Napoleon Bonaparte

My hero is a popular French man, who lived in the nineteenth century. Napoleon Bonaparte (alias Napoleon the first) has marked our History and, of course, me. I know he was an authoritarian emperor, but he did such good things for France and for the French society. To begin, I am going to present who Bonaparte was.

He was born on August 15th in 1769, in Ajaccio, a city on the island Corsica. He was a great General during the French Revolution, at only 24 years old. So he was a French Revolution heir, sharing the same ideas as French Revolutionaries. He knew how to impose himself with spectacular victories in Italy and Egypt. He took power on November 9th in 1799. He was "Premier Consul" until May 18th in 1804, when he was crowned Emperor.

Napoleon Bonaparte was a very controversial Emperor because of his thirst for power, which pushed him to make war. But he’s my hero for other reasons that I’m going to explain. Thanks to him, the French Society evolved. Indeed, he defended and established the meritocracy in France. It is a way to reward people because they deserve it, and not because they were "well-born" or rich. He created the "Legion d’Honneur" (Legion of Honour), which brings the people closer to soldiers (whereas before they constituted two different social classes). He also invented the "Baccalaureat," so important in French schools because it guarantees a school level. One of the most important things he did was the Civil Code which we still have in France (although some laws have changed). The Civil Code is a register about different laws regulating family life and property rights. Moreover, thanks to Napoleon the first, the State became civil, without a state religion, and the French language was established as the national language (before we had several local patois).

Napoleon Bonaparte is my hero because of what he did for our Society; he was a genius in the military world and, more important, in politics. I admire his courage and his ambition, he wasn’t afraid to change our laws to evolve our way of life; the notion of homeland was born in France with Bonaparte.