Published on March 7th, 2012 | by Jonathan Gifford0
Napoleon first demonstrates his leadership skills: The Siege of Toulon
Napoleon’s first opportunity to demonstrate his exceptional leadership skills came with the French Revolution – the dramatic social upheaval that swept away all of France’s previous power structures and hierarchies, giving this apparently unremarkable young man the opportunity to step onto the world stage.
The young student from Corsica
Napoleon Bonaparte was christened Napoleone di Buonaparte, the son of a family of minor Corsican aristocrats who had moved to Corsica from the Italian mainland in the sixteenth century. The governor of Corsica, a family friend, helped to secure Napoleon a place at the Royal School of Brienne in north-central France: a kind of French prep school for the aristocracy.
The education was provided by the state (which, at this time, meant by the monarchy) and the Buonaparte’s had needed to prove that they had the necessary four generations of nobility that would qualify them for admission. Though the school was not an officer-cadet school as such, many of the aristocratic French youngsters aspired, like Napoleon, to a military career. Young Napoleon began his studies at Brienne at the tender age of nine.
Napoleon went on to study at the military academy at Troyes, in Northern France, and subsequently won a place at the elite École Militaire Royale in Paris, completing the two-year course in only one year and graduating as second lieutenant of artillery in January 1786, at the age of sixteen. He had been a rather solitary student – mocked for his Corsican accent and gaunt appearance.
He studied hard, showing great ability in mathematics and geography and reading widely, especially in military history. He was intrigued by the battle tactics and strategy of Alexander the Great, who had conquered most of the known world in the third century BCE. Alexander was to be a lasting influence on Napoleon’s military and strategic thinking.
‘I take but one meal a day, at three; that is good for my health.’
The Buonaparte family’s fortunes took a turn for the worse when Napoleon’s father died in 1785. His brothers Lucien and Joseph abandoned their own studies and returned to Corsica to support the family: Napoleon continued his studies under conditions of real hardship.
It is possible that the military academy had allowed Napoleon to take his examination early so that he would at least earn a meagre salary as a newly-commissioned officer. He passed his examinations at a less than impressive forty-second place, and took up his post with an artillery regiment. Even then, Napoleon’s army pay was barely enough to survive on.
In a poignant letter to his mother, which attempts to put a brave face on his condition, Napoleon wrote: ‘I have no other resource but work. I dress but once in eight days; I sleep but little since my illness [Napoleon’s health had nearly broken down late in 1788]; it is incredible; I retire at ten (to save candles) and rise at four in the morning. I take but one meal a day, at three; that is good for my health.’
For the rest of his life, perhaps as a result of the training provided by these hard times, Napoleon was able to maintain a punishing workload – both as a soldier and as an administrator – with little sleep and on a frugal diet.
When the revolution broke out, Napoleon returned to Corsica to support the Corsican nationalist movement. He became the leader of a group of volunteers, and appealed to the new revolutionary National Assembly in Paris for aid. He was ecstatic when the Assembly declared that Corsica was part of the new France. The newly-graduated officer in the army of Louis XVI had become an ardent supporter of the Revolution.
To grasp the significant moment
It was not until 1793 that Napoleon was first able to demonstrate his ability to grasp the significant moment, to devise the successful strategy, to lead from the front and by example. In this year – the year in which Louis XVI had been guillotined, at the beginning of what was to become ‘The Terror’ –