The American Bonapartes

The American Bonapartes

A Timeline by Zoidberg12

”There have been many an influential family throughout the long and illustrious history of American politics […] However, the Bonaparte Family sticks out for some reason, perhaps due to the sheer circumstance that allowed them to get where they would come to be in the first place. […] It is only appropriate that in a nation of immigrants such as the United States of America that a man such as Napoleon Bonaparte, born and raised in the French island of Corsica during the earliest years of life, should raise to the heights that he did”. […]

James Arnold Masterson “A Biography of the Bonaparte’s”, Morton Publishing House, Boston, Massachusetts, 2004


The Early Years of the Bonaparte Family
Carlo_bonaparte_letizia_ram.jpg

Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino Buonaparte

The story of one of the most influential men in American history starts in a somewhat unlikely place, the island of Corsica, in the middle of the 18th century. In November of 1755, Corsican patriot Pasquale Paoli declared Corsica independent form the Republic of Genoa as the Corsican Republic, which was the first republic in history to be founded on European Enlightenment Ideals. However, the republic would not last long. In 1769, France, under the rule of King Louis XVI, invaded the island, thus bringing the republic to an end after fourteen years and forcing Pasquale Paoli to go into exile in London. Corsica then became a French province in 1770.

However one man, Carlo Buonaparte, a Corsican lawyer and politician who served as Paoli’s personal assistant during the time of the Corsican Republic, decided to embrace the new French government of Corsica and became Assessor of the Royal Jurisdiction of Ajaccio and the neighboring districts. Carlo Buonaparte, born in 1746, came from a long line of Corsican politicians. His father Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte (1713-1763) and his great-grandfather Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte Sr. (1663-1703) both served as politicians in Corsica. Carlo was only following in his ancestors footsteps, and continued to serve as a politician until his death in 1784. However, Carlo Bounaparte was known for embarking on risky business ventures. He made many land and money claims, he did them legally, but he burned through his finances quicker than he should have been. His gambling addiction [1] didn't make things any better.

Carlo Bonaparte died on July 19, 1784 at the age of 38 [2], supposedly from stomach cancer, leaving his 34 year-old wife Letizia Ramolino Buonaparte, who was pregnant at the time [3], and his seven children, Joseph (born 1768), Napoleon (born 1769), Lucien (born 1775), Elisa (born 1777), Louis (born 1778), Pauline (born 1780) and Caroline (born 1782) utterly penniless, due to his risky business ventures and gambling addiction. Leitiza found herself with so much debt from her husband, she knew she could not keep up the family estate in Ajaccio, Corsica or her social status. She knew she had to take drastic measures.

In August, 1784, Letizia Buonaparte made up her mind. She sold the Bonaparte family estate in Accajio and decided to emigrate from Corsica to the United States of America. That same month, she and her seven children left Accajio on a ship headed for Baltimore, Maryland. But why? Simple. Letizia Buonaparte was impoverished to the point where she could not easily return to her original position in society in any European country, be it in Corsica, France, Britain or Spain. As a reuslt she decided to go somewhere with no such class distinction existed, somewhere new and exotic, the new nation of the United States of America.

The Buonaparte family arrived in Baltimore in October, 1784. As soon as the family arrived in said city, the changed their family surname from Buonaparte to the more French-sounding Bonaparte and then Anglicized many of their first names; Letizia Bonaparte became Lucille Bonaparte (dropping her maiden name), Lucien Bonaparte became Lucius Bonaparte, Elisa Bonaparte became Eliza Bonaparte and Pauline Bonaparte became Virginia Bonaparte. After that, the Bonaparte family applied for American citizenship and moved into a small house near the docks of Baltimore and began to find jobs. Lucille Bonaparte found work as a cook and waitress at a local tavern. Joseph Bonaparte, the eldest sibling of 16, found work as the apprentice of a carpenter.

Meanwhile, Napoleon, aged 15, found work at the workshop of a local weapons maker, he himself still being interested in a military career and the military in general. Back in France, Napoleon attended a military academy at Brienne-le-Château from 1779 to 1784, his superiors saying he would make a good sailor [4]. He was supposed to attend the elite École Militaire in Paris, but his father's death put an end to that. However, Napoleon would not admit defeat. He would work for the weapons maker for a few years at least, making a handsome amount of money for his family. He would learn English with the rest of his family, and mabye one day drop the Corsican accent than got him made fun off at Brienne-le-Château [5]. After all that, he would then sign up for military service, perhaps in the restless Northwestern Territory or some remote region of the American South.

