles remained."[6]