When Napoleon Bonaparte conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century, he didn't create a monolithic

empire that was centrally run out of Paris. Well, he sort of did, but at least on paper, he didn't.

Rather, what he did was set up his family members as monarchs to rule in his place.

One of those family members who was set up as king ended up moving to New Jersey.

Learn more about Joseph Bonaparte, the king of New Jersey, on this podcast.

It isn't that the Surprisingly, I haven't talked a lot about Napoleon on this podcast.

It isn't that there isn't a lot to talk about, because there is.

It's just that I haven't gotten around to many of those stories yet.

But perhaps one of the most interesting Napoleon stories has to do with his older brother Joseph.

Just a bit of background before I get into the weeds.

Napoleon, despite what you might think, actually wasn't French.

He was born in the island of Corsica, which is today part of France,

but in the late 18th century it was a republic that had become independent from Genoa.

It was seized by France soon after he was born.

The family originally immigrated to Corsica well over a century beforehand from Tuscany.

In Italian, the family name would have been Bonaparte, which roughly translates to

a sizable share or a good part.

Napoleon's first language was actually Italian, and he didn't learn French until he was 13 years

old and sent to a military academy in Paris. After the French Revolution, Napoleon saw a meteoric rise up the ranks of the French military.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that he really was a savant when it came to 19th century warfare.

He was appointed to the rank of general in his 20s,

won multiple impressive victories,

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