Words: 1957
First, how did Napoleon rise up and embrace his conquering persona? Second, how did Napoleon’s greatest flaws lead him to crash and burn towards the end of his life, but what does a great leader truly consist of? The definition of a good leader can go on and on, but there were specific details that made Napoleon rise as a conqueror, and also things that led to his inevitable downfall. In his life, Napoleon proved that he was not a person to be made an enemy of. There are many qualities that Napoleon held that made him the leader we know from history books.
Many people argue that Napoleon’s quality as a commander led him to both his success and his downfall. Early in Napoleon’! Career, he gained trust and support from many people by showing that he was for the people. Bonaparte made a display of republican virtues; cautiously avoiding all ostentation, and in this respect, put himself on a footing of perfect quality with persons of ordinary standards in society. 1 Napoleon created a reputation for himself and gained support of the pope. Smart man like Bonaparte knew that he needed to have the support of the people.
In his career, whether it was just a normal citizen, or a soldier, Napoleon had a way with his words to gain supporters. Bonaparte played HTH ole of what politicians do today, which is to say what the people want to hear. For example, Napoleon preached about equality and liberty constantly so the hopes of the people and soldiers are constantly renewed. 2 Some people even thought of him as a military genius. 3 He made smart and spontaneous decisions on a battlefield. In addition, Napoleon also was adept at organizing and rounding up his troops.
He built moral for his troops by constantly encouraging them, and gave the soldiers medals as a positive reinforcement for their work. “He proposed that a medal should be given to IM, with a sum of money, and in his honor he established a prize of sixty thousand francs, to be awarded to anyone who should make a discovery…. “4 This example shows that Bonaparte not only gave medals to his soldiers, but also gifts of francs. Besides the anticipation of rewards, his charisma made him a leader people could willingly follow.
These are one of the successful traits Napoleon had that led him to become a leader that was admired. He was well respected, because he constantly rewarded people for hard work, and he constantly raised people up. This is what a good successful leader olds on to. One Napoleonic scholar calculated that Napoleon had only lost out of 34 battles between 1792 and 181 5, during which he became a very powerful man. Carl von Casualties even hailed Napoleon as,” the God of War. “5 With a record of accomplishment that fearsome, it is easy to see why many people were afraid of Napoleon, other than the sheer size of his army.
With that name, Napoleon became well known and feared among the nation in Europe. Whenever a battle would break out, Napoleon would focus not on conquering the land, but on how to destroy the opposing army. “There are n. Recipe or definite rules,” Napoleon also stated, ‘the art of war is simple, everything is a matter of execution. “6 Napoleon always had a clear goal, he believed that good timing and improvisation was all that was necessary. In this nature, Napoleon was successful. He always led in smart tactical ways, but also made adjustments according to what was best.
Some people even might say he was more lucky than clever, but many of Napoleon’s battles were won by planning, but more importantly smart improvising. Napoleon made decisions based off of what he thought was best, he excelled at peopling his resources, using a keen understanding of terrain to slowly take key areas. 8 This was until later in his life, when he lost some Of his sharpen* as he became increasingly obsessed with conquering Europe, and with many years of war under his belt, his body could only take on so much.
While in power, Napoleon established himself as a skilled as legislator and diplomat, study of these achievements could rival those of his campaigns for size and depth, but it is seen that his talents were deeply flawed and even fervent supporters admit that Napoleon made mistakes. G During the 1 sass, Napoleon was established as the First Consul, he was a dictator with a constitution written protecting his power. Without an extraordinary capacity for work, no man could have done this. “Napoleon would work until eleven o’clock at night, and be up again at three in the morning.
Frequently he slept but an hour, and came back as fresh as ever. No secretary could keep up to him, and his ministers sometimes went to sleep in the Council, worn out with the length of the session. “Come, citizen ministers,” he would cry, “we must earn the money the French nation gives us. ” 10 As you can see, Napoleon used his power somewhat responsibly. He preached to his ministers that the would have to use the French nation’s tax money usefully, and not waste it. He slept for very little and showed that he was very ambitious. Napoleon was not the best legislative leader, but he did a good job.
Bonaparte wanted to create a great and strong country for the French. Even though later on in his career many people said, he became very power hungry. After years of battle, in order to fill the gaps of the empire, Napoleon was forced to start recruiting less skilled men. With the recruitment of less skilled men, tactics became less sophisticated and more wasteful in terms of human lives. Napoleon still gained success, but at the lost of great casualties. 11 Later on IR Napoleon’s campaign, he started sacrificing quality for numbers; this was a slow start to his slow downfall.
