Pictorial Highlights from the life of Napoleon.

The objectives are

• You will learn how Napoleon’s early years shape his personality.

• You will learn how Napoleon gained recognition during the French Revolution (see play)

• Assess for yourself—did Napoleon love Josephine even after their divorce?

• You will learn the impact of Napoleonic Wars on Germany, Austria and Russia

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica in 1769.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Corsica-NapoleonHouse.jpg

Corsica, an island nation, was rugged in geography and tribal in

social interaction.

Napoleon went to

school at the royal military

school at Brienne,

while Louis XVI was still

on the throne.

While there, he endured

some teasing…

He married his wife

Josephine, after

she sent her son

to collect her late

husband’s sword.

The Napoleonic Wars absorbed the lives of millions of young men. They were the most disastrous

wars since the Thirty Years War, and would remain the worst until

World War I.

In Germany, Napoleon was the father of German unification

when he formed the Confederation of the Rhine—consolidating 300 separate

German States into 30.

In various European countries, Napoleon replaced the legitimate rulers with his family members.

His brother Joseph was sent to rule Spain, with disastrous results. Spain was supported by Britain, and this peninsular war was not successful. Its most compelling image was by the artist Goya,

whose Third of May is an artistic icon of imperial cruelty.

Napoleon took the

Bee as his symbol—

from a previous famous French

King—can you guess

who?

Napoleon eventually divorced

Josephine, because she

could not have any more

children, and he married the archduchess

Marie-Louise of Austria—

Napoleon’s former enemy.

Napoleon’s greatest mistake was the invasion of Russia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Napoleon-retreating-from-moscow.jpg

The Retreat from Moscow is one of the great stories from

history…

After Russia, he quickly returned to France. His army was

weakened and he was defeated by a combined

Russia/German/Austrian Army at Leipzig.

Within two years he was exiled to Elba.

He returned for a brief “100 days”—

He was defeated at Waterloo by England’s Duke of Wellington and

Prussia’s Blucher…

This time he was

exiled to an island in

the middle of the

Atlantic. There

would be no escape.

While there he dictated his memoirs—justifying and

explaining his reign and the millions of deaths it caused. He said that men were going to “die anyways—so why not have them die in glory instead of old men in

their beds.”

His body was brought back years later and buried Les Invalides.

Even today, people visit the tombs of Napoleon, his son, and his great

generals.

Recently there have been rumors that Napoleon may have been

poisoned to hasten his death at St. Helena. High levels of arsenic

and lead were found in his hair…but on this theory, we will never

know the truth…

The objectives were

• You learned how Napoleon’s early years shape his personality.

• You learned how Napoleon gained recognition during the French Revolution (see play)

• Assess for yourself—did Napoleon love Josephine even after their divorce?

• You will learn the impact of Napoleonic Wars on Germany, Austria and Russia