The Comparison of Hitler, Stalin, and Napoleon
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The word dictator brings images of a horrendous male ruler who has much blood on their hands. Horrifying images of fallen empires, bloody wars and holocausts suddenly sneak up in the back of your mind. And infamous names ring in your ears. Names such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and their act of hate and distain follow them even past the grave. But what of Napoleon Bonaparte and the way he is viewed? Is he not a dictator as well? And if so why is he not viewed as infamous as Hitler and Stalin? In this paper I will prove that Napoleon has the same notorious name as those two dictators.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica, not knowing that he would grow up to be the most powerful dictator to all of Europe not including England, Russia and Sweden. His life had a very productive start as he was very well educated and went to a top military school. But even though he had a great start in education he was very troubled due to being socially and physically awkward. This torment followed him throughout his life even through success. This distress also hindered him in his life happiness. But his life, even though distraught, did have its advantages. At the age of fifteen he moved to Paris to pursue an even bigger military school and career. Around this time of peace he became a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment in the French army making his day to day meaningful. But in the blink of an eye the French Revolution broke the silence changing his being completely. Napoleon spent most of his time in Corsica during the Revolution with his family. But in June of 1793 he was forced to flee Corsica to the Southern part of France. He was then promoted to major and given the command to attack the British Base known as Toulon. The republican troops he led were poorly armed, but Napoleon did not fail. He led his troops and captured the fort after only a couple of days. After this surprising win he was promoted to brigadier general. His life seemed to be fulfilled but soon he faced trouble once again when he was thrown in jail for being cordial to Robespierres, one of the main leaders in the revolutions, brother. After his release to his dismay he was not given another military assignment, but he was unknowingly put in charge of the governments map making office. Not soon after, Napoleon was thrown into battle with a mob of people who attacked the church near the Tuileries. After this win he was made Major General of all of Frances armies. And many Campaigns including ones in Italy, Egypt, and Spain led to him becoming the most powerful dictator in all of Europe. He in his dictatorship did many wonderful things including ending the Spanish inquisition and invented many military tactics that we still use to this day. But everything that goes up must come down, and Napoleon met his waterloo meaning he met his final defeat. He abdicated his thrown and was soon captured by British troops and exiled to the island of Saint Helena and died there at the age of fifty-one.
But what, you may be asking, did Napoleon do that made him so infamous? Well, Napoleon was a power hungry maniac, a bold statement that could be found to be true by all the evidence above even though positive. He also reinstated slavery after it was outlawed during the French revolution. And under his own “power” declared himself emperor of Europe. Now this from one point of view, France, could be positive, but if viewed from the rest of Europe it is horrendous. Why? Because, being ruled by someone who does not share your customs is not a great way to live. And at this time as well the rest of Europe thought of France as lower then themselves. And finally Napoleon was infamous for being called the “butcher” by his own people. He was called this because under his rule, France was in a constant state of warfare. This inevitably ended in the death of the masses of many men. All these traits have been hidden from the public view making the image of Napoleon Bonaparte a saint in comparison to what he really was, a man bent on European domination. But Napoleon was the man without the full outline of what he wished to accomplish, which stopped him from achieving his psychotic goal.
Another man who could be compared to Napoleon started off with more humble beginnings. His aspirations began in art. But through the depressing time in WWI he worked at a prisoners of war camp. He there saw the communist party take over for a short time. But he then started working for a committee to convince incoming soldiers to turn away from communism and pacifism. He would work his way up this committee and was given responsibility of publicity and propaganda. This man who seems innocently pushed into the pack is none other than Hitler. He soon made brute squads after this job was given to him to squash the other parties. His popularity among the people of Germany grew and he rose to the leader of the Nazi party. He went on to do the things that made him so infamous, concentration camps and breaking the Versailles treaty from WWI,