Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon was born August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica. His original name is Napoleon Bonaparte. His Father has a lawyer. Napoleon hated the French because he was always teased by the French students when he was in school. When Napoleon was 16 he joined the French Army. When Napoleon was 21 he was promoted to the rank of captain. Later he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, later he was commander of the French army. He was soon relieved of his command. Then put in command of the French army in Italy.

In time he was in command he won 14 pitched battles and 70 combats. When he came back from his battles, he found that the government was a mess, and he overthrew the government, and now ruled. He bacame President of Italian Republic. While president he reformed the education system. When he was in power he made a new goverment called the Napoleonic Code.

In 1810, Napoleon's empire stretched from Brittany to Poland and from Spain to Holland and even into Sweden. Alliances and conquests were reinforced by family links--Napoleon offered thrones to his brothers: Holland to Louis, Spain to Joseph, and Westphalia to Jérome.

Over time Napoleon started to lose control. On March 30, 1814, the allies of England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria captured Paris. Napoleon's Generals realized they lost and gave up. Napoleon was forced to leave the throne. Then he was banished from France. He took some soldiers to a part of his new empire--the small island of Elba. About ten months later he escaped the island and landed in France, where he headed into Paris with a thousand soldiers. He was back in power but only for a short time called the Hundred Days' War. Napoleon decided to strike: this led him to the battle at Waterloo, he was defeated by Lord Wellington. He was exiled again, this time to St. Helena, a remote island in the south Atlantic. He lived there until he died on May 5, 1821 from stomach cancer.