Napoleon was a famous military strategist, politician, and founder of the First French Empire. He was also known as emperor of the French. France's predecessor was the Charlemagne Empire in the 8th century AD, and everything Napoleon did was to recreate the glory of the Charlemagne Empire. After the division of Louis and the Treaty of Verdun, the Charlemagne Empire was divided into three, each of which became the prototype of today's Germany, France and Italy. But at this time, the Carolingian dynasty in ancient France, until around the 10th century AD, a nobleman named Huguecarpé succeeded to the throne, declaring the end of the Carolingian dynasty, and France entered a new historical stage, that is, from franks to modern France - France.
Portrait of Napoleon
The predecessor of France is the end of the point. As we all know, Napoleon came from Corsica, which is also known as napoleon's cradle. But people did not recognize him as French, they called him "the man from Corsica", and after Napoleon was defeated and exiled to the island of Elba, the royalists even called him "the devil of Corsica".
Corsica
Why do the French think so? It turned out that Napoleon was an Italian aristocrat who had settled in Corsica since the 16th century. Corsica originally belonged to Genoa in Italy, the full name of the most noble Genoa Republic, was a city-state, and at that time Italy was divided, the kingdom was numerous, the strongest was the Kingdom of Sardinia, and later Italy was completed on the basis of the Kingdom of Sardinia, but this was already the middle of the 19th century. Back in 1768, Genoa sold Corsica to France, and the Napoleon family naturally became French nationals, and the French king recognized Napoleon's father as a French nobleman for the first time. Napoleon was born in 1769, the year after Corsica sold to France, so in a political sense, Napoleon was French, and Napoleon's education was mostly completed in France, but in the eyes of the French native to the European continent, Napoleon was not a real Frenchman.
Coronation of Napoleon I
Napoleon later climbed up the ladder with his military achievements, and in November 1799 launched the Misty Moon Coup, becoming the first consul of the French Republic, that is, a de facto dictator like Caesar. In 1804, Napoleon changed the French Republic to the French Empire and made his "name" the title of emperor – Napoleon I. To justify it, Napoleon invited Pope Pius VII to Paris to crown him. According to the custom, the coronation place should be in Rome, where even Charlemagne received his blessing; at the time of the coronation, Napoleon took the crown from the pope's hand, put it on himself, and then personally crowned Empress Josephine. All of this highlights Napoleon's supremacy as a conqueror of Europe and the fact that religious patrons were not under the control of the Catholic Church.
Although he was Italian in his ancestors, Napoleon invaded Italy early, making Italy a vassal state of France and crowning himself King of Italy. So, in terms of everything Napoleon did, he was a Frenchman through and through, and he was not only captivated by the glory of French culture and history (Napoleon liked Rousseau very much), but also created a glorious history with his own hands. Or rather, he no longer belonged to any country, but became an independent symbol and symbol, a great conqueror and the founder of the new world.