Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/592

 CHAPTER XXXV THE CAREER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE I. How GENERAL BONAPARTE BECAME RULER OF FRANCE 784. The Napoleonic Period. The former military leaders of France had usually belonged to the nobility. During the Revolution they had either run away or been discredited as suspected enemies of the new Republic. Those who led the French troops to victory under the Reign of Terror were for the most part sprung from the people and had been selected by the Committee of Public Safety on account of their ability and not on account of aristocratic birth. Among the new commanders there was one who was destined to dominate the history of Europe for fifteen years as no man before him had ever done. The influence of Napoleon Bonaparte was indeed so overmaster- ing that the epoch we are now entering may properly be called the Napoleonic Period. 785. Early Life of Bonaparte. General Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica, August 15, 1769. He was of Italian origin and spoke Italian as a boy, although the island had been annexed to France shortly before his birth. He was sent to a French military school and then entered the French army. He managed to show his extraordinary skill in military matters, and in the spring of 1796, when twenty-seven years of age, he was made commander in chief of an army which the French Directory had organized to invade Italy. This was the beginning of a career of conquest which hardly finds a parallel in history, except that of Alexander the Great. 786. Bonaparte's Italian Campaign (1796-1797). The French Republic had driven back its enemies in the autumn of 1793 and 45