Birth of Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on August 15, 1769 with the Italian surname "Buonaparte", a year after France purchased the island from Genoa (1768). Coming from a family belonging to the proud but not very wealthy Corsican/Italian gentry (Maison Bonaparte of Tuscan origin), he is the second child of Carlo Maria Buonaparte, lawyer at the Superior Council of the island, and Maria Letizia Ramolino.
Military training
In 1777, Charles Bonaparte was part of the deputation that the General Assembly of the States of Corsica sent to Versailles to King Louis XVI. It was on this occasion, and through the influence of Yves Alexandre de Marbeuf|M. de Marbeuf, bishop of Autun, nephew of Lieutenant-General Charles Louis de Marbeuf, who had obligations to the Bonaparte family, that Charles obtained for his son Napoleon a scholarship to the Royal Military School of Brienne-le-Château (Aube ).
In January 1778, Napoleon was brought temporarily by his father to the College of Autun; he was then nine and a half years old. His father arranged for him to study on the continent, where Napoleon settled, along with his older brother Joseph.
Charles Bonaparte having provided the proofs of nobility required by the regulations for the admission of students to the Military School of Brienne, Napoleon entered it on April 23, 1779. It is one of the twelve colleges in France which welcome the children of the poor nobility. He will stay there for five years. A good student, Bonaparte was not much liked by his comrades. He already shows a propensity for the art of command, by organizing military games of which he takes the lead. A snowball fight he would have led one winter later becomes a true image of Epinal.
In 1784, her husband having died and despite the scholarships granted, Napoleon's mother found it difficult to finance the studies of all her children:her son Joseph studied law, Lucien entered the seminary of Aix-en-Provence and his sisters are educated by Mme Campan. Napoleon Bonaparte, who must therefore find an income quickly to relieve his family, is deemed fit to pass the entrance exam to the Military School of Paris, in order to complete his training. He entered it as a cadet gentleman on October 22. Studying Bezout's Treatise on Mathematics day and night, he completed his training in 10 months instead of the standard 4 years and, in September 1785, he entered with his friend Grenier in the artillery, within the Régiment de La Fère, in Auxonne. He was then assigned as a second lieutenant in Valence in 1787.
The first weapons
When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Lieutenant Bonaparte was stationed in the provinces. Present punctually in Paris, he is a spectator of the invasion of the Tuileries by the people on June 20, 1792 and would then have expressed his contempt for the impotence of Louis XVI. The latter signed his captain's certificate a few days later, one of his last public acts. Napoleon returned several times to Corsica, where clan struggles had resumed, the Paolists supporting the moderate English-style monarchy, and the Bonapartes the Revolution. Napoleon was elected head of the National Guard in 1792 by forcibly extracting the agreement of the government commissioner. But the execution of the king provokes a revolt of the separatists.
Disagreements between Paoli and Bonaparte increased and following a letter from Lucien Bonaparte to the Convention to denounce Paoli, Napoleon's family, whose house had been ransacked, was forced to leave the island hastily for Toulon. , June 10, 1793. Shortly after the arrival of the Bonapartes in the South, the region revolted against the Convention and Toulon was delivered to the British by the rebellious population.
Captain of artillery, Bonaparte was sent there in the fall of 1793 and obtained, at the request of the commissioners Augustin Robespierre - with whom he became friends - and his compatriot Salicetti, the command of the artillery, with the rank of battalion chief. There he meets young officers like Marmont, Junot or Victor. The plan he submitted to General Dugommier enabled the city to be retaken from Royalist and British troops on December 18. His orders help force the British fleet to leave the harbor of Toulon and thus deprive the insurgents of valuable support. He was made brigadier general on December 22. After this victory, he served in Italy.
His friendships with the Jacobins earned him a brief arrest after the fall of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor Year II (July 27, 1794).
13 Vendémiaire, marriage and the Italian army
Released, he refused to be assigned to the Vendée and wandered in Paris for a time without effective command, then Barras offered him to fight the royalist insurrection of Vendémiaire against the Convention in 1795. On this occasion, Bonaparte had under his orders a young officer , Joachim Murat, his future brother-in-law. The latter played a decisive role, transferring the essential guns in time from the Sablons to the outskirts of the Tuileries. The cannonade of Saint-Roch disperses the royalist forces. A few days later, Bonaparte was promoted to general of division, then appointed commander of the Army of the Interior, succeeding Barras who became one of the 5 members of the Directory.
Trained as an artillery officer, he innovated around this time in the use of artillery (Gribeauval cannon) as a mobile support force for infantry attacks.
He owes Joséphine de Beauharnais, friend and former mistress of Barras, whom he had just married at the beginning of 1796, his promotion to the head of the small army of Italy, called in principle to open a simple front of diversion.
Italian Campaign
Appointed on March 2, 1796, commander-in-chief of the army of Italy of 40,000 "naked, malnourished[2]" men, he repeatedly defeated General Beaulieu's Austrian army, which was larger and better equipped:Montenotte, Lodi , or Arcole – where Napoleon himself led the assault, during which his friend and aide-de-camp Muiron was killed. He also defeated the Sardinian army at the battles of Millesimo and Mondovi in April 1796. The Sardinians, defeated, asked for an armistice, which was signed at Cherasco on April 28, 1796. In 18 days, Bonaparte defeated two armies, won many victories, which will ensure his popularity in France. Already defeated at Arcole, the Austrian general Alvinczy returned in January 1797 with an army of 45,000 men to Italy and was beaten again at the battle of Rivoli and was forced to capitulate on February 2, 1797. In the spring, Bonaparte defeated the army Austrian army of Archduke Charles on Le Tagliamento (March 1797) then at the Battle of the Tarvis Pass (April 1797) and again at the Battle of Neumarkt (April 1797). Following this last defeat, the Austrians ask for an armistice. Austria must negotiate an unfavorable treaty at Campo-Formio in October 1797.
