The French government guillotines Louis; Napoleon laments, "Had the French been more moderate and not put Louis to death, all Europe would have been revolutionized. Even with his horse shot out from under him, Napoleon liberates the French port of Toulon from monarchist forces; is promoted to brigadier general at age As some of his patrons are executed during France's Reign of Terror, Napoleon is imprisoned on suspicion of treason but released 11 days later for lack of evidence.
He remains faithful to the ideals of the Revolution. He uses artillery to quell an insurrection in Paris, saying, "The rabble must be moved by terror. After a coup, Napoleon becomes first consul; in he is declared emperor, to be succeeded by an heir. Enemy forces take Paris and restore the monarchy as Napoleon retreats from Moscow; he is exiled to Elba, which he calls an "operetta kingdom.
He dies of cancer at age 51 on St. Helena; while in exile there, he had said, "If I had gone to America, we might have founded a State there. There was no denying that the Battle of Waterloo had been catastrophic. Except for the Battle of Borodino, which Napoleon had fought in Russia in his disastrous campaign, this was the costliest single day of the 23 years of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Between 25, and 31, Frenchmen were killed or wounded, and vast numbers more were captured.
Within a month, the disaster cost Napoleon his throne. A vast amount of literature has explored why Napoleon fought such an unimaginative, error-prone battle at Waterloo. Hundreds of thousands of historians have pored over the questions of why he attacked when, where and how he attacked. Yet years after the fact, a different question must be asked: Why was the Battle of Waterloo even fought? Was it really necessary to secure the peace and security of Europe?
It was not his second language, but his third. Napoleone di Buonaparte was born on August 15, , on the island of Corsica; for centuries a backwater province of Genoa, it had been sold to the French the previous year.
He grew up speaking the corsicano dialect and Italian, and his name was Gaulified to Napoleon Bonaparte as he and his family painfully accommodated themselves to French rule. In fact, he was extremely anti-French until the age of 20, going through a period of adolescent angst in which he identified them as the enemy of his beloved freedom-loving Corsica. His antipathy for the French notwithstanding, the youthful Napoleon primarily identified with the Enlightenment and the dreams of Rousseau and Voltaire.
That both were forced into exile by the French State only increased their appeal for him, as did their praise for the Corsican experiment that had been snuffed out the year before Napoleon was born. Also, a French victory might trigger a friendly revolution in French-speaking Belgium. On June 17, Napoleon left Grouchy with the right wing of the French army to pursue the Prussians while he took the reserves and command of the left wing of the army to pursue Wellington towards Brussels.
On the night of June 17, the Anglo-allied army prepared for battle on a gentle escarpment about a mile 1. The next day this proved the decisive battle of the campaign. With the right wing of the army, Grouchy engaged a Prussian rearguard at the simultaneous Battle of Wavre.
Although he won a tactical victory, his failure to prevent the Prussian march to Waterloo meant that his actions contributed to the French defeat at Waterloo.
The next day June 19 he left Wavre and started a long retreat back to Paris. The battle also ended the First French Empire and set a chronological milestone between serial European wars and a time of relative peace. After the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon chose not to remain with the army and attempt to rally it, but returned to Paris to try to secure political support for further action.
He failed to do it and was forced to abdicate. Initially, the remnants of the French left wing and the reserves that were routed at Waterloo were commanded by Marshal Soult while Grouchy kept command of the left wing. However, on June 25, Soult was relieved of his command by the Provisional Government and replaced by Grouchy, who in turn was placed under the command of Marshal Davout. On June 29, the near approach of the Prussians, who had orders to seize Napoleon dead or alive, caused him to retire westwards toward Rochefort in an attempt to eventually reach the United States.
Despite the morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims, the fact remains that Countries exist because of wars fought against their neighbours or rivals. Independence is largely secured through the employment of armed forces and the willingness to fight if threatened, this alone prepares us all for such an eventuality. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Subscribe to the OUPblog via email: Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities.
Recent Comments. Curtis 3 rd April Alice 4 th April Napoleon ordered a retreat. He realized a mortal blow had been struck and returned to Paris, where he abdicated in favor of his son on June Napoleon suffered roughly 25, casualties and 9, Frenchmen were captured. Helena, an island in the middle of the Atlantic.
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