The life of Napoleon left me wondering about the sublime. A minor nobleman's son born in a small island named Crosica to the south of France, he began as a shy and introspective lad, extremely conscious of his self image and his identity. During his early childhood, when the then powerful and literally glorious Kingdom of France invaded Crosica, and made it a part of the French possessions, Napoleon's father defaulted as a French loyalist and moved along with his family, consisting of young Napoleon, his brothers and his mother, to Paris. At Paris, Napoleon was enrolled into teh school of the elites where he was met with a sense of foreignness and kept him grudging against the French invaders who had invaded his fatherland Crosica. After his school, he tried his hand at Crosican politics, but failed to make his mark there owing to the politics and the jealousy that the oligoarchy supported there. He was insulted as a traitor to his own fatherland and so he escaped to France where he was enrolled as an artillery general of the French army in the far south, where after a series of decisive wars with Austria and Italy, he grabbed the attention of the French administration and quickly rose in his ranks. When the British blocked his sea route during his invasion of Cairo in Egypt when he was marching further south, the genius reformed Egypt by systematizing the Egyptian cultural studies which are the foundations of the Egyptology studies to this day. He then gathered an army of his own from Cairo and marched victoriously back to France through the same sea route, which was an overwhelming spectacle to every French patriot. By the age of 26 he became the commander of a huge artillery unit of a major portion of the French army, and later on with the maturing of the French Revolution, entered the political scene of France. With the power now in his hands, Napoleon led the French in a series of wars which would eventually make him one of the most powerful men in 19th century Europe. Though a man who initially hated the French for their Crosican invasion, he eventually identified himself as a french man and after a series of undefeated wars in other parts of Europe, he emerged highly influential in the French political circles and eventually became the Head of State of the French government. This was followed by the great victories over the Czar of Russia and the age old enemy Austria and it was not a long time after this that he proclaimed himself as the Emperor.
Napoleon was just 32 when he became the emperor of France, more special since he had ascended from the ranks. His one sided love interest Josephine, who had unwillingly married to him and had continued her sexual amours with her other lovers even after marriage, was crowned the Empress. But Napoleon had hardly any time to spend at home since he almost spent about 18 hours of his day planning his military pursuits or the development of France. Great boulevards were planed, beautiful bridges built, canals constructed and great architecture flourished under his rule. The civil code that was passed under his rule became the guiding light to most of the constitutions of Europe in the future. Greats like Beethoven praised his character until later when Beethoven's opinion changed owing to what came to be called the power hungry phase of Napoleon's later years. Napoleon ruled France for a few years before a coup by British and Russian allies killed vast number of French Soldiers in a surprise invasion of France itself. Napoleon himself picked up his pen, resigned as the emperor of France and stepped down from the throne. The British sent into exile, in a remote island near Crosica, from which he later formed an army of his own, and marched back to Paris and successfully dethroned the puppet emperor Louis. His very return to France was like a rush of fresh blood into the French masses. He reinstated himself as teh emperor of France and led France to a series of wars called the famous Napoleonic wars when with the conquest of Prussia, he became the undisputed master of Europe. Napoleon now feared nobody. He was a great emperor with his fame reaching far and wide. Now a much hard headed man, he divorced his wife Josephine and married a young 19 year old daughter of the Royal family of Austria and within a year got a heir to his throne. Josephine remained his lucky star and love till the end. With Napoleon now becoming a family man, and old a weary of wars, he was losing grip of his warfare prowess-es. In the mean time, the only undefeated power, Britain, that wielded its complete monopoly over sea and its colonies was now the most ambitious target of Napoleon. With the betrayal of the Czar Alexander and his allying with the British, a totally infuriated Napoleon waged an offensive near the Belgian front at Waterloo, even after repeated fatal warnings. This was his last war where due to the sheer number of the enemy's army the French and Napoleon suffered a terrible defeat. Napoleon took the sip of poison which he carried in his pocket always but however that did not kill him. He was taken a prisoner again this time, and exiled to a far off island of St Helena in the west coast of Africa where he spent his remaining years in boredom and defeat. The news of the death of Josephine and his own France being ruled by the Allied puppets worried him till the end. However an eternal optimist that he was, he pursued in writing the story of his life in his St Helena days, before his death five and a half years later. A great soul breathed his last thus. In his final few days, he told his companions, "I shall rise to the highest level of sublimity not because of my conquests and successes but because of my defeat. Christ's glory lies in his crucifixion"