In Italy, General Bonaparte becomes aware of his forces and of his situation. He reigns over the battlefields and is favored by the public (Italian and French alike):a small court forms around the Republican general in Milan. To increase the luster of his victories, he created two newspapers, Le Courrier de l’armee d’Italie and La France vue de l’armee d’Italie. In this way, Bonaparte attaches the feelings of his soldiers and the French.
Egyptian campaign
On his return from Italy in December 1797, Bonaparte was welcomed as a hero by the Directory, which organized an official ceremony to celebrate the Peace of Campo-Formio. He was named a member of the Institute in the mathematics class. In February 1798, the Directory submitted to Bonaparte the idea of an invasion of England. he inspects the French coasts of Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk, with a view to carrying out the project. Its popularity with the French is increasingly important. On February 23, 1798, the government abandoned the project of invading England on the advice of Bonaparte, who, himself influenced by Talleyrand, then persuaded the Directory to take the war to Egypt, where he could cut off the road of the India to Great Britain. On February 24, 1798, the report was presented to Barras; on March 5, worried about Bonaparte's popularity, the Directory asked him to lead the expedition to Egypt, also with the idea of getting rid of him.
In April 1798, the Army of the East was created, placed under the orders of Bonaparte. Scientists forming the Institute of Egypt accompany him. He is also accompanied by Generals Kléber, Desaix, Murat, Lannes, Davout and Caffarelli.
On May 19, 1798, Bonaparte left Toulon with the bulk of the French fleet and managed to escape the pursuit of Nelson's British fleet. Incidentally, the French seized Malta on June 10-11, 1798, to ensure subsequent communications with the metropolis. On June 19, 1798, after leaving a garrison of 3,000 men in place, the fleet set sail for Alexandria, which it reached on July 1, 1798. After a short resistance, the city was taken the next day.
Bonaparte leaves 3,000 men in Alexandria and goes up the Nile towards Cairo. The first real combat of the Egyptian campaign took place in Chebreïs on July 13, 1798, when the Mamluk horsemen were defeated, thanks to the artillery of the Army of the East. On July 21, 1798, at the Battle of the Pyramids of Giza, Bonaparte again defeated the Mamluk army. On July 24, 1798, Bonaparte and his army triumphantly entered Cairo. On August 1 and 2, 1798, the French fleet was almost completely destroyed at Aboukir by Nelson's ships. From now on, the British are masters of the Mediterranean and Bonaparte is a prisoner of his conquest. Following this defeat, the Turks, on September 9, 1798, declared war on France. It should be remembered that at that time Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire, like the majority of the Middle East.
While he decides to make Egypt a real state capable of living in autarky, Bonaparte sends General Desaix to pursue Mourad Bey as far as Upper Egypt, thus completing the submission of the country. Pushed by the British and the Turks, the surviving Mamluks work the population of Cairo, which revolts on October 21, 1798 against the French. This revolt is ruthlessly suppressed by the troops. Calm returns and Bonaparte restores the situation by finally decreeing a general amnesty, not without having cut off a good number of heads exhibited to the terrified crowd and cannonading the Great Mosque of Cairo.
In February 1799, Bonaparte travels to Syria to confront the Ottoman troops the Sultan has sent to attack the French in Egypt. On February 10, 1799, Bonaparte left Cairo with his army and defeated the Turks in the battles of El-Arich and Gaza. On March 7, 1799, the city of Jaffa was taken and pillaged by the French. This is when the plague appears in the ranks of the French.
On March 19, 1799, Bonaparte laid siege to Saint-Jean d'Acre. On April 13, 1799, Junot's horsemen routed the Ottoman horsemen at the battle of Nazareth and on April 16, 1799, Bonaparte and Kléber crushed the Turkish relief army sent by the Sultan to liberate the siege of Saint-Jean d' Acre at the Battle of Mount Tabor. Although victorious in this battle, on April 16, 1799, the expedition to Syria was decimated by the plague and then stopped in Acre. Bonaparte expeditiously settles the fate of the plague victims of Jaffa.
Back in Acre, Bonaparte will try in vain, from April 24 to May 10, 1799, to take the city. On May 17, 1799, Bonaparte decided to abandon the siege and returned to Egypt. On June 14, 1799, he arrived in Cairo and, in a reversal of the situation, defeated the Turks on July 25, 1799 at the Battle of Aboukir.
The situation of the Directory seeming to him favorable to a coup de force, Bonaparte, who only had a weakened land army, having lost his navy, abandoned the command of the army of Egypt to Kléber.
Return to Paris, situation in France
He returned to France on August 23, 1799, on the sly, aboard the frigate La Muiron, leaving a diminished and sick army to General Kléber. He landed in Fréjus on October 9, 1799 after miraculously escaping the British squadrons during the 47-day crossing.
On the way to Paris, he is acclaimed by the population. Jean-Baptiste Kléber proved to be an excellent administrator and on March 20, 1800, achieved the feat of defeating the Turks at the Battle of Heliopolis. This victory allowed France to keep Egypt, but Kléber was assassinated on June 14, 1800 in Cairo, the day Napoleon narrowly won the Battle of Marengo in Italy, thanks to the heroic charge of Desaix, who was killed during of the assault.
Kléber's successor, General Menou, capitulated on August 31, 1801 to Turkish-British forces after losing 13,500 men, mainly victims of epidemics during peace negotiations. The remaining French soldiers are repatriated on British ships to France.