In 181 2, he decided to start attacking Russia, with a vast army numbering in the six hundred thousand. An army like that is very hard to control and hard to feed. Napoleon was aiming to take the Russian army head on, because he would dominate the battle that way, but the Russians just kept retreating. They would slash and burn everything while they retreated, so the French would be traveling in the cold and at the same mime be without food. 1 2 Napoleon saw this, yet he didn’t turn around and postpone the invasion, instead he kept going.
His pride would not let him turn around, even though his men were losing moral and starving. The invasion of Russia, greatly hindered Napoleon’s power at the time. The success of many great leaders sometimes comes from a very humble beginning, but in the midst of all these years of battle, Bonaparte became very obsessed with gaining more and more power, that he forgot what he started with and lost power slowly. Heavy campaign after heavy campaign took a toll on his troops and himself as a person. If you see portraits of Napoleon, his health is clearly deteriorating. The emperor’s refusal to acknowledge anything except French self-interest eventually drove the other powers to reorganize and to coalesce for long enough to ensure his defeat. His inability to compromise forced them to conclude that there was no prospect of a lasting settlement and that therefore renewed war was the only course of action. “1 3 The quote clearly states that, Napoleon was a great leader to the French, but became self centered, because he started to try to conquer everything near him. Instead of making friends, he made enemies all around him.
His hunger for power caused countries to form together and fight against him. This is one of the great flaws Napoleon had towards the end of his career. Bonaparte never compromised; he always strives to get what he wants. Towards the end of his long career, Napoleon had many countries against him. “The dominance of Napoleon and the war of 1813 and 1814 united all the European nations, summoned by their monarchs and fired by the call of freedom and citizenship. “14 The quote stated that, because of Napoleon’s great power all these countries gathered together just to defeat Napoleon.
Napoleon did eave allies for a certain time, but these allies were more allies made, because they feared the power of Napoleon. The allies lay on the right bank of the Rhine. The battle of Aviators had given the Spanish boundary to Wellington, and the English and Spanish armies were on the frontier. The allies that remained with the French were not to be trusted. “All Europe was marching with us a year ago,” Napoleon said; “to-day all Europe is marching against us. “1 5 This quote states that during this battle to Wellington, the general talked about how their allies from a year ago, had become enemies.
This was al from Napoleon’s selfishness to seek the best for the French. His single- minded patriotism led him to fall into a pattern he normally strays from. Napoleon was the first man to help perpetuate a European wide warfare that lasted for 20 years. 1 6 Just think about how Napoleon started out as normal general and eventually became one of the most feared persons in all of Europe. After seeing many success’ Napoleon had as a military and political leader. Napoleons great success was inevitably shattered by the later times in his conquests. He had serious flaws, we learned that Napoleon was very good t fighting decisive battles.
It was proven in Russia that Napoleon seems to have lost his cool by chasing Russia with no steady food supply. “The more serious flaw in Napoleon’s intellectual makeup was his impatience, his low boredom threshold, his sacrifice of reason in favor of imagination and his desire to make policy on the wing, to improvise and to sacrifice simple solutions for more complicated. ” 17 It can be seen throughout his lifetime that Napoleon was impatient and always wanted to jump into battle and improvise through everything. It is seen early in his career, that people were often thrown off guard and Napoleon was proven successful.
It was until later in Napoleon’s career that these habits started to stab him in the back. His impatience proved to be a fatal flaw in his career, this led to the fall of his army when he split into two fronts. Even with early success in his strategies, as great leaders must learn, people must change with the times and cure needs Of the world. As we can see, Napoleon Bonaparte was a great milt leader. He had an almost never-ending list of success. Bonaparte proved he had many traits of a great leader. He was devoted, loyal to the nation, was easy to follow. Napoleon had charisma of a great leader.
Many soldier followed him to their death, because of what he spoke and preached ABA Napoleon was truly a great leader, but in the end, he did fall. He made mistakes that many great generals make. Bonaparte underestimated his enemies when he split his army in two fronts. After splitting into two frown Napoleon struggled. Even when conquered and exiled, Napoleon still can back and tried to fight in Waterloo, 18 where he lost tragically. Overall Napoleon proved he was a strong and great leader, but in the end his owl pride, impatience and greed led to his inevitable downfall. Notes . Array Edward Marmoreal.