August 15, 1769. A small island named Corsica, located in the Mediterranean Sea.
Hundreds of miles from the glittering mirrors and gilded palaces of Paris, a child was born on this wild and mountainous island. He was named Napoleon Buonaparte.
But this birth was not a happy one. The child's mother, Letizia, was pregnant with her husband, fighting in the mountains against the French army.
Yes! When Napoleon was born, the smell of gunpowder surrounded him. France had just forcibly annexed the Italian-speaking island of Corsica. Therefore, hatred for French rule boiled in Napoleon's blood from childhood.
A poor 'village man' among the rich
Napoleon's father, Carlo Bonaparte, was a humble lawyer. Somehow, through pleading and pleas with French officers, Carlo managed to get his 9-year-old son, Napoleon, enrolled in the Brienne-le-Château Military School in France.
On a cold morning in 1779, 9-year-old Napoleon landed on French soil.
That was a time when only the spoiled children of nobles, lords, and aristocrats attended French military schools. When a Corsican boy, tattered and short, speaking French with a strange Italian accent, arrived before those wealthy children, the school erupted in laughter.
The wealthy French children teased him by calling him "Na-po-leo-ne!" They laughed at him, mocked his poor family, and called him a "country barbarian."
Napoleon had only two options: either he would endure his humiliation and cry in a corner, or he would turn this humiliation into a fire in his heart!
Napoleon chose the latter.
He completely stopped talking to his fellow students. While the other rich children drank, played cards, and talked about girls, 10-year-old Napoleon would sit alone in the dark school library, devouring thick books on the military strategies of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Hannibal.
He would spend hours poring over geographical maps. His memory was so astonishing that he had memorized every river, mountain, and slope in France and Europe.
One winter, it snowed on the school grounds. The children were playing.
12-year-old Napoleon divided his classmates into two groups. He built a fort from large mounds of snow and, using snowballs as artillery, laid siege to the fort.
The school teachers were astonished by the strategy and agility with which Napoleon conquered the "Ice Castle" that day! One teacher wrote in his diary, "This boy is made of stone. If he gets the chance, he will rewrite the pages of history."
At the age of 15, Napoleon was selected for the prestigious École Militaire in Paris.
The atmosphere remained unchanged. The wealthy French officers looked down on him. But Napoleon made a decision that surprised everyone. He chose artillery over infantry or cavalry.
In those days, artillery was considered the most difficult and mathematically demanding job. It required precise calculations of the speed, angle, and distance of cannonballs.
While the children of wealthy nobles were reluctant to use their brains, Napoleon was a master of mathematics. He completed the rigorous two-year military course in just one year!
At the age of 16, Napoleon became a Second Lieutenant in the French Army.
When he first stepped out wearing his blue military uniform and heavy artillery boots, he didn't have a single rupee in his pocket. His father had died of cancer, and he was responsible for supporting his mother and younger siblings.
He ate only one meal a day so he could use the remaining money to buy books and send money home.
The year 1789 had arrived.
Napoleon was stationed in Paris. Revolutionary riots had broken out throughout the city. The hungry masses had overrun the Bastille. Slogans against King Louis XVI were everywhere.
From the window of his barracks, Napoleon watched the bloodshed and the uncontrollable mobs flowing through the streets of Paris.
While other officers were fleeing, fearing the revolution, taking off their badges, this 20-year-old officer had a strange gleam in his eyes. He watched the crowd's frenzy and calculated his actions in his mind.
He whispered to a friend the words that were a preview of his future:
"This foolish king and his officers are afraid of the crowd! If I had cannons, I would disperse this crowd of 50,000 in minutes. Power lies in the streets, just waiting for someone with a heart of steel to take it and crown it!"
The French Revolution had thrown the entire country into turmoil. King Louis XVI was imprisoned.
And taking advantage of this chaos, Britain's powerful navy captured Toulon, France's most important seaport!
British cannons were hidden deep in France's heart. The French army's most inexperienced generals had utterly failed to liberate the fortress of Toulon. The French Revolution was facing its greatest existential threat.
Then, an obscure, skinny 24-year-old artillery captain was sent to the bloody battlefield of Toulon.
When the top generals mocked the 24-year-old, he pointed to a spot on the map that stunned the entire British fleet!
Read more : -
.jpeg)
0 Comments