What if Napoleon had been a Navy man?

What if he attended a naval academy instead of an army academy and excelled in naval tactics and doctrine from the onset?
Then he sets out to reform the French navy during the Revolutionary years and post Revolutionary years?
 
What if he attended a naval academy instead of an army academy and excelled in naval tactics and doctrine from the onset?
Then he sets out to reform the French navy during the Revolutionary years and post Revolutionary years?

Well according to his school record (taught by French monks, his dad was a broke noble so Napoleon and his brother got free education) he'd have made an excellent sailor. He even applied to join the navy, but got no reply.

However, no "massed-artillery, invasion-of-Italy" Bonaparte could lead to the death of the Republic. Even if he won great victories at sea, it was the generals who lead the army (which was far more important to France) that the praise.
 

Al-Buraq

Banned
Victory at the Nile! F**ked out of sight at Merengo!

Seriously though, there was not that much wrong with the French Navy before the Revolution. It had had unprecedented success in the Wars with Britain between 1778-1784 (which included the skirmishs in America). The revolution totally emasculated it. The entire Naval officer class were aristos and they got the chop. The technical requirements of being a naval officer required far longer training than an Army equivalent and although a Napoleon was successful on land (although he never got the aristocratically slanted cavalry right) one wonders if anyone could have reversed the French Navy fortunes once the revolution had chewed it up.
 
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