Submission for EC Collection 2009

THE EMPEROR

He was one of the strangest “phenomenon” in the world’s history. His genius for military, recognized even by his enemies, surpassed all glories of conquerors in the past. No wonder that many wrote and nowadays still write about him: The legendary military genius, Master of Europe, Napoléon Bonaparte.
Napoleon was born in 1769, as a son of a nobleman in Corsica island (later the republic of Corsica). He went to military school in France and was trained as an artillery officer. The French revolution in 1789, which later led to the establishment of the First French republic, brought him a golden chance to prove his talent. After the Jacobins were overthrown by the anti-revolutionaries, Napoleon had had a hard time but that soon ended as the new government also needed his talent to fight against the Royalists whose dream was to bring the monarchy back to France again. And Napoleon didn’t let them down, using his most efficient weapon: canons, which he later used to suppress the rebellion and revolution of his own people. Earning the trust of the government, Napoleon marched to Italia, which at that time belonged to the Empire of Austria. There he proved his talent by victories over the Austrian army, forcing them to flee back to their country, leaving Northern Italia, especially Rome and the Pope in Napoleon’s hand. Then he marched to Austria and won several other battles, which left Austria no other choice but peace negotiation, offering Bonaparte numerous priorities. These glories gave him a big influential position in French politics. Napoleon returned to Paris as a hero.
Not long after his return, Napoleon started an invasion to Egypt, which he believed if conquered could help him reach the gate of Asia, particularly India, a colony of Britain. He met not much resistance in Egypt and soon conquered the whole territory. But at the mean time, fearing that the republic of France would threaten the monarchy of other countries in Europe, Britain started a campaign against France, forming an alliance of Austria, Great Britain, Russia, French royalists and Ottoman Empire, the Second Coalition. As a result, France suffered from several defeats and lost most of what Napoleon had conquered before.
After returning to Paris, Napoleon planned to overthrow the Republic he once protected and served, and this only took one month. He came to ultimate power as the First Consul of France, and not long later, Emperor of France. Within a year, he arranged all civil threats, getting France ready for the wars which took place in the next several years.
In 1805, Napoleon marched for Austria again, defeating the allied army of Russia and Austria at the battle of Austerlitz, breaking the Third Coalition, which had been started by Britain. At the same time, British fleet, under the control of the heroic captain Horatio Nelson, won the Franco-Spanish fleet at the battle of Trafalgar, becoming the ultimate power of the sea and simultaneously putting an end to Napoleon’s dream of conquering Britain. Nevertheless, Napoleon’s victories over Europe brought him to a position no other could reach.
A year later, Prussia, encouraged by Britain and Russia, started a campaign against France. But Prussian army, once famous for its iron disciplines, broke at the battle of Jena-Auerstedt after powerful strikes of French army. Napoleon conquered half of Prussian territory and Poland of Russia. Tsar of the Russian Empire had no other choice but signed a peace agreement and divided the Europe continent between the two powers.
In 1807, with the help of Spanish troops, Napoleon conquered Portugal. But Spanish king couldn’t stay in his throne any longer as Napoleon also invaded the country and put his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain. This led to resistance all over the country and Britain took this chance to support Spain and Portugal in their fight against the French.
Austria once again declared war with France in 1809, and thanks to good preparation, they won at the battle of Aspern-Essling near Vienna. However, Austrian commanders failed to destroy French completely and gave them a chance to regroup. Napoleon didn’t miss this opportunity and won back again at Wagram, forcing Austria to sign another peace agreement, which strengthened Napoleon’s ultimate power as the Master of Europe.
“Peace” existed in Europe continent for more than two years before Russia broke its alliance with France in 1912. Ignoring repeated advice against a campaign attacking the Russian Empire, Napoleon marched his 450,000 troops to the East. The Russians kept avoiding fights with France and retreating deeper to their territory and only accepted to battle outside Moscow. France and Russian fought a decisive battle at Borodino and two sides both suffered from great losses. Although Napoleon succeeded in winning the battle, he admitted: "The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of being invincible." As a result of this loss, Tsar ordered to abandon Moscow, leaving it at the hand of the French. Napoleon took the capital of Russia and intended to advance further. But this never happened as Moscow was burned according to Tsar’s order. French army suffered from a lack of supply and had to retreat. The harshness of Russian Winter and guerilla’s attacks along the way killed most of French army and by the end of the campaign, only 40,000 French soldiers survived.
The defeat of France in Russia gave other countries a chance to escape from Napoleon’s rule and Britain again established another coalition, the Sixth Coalition, against France. The Allied Army outnumbered French army and after the battle of Leipzig, Napoleon was forced to flee back to France. The Coalition continued to attack France and The emperor of France had to abdicate under the pressure of his subordinates and was exiled to Elba island in 1814 when the Coalition captured Paris.
In 1815, Napoleon made an escape from Elba island and soon regained control of France thanks to the favour of French troops for him. On receiving the news, the whole Europe declared war with France. Napoleon led his 200,000 troops to fight against the coming army of Britain and Prussia at the battle of Waterloo. British army, under the control of Arthur Wellesley, succeeded in withstanding repeated attacks from the French army while Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher led the Prussian army to break French army’s right flank. The defeat of France at Waterloo put an end to Napoleon’s military career. He was exiled to St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean and spent the rest of his life there.
Throughout his life, Napoleon fought nearly 60 battles (more than all the battles of Alexander, Hannibal, Ceasar…). Under his control, French army became one of the most terrifying army in Europe and earned the honour of war. In him, we see a figure of Ceasar, Genghis Khan, the image of conquerors who once shook the whole world by their genius.