Napoleon Bonaparte

Cultural  

1. A French general, political leader, and emperor of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Bonaparte rose swiftly through the ranks of army and government during and after the French Revolution and crowned himself emperor in 1804. He conquered much of Europe but lost two-thirds of his army in a disastrous invasion of Russia. After his final loss to Britain and Prussia at the Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled to the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean.

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Because Napoleon was short, overly aggressive men of short stature are sometimes said to have a “Napoleon complex.”

Napoleon's name is often connected with overreaching military ambition and delusions of grandeur.

Example Sentences

In 1800, he was commissioned to create a portrait of the young Corsican general Napoleon Bonaparte.

From The Wall Street Journal

He offers other comparisons: Franco, he says, was “the most dominant figure in Spain since the time of Philip II”—king from 1556 to 1598—and regards Napoleon Bonaparte as his “earliest modern prototype.”

From The Wall Street Journal

If the conflicts ended with Robespierre’s death and the ensuing Thermidorian Reaction, characterized by a retreat from violent purges in 1794-95, fundamental instability persisted until Napoleon Bonaparte imposed order.

From The Wall Street Journal

Later, the Duke of Wellington would cite Verres’ campaign of excess as he returned Italian antiquities that had been stolen by the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte.

From The Wall Street Journal

That’s probably how Napoleon Bonaparte felt, three-quarters of the way through the battle of Waterloo.

From Salon