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Napoleon
Bonaparte, who is also known as the "little Corsican," was born on August
15,1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica. Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean
Sea that had been bought by France from Genoa the year before Napoleon’s
birth. Napoleon was known as the little Corsican because of his height
of 5 feet 2 inches. He had 7 brothers and sisters. His original name was
Napoleone Buonaparte in Corsican but it became Napoleon Bonaparte in French.
Napoleon
was the fourth child and second son of Carlo (Charles) Buonaparte (1746-1785)
and Letizia Ramolino Buonaparte (1750-1836). Carlo Buonaparte was an eloquent
lawyer and a prominent citizen of Corsica. Letizia Buonaparte was beautiful
and strong-willed. They were both members of noble Italian families.
Napoleon’s original nationality was Corsican-Italian. He despised the French. He thought they were oppressors of his native land. His father was a lawyer, and was also anti-French.
When Napoleon was nine, his father sent him to a French military academy at Brienne-le-Chateau, near Troyes. Napoleon excelled in mathematics at the academy.
Then in 1784, Napoleon was selected for the elite École Militaire in Paris. While there, he was constantly teased by the French students.
Napoleon had studied to be an artilleryman and an officer. Graduating in 1785, Napoleon received a commission as a second lieutenant in the artillery. So at the age of 16, he joined the French army.