Napoleon was very aristocratic and self centred. He had an exceptional memory and a keen ability to analyse and sum up very complex situations. Mathematicians also know that Napoleon devised a curious theorem. He is also said to have had very little respect for human life and believed that fear and cupidity motivated people. He arrived on the French political scene at a time of great upheaval and turmoil that would last long after his Empire was dissolved.
From 1774 to 1778 he studied with the Jesuits in Ajaccio. He then studied at the collège d'Autun until 1779 and then went to the Ecole Militaire de Brienne. From 1784 to 1785 Napoleon attended the École Militaire in Paris where he received his formal military training. He studied artillery and was sous-lieutenant d'Artillerie. Shortly after joining the French army when he was 16 years old, his father died. Napoleon therefore had to provide for his entire family. Napoleon was then stationed in Valence, Lyon, Douai and Auxonne. In 1792 he tried to break through in Corsica as a separatist. By 1792, he was in Paris. After the French monarchy was overthrown with the execution of Louis XVI in August of that year, Napoleon became a well-known military leader as brigadier general at the battle of Toulon. He met Robespierre in Nice and became a Jacobean.
In 1795 Napoleon was made commander of the French army in Italy and defeated many Austrian Generals. Afterwards Napoleon was relieved of his command. He had been suspected of treason and was imprisoned by the Thermidoriens. In 1795 he broke up a royalist revolt and saved the government. He was once again give command of the French Army in Italy. He devised a tactical plan that worked very well and revealed his military genius.
In 1798 he made an unsuccessful attempt to invade Egypt. In 1799 he returned to France and plotted a coup d'Etat with his ally Barras. They overthrew the Directory, and created a new government, in which there were three consuls. At this time, Napoleon became very popular and his power increased. In 1802 France signed a peace treaty with England and Germany. He re-opened the University of France, reformed the educational system, he created the Bank of France. He also worked on the Napoleonic Code. The Code served as a base for legal systems around the world for many years. In 1804 he had himself crowned Emperor of all the French. He divorced his wife Josephine de Beauharnais in 1809 and married Marie Louise, the daughter of the Emperor of Austria. He soon had a son by his second wife, and named him Napoleon François, or Napoleon II, king of Rome.
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