...Background: Napoleon Bonaparte was the fourth born among his eight siblings, born from a noble family. His father was Carlo Bonaparte, who was a gentleman of Ajaccio, Corsica, whose family of Tuscan origin had settled there and later on married him to Laetitia Ramolino who was a young girl of the island. His father had inherited a lawsuit which focused on the task of recovering an estate which the French church had taken possession of. His mother, Madame Bonaparte, played a significant role in the shaping and upbringing of Napoleon as she was a firm and determined lady who was extremely thorough when it came to matters of order and economy amongst her family. (Markham, 1966) “I was born,” said Napoleon, “when my country was perishing. Thirty thousand Frenchmen were vomited upon our soil. Cries of the wounded, sighs of the oppressed, and tears of despair surrounded my cradle at birth.” During the time of his birth, the Corsicans who were led by the Patriot Paoli led a revolt against the French, who at that time were the masters of the island. Napoleons father was part of the revolt and played a significant role by sharing his fortunes of his chief to the end of the struggle of 1769. They were defeated and they, including Napoleons Family fled to the mountains. As time passed by, the Corsicans submitted and the Bonaparte’s went back to Ajaccio where Napoleon was born. (Markham, 1966) In order for his father to gain support from the French government, he humbled himself...
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...Effects of the French Revolution Robert Vincent HIS/114 Western Civilization January 4, 2013 Dennis Burin Effects of the French Revolution The French Revolution was one of the notable events that played an important part in France’s history. Women, common men, clergy, and nobles took drastic steps to secure freedom for a country that was financially ruined. Liberty During the French Revolution, classes of people were fighting for liberty. Surprisingly enough, woman’s participation played a vital role of the French Revolution; they participated in political, social, and military roles (Grout, 2009). For example, the march of French women participated in the French Revolution due to the promise of universal rights, which were never fulfilled. The French Revolution caused France to institute divorce into their legislation in 1792 giving women the right to a divorce. The legislation was revoked under the Restoration when France returned to orthodoxy in 1816 (Commaille, 1983). The revolutionaries claimed that liberty was an inalienable right, especially because the American colonist defeated the British in the War of Independence. On October 5, 1789 six thousand Parisian women marched on toward Versailles forcing the King to make decisions on problems with the bread supply, high prices, and starvation (Geary, Kishlansky, & O’Brien 2010). Equality and Democracy The French citizens not only wanted liberty, but they also wanted equality. The French people...
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...To what extent was Napoleon’s rise to power aided by the failings of the Directory?! ! Introduction! ! Crook comments that Napoleon’s rise to power had “acquired an aura of inevitability”1, and such inevitability was aided by the fall of the French monarchy, the failings of the Directory, and more importantly, Napoleon’s personal ability and appeal to employ such opportunity. This essay will argue that his rise to power was indeed very much aided by the failings of the Directory, but it was Napoleon who recognized such failures and used these to his advantage that ensured his rise. It will begin with a short background of the origins and result of the French Revolution. It will then summarize the failings of the Directory and how Napoleon used such failings to rise to power. ! ! The French Revolution! ! To evaluate the Directory’s impact on Napoleon’s rise to power it is essential to examine France in the late 18th century, a time of uprisings and turmoils. There was a general public discontent in the French monarch, Louis XVI, due to his inability to find a solution of the impoverished France. France was in such a state because it spent a large sum on warfare, namely the funding of the American War of Independence. This Pyrrhic victory almost bankrupted France. While the King taxed the poor, the royal family and the nobles still lived in luxurious lifestyles. After a series of events, the King was overthrown. ! ! Napoleon Under the Directory! ! After the overthrown...
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...Napoleon Bonaparte was a military general who became the first emperor of France. His drive for empire changed the world. Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio. By the time around Napoleon's birth, Corsica's occupation by the French had caused local resistance. His father Carlo Bonaparte 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'Autun. Eventually, Napoleon ended up at the military college of Brienne, where he studied for five years, before moving on to the military academy in Paris. He graduated five years early from military school, he become second lieutenant of artillery, and 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 civil war in Corsica began in April 1793, Napoleon, now an enemy of Paoli, and his family moved to France. After Napoleon moved back to France, he return to service with the French military. Upon rejoining his regiment at Nice in June 1793, the young leader quickly showed his support for the Jacobins, a political movement and the most well-known and popular...
