Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the twelfth of august nineteen sixty nine to a family of minor Corsican nobles, and died at the age of fifty one on the fifth of May 1821. But why is he the historical figure he is today?

Shortly before his birth, Corsica had been sold to the French and his father was able to take up an administrative position with the new government. He used his small influence to secure Napoleon a place in an elite military college, where Napoleon excelled and finished the difficult course a whole year before scheduled. Shortly after graduating he gained a commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the artillery, beginning his incredible military career. Four years after gaining his post the French Revolution broke out and Napoleon returned home to Corsica for the next two years of his life, during which time he was a radical revolutionary and Corsican nationalist despite his still quite young age. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in this way, and managed to gain a captaincy in 1792.

Now begins the majority of his successes, beginning with his first major battle as commander, Toulon, where he captures the royalist fort and makes a name for himself, rising to commander of artillery in Italy. After his arrest for being a possible supporter of Robespierre he remained largely inactive for a while before crushing a rebel force that was attempting to destroy the revolutionary government itself through one action, then beginning a series of promotions and successful military campaigns.

During a military expedition in Egypt, Napoleon had to return following urgent summons. After a private meeting with several other powerful men in the French regime he took power, the coup d’etat. This was necessary as France was on the verge of collapse. Rather ironically, this marked the end of his major successes in the military, but he then caused several major political reforms and improvements across Europe, aspects of which, if not the total idea, remain intact and in use today. For instance the Euro was an original idea of his, as was the European Union (though these were created without a link to him) and his set of laws “Code Napoleon” dominate many national systems of laws in Europe even now.

In the next several years he reformed France internally and spread his control over Europe almost creating a single state in essence. He even succeeded in crowning his brother as king of Spain, though many Spaniards did not accept that totally. As France’s oldest enemy, Britain was a major concern of Napoleon’s and his many political or indirect attempts to weaken them were unsuccessful. He had finally assembled an army he believed could overrun the British homeland when his entire Navy (both his and Spain’s) were wiped out in the battle of Trafalgar. Shortly after, Arthur Wellesley led a campaign into Portugal, and through there Spain to damage Napoleon in turn.

This caused major problems for Napoleon, as the Spanish partisans chose this time to rise up “en masse” and his army, though thrice as large as the British, was unable to secure victory, though Wellesley’s tactics, like his defence against Napoleon’s favoured French column by using the double red line helped significantly. In other regions of France and its neighbours, things did not go well either. Though many countries stayed loyal, Russia fought back against France and thousands of soldiers were lost in an attempt to crush Russia; however casualties were a result of the weather rather than much fighting. This was a mistake Hitler ignored 130 years later. Sure enough, in 1814 he was forced to abdicate and exiled to Elba.

Being emperor of the island, he was able to leave in 1815 and recaptured much of France in less than a month. Wellesley, now Wellington, with his allies the Prussians and many of the countries who Napoleon had ruled months ago fought one of the most notorious conflicts in history, the hundred years war, climaxing with Waterloo and Napoleon being exiled again this time to St. Helena where he remained until his death. The cause of his death is unknown and many theories have been put forward, however arsenic poisoning seems most likely, whether deliberate (many items in his house could have caused this as well) is also unknown.

Napoleon is remembered for several reasons, probably because of his several acts and ideals. Opinions of him have not changed in just less than 200 years; nobody has yet agreed whether he was a cruel and harsh dictator or an ingenious military leader and fair ruler. On one hand he strived for European unity, the glory of his country, equality, he revolutionised military tactics (even those used against him have been used since, such as at Rorke’s drift) but on the other he did not care about other countries rulers or peoples to accomplish his goals, unarguably killed thousands of people and improving war is questionable at best.