Little Tyrant of Terror“In war there is only one favorable moment; the great art is to grasp it” (Napoleon Bonaparte). A man small in stature but commanding great respect on the battlefields of Europe, he led his men to victory dozens of times without knowing defeat. It killed thousands of people and left others starving, dying and bloodied along the way. He took thousands more prisoners and rendered their armies useless. He was a strong, courageous and brutal man. Napoleon ruled his empire with an iron fist. What was once a glimmer of hope after the revolution quickly became a shadow over all of France. Promises of peace gave way to realities of war and bloodshed. Napoleon was a man of humble origins, who became Emperor of France and one who became known as one of the greatest tyrants in the history of the world. Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 in Corsica to a family of "nobility" (BBC History). Napoleon's parents, Charles and Letizia Ramolino Bonaparte, thought it was in his best interest to attend military school for much of his early life. He was sent to France to begin his studies. Although he was nine when he started school, he never considered himself French until much later in his life. Here he began to learn the basics of warfare that would later prove invaluable to his successes on the battlefield (Godechot). During his studies he attended three different academies in Autun, the Military College of Brienne and the Military Academy of Paris. “In September 1785 he graduated from the military academy, ranking 42nd out of a class of 58” (Godechot). He was soon commissioned as a second lieutenant in Oldham 2, the artillery corps stationed in Valence. He continued his studies of war and became one of the......means of paper......, who succeeded in becoming Emperor of France, and one who became known as a tyrant. However, he did much for France and was held in high regard by his people for most of his rule. He led France into a period of prosperity and progress and gave them a strong leader. However he also had a taste for war that could not be satisfied. This led him to be guilty of war crimes and tyranny. Europe as a whole benefited from the life, reign and death of Napoleon Bonaparte, the petty tyrant of terror. Works Cited http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/bonapartenapoleon/a/bionapoleon.htm Robert Wilde http://www. notablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Napoleon-Bonaparte.html JM Thompson http://www.biography.com/articles/Napoleon-I-9420291?part=17 Jaques Godechot http://www.bbc.co.uk/ history/ Historical_figures/bonaparte_napoleon.shtmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon