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Pictorial Highlights from the life of Napoleon.
The objectives are
• You will learn how Napoleon’s early years shape his personality.
• You will learn how Napoleon gained recognition during the French Revolution (see play)
• Assess for yourself—did Napoleon love Josephine even after their divorce?
• You will learn the impact of Napoleonic Wars on Germany, Austria and Russia
Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica in 1769.
Corsica, an island nation, was rugged in geography and tribal in
social interaction.
Napoleon went to
school at the royal military
school at Brienne,
while Louis XVI was still
on the throne.
While there, he endured
some teasing…
He married his wife
Josephine, after
she sent her son
to collect her late
husband’s sword.
The Napoleonic Wars absorbed the lives of millions of young men. They were the most disastrous
wars since the Thirty Years War, and would remain the worst until
World War I.
In Germany, Napoleon was the father of German unification
when he formed the Confederation of the Rhine—consolidating 300 separate
German States into 30.
In various European countries, Napoleon replaced the legitimate rulers with his family members.
His brother Joseph was sent to rule Spain, with disastrous results. Spain was supported by Britain, and this peninsular war was not successful. Its most compelling image was by the artist Goya,
whose Third of May is an artistic icon of imperial cruelty.
Napoleon took the
Bee as his symbol—
from a previous famous French
King—can you guess
who?
Napoleon eventually divorced
Josephine, because she
could not have any more
children, and he married the archduchess
Marie-Louise of Austria—
Napoleon’s former enemy.
Napoleon’s greatest mistake was the invasion of Russia.
The Retreat from Moscow is one of the great stories from
history…
After Russia, he quickly returned to France. His army was
weakened and he was defeated by a combined
Russia/German/Austrian Army at Leipzig.
Within two years he was exiled to Elba.
He returned for a brief “100 days”—
He was defeated at Waterloo by England’s Duke of Wellington and
Prussia’s Blucher…
This time he was
exiled to an island in
the middle of the
Atlantic. There
would be no escape.
While there he dictated his memoirs—justifying and
explaining his reign and the millions of deaths it caused. He said that men were going to “die anyways—so why not have them die in glory instead of old men in
their beds.”
His body was brought back years later and buried Les Invalides.
Even today, people visit the tombs of Napoleon, his son, and his great
generals.
Recently there have been rumors that Napoleon may have been
poisoned to hasten his death at St. Helena. High levels of arsenic
and lead were found in his hair…but on this theory, we will never
know the truth…
The objectives were
• You learned how Napoleon’s early years shape his personality.
• You learned how Napoleon gained recognition during the French Revolution (see play)
• Assess for yourself—did Napoleon love Josephine even after their divorce?
• You will learn the impact of Napoleonic Wars on Germany, Austria and Russia
