FREE ESSAY ON NAPLEON AND WELLINGTON

NAPLEON AND WELLINGTON

Napoleon Bonaparte and Arthur, Duke of Wellington
The careers of Napoleon Bonaparte and Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington,
contrasted in many different ways. The manner in which both rose to glory was quite
dissimilar. Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica on August 15, 1769 and was thought to
be the most formidable military commander since Alexander the great. He was a bright,
charismatic child of noble background. As a boy, he was described as good -willed and
generous. At nine, through his father's influence, Napoleon went off to military school
in Paris at the expense of King Louis XVI. It was here that it was discovered that he had
and amazing brain capacity and was considered a genius, yet nobody could imagine his
success and all of the dead bodies he left in his wake for the sake of peace.
Wellesley, on the other hand, was born on May 1, 1769, in Dublin and was also of noble
background. As an adult, Wellesley would rise to rule the British empire, but as a
schoolboy his future looked grim and lacked the genius that Napoleon possessed. His
situation became so desperate that he was sent to military school, where his
metamorphosis was astonishing. He found that he enjoyed the army and needed it to
establish a career in life. He was given the title "1st Duke of Wellington" due to his
military successes.
In school, Napoleon was always the leader and could always win at games due to his
strategies and his impeccability at outwitting the other team. He was attracted to the
military for a number of reasons and he had secret weapons such as his extraordinary
intelligence. The military schools of Napoleon and Wellesley never engaged in competition
so they never met. Napoleon graduated military school in 1785, at the age of 16, and
joined the artillery as a second lieutenant. He studied firepower and trained in the
artillery, which would help Napoleon become a genius in this field. Meanwhile, in 1787,
Wellesley was commissioned to the British army and, although he was extremely ambitious,
his youth sometimes showed. In 1790, Wellesley was elected to the Irish parliament and
participated in the unsuccessful campaign of 1794-95 against French forces in the
Netherlands. Upon returning to England in 1805, he was rewarded with knighthood.
After the Revolution began, Napoleon became a lieutenant colonel in the Corsican National
Guard but, in 1793, Corsica declared independence, and Bonaparte, a French patriot and a
Republican, fled to France with his family. He was assigned, as a captain, to an army
besieging Toulon, a naval base that, aided by a British fleet, was in revolt against the
republic. Replacing a wounded artillery general, he drove the British fleet from the
harbor, and Toulon fell. Napoleon was then promoted to brigadier general at the age of 24
and in 1796 he married Josephine de Beauharnais, the widow of an aristocrat guillotined
in the Revolution and the mother of two children.
Also in 1796, Bonaparte was made commander of the French army in Italy and due to his
victories, he became quite well known and respected by the French. In the same year,
Wellesley, now holding the rank of colonel in the army, went to India, where he received
his first independent command. Wellesley's brother was appointed governor-general of
India in 1797, and Arthur took part in several military campaigns and returned to England
in 1805. In 1798, Bonaparte led an expedition to Turkish-ruled Egypt, which he conquered
yet his fleet was destroyed. Undismayed, he reformed the Egyptian government and law,
abolishing serfdom and feudalism and guaranteeing basic rights. In 1799, he won a
smashing victory over the Turks but failed to capture Syria.
Napoleon then decided to leave his army and return to save France, where he joined a
conspiracy against the government. He and his colleagues seized power in the coup d'etat
of November 1799, and established a new regime called the Consulate. Under its
constitution, Bonaparte, as first consul, had almost dictatorial powers. In 1802 the
constitution was revised to make Bonaparte consul for life and then in 1804 it made him
emperor. He reorganized the administration, simplified the court system, and all schools
in France were put under centralized control. He standardized French law in the Napoleon
Code and they guaranteed the rights and liberties won in the Revolution, including
equality before the law and freedom of religion. 
In 1806, Napoleon conquered the kingdom of Naples and the Dutch republic and destroyed
the Prussian army. Napoleon made an ally of Czar Alexander I and greatly reduced the size
of Prussia and added many new states to his empire. In all his new kingdoms, the Napoleon
Code was established as law, feudalism and serfdom were abolished, and freedom of
religion was established. Wellesley was involved in the struggle against Napoleon and he
took part in military campaigns against France. In 1809 Napoleon beat the Austrians
(again) and abolished the Papal States. He divorced Josephine because she hadn't borne
him an heir, and married the Habsburg duchess Marie Louise, daughter of the Austrian
emperor, who gave birth to Napoleon's son in 1811. 
