During the early years of the revolution, Napoleon was largely on leave from the military and home in Corsica, where he became affiliated with the Jacobins, a pro-democracy political group. The French Revolution began in 1789, and within three years revolutionaries had overthrown the monarchy and proclaimed a French republic. He then became a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment of the French army.
As a boy, Napoleon attended school in mainland France, where he learned the French language, and went on to graduate from a French military academy in 1785.
