By: Eric A.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), (aka Napoleon 1), was a French military officer who took over France, led it successfully for 16 years until he was deposed and died in exile at the age of 51. He was born in Corsica, studied at the French military academy and was made a second lieutenant in the army when he graduated in 1785. He helped the French Revolution (1789-1799) overthrow the monarchy, after which he seized power for himself. Nine years after King Louis XVI was deposed, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France, which was a big disappointment to revolutionary admirers around the world. He was an early supporter of the “visual” telegraph, which he felt would help him rule by letting him quickly communicate to the nation. During his reign, the service area of the telegraph system expanded significantly. Allegedly, when he took power he used the telegraph to send the message “Paris is quiet and the good citizens are content” to put the country at ease. However, by 1814, his increasingly erratic behavior, such as taking advice from a Little Red Genie he allegedly met in Egypt and a series of military defeats had weakened his power so he was deposed and exiled from France to the island of Elba. From there he tried to retake France, but this attempt was halted at the battle of Waterloo. He was then exiled from France again in 1815, this time to the island of Saint Helena. This is where he died of cancer, not poison as was originally assumed, in 1821.
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