Napoleon

Napoleon was a tyrant because he betrayed the French Revolution ideals of freedom, equality, and poverty. He was the closest person ever to uniting Europe, but did not get that done. He had so much power and used it to become a tyrant. Everyone hated him and would make fun of him .Cartoonists mocked him with cartoons, and people would laugh about how he was so short, but with a big hat, and belly. Napoleon made 3 main and big mistakes; the continental system, peninsular war, and invasion of Russia. Napoleon failed almost everything he did, very few were accomplished.

On November 1806, Napoleon set up a blockade (a great forcible closing of ports) to prevent all trade and communication with Great Britain, and other European nations. Napoleon called this policy the Continental System, because it was supposed to make continental Europe more self-sufficient. Napoleon also intended it to destroy Great Britain’s commercial and industrial economy. Napoleons’ blockade wasn’t tight enough, that they got aided by the British; smugglers managed to bring cargo from Britain into Europe. The Blockade weakened the British trade but it didn’t destroy it. In addition, the British responded with its own blockade. The British had a stronger navy, so they were better able to make the blockade work. To make the blockade more forceful, the British navy stopped neutral ships bound for the continent and forced them to sail to a British port to be searched and taxed. America ships were among these stopped by the British navy. In 1812, the US congress declared war on Britain which lasted two years.

In 1808, Napoleon made a second mistake, the Peninsular war. He wanted to get Portugal to accept the continental system, so he sent an invasion f...

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...n faced the allied armies of the European powers outside the German city of Leipzig, where they easily beat Napoleon. Napoleon finally surrenders and is exiled to the Island of Elba, a tiny island off the Italian coast. Louis XVII, the new king is quickly overthrown and Napoleon returns from exile. In Belgium, near the village of Waterloo, British and Prussian forces defeat Napoleons new army. This defeat ends the ‘Hundred Days’ (Napoleons last attempt at power).

The British shipped Napoleon to St. Helena, a remote Island in the South Atlantic. There he lived in lonely exile for six years writing his memoirs. Napoleon had died in 1821 of a stomach cancer. Napoleon is mostly known as a tyrant now, but some people believe he is a hero. He’s done too many mistakes to keep his spot as a hero, but enough to make him a tyrant. That is why is mostly called a tyrant now.