A Brief History
On May 18, 1804, Corsican born army general and First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, was named as Emperor of the French by the French senate, effectively ending the Republic and creating a French Empire.
Digging Deeper
Famous as a person that valued pomp and appearances, Napoleon put the Crown of Imperial France on his own head at his coronation in December of 1804 at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.
The great man’s reign would last 10 years until he was deposed and sent to Elba in exile, although he regained his role as Emperor in March of 1815 after a daring escape from Elba and a return to France. Alas, this second reign would end shortly after the catastrophic defeat at Waterloo and Napoleon was once again deposed and exiled in June of 1815, this time to the island of St. Helena from which he would not return alive, dying in 1821 at the early age of 51.
In his brief time on Earth, Napoleon was a massive influence on history, with political and military implications as well as the establishment of the Napoleonic Code, a system of laws embraced by many countries, in fact, as many as 120 nations! Napoleon also fostered the pursuit of science and is said to have more books written about him than any mortal man, eclipsed only by Jesus Christ.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Are you a fan of Napoleon?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Markham, J. David and Matthew Zarzeczny. Simply Napoleon. Simply Charly, 2017.
Zarzeczny, Matthew. Meteors that Enlighten the Earth: Napoleon and the Cult of Great Men. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.
The featured image in this article, Napoleon I of France on a stamp from United Arab Emirates, is in the public domain both in United Arab Emirates and in other countries adhering to international copyright treaties, because, though the 2002 copyright law of the United Arab Emirates states that such works as stamps are protected for 50 years starting from 1 January of the publication year, the 1992 copyright law (DOC) gave a 25 years copyright protection (starting from the publication date). Therefore all UAE postage stamps printed before 1977 are in public domain.
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