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...impact of Napoleon on Europe The Napoleonic Empire came into existence following the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of France at Notre Dame in 1804. The frontiers of the ancien regime had been expanded up to and beyond France’s natural borders, with the momentum of expansion following in direct correlation with the pace of France’s military conquests under the leadership of Bonaparte himself. The ‘Great Empire’ is often referred to as a single entity embracing French controlled Europe, but territories were in fact separated depending on the levels of French control. Territory ruled directly from Paris was known as the pays reunis which compromised of France’s natural frontiers (borders of the Rhine, Alps and Pyrenees) as well as annexed territories of Piedmont, Parma, Papal States and Holland after 1810. It was also divided into the pays conquis, which were nominally independent satellite states and formed a zone protecting the borders of the French Empire from attacks from countries such as Britain. These were ruled by Frenchmen who were usually close to Napoleon as a family member or as a close friend, such as Jerome Bonaparte who was King of Westphalia and Joachim Murat who was King of Naples. When discussing impact, the effects of Napoleon and his policies on factors such as economies, religion and nationalism in satellite states that composed the Napoleonic Empire will be taken into account, whether positive or negative on the states. Napoleon changed...
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...Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power consisted of many mistakes, wrong turns, and pitfalls, yet he managed to become head of the most powerful country in Europe at the age of thirty. During his formative years, his character was ambiguous and his intensions were often ill defined. He was, however, highly ambitious, and it was this that advanced his career and social status (Asprey). His most important and consistent aim was to create a French Empire and establish French dominance over Europe, which he was able to accomplish (Grab). However, as Napoleon became more powerful, his opposition grew stronger. It was evident that he was destined to be deposed by political responsibility and personal betrayal. Unfortunately, his threatening obsessions and potential for violence later led to his fall (Leggiere). Napoleon Buonaparte was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on August 15th 1769 (Asprey, 7). The Buonaparte’s were a wealthy family from the Corsican nobility, but were considered poor when compared to the great aristocracies of France. Not quite nobility, one would assume that Buonaparte’s chance to rise was somewhat slim. But Napoleon was ambitious to become a well-known leader, and therefore strived to do so. He spent his early years in a military school in France but was considered an outsider because many of the other students came from very wealthy French families (13). Napoleon was driven by his father’s death in 1785. He graduated as second lieutenant in the artillery after attending...
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...to the hype generated by their success that they will fall victim to hubris and the implications it brings. The four sources of hubris that the article discusses are narcissism, series of successes, uncritical successes of accolades, and an exemption from the rules. The three implications that are a result of a hubris person are their confidence turns to arrogance; they rely on a simplistic formula for success, and a failure to face challenging realities. The relationship between the major variables in the article can be seen in figure one. {draw:frame} Major contribution(s): This article makes a comparison between the mindset of modern corporate leadership and the activities of Napoleon Bonaparte during the early 1800’s campaign of domination of Europe. Napoleon rose through the ranks of the French Army to become the highest ranking officer and declared himself emperor through a belief that the rules did not apply to him and anything he attempted to do would be successful. The article goes into detail about his conquest of Europe and his unsuccessful attempt to conquer Russia even though his military advisors told him his plan would fail. The article draws comparative situations from the mid to late 1900’s where leaders of major corporations believed in their continued success so much that they did not listen to their advisors nor did they believe that they could fail. The companies that the article lists show the same mindset as Napoleon and the penalties...
