NOTE: I will be posting
either a soldiers’ quote or soldiers’ article once a month.
As
one of my favorite Military leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte died on this date, 5
May 1821, I will post on one of his soldiers’ quotes. He would have been 244
years old if he was alive today.
QUOTE: He who
fears being conquered is certain of defeat. [p. 146 of Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts
(1848)]
AUTHOR:
Napoleon Bonaparte (French: Napoléon Bonaparte [napoleɔ̃ bɔnɑpaʁt], Italian: Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military
and political leader who rose to prominence during the latter stages of the
French Revolution and its associated wars in Europe.
As Napoleon
I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the
Napoleonic Code, has been a major influence on many civil law jurisdictions
worldwide, but he is best remembered for his role in the wars led against
France by a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars. He established
hegemony over most of continental Europe and sought to spread the ideals of the
French Revolution, while consolidating an imperial monarchy which restored
aspects of the deposed Ancien Régime. Due to his success in these wars,
often against numerically superior enemies, he is generally regarded as one of
the greatest military commanders of all time, and his campaigns are studied at
military academies worldwide.
Napoleon was born at Ajaccio in Corsica in a
family of noble Italian ancestry which had settled Corsica in the 16th century.
He trained as an artillery officer in mainland France. He rose to prominence
under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the First
and Second Coalitions arrayed against France. He led a successful invasion of
the Italian peninsula.
In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and
installed himself as First Consul; five years later the French Senate
proclaimed him emperor, following a plebiscite in his favour. In the first
decade of the 19th century, the French Empire under Napoleon engaged in a
series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—that involved every major European
power. After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in
continental Europe, and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence
through the formation of extensive alliances and the appointment of friends and
family members to rule other European countries as French client states.
The Peninsular War and 1812 French invasion
of Russia marked turning points in Napoleon's fortunes. His Grande Armée
was badly damaged in the campaign and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth
Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig; the following year the Coalition
invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of
Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was
defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon spent the last six
years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena.
An autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer, but there has been some debate
about the cause of his death, as some scholars have speculated that he was a
victim of arsenic poisoning.
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