Napoleon Bonaparte

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Emperor of the French

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoléon Bonaparte (French)
Napulione Buonaparte (Corsican)
Napoleon.jpg
Born
Napoleone Buonaparte

15 August 1769
Ajaccio, Corsica, Kingdom of France
Died5 May 1821
Longwood, Saint Helena, British Empire
Cause of deathStomach cancer
Known for
Field of studyMilitary 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 Louis Napoleon.[5] Despite being a progressive force against feudalism, he attempted to recolonize Haiti after the Haitian Revolution.[6]

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."[7]

References

  1. Jacques Godechot. "Napoleon I - emperor of France" Britannica. Retrieved 2022-7-4.
  2. "Napoleon Bonaparte" (2017-4-27). Biography.com. Retrieved 2022-7-4.
  3. Napoleon Between War and Revolution
  4. The rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte
  5. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
  6. Vijay Prashad (2008). The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World: 'Paris' (p. 3). [PDF] The New Press. ISBN 9781595583420 [LG]
  7. Napoleon in Russia: invader turned icon