Napoleon I

Introduction

Napoleon I’s impact on his time and on subsequent events has been extraordinary. First, there was his conceit that Europe could be unified under the rule of one man. Napoleon established a cult of the personality, a disturbing phenomenon that would be repeated in the bloody rules of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler in the twentieth century. Hitler, in particular, suffered from delusions of grandeur that had their precedent in Napoleon. Both leaders, in fact, were bold military strategists who imagined that if only they took over the details of command the world could be shaped according to their desires. Napoleon established the modern model for the world-historical individual who believes in the triumph of his will. -- Napoleon I (Dictionary of World Biography)