Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military general, the first emperor of France and one of the world's greatest military leaders. Napoleon revolutionized military organization and training, sponsored the Napoleonic Code, reorganized education and estab... Read more

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military general, the first emperor of France and one of the world's greatest military leaders. Napoleon revolutionized military organization and training, sponsored the Napoleonic Code, reorganized education and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio, on the French island of Corsica, on August 15, 1769.Napoleon was the fourth, and second surviving, child of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer, and his wife, Letizia Ramolino.Around the time of Napoleon's birth, Corsica's occupation by the French had drawn considerable local resistance. Carlo Buonaparte had at first supported the nationalists siding with their leader, Pasquale Paoli.But after Paoli was forced to flee the island, Carlo switched his allegiance to the French. After doing so he was appointed assessor of the judicial district of Ajaccio in 1771, a plush job that eventually enabled him to enroll his two sons, Joseph and Napoleon, in France's College d'AutunEventually, Napoleon ended up at the military college of Brienne, where he studied for five years, before moving on to the military academy in Paris. In 1785, while Napoleon was at the academy, his father died of stomach cancer.This propelled Napoleon to take the reins as the head of the family. Graduating early from the military academy, Napoleon, now second lieutenant of artillery, returned to Corsica in 1786.Back home, Napoleon got behind the Corsican resistance to the French occupation, siding with his father's former ally, Pasquale Paoli. But the two soon had a falling out, and when a civil war in Corsica began in April 1793, Napoleon, now an enemy of Paoli, and his family relocated to France, where they assumed the French version of their name: Bonaparte. Napoleon's return to France from Corsica began with a service with the French military, where he rejoined his regiment at Nice in June 1793.Napoleon stood about 5 feet and 7 inches tall, making him slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time. Much has been made of Napoleon's height, and legends claim that he was unusually short, giving rise to the term Napoleon complex, an inferiority complex sometimes associated with people of short stature.Some historians attribute the myths about Napoleon's height to British propaganda. In this book, you'll learn everything you need to know about Napoleon Bonaparte. Less