In 1808, Wellesley was given command of the British forces in Portugal and in the
Peninsular War (1808-1814), Wellesley's troops won a series of victories. In 1812,
Napoleon launched in invasion of Russia that ended in a disastrous retreat from Moscow
because half of his troops were lost due to the severe winter and this was the first step
to Napoleon's downfall. When Napoleon returned from Russia, his enemies awaited him and
Wellesley's troops pushed Napoleon off the Iberian Peninsula. Even though Wellesley was
facing French troops in battle, he had never before come face to face with Napoleon
during this time. Napoleon had lost and Wellesley was made 1st duke of Wellington. In
April 1814, Napoleon's marshals refused to continue the struggle and Napoleon was exiled
to the Mediterranean island of Elba, and the monarch of the Bourbon family, Louis XVIII,
returns to rule France. 
Wellington had become the embodiment of the ideal knight after Napoleon was conquered and
was made British ambassador for France. Things went bad for Louis XVIII after Napoleon's
banishment and Napoleon felt that if he could get back to Paris he could exploit the
situation. After 11 months of banishment, Napoleon escaped from Elba and on March 1,
1815, he landed on the coast of France and chose to take the long, hard route to Paris
through the Alps. Napoleon had doubts as to whether he could take over France once more
but as he marched through the Alps his doubts went away. The people of France welcomed
him back and men began to march with Napoleon through the Alps. Louis XVIII sent troops
to put a stop to Napoleon but Napoleon, unarmed, walked out in front of the king's army
and addressed. Afterwards, one thousand men including a sea of soldiers marched to Paris
behind Napoleon and Louis XVIII fled the country. 
When Napoleon arrived in Paris, jubilant crowds surrounded him. He has conquered the
entire country of France without a drop of blood spilled. Napoleon made overtures to his
neighbors, expressing his desires for peace, but they didn't want to hear of it. By June
1, three months after reclaiming the throne, Napoleon had a standing army in place and
complete control. On March 17 many European countries each agreed to contribute troops
for an invasion to be assembled in Belgium near the French border and Wellington was put
in command of the British troops. Napoleon learned of this invasion, which was to be
launched on July 1, 1815, and he quickly determined to attack the allies on their own
ground before their army could take shape. On June 16, he defeated most of the Prussian
troops led by Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher. On June 17, Napoleon
went in pursuit of Wellington's army but the day of the big battle was forced to the 18th
because of muddy roads and the rain. During the stormy night of the seventeenth,
Wellington had received assurances from Blucher that strong reinforcements from his army
would arrive during the day. Wellington then decided to resist Napoleon until Blucher's
forces would arrive, but the muddy roads made it difficult to travel so the battle
started before the arrival of the Prussian troops.
After a night of rain, the British and French troops met at Waterloo and it was one of
the greatest ironies of life that Wellington was already acquainted with the land and
knew its attributes. To the French, who didn't thoroughly examine the battlefield, it
looked flat, but Wellington knew that it actually consisted of a series of rolling hills
and wasn't, in actuality, flat at all. On June 18, 1815, after 46 years, the two military
geniuses came face to face. Napoleon was confident that he would win and it never crossed
his mind that Wellington had never lost a major campaign. Because the ground was
saturated with water, the French artillery wou                                           
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
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Napoleon was indecisive about what he was going to do on the battlefield. The British
then lost control of a farmhouse that was on the battlegrounds, which was Napoleon's
smartest move and the British were now in trouble. Napoleon was faced with a decision and
didn't allow the Imperial guard to attack at first. Later, with the expected arrival of
the Prussians at any time, Napoleon led the Imperial Guard himself. The future of the
French was on the line with this decision but the British remained where they were. The
French Imperial Guard attacked in columns and as long as they remained in columns,
Wellington felt they still had a chance at defeating the French. The British troops fired
and attacked the Imperial Guard. The Imperial Guard retreated for the first time in
history and the French army was disintegrating. The British cavalry then attacked, the
Prussians arrived and Napoleon fled to Paris with the Imperial Guard. 
Napoleon was exiled for the second and last time. He was sent to the island of St.
Helena, where he spent the remainder of his life. Wellington remained in France for the
next three years as head of the allied army of occupation and returned to become prime
minister of England.