could get his guns in range of the British ships. Soon after that Toulon fell and Napoleon was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.
             As the new General, during 1796-1797, Napoleon led his army to deal with some troubles with Austria. With an cavalcade of roughly 44,000 troops, he defeated forces far outnumbering his army, won a dozen major battles, killed, wounded or took prisoner of thousands of Austrians, and captured flags and cannons. He liberated many people from various sorts of oppression (incompetent kings, or foreign rule, mostly Austrian) and helped them to establish democratic governments, including writing their Constitution; one of the states which he formed was called the Cisalpine Republic, which would become modern day Italy. Napoleon also freed Genoa, which became the Ligurian Republic. Napoleon's abilities as a leader had really become evident to the French people and Napoleon knew it as well. The power vested in Napoleon was very attractive to him, providing self-confidence and an arrogance t
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