What were Napoleon\'s greatest assets and his greatest shortcomings? Was Napoleo

Question

What were Napoleon's greatest assets and his greatest shortcomings? Was Napoleon a blessing or a curse on France and Europe? How did the French and other Europeans view him at the time, and later? You can pick what you might emphasize as most important, and then add another subtopic that grabs your interest when discussing. But it is better to concentrate in one or two areas and be thorough. Here is a great website with tons of information on Napoleon. Be sure to cover at least one primary source in your discussion.

Explanation / Answer

Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the greatest minds and an exceptional example of a military person in the entire history of warfare.

He was very thoughtful and successful in self promotion and was able to make the masses understand and support his views through his campaign. He established an ideal image of himself among the people which perfectly synced with his ambitions. Also by promising his own soldiers victory over rivals, he won their support and loyalty. He also introduced a system of awards and honours to his soldiers to further gain their trust. All of this indicates that Napoleon considered morale, loyalty,trust and support of his people to play a key role towards success.

He had an amazing knowledge of war and was very observant about the simple details. Complete transformation of the art of warfare wasn't the main highlight of his command but the innovative ways that he applied to use the existing technology to make things work. He used Speed and Mobility as his main strategy and always used to deploy specially trained troops who can hold superior opposing forces until help arrived. He was one of the best in making war strategies and as he was good at observing things very closely, he planned the strategies beforehand, sometimes even days and months before the actual war occurred.

One of the easily highlighted weakness of Napoleon was his obsession towards winning. He became severely obsessed with war and winning over property of his rivals he generated a troop so large that it was impossible to manage them. He was exiled to Elba after his failed attempt to unite the whole of Europe under one crown. Napoleon then suffered a loss of confidence and he began to trust things that weren't real. He wasn't able to rule for a prolonged duration and the institutions established by him didn't last for a long time. His attempts to invade Spain and Russia were met my increase in hatred among the people he conquered.

Napoleon's reign was a blessing as during his reign, nationalism in France was on all-time high.

Howeve, his death brought 100 years of peace until WWI.

The French to this date adore and admire for the ruler he was. But the same can't be said for the rest of the world. The people whom he conquered had a strong hatred against him. Today, he is one of the most populat historic rulers of all time and thus, we can safely say that people consider him as one of the greatest miliatry leaders of all time.

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