Why is napoleon important

What really mattered was the man of talent, the man of ability, willing to take chances and to achieve. Learn more about how Napoleon seized power in France in The regime also instituted a reform of the French administration. A rational centralized administration was created under Napoleon. He created a very efficient system of taxation, not a very exciting sort of reform, but obviously, considering the history of France in the 18 th century, it was absolutely essential.

He returned France to a system of centralized administration, where local officials were appointed from Paris. In fact, under Napoleon, one sees the most centralized of all of the various French regimes of the 18 th century and into the 19 th century. After a decade in which relations between the various French revolutionaries and the Church were strained to put it mildly , Napoleon was determined to restore good relations with the papacy, to bring the Church back into the mainstream of French political life.

It was not to be the state religion; the constitution that would be drafted called for freedom of religion—but it acknowledged that Catholicism was the religion of the majority of the French people. This concordat with the Vatican was enormously popular in France. Learn more about when Napoleon declared himself emperor. But if these factors were consistent with the Revolution, other aspects of this Napoleonic regime were not.

His opponents claimed that Napoleon was really a dictator, if one with great popular support. Certainly the system was maintained by secret police and very strict censorship. The number of newspapers in Paris shrank from 73 in to 13, and then down to four. They were closely censored by the regime. Secret agents supervised the press and the arts under Napoleon.

Surveillance of enemies was common, and arrest of enemies or potential enemies was also commonplace. One also sees a somewhat chilling development here, which was that some opponents or potential opponents of Napoleon were arrested or taken into a kind of protective custody, and then sent off to mental institutions—not prisons, but mental institutions.

Still, for whatever oppressive qualities this Napoleonic regime displayed, the Napoleonic Empire was enormously popular in France, certainly down to — Most of the population clearly believed that the regime had consolidated the most positive gains made during the Revolution.

In addition to this Napoleon had restored grandeur to France. Paris had once again become the center of Western civilization. The Napoleonic Code was established as a code of conduct for all of France, like a constitution with laws, that gave much-needed freedom and structure to life in France.

Napoleon Bonaparte stands as one of the greatest self-made men in the history of the world. But exactly how did the second son of a minor noble on Corsica turn himself into Emperor of France and, arguably, the most influential figure of the 19th century?

Napoleon at St. Helena, vintage engraved illustration. History of France Q: Why is Napoleon Bonaparte so historically famous? Q: How was Napoleon Bonaparte finally defeated? Q: Would Napoleon Bonaparte have been considered short in stature? In retaliation, Napoleon led a massive army into Russia in the summer of In September, both sides suffered heavy casualties in the indecisive Battle of Borodino.

Retreating Russians set fires across the city in an effort to deprive enemy troops of supplies. After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving, exhausted army out of Moscow. During the disastrous retreat, his army suffered continual harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army.

At the same time as the catastrophic Russian invasion, French forces were engaged in the Peninsular War , which resulted in the Spanish and Portuguese, with assistance from the British, driving the French from the Iberian Peninsula. Napoleon then retreated to France, and in March coalition forces captured Paris. On April 6, , Napoleon, then in his mids, was forced to abdicate the throne.

With the Treaty of Fontainebleau, he was exiled to Elba, a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy. He was given sovereignty over the small island, while his wife and son went to Austria. On February 26, , after less than a year in exile, Napoleon escaped Elba and sailed to the French mainland with a group of more than 1, supporters. On March 20, he returned to Paris, where he was welcomed by cheering crowds.

Napoleon raised a new army and planned to strike preemptively, defeating the allied forces one by one before they could launch a united attack against him. In June , his forces invaded Belgium, where British and Prussian troops were stationed. However, two days later, on June 18, at the Battle of Waterloo near Brussels, the French were crushed by the British, with assistance from the Prussians.

He died there on May 5, , at age 51, most likely from stomach cancer. During his time in power, Napoleon often posed for paintings with his hand in his vest, leading to some speculation after his death that he had been plagued by stomach pain for years. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Napoleone di Buonaparte was born on Corsica on August 15, , just 15 months after France had purchased the island from the Italian city-state of Genoa.

After taking power in , French leader Napoleon Bonaparte won a string of military victories that gave him control over most of Europe. He annexed present-day Belgium and Holland, along with large chunks of present-day Italy, Croatia and Germany, and he set up dependencies in When British writer William Crackanthorpe visited the Mediterranean island of Elba in , he was wildly curious about its most famous resident: the disgraced emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Few things are as closely linked as the Bonapartes and France. But after some of his most audacious expansionist Between the hours of 2 and 3 on the morning of July 6, , French troops under the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte scaled the walls of the gardens of the Quirinal Palace in Rome and penetrated into the part of the palace occupied by papal servants.

After an hour of violent He became a commissioned officer just after his 16th birthday. As war was about to break out across Europe, Napoleon was still a second lieutenant stationed in a sleepy garrison town, and went on leave to see his family in Corsica.

In July Napoleon was promoted to captain in the regular army, and in , having helped to suppress a royalist insurrection against the revolutionary government in Paris, he was made commander of the French army in Italy. In November , Napoleon became first consul, and worked to establish a European empire under his military dictatorship.

He centralised the government, reinstated Roman Catholicism as the state religion, instituted education reforms, and managed the creation of the Bank of France.

Napoleon triumphed over the Austrians at Marengo in , and then negotiated a general European peace which established French power on the continent. In Napoleon proclaimed himself consul for life, and two years later he became emperor of France. But the peace Napoleon had negotiated was short-lived — by Britain had resumed war with France, later joined by Russia and Austria. Napoleon gained much new territory in the years that followed, which seemingly gave him control of Europe.

From , the tide began to turn against Napoleon: France suffered several military defeats that drained resources, and in Napoleon oversaw the catastrophic failed invasion of Russia.