Answer: Napoleon was a French men born in Corsica (in French: Corse), Mediterranean sea, i.e. in the periphery of French monarchy. At the time of French revolution he was a soldier in the republican revolutionary army (artillery) and managed to rise very fast. Napoleon became general and then emperor (1804) of the First French Empire.
Explanation: Napoleon was not only a politician or emperor. He became also symbol of an individual able to realize many human dreams, especially dream of individual destiny fulfilled. In spite of sad and tragic end, he constituted and still constitutes an example of individual fate with its ups and downs. At that time he was also symbol of the possibilities that new regime (offered).