Paris under Napoleon Each of the twelve arrondissements had its own mayor, but their power was limited to enforcing the decrees of Napoleon's ministers. After he crowned himself Emperor on December 2, 1804, Napoleon began a series of projects to make Paris into an imperial capital to rival ancient Rome. He built monuments to French military glory, including the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the column in Place Vendôme, and the future church of the Madeleine, intended as a temple to military heroes; and began the Arc de Triomphe. To improve the circulation of traffic in central Paris, he built a wide new
Napoleon Opening Napoleon Opening The Napoleon Opening is an irregular chess opening starting with the moves: As with the similar Wayward Queen Attack (2.Qh5), White hopes for the Scholar's Mate (2.Qf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5?? 4.Qxf7#), but Black can easily avoid the trap. The Napoleon Opening is named after the French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who had a deep love of chess but was said to be a mediocre player. The name came into use after mid-nineteenth century publications reported that he played this opening in an 1809 game which he lost to The Turk, a chess automaton operated at the time