Failure

     Throughout history empires have expanded, consolidated, and collapsed while leaving lasting imprints on culture, geography, and a huge variety of human efforts. Few of those grand imperial machines lasted more than a few generations, but most contributed to molding the world either through their efforts or by creating spite in their enemies as motivation to achieve greatness. Through all this, it becomes evident that the size and momentary power of man's greatest orchestrations cannot last and must decay.
     Success is achievement. Variations of that definition occur in fields and cultural specific agendas, but the accomplishment of a desired aim is the root meaning of success. If success is achievement, what is failure?
     Failure is surrender of motivation to defeat.
     Great generals are known for their strategic maneuvers, charisma, and ambition. Good leaders are inspirational, innovative, and stalwart, and triumphant generals often possess those characteristics. As firepower has exponentially increased over the centuries, generals have retreated from the front lines and now command troops from relative safety. This alteration in the tactical separation of command and troop deployment leaves the last few decades seemingly bare of awe-inspiring figures. Now people look to the past to see the actions of great men played out in all their glory.
    As France convulsed in the turmoil of its revolution in the last decade of the eighteenth century, Napoleon Bonaparte ascended through the military ranks because of his courage, connections, and performance. Clever and manipulative, Napoleon gained effective dictatorial control over France by 1799 and was entitled emperor by Pope Pious VII in 1804.
     Napoleon ruled France as emperor for ten years and conquered much of Europe. While not a perfect leader, he maintained solid support at home and amazing love in the troops he traveled alongside. Despite repeated defeats from the Russian invasion in the winter of 1812 and the significant loss at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, Napoleon continued to lead through strength of character to inspire his hundreds of thousands of troops. In 1814 the marshalls of his army mutinied against him and surrendered France's emperor to its enemies.
     When the foreign powers gained control over France, they banished Napoleon to Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean where he acted as Emperor over the 12,000 inhabitants. While sparing his life and allowing retention of his title was generous of the victorious European leaders, Napoleon remained ambitiously unsatisfied and escaped to return to France within a year.
     For one hundred days Napoleon raised support, readied the army, and reconsolidated his power. With this new army, Napoleon marched north to attack the British. After repeated onslaughts did not dislodge the British army from its position, the Prussian army arrived to attack Napoleon's right flank and decimate his remaining troops. With huge losses at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon retreated to Paris where the government's and people's support of him had soured. He abdicated to his son, fled Paris, and continued to flee from capture until seeking asylum with the British one month later

     Suffering incredible losses in the failed Russian campaign, losing more in the Battle of Lepzig, and being banished to a small, rural island did not diminish the dreams, ambition, or charisma of Napoleon. He returned, garnered more strength, and repeated efforts to subdue all of Europe. Napoleon did not truly lose until he surrendered his will, not on the battlefield, but his life on the island of Saint Helena in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A determined, inspired man, Napoleon did not allow distance, odds, technology, or coalitions to alter his dreams. After Waterloo and the rejection of his beloved France, Napoleon was beaten down internally and morally and never recovered. Suffering deep depression and completely unable to escape to return to France a second time, Napoleon Bonaparte became a failure because he surrendered his ambition to depression.
     Regardless of the definition, defeat is nearly impossible to achieve for some men that are self-driven to greatness. Using skill to rise through the ranks of a tumultuously governed France, Napoleon became an emperor, an emperor who was never defeated by anyone but himself when he accepted failure.


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Agatha Tyche