Brienne

Napoleon Bonaparte, A True Corsican?

July 19, 2020
Angry drummers during parade in Ajaccio on August 18, 2011. To celebrate the Virgin Mary, patron saint of Corsica

A belated happy birthday to Napoleon Bonaparte who was born 246 years ago, on August 15, 1769, in this house on the island of Corsica. That lightly-populated island’s strategic position in the Mediterranean led to its repeated conquest and colonization, starting with the Phoenicians in 565 BCE. Over the next two millennia, Romans, Vandals, Ostrogoths, …

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Napoleon Bonaparte’s School Days

July 19, 2020

As schools begin their fall sessions, Napoleon Bonaparte’s educational experience comes to mind. At nine years old, little Nabulio Buonaparte traveled a thousand kilometers from Ajaccio, Corsica, the only home he’d known, to a military school in Brienne, France. Along the way, he spent four months in Autun, France, long enough for the Italian-speaking child …

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