Origins and education

Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769, to Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino, in his family's ancestral home Casa Buonaparte in Ajaccio, the capital of the island of Corsica. He was their fourth child and third son. This was a year after the island was transferred to France by the Republic of Genoa. He was christened Napoleone di Buonaparte, probably named after an uncle (an older brother who did not survive infancy was the first of the sons to be called Napoleone). In his 20s, he adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon Bonaparte.

The Corsican Buonapartes were descended from minor Italian nobility of Tuscan origin, who had come to Corsica from Liguria in the 16th century.

Napoleon's father Carlo Buonaparte was Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI of France

His father Nobile Carlo Buonaparte was an attorney, and was named Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI in 1777. The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, Letizia Ramolino, whose firm discipline restrained a rambunctious child. Napoleon's maternal grandmother had married into the Swiss Fesch family in her second marriage, and Napoleon's uncle, the cardinal Joseph Fesch, would fulfill a role as protector of the Bonaparte family for some years.

He had an elder brother, Joseph, and younger siblings: Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline, and Jérôme. A boy and girl were born before Joseph but died in infancy. NapoleonNapoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815. One of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleon Bonaparte »Napoleon was baptised as a Catholic.

Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time. In January 1779, he was enrolled at a religious school in Autun. In May, he was admitted to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château. His first language was Corsican, and he always spoke French with a marked Corsican accent and never learned to spell French properly. He was teased by other students for his accent and applied himself to reading. An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography... This boy would make an excellent sailor."

On completion of his studies at Brienne in 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the elite École Militaire in Paris. He trained to become an artillery officer and, when his father's death reduced his income, was forced to complete the two-year course in one year. He was the first Corsican to graduate from the École Militaire. He was examined by the famed scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace.

• Outline of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
  

  HISTORIC PEOPLE

  Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

  Napoleon was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815. View Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) »

  Origin and education: Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time. In January 1779, he was enrolled at a religious school in Autun.

  Early career: He was a supporter of the republican Jacobin movement, organising clubs in Corsica, and was given command over a battalion of volunteers. He was promoted to captain in the regular army in July 1792, despite exceeding his leave of absence and leading a riot against French troops.

  Siege of Toulon (1793): He adopted a plan to capture a hill where republican guns could dominate the city's harbour and force the British to evacuate.

  13 Vendémiaire (1795): In April 1795, he was assigned to the Army of the West, which was engaged in the War in the Vendée—a civil war and royalist counter-revolution in Vendée, a region in west central France on the Atlantic Ocean.

  First Italian campaign: In the first encounter between the two commanders, Napoleon pushed back his opponent and advanced deep into Austrian territory after winning at the Battle of Tarvis in March 1797.

  Egyptian expedition: He decided on a military expedition to seize Egypt and thereby undermine Britain's access to its trade interests in India.

  Ruler of France (1799): Napoleon became "first consul" for ten years, with two consuls appointed by him who had consultative voices only.

  French Consulate: Napoleon resorted to regular electoral consultations with the French people on his road to imperial power. He drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul, taking up residence at the Tuileries.

  French Empire (1804): Launching yet another referendum, Napoleon was elected as Emperor of the French by a tally exceeding 99%. As with the Life Consulate two years earlier, this referendum produced heavy participation, bringing out almost 3.6 million voters to the polls.

  Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815): The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) were a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon, against a fluctuating array of European powers formed into various coalitions, primarily led and financed by the United Kingdom.

  Exile to Elba (1814): Napoleon withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers, and little cavalry; he faced more than three times as many Allied troops.

  Hundred Days (1815): Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and governed for a period now called the Hundred Days. By the start of June the armed forces available to him had reached 200,000, and he decided to go on the offensive to attempt to drive a wedge between the oncoming British and Prussian armies.

  Exile on Saint Helena: Britain kept Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, 1,870 km (1,162 mi) from the west coast of Africa.

RESOURCES
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Napoleon", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.