Napoleon Bonaparte Power Hungry Tyrant

Napoleon: The Power-Hungry Tyrant The rich history of Europe is a beautifully created story ranging from romance, art, and prosperity, to bloody warfare, world powers, and deception. Certain rulers, whether monarchs, dictators, or a body of people in power, have shown clear traits of their true purposes. Possibly being either angelic, and looking out for the good of the world, or sinister, selfish, and searching for domination. The majority of dictators are frowned upon, however some were considered saviors, heros, legends to the people. Napoleon, however, is not one of these mythical people. Napoleon Bonaparte was a prodigious general of warfare, having gone to military school at the age of 9, and succeeding exceptionally. He won a series

However, Napoleon noticed this, and chose to capitalize on it, thirsty for power. In the beginning, he was successful, so the majority of the population ignored his dictatorship, but the fall of his empire and his own sanity revealed his true goals. Napoleon was clearly shown to be a power-hungry tyrant through his fall, with his bloodlust and continental control, obvious ignorance to the French population and their revolutionary views, and the iron grip of his public image. Napoleon’s legendary streak of victories and overall dominance of the battlefield shown through very clearly, but only appeared when he was calm and collected. During these moments, he showed very little sympathy to the soldiers he used as pawns to advance his reign and power over Europe. He manipulated the people, using words of flattery to raise their morale and send them off, which worked in the beginning. This was shown as he slowly lost his talent as a strategist, and became overconfident. Napoleon would do nothing but look for wars, battles, anything to prove his worth, which ultimately resulted in his downfall. He killed hundreds of thousands of people, whether his own

He ruled as a dictator, ignoring completely the ideas of democracy presented by the French Revolution, sacrificing political liberty, even going as far as to crowning himself emperor. He took advantage of their hope and desires, and achieved immense power by quickly working up the ranks. While at first it may have seemed all was well and going in a positive direction, Napoleon began to look for more opportunities for land rather than the benefit of his people. He was constantly seeking for power, land, and conquests of countries to increase his power alone. Sending an invasion force into Spain, wanting to get to Portugal to accept his foolish Continental System, he created anguish among the Spanish. Displeased, Napoleon dethroned the Spanish king and put his brother on the throne, which outraged the Spanish people. He looked down on them however, and thought nothing more of them than peasants, but then had to fight them. Napoleon disregarded their nationalism, and didn’t expect it at all, despite expecting that from his own people. His obliviousness to their loyalty reveals his true feelings about his subjects, which are virtually non-existent, as he did not care for them at all, and didn’t think much of them. Historian Charles J. Esdaile concludes: “What Napoleon wanted in the end was not the benefit of his subjects, but more men, more ships, and more money, to