Fifty Fast Facts About Napoleon: Fifty Fast Facts, #1

By Middle Grade Guide

Short? Nope. French? Not exactly. There's a lot to know about France's only emperor. Impress your teachers, students, friends and family with these Fifty Fast Facts about Napoloen.  Support your studies with stories that are sure to amaze. Teachers, use this easy-to-follow, curriculum-based text to cover your next unit, lesson, project, test, or essay for Social Studies, Humanities, History, or English class. These 50 Fast Facts link up to the core curriculum and include categories like critical thinking, perspective-taking, and the social, political, and economic impact of world events. Includes sample paragraphs and quick quizzes, with links to downloadable units, lessons, audio, and so much more. 

 

50 Fast Facts are produced by Middle Grade Guide. Bringing together teachers, writers, researchers, and school administrators from all over the world, Middle Grade Guide brings a global perspective to education. Middle school is hard -- Middle Grade Guide makes it easier.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Middle Grade Guide
• Release date: Jun 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201216283

Book preview

Part I

The Life of

Napoleon

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10 Fast Facts

1

Napoleon Wasn’t French

In fact, Napoleon wasn’t even born in France. On August 15, 1769, he was born at his parents’ estate in Ajaccio, Corsica. His father’s family was from Tuscany, and his mother’s side was from Genoa. Both regions now belong to modern-day Italy. The city-state of Genoa had ruled over neighboring Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, for over five hundred years. In 1769, after years of squabbling with its Italian neighbors and a dwindling royal treasury, the rulers of Genoa sold their control of the island over to France. Corsicans were not happy about this new arrangement or the change to their citizenship. They considered themselves citizens of Corsica, and culturally Italian. Not French. The Corsican people, including Napoleon's parents, raised up resistance. Even while pregnant, Napoleon’s mother took part in marches and rallies demanding Corsica's independence. By 1770, however, the same year Napoleon was born, France overpowered the angry citizens of Corsica and assumed full control of the island. Napoleon's father, Carlo, a respected attorney, was persuaded to represent Corsica at the Court of Louis XVI in Paris. Although initially opposed to French rule, his parents soon became supporters of the new government, and the family found itself elevated in wealth, status, and nobility.

2

Napoleon Couldn’t Speak French

This was true, at least, for the first ten years of his life. Napoleon and his seven siblings were fluent in Corsican and Italian, the two languages spoken on their island. When Napoleon was nine years old, he and his older brother, Joseph, were sent to boarding school in France. His classmates endlessly teased young Napoleon because he couldn’t read, write, or speak any French. His teachers even wrote reports saying he wasn’t very bright because he was unable to express himself in the language. Meanwhile, children mocked his Corsican accent and his definitely not French-sounding name by calling him Nabulio instead of Napoleon.

Despite all the teasing, Napoleon eventually mastered French. He also learned to read and write in Latin and ancient Greek. As an adult, Napoleon taught himself to speak the languages of many of the places he conquered. He was nearly fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, could carry on a conversation in German, and even spoke some Arabic. There was one language, however, he regretted not being able to read or write: English.

Although able to speak some English phrases and understand bits of conversation, it wasn’t until the end of his life that Napoleon finally decided to learn the language of the country that had defeated him.

In 1815, the British exiled Napoleon to the remote island of St. Helena. Under the 24-hour guard of British soldiers, Napoleon was joined by Count Emmanuel de Las Cases, a historian and map maker. De Las Cases wrote in his diary that one day early in their journey the fallen emperor confessed he was disappointed that he could not read or write in English. By the time they arrived on the island of St. Helena, Napoleon had made up his mind to learn English. Each day, de Las Cases would teach one to two hours of lessons, until Napoleon could soon read books and write his own letters in English.

3

Napoleon Bonaparte Wasn’t His Real Name

It's incredible, but true. One of the most famous names in history is not the actual name of the first emperor of France. When he first arrived in France in 1779 to attend school, his classmates teased young Napoleon for his foreign-sounding name. In Italian his name is pronounced with all final sounds as Na-po-le-on-e Bu-o-na-par-te , and is a reference to his heritage and the city of Naples ( Napoli in Italian). Despite the taunts throughout his school years and his early military career, Napoleon and the Buonaparte family didn’t change the spelling of their last name until civil war broke out in Corsica in April 1793.

The leader of the civil war, Paoli, detested the family and threatened them with "perpetual execration and infamy if they remained in Corsica. The Buonapartes fled to France, dropping the u and the e in their last name to a more French-sounding Bonaparte as they went. But it wasn't just his own name that Napoleon changed to sound more aristocratic. Napoleon’s first wife, Marie Joseph Rose, had been born in the Caribbean. Her name, Rose, sounded too simple and plain for her husband’s aspirations of grandeur. Napoleon renamed her Josephine and dropped the e" from his own first name, hoping to make them both sound more noble and more French.

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Today we refer to him by his chosen name, Napoleon, and not his original name or even by his last name, as we often do with other historical figures like Caesar or Washington. This is because Napoleon became royalty when he took the title of emperor. Traditionally, historians refer to royals by their first name, such as King Henry VIII, Cleopatra, or Montezuma, and not by their last names like Churchill, Eisenhower, or Stalin.

4

Napoleon Wasn’t the First Napoleone Buonaparte

Although Carlo and Letizia Buonaparte had 11 children, only eight of them survived. Their eldest surviving son, Joseph, was born in 1768, but he wasn’t the first child born into the family. In fact, In fact, it was three years earlier in August 1765 that Letizia gave birth to her first child, a boy she named Napoleone. Tragically, the baby died later that day. He was followed by a baby girl, Maria Anna, who died just days before her first birthday in 1768. The Napoleon we know today was actually their fourth child, and the second to survive into adulthood. Letizia named him in honor of the brother he never met.

5

Napoleon Wasn't a Very Good Student

There's no denying