Napoleon Bonaparte was one of most brilliant individuals in all of European history. A masterful soldier who worked his way up the military chain, he is popularly known as one of the most tactically minded and intellectual generals in the military. Napoleon came into the role of the French administrator knowing it would difficult due to the pain and anguish that the country endured during the French Revolution. The typical notion surrounding Napoleon is that he was a brilliant general and exceptional leader; however, this is debatable when his mistakes are examined in comparison to the main ideals of the French Revolution. On the small island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769. Born to two prominent aristocrat parents Napoleon would become one of the most famous Frenchman leaders in the eighteenth to nineteenth century. In the beginning, however, Napoleon was born during a time of turbulent turmoil when French supremacy was raining wild on the island of Corsica. These events caused Napoleon to spend his childhood despising the French (Forrest 23).
The head of the Bonaparte family was Napoleon's father Carlo, who was a lawyer and representative of the Corsican government in the French Parliament and frequently visited Versailles, France (Sadowski; 1 of 4, and Forrest 28). Carlo, a strong supporter of Corsican independence, eventually realized the battle was over and began to concede the ideals of the French society (Sadowski, 1 of 4). Seeing his father taking on these ideals generated a strong animosity towards his father- in a young Napoleon's eyes his father was succumbing to the enemy (Sadowski, 1 of 4). By the age of ten Napoleon's father, while on one of his trips to Versailles, had secured his son a scholarship to the prestigious royal military academy in France (Greenblatt 8). This highly respected school was a huge stepping-stone for Napoleon as he could study along French nobility and eventually work his way up the social status.