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Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the most brilliant military and social leaders the world has ever seen. His meteoric rise to power was one of the most rapid and successful campaigns in history, and proved to be important for France and its Revolution in the late eighteenth century. Through shrewd tactics and tremendous leadership ability, Napoleon gained power over much of Europe for most of a decade. This paper will analyze Napoleon’s run at power through his role as an excellent civil administrator, ability to bring stability from great disarray at the time, his military brilliance and his rumored fixation with height witch fueled his passion for rule and dominance. Most important to his reign, Napoleon was an unbelievable military talent. So much so, that he quickly rose to prominence mainly because of this. Having been born on the island of Corsica, just recently sold to France from Genoa, on 15 August, 1769, he learned the language of the country he would eventually rule. At the age of nine, he attended a French military school, and had an extraordinary memory. He was a skilled fighter and soldier before his rise to ruler, and this bravery and courage allowed him to fight along-side his soldiers to rile up support and morale. His tactics revolutionized warfare at the time and allowed his armies to be successful. Napoleon was taught to lead armies as quick flurries of gunshots to make holes in the enemy’s line and penetrate those weaknesses quickly with infantry. Artillery was just as important to Napoleon, and he stressed mobility in battle as a way of confusing opponents. Army divisions which could fight and manage themselves independent of the main army were also important to revolutionizing warfare. When there were different divisions in the same area, communication was kept by having a corps commander who was the glue between all the divisions in the area. Napoleonic strategy was significant in the way his armies approached the enemy; the most important way his strategy differed from common tactics was by attacking the joint between the enemy front line and flank.
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