Napoleon Bonaparte: The Man Who Killed The French Revolution

Napoleon Bonaparte was known as one of the best leader’s, and one of the most famous people in history. He is thought to be the man who saved the French Revolution, a man who spread nationalism throughout Europe. Known as a military genius and won many big and important battles as the French leader. But being such a powerful figure lead to some poor decisions and lead to the downfall. When growing up Napoleon was a great leader and also a very intelligent boy. Of course his favorite subject was history of war, he studied Alexander the great and learned lots about firepower and how it can influence a battle. At just the age of 24, he had much influence in France because of his victories in the battlefield. Because everyone knew Napoleon and saw what he could do he became consul of France in 1802. And on March 20th 1804 he became the
emperor of France. At the coronation of Napoleon, he took the crown and placed it on his own head. This was ironic because this showed signs of being a monarch after he got rid of the monarchy. Napoleon was a great leader but he had a few flaws that eventually would lead to the downfall of his leading.
One of these flaws was his continental system. The continental system barred British ships and goods. Napoleon thought it would it would mainly hurt the British economy, but he was wrong and it ended up hurting the French and neighboring countries. French allies became foes because the economies were declining, and it was the beginning of the end for Napoleon. The continental system because of it Russia and France had a falling out and Napoleon decided to invade them, or try. On June 24, 1812 Napoleon took 600,000 men into Russia. He initially met little resistance and moved quickly into the Russian mainland, but supplies could not keep up with the marching and either could wagons because of the small dirt roads and bad conditions. As time went on Napoleons men started facing illnesses and also freezing from the fridged air. Napoleon was forced to retreat to France. 500,000 of his men dies on the crusade of Russia. This was Napoleon’s next act that would lead to the downfall of
France. When Napoleon left the next to come in was Louis the 18th. He was a monarch and the people of France did not like the change to a monarch. Napoleon took this as another opportunity to retake control of France. In 1818 Napoleon returned to France and headed to France. There he ran into Louis army that was sent to stop him but Napoleon talked the army into joining him. The people cheered Napoleon on as he entered into Paris because Louis 18th was taking them back to monarchy. Napoleon was looking to introduce a new democratic constitution and his old campaigns came to support him. Napoleon decided to make a campaign into Belgium. He gathered what was left of the French army and marched toward the Duke of Wellington’s army. But napoleon was outsmarted and instead, and the Duke fell back to Waterloo he did this so he could get assistance from Prussia. The Prussia army regrouped while Napoleon marched on the Duke of Wellington’s army. Napoleon didn’t know that there was a surprise army waiting over the hill that would surprise him and destroy his army. This would lead to Napoleon leaving Paris and lose once again. All of this contributed to Napoleon’s downfall. The obsession with power for Napoleon is what’s said to be the downfall of him. Napoleon was a great leader and a better general and was affected with megalomania and could not keep the empire standing up