Select 5 interesting events from Napoléon Bonaparte’s lifer?

when the event happened, what happened, and why it was important.

Select 5 interesting events from Napoléon Bonaparte’s lifer?theater

1. May 1779. Napoleon is admitted to a French military school. This of course, made his subsequent career possible. Also, it forced him to learn French! though throughout the rest of his life according to some reports he retained his Italian/Corsican accent.

2. October 1795. Street fighting in Paris, in a crisis of legitimacy for the post-revolutionary government known as the Directory. Napoleon may have saved the government with a well-directed "whiff of grapeshot." At any rate, the members of the govt certainly believed his role had been crucial, and this put him on the political as well as the military map.

3. March 1798. Napoleon proposes a military expedition to Egypt, then part of the Ottoman Empire. The idea was not only to protect French trade interests in the area but to block British access to India. Some visionaries were thinking of a canal in the region even this early. The Directory approved the plan.

4. August 1799. Napoleon abandons his army in Egypt and returns to France. The Egyptian campaign had been a mixed bag -- some successes, but the occupation was stagnating, and he had ambitions that could best be realized in the mother country.

5. November 1799. Napoleon stages a military coup, overthrows the Directorate, and installs himself as First Consul of a new government, the Consulate.

Select 5 interesting events from Napoléon Bonaparte’s lifer?london theatre opera theater

I think one of the most telling--and symbolic--events in Napoleon's life was the way in which he was crowned Emperor of France. In 1805, when he was to be crowned emperor, Napoleon enlisted the Pope to place the crown on his head (believing that having the Pope do it would add credibility to the action). Just as the Pope was about to do so, Napoleon stood up, grabbed the crown from the Pope's hands, and crowned himself! By doing so he was either saying, "I am a megalomaniac who will share power with, and recognize power in, no one else!" or, "I do not recognize the authority of the Catholic Church." Either way, it was pure Napoleon!