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...Napoleon Bonaparte: the best of leaders; the worst of leaders 1 comment Posted in Leaders from History | 1 comment I must confess that I have a bit of thing about Napoleon. A quick check on Amazon will show you (reassuringly, perhaps, for me) that I am not alone. There are a lot of books about Napoleon. If you are a student of leadership, then you come up against Napoleon like a student of modern art comes up against Picasso. There is simply no way around the man. But why? Firstly, Napoleon had a very large canvass to work on. The French revolution was a truly remarkable event. It began as an essentially liberal revolution, but was hijacked (as revolutions so often are) by homicidal fanatics: Robespierre and his fellow Jacobins. When Napoleon seized power in a nearly botched but nevertheless bloodless and generally welcomed coup, he became the leader of a nation that was beset on all sides by the old monarchies of Europe, desperate to snuff out this terrifying, king-killing, unthinkable republic in its midst. The French people were equally desperate to retain their new and bitterly hard-won freedoms from the essentially feudal rule of the Bourbon kings and the Ancien Régime. A significant sector of society was also keen to keep its hands on the financial benefits that they had accrued by buying up, at a very good price, the lands and estates previously owned by the monarch, the aristocracy and the church. Napoleon found himself at the head of nation that was predisposed to welcome...
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...paradoxical trinity is most important for understanding that particular conflict? “The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle… It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.” Ecclesiates 9:11 is an often cited passage of the bible used to explain the unexplainable or as an excuse for failure. I will allow that circumstances will always arise (whether in war or everyday life) that could not be predicted; however, the relative reaction to those circumstances is what separates the truly great from the merely average. I will show in this paper that the ability to creatively control ‘chance’ is the single most important factor of Carl von Clausewitz’s paradoxical trinity in understanding the greatness of Napoleon Bonapart. He called this ability in a battlefield situation, ‘military genius’ and although Clausewitz believed in the equity of the three points in his trinity, I would posit that the ability to successfully apply military ingenuity and initiative to the probabilities and uncertainties of war is what was ultimately the deciding factor in the Napoleonic Wars. A closer look at the Battles at Austerlitz, Borodino and Waterloo will demonstrate the role of chance and the military genius in victory and defeat. It is necessary first to briefly explain Clausewitz’s trinity. There are many interpretations of the precepts described in On War, but the work and research of Christopher Bassford...
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...Defined Morris E. Shepherd Jr. Columbia Southern University Introduction Leadership is defined by the Military as: The process of influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. Many of the most influential people in history have served time within their countries military and have gone on to become influential leaders of their country, such as: Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, and Alexander the Great. By taking an example of how the military has produced countless leaders many companies can use this example to help create both a positive and productive working environment. Today many of the larger fortune 500 corporations require their executive staff members to read the book The Art of War by the Author Sun Tzu. Although this book is primarily a strategic military manual it clearly amalgamates military strategy and leadership principles in order to successfully win a war or in modern times to be a financial success. Key factors that can determine a successful leadership environment Organization is a key element in being successful. When ideas are properly thought out and planned things will always flow smoothly. While it may or may not seem plausible, organization is a very important factor in being successful. For example, whenever an important project is due whether it is for school or work, the first thing that a person would want to do is sit down...
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...“Napoleon – Revolutionary Influence or Beneficiary?” Napoleon Bonaparte is widely regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time. At the height of his power, he had “expanded the conquests of France from her revolutionary borders to that of an empire that stretched from Spain to the steppes of Russia.”[1] In his book The Napoleonic Wars, noted historian Gunther Rothenberg states that Napoleon “created the most effective army of its time, transforming the art of war itself.”[2] While it is true that the French army under Napoleon was the superior force in Europe for some time, credit for its creation and the ways in which it was employed can not be attributed to him alone. In fact, as Hew Strachan points out in European Armies and the Conduct of War, “The components, the technology and the techniques of Napoleonic warfare were all present before Bonaparte’s first successful campaign in 1796.”[3] Napoleon was indeed a superb military commander, but he inherited, rather than created, the conditions and practices which enabled his success. Napoleonic warfare was dominated by large, mobile armies. Decisive battles were sought and the primacy of the offensive was encouraged. The destruction of the enemy’s forces took precedence over geographic aims and victory was to be pursued at all costs. Warfare under Napoleon has been described as being more ‘total’ in nature than those which preceded him. There is little doubt that the ways in which wars were...
