Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 1769 and died on the island of Saint Helena on 1821. Corsica was sold to France under Louis XV by Genoa in 1768, so Napoleon was born into a technically French minor nobility, albeit recently Genovese. His family initially supported Corsican independence under Paoli, but following his defeat in 1769 supported the French cause. Educated at the royal college of Autun on a royal scholarship from the age of 9, Napoleon was a mediocre and taciturn student treated as inferior because of his short stature and Corsican origins. He became a second lieutenant in the artillery but saw very little action until 1793 when he was appointed captain and commanded the artillery at the siege of Toulon, the crucial Mediterranean port held by the royalists. His…
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Citation: Clark, Robert. "Napoleon Bonaparte". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=4314, accessed 23 November 2024.]
