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Help Write Articles about our World
Welcome to Citizendium, a wiki for providing free knowledge where authors use their real names. We write the kinds of encyclopedia-style articles that Wikipedia and other sites can't write. We welcome anyone who wants to share their knowledge on virtually any subject. Our online community prides itself on being congenial and supportive.
The Citizendium is a small, supportive community of collaborators who work on articles which could not be developed in Wikipedia, that are different from what Wikipedia now offers, though not necessarily either better or worse. Please understand that we love Wikipedia; most of us consult it several times per day. But we also understand its limitations, and that's why we support The Citizendium also, not as a competitor but as supplement. We acknowledge and honor Wikipedia's successes in seeking to be a complete compendium of everything; it would be futile to duplicate that effort. We also believe that the philosophy of "less is more" sometimes applies, where an important aspect of a topic can be emphasized without trying to include everything known about a given topic in a single article.
The Citizendium provides a different kind of collaborative environment than Wikipedia now offers. We use real names, and we have a modest number of active authors so that it becomes possible to know each other well. We strive for objectivity and quality--and civility. We consider ourselves to be a community. To help address control issues, we're open to having multiple articles developed on a single topic (to be located via a disambiguation page). For those who want more fully lead the direction of an article, we allow "lead authors" on articles. Led articles can still be collaborations, but the declared article leaders are the ones who get to guide the direction and emphasis of the article.
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Knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up. It increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion.
— Daniel Boorstin
—add a quotation about knowledge or writing
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Napoleon (Napoleon Bonaparte or, after 1804, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French) was a world historic figure and dictator of France from 1799 to 1814. He was the greatest general of his age--perhaps any age, with a sure command of battlefield tactics and campaign strategies, As a civil leader he played a major role in the French Revolution, then ended it when he became dictator in 1799 and Emperor of France in 1804 He modernized the French military, fiscal, political legal and religious systems. He fought an unending series of wars against Britain with a complex, ever-changing coalition of European nations on both sides. Refusing to compromise after his immense defeat in Russia in 1812, he was overwhelmed by a coalition of enemies and abdicated in 1814. In 1815 he returned from exile, took control of France, built a new army, and in 100 days almost succeeded--but was defeated at Waterloo and exiled to a remote island. His image and memory are central to French national identity, but he is despised by the British and Russians and is a controversial figure in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Rise to Power
Once the Revolution had begun, so many of the aristocratic officers turned against the Revolutionary government, or were exiled or executed, that a vacuum of senior leadership resulted. Promotions came very quickly now, and loyalty to the Revolution was as important as technical skill; Napoleon had both. His demerits were overlooked as he was twice reinstated, promoted, and allowed to collect his back pay. Paris knew him as an intellectual soldier deeply involved in politics. His first test of military genius came at Toulon in 1793, where the British had seized this key port. Napoleon, an acting Lieutenant-Colonel, used his artillery to force the British to abandon the city. He was immediately promoted by the Jacobin radicals under Robespierre to brigadier-general, joining the ranks of several brilliant young generals. He played a major role in defending Paris itself from counter-revolutionaries, and became the operational planner for the Army of Italy and planned two successful attacks in April 1794. He married Josephine (Rose de Beauharnais) in 1796, after falling violently in love with the older aristocratic widow.[1]
- ↑ Englund pp 63-73, 91-2, 97-8
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