Before all that was to happen, the Bonaparte family would have a new mouth to feed. On November 15th, 1784, the last of the Bonaparte children and the only Bonaparte sibling to be born in the United States, Charles Bonaparte [6] was born in their Bonaparte's small home in Baltimore. He was named Charles, the English variation of the Italian Carlo, in memory of his late father.

Eventually, in the summer of 1787, after nearly three years of working for the weapons maker, a man whose name is lost to history, the 18 year-old Napoleon Bonaparte, deciding he had made a handsome amount of money for his family and with his mother's permission, decided to sign up for service in the US Army. His older 19 year-old brother Joseph wanted to enlist as well, but couldn't because he needed to support his family and couldn't leave his mother to do it all alone. He promised to himself he would enlist in the military as soon as Lucius, then aged 12, became old enough to support the family.

And with that, the world would never be the same again….

~~~~~~~~~~~~

[1] This is the POD. IOTL Carlo Buonaparte had a fondness for gambling which got him into trouble. IITL his fondness, at some point in time in his adult life, turned into an addiction, causing more financial problems than OTL.

[2] As secondary and more noticable POD; IOTL Carlo Buonaparte died in February of 1785. Here he dies earlier and with more debt than IOTL.

[3] She is pregnant with Jérôme Bonaparte, who IITL will be the same person but have a different name.

[4] This was true IOTL.

[5] So was this.

[6] OTL's Jerome Bonaparte. Same person, different name.
 
Nice start...
Can't help wonder if north-America will end up with a meter system...and Europe will keep a chaotic mix of inches, pounds etc...of different size in different countries even (unlike OTL where at least US and UK has the same inches etc.).
On the other hand, an American Napoleon may turn out a rather conservative politician from the start and even if he get in the position to concure and expand the US he will not have the same revolutionary ideas to spread as OTL French revolution gave him.
 
Thanks for the compiments guys! :D

Next chapter will be on the early years of Napoleon's military service, then the chapter after that will be on Europe.
 
Good start. Just one tiny hiccup: you speak of them Anglicizing their names - all well and good when one considers that the guy was born Paul Revoir - but then proceed to give completely different names.

Letizia - Laetitia; Lettie for short
Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte - Joseph Mary/ie Bonaparte
Napoleone - Napoleon
Luciano - Lucian
Maria Anna Elisa - Mary Anne Eliza
Luigi - Louis/Lewis
Marie Pauline - Mary Pauline
Marie Caroline Annunziata - Mary Caroline Annunciata (no idea how to Anglicize her last name.)
Gerolamo - Jerome

But otherwise will be watching where this goes
 
Good start. Just one tiny hiccup: you speak of them Anglicizing their names - all well and good when one considers that the guy was born Paul Revoir - but then proceed to give completely different names.

Letizia - Laetitia; Lettie for short
Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte - Joseph Mary/ie Bonaparte
Napoleone - Napoleon
Luciano - Lucian
Maria Anna Elisa - Mary Anne Eliza
Luigi - Louis/Lewis
Marie Pauline - Mary Pauline
Marie Caroline Annunziata - Mary Caroline Annunciata (no idea how to Anglicize her last name.)
Gerolamo - Jerome

But otherwise will be watching where this goes

Napoleon could just become Leo or Leon for short.
 
Subscribed.

I imagine that he rises to prevalence during the War of 1812 by kicking my poor French Canadian ancestors' a**. Also, it would be interesting if he saves the White House and to this day our president lives in what looks like a house on a Southern slave plantation.
 
The beautiful thing is, Napoleon is eligible for President of the United States, because...

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President"

Since they became citizens before 1787, then Napoleon is qualified...

And they should convert to a Protestant religion to make their chance of succeeding better.
 
The beautiful thing is, Napoleon is eligible for President of the United States, because...

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President"

Since they became citizens before 1787, then Napoleon is qualified...

And they should convert to a Protestant religion to make their chance of succeeding better.

Since he was born in 1769, however, he won't be eligible for President until 1804. So, Napoleon will have to wait about 15 years to become eligible.
 
He would have to concentrate on making sure he fits in, the USA in this era is very very WASP, Napoleon is only one of those...
 
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