Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio on August 15, 1769, 2019 thus marks the Emperor's 250th birthday!!
It is therefore quite natural that the City of Ajaccio has organized throughout 2019 a series of events in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte!
Let's make a bit of history:
Napoleon I was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio and died on May 5, 1821 on the island of St. Helena.
When he came to power in 1799, he was Prime Minister Consul until 2 August 1802, then consul for life until May 18, 1804.
In France Napoleon
- Reorganizes administration and place prefects at the head of the departments
- Creates 1800 the Bank of France
- Creates 1802, the Legion of Honour
- Creates in 1803, a new currency, the franc;
- In 1804, he had the Civil Code published.
He was then crowned emperor on December 2, 1804, by Pope Pius VII.
He tried to break the coalitions set up and financed by the Kingdom of Great Britain and which, since 1792, brought together the European monarchies against France and its regime born of the Revolution.
For this, he led the French armies from Italy to the Nile and from Austria to Prussia and Poland: his many brilliant victories (Arcole, Rivoli, Pyramids, Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland), in rapid military campaigns, dislocating the four first coalitions.
Successive peacees, which put an end to each of these coalitions, strengthened France and gave it a degree of power hitherto rarely equalled in Europe, during the peace of Tilsit (1807).
It brings the French territory to 134 departments in 1812.
He is also President of the Republic from 1802 to 1805, then king of Italy from 1805 to 1814, but also Ombudsman of the Swiss Confederation from 1803 to 1813 and protector of the Confederation of the Rhine from 1806 to 1813.
His victories allow him to to annex large areas of France and govern most of the world's continental Europe by placing his family members on the thrones of several kingdoms: Joseph on that of Naples then of Spain, Louis on that of Holland, Jerome on that of Westphalia and his brother-in-law Joachim Murat in Naples.
After this successful start, Bonaparte was defeated by the Allied army during the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium on 18 June 1815. He was banished to the British island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean, where he died on 5 May 1821.
This year's 2019 programme was available at Villa Serena.
To go further: "Napoleon's Great Atlas"