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...need to be examined. Up until 1716, Italy was just a big piece of land divided among small kingdoms of monarchs. (ref. H.O. #1 p.29) When napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy, he left them 3 things, which were probably the key characteristics in the revolution: - Efficient Government. - A practical demonstrations of the benefits from a unified Italy - Hatred towards foreign influence. After the fall of Napoleon, the major European powers (Austria, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, & Prussia) what was to be done with Italy, which was conquered at the time by Napoleon. It was thus decided that Italy would be divided among different monarchs, all associated with the Habsburgs (except for Piedmont Sardinia, which was to be ruled by Victor Emmanuel, an independent monarch, and Papal States, ruled by the pope.). (ref. H.O. #1 p. 29-30) Austria had very strong domination over Italy. It had agreements with Ferdinand, king of Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, and helped the pope maintain his kingdom. Only Piedmont Sardinia wasn't influenced by Austria (ref. H.O. #1 p. 30). 1815 - 1830 Revolution Almost all "'Italians" hated the foreign influence of Austria on Italy. Metternich, an Austrian prince wanted to make sure no nationalist activities were in process in Austria's territories in Italy (which was Lombardy Venetia). He imposed repressive rule in Lombardy Venetia. German was the official language, a strong Austrian army was always present to suppress any hostile activities...
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...the revolution need to be examined. Up until 1716, Italy was just a big piece of land divided among small kingdoms of monarchs. (ref. H.O. #1 p.29) When napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy, he left them 3 things, which were probably the key characteristics in the revolution: - Efficient Government. - A practical demonstrations of the benefits from a unified Italy - Hatred towards foreign influence. After the fall of Napoleon, the major European powers (Austria, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, & Prussia) what was to be done with Italy, which was conquered at the time by Napoleon. It was thus decided that Italy would be divided among different monarchs, all associated with the Habsburgs (except for Piedmont Sardinia, which was to be ruled by Victor Emmanuel, an independent monarch, and Papal States, ruled by the pope.). (ref. H.O. #1 p. 29-30) Austria had very strong domination over Italy. It had agreements with Ferdinand, king of Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, and helped the pope maintain his kingdom. Only Piedmont Sardinia wasn't influenced by Austria (ref. H.O. #1 p. 30). 1815 - 1830 Revolution Almost all "'Italians" hated the foreign influence of Austria on Italy. Metternich, an Austrian prince wanted to make sure no nationalist activities were in process in Austria's territories in Italy (which was Lombardy Venetia). He imposed repressive rule in Lombardy Venetia. German was the official language, a strong Austrian army was always present to suppress any hostile activities, an efficient...
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...defined as a process that involves individuals or groups to reach a common goal (Northouse, 2013,). It’s motivating and persuading people to obtain a desired result through communication and influence. Leadership is also defined as a process that happens between a leader and a follower (Northouse, 2013). During the 20th century, researchers belived that there were natural born leaders who were born with the “trait” to lead. They believed these individuals had certain qualities and characteristics such as unique physical appearance, personality features, emotional, and cognitive traits that distinguished them from nonleaders. Leaders such as Catherine the Great, Mohandas Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc, and Napoleon Bonaparte were studied by researchers in an effort to determine which traits separated...
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...'impossible' itself spells, 'I'm possible'. Napoleon Bonaparte once remarked, "That the word 'impossible' is found only in the dictionary of fools". In this world, everything is possible on the basis of will power, dogged determination and sacrifice. To accomplish the most difficult tasks, you need to put in a lot of hard work, extra perseverance and concentration on a single objective. You should have patience and faith in yourself. You should have determination, dedication and devotion to attain success. Never bother about the results. Keep on going even if the pace is slow. Just ensure it remains steady. You are bound to face obstacles en route to success, but with courage and perseverance, you can master them. Your positive attitude and clear frame of mind determine your future. In this world, there is no such thing as CHANGE. By your own ideas, will and ability, you can create a number of chances, circumstances and the desired atmosphere to achieve the toughest goal. Great minds have purposes, whereas others simply have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by seeming setbacks, but great minds rise above them and fight their way to victory. Always and never are a fighter and never a quitter. To attain your desired goal, you have to laugh at your trouble and have to forget it. When you laugh at your trouble, you will find it to be a mere bubble, which is swiftly blown away. To gather the fruit, to register victory, to score success, you require unwavering faith in yourself...
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