Napoleon was born in Corsica in 1769, a year after it was annexed by France. Admitted to a government military school when he was nine years old, Napoleon then joined the French military when he was sixteen. He was unpopular among his peers, and his primary goal was to free his homeland Corsica from France, but during the French Revolution, this desire faded away. He rapidly advanced through the ranks because officers were scarce. Napoleon sympathized with the radical revolutionaries at first, but in 1791 he saw a mob storming the Tuileries and said, “Why don’t they sweep off four or five hundred of that rabble with cannon? The rest would then run away fast enough!” In 1793 he showed his military charisma by directing the artillery in the siege of Toulon.
In 1795, he defended the Convention against a mob and was rewarded with the command of the Army of Italy. This French field army fought the Austrians in Italy during the War of the First Coalition. During this campaign in Italy, Napoleon was only twenty-seven years old, but all respected his brilliance and leadership. He easily understood all the geographical details that would help or hurt him and easily predicted his enemies’ strategies which he foiled with his daring maneuvers. The campaign concluded in February 1797 with the capture of Mantua, and Napoleon then led his army into Austria. In October 1797, the Treaty of Campo Formio was signed, and Napoleon received a triumphant reception upon his return to Paris. However, England had not been defeated, so the war continued. Naval attacks on the British Isles by France, Spain, and the Netherlands all failed, so Napoleon instead attacked Egypt as an indirect way to harm England. He hoped to gain access to British-controlled India, and he also needed to maintain and grow his prestige. Napoleon set out for Egypt in May 1798, capturing Malta on the way. He won the Battle of the Pyramids in July 1798, but then the French fleet was defeated by Admiral Horatio Nelson and the English fleet in the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. The Turkish sultan planned to attack Napoleon in Egypt, but Napoleon traveled to Syria and there defeated the sultan, but then was forced to return to Egypt.
In July 1799, Napoleon learned that the Directory of France was struggling, losing favor in France and battles abroad. Great Britain was forming the Second Coalition with Austria, Russia, Naples, Portugal, and Turkey. France was facing internal unrest and external pressure. Leaving most of his army in Egypt, Napoleon returned to France secretly and was received enthusiastically. Napoleon then allied with some politicians and overthrew the corrupt Directory. In January 1800, the Constitution of the Year VIII was ratified in a rigged referendum, and Napoleon became the First Consul, technically ruling alongside two other consuls, but in reality he was a dictator. As soon as this new government was established, Napoleon turned his attention to defeating the Second Coalition. He won the Battle of Marengo and several other victories, leading to peace with Emperor Francis II in February 1801, and the war ended in March 1802 with the Peace of Amiens between England and France.
In the following year, Napoleon proved his administrative skill by establishing a sound currency and the Bank of France, improving roads and canals, fostering agriculture and industry, systemizing local government into prefects and subprefects, reestablishing the Catholic Church in France, and forming the Legion of Honor to recognize servants of the state. Most importantly, he reformed the law of France, issuing a new code in 1804 that was also adopted by Italy and Holland and influenced the laws of Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and South American countries. Napoleon viewed his greatest achievement to be this new legislation, not his many military victories.
In 1802, Napoleon was made Consul for life, and then the 1804 Constitutional Referendum made him the Emperor of France. His coronation was very pompous, the Pope himself coming from Rome to anoint Napoleon with oil. However, it was Napoleon himself who put the crown on his head, not the pope, because he didn’t want anybody to claim that he had gained his position from a higher power.
Peace with Great Britain lasted only fourteen months before Napoleon renewed hostilities, dreaming of an empire stretching across Europe, Egypt, India, Australia, and America. This last part of his ambition was forsaken in 1803 when he sold Louisiana to the United States, but he still dreamed of a great French Empire. Great Britain was his primary adversary, but Napoleon’s last chance of invading England was crushed at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 when the French and Spanish fleets were defeated by Admiral Nelson. The same year, the Third Coalition was formed by Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Sweden. Napoleon rapidly maneuvered his army to the Austrian city of Ulm, which he took, and then he proceeded to conquer the Austrian capital of Vienna. Napoleon defeated the Austrians and Russians in the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, so Francis II signed the Treaty of Pressburg. Napoleon defeated the Prussians on October 14, 1806, and pursued King Frederick William III into Russia. The bloodiest battle of the century was fought without decisive results between the French and Russians in February 1807, but in June that year the Russians were defeated and Czar Alexander I agreed to make peace with Napoleon. The Treaty of Tilsit was signed on July 7, 1807, removing Russia and Prussia from the Third Coalition.
During this war, Napoleon was reconstructing Europe. In 1805, he gained the title King of Italy and made his stepson Eugene viceroy of this kingdom. In 1806, Napoleon overturned the Batavian Republic, made his brother Louis King of Holland, defeated the Bourbon king of Naples, gave that crown to his brother Joseph, and raised the dukes of Bavaria and Wurttemberg to kings. During this period, Napoleon was also consolidating Germany from over 1,800 states to around fifty. All of these states, besides Austria and Prussia, were organized into the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, with Napoleon bearing the title of Protector. Therefore Francis II abdicated the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolving it, and declared himself Emperor Francis I of Austria. In 1807, he made his brother Jerome the king of Westphalia. He then tried to establish the Continental System in which all countries of Europe boycotted England’s goods. This was started with Napoleon’s “Berlin decree” and made stricter by his “Milan decree” of December 1807. Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark all joined France in the Continental System. Portugal and Rome refused to comply with the System, so Napoleon seized these territories and imprisoned the Pope, as well as Tuscany. Napoleon seized Spain and made his brother Joseph its king, giving Naples to his cavalry general Murat. All of Europe, besides Turkey, joined the Continental System, but it was still ineffective, as even France violated it, and smuggling was widespread.
The countries of Europe began to rebel against Napoleon’s tyrannical enforcement of the Continental System, beginning with Spain in 1808 and Austria in 1809. The war in Spain was called the Peninsular War, and the English helped drive the French out of Portugal in 1811 and out of Spain in 1814. This victory by the Spanish and English in the Peninsular War was possible because Napoleon was on the other side of Europe, fighting first Austria and then Russia. Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 with an army of half a million men, but the Russians outsmarted Napoleon and used the harsh conditions of their country to their advantage. Less than 20,000 soldiers returned from the invasion. These losses in Spain and Russia encouraged the German states, especially Prussia, to rise against Napoleon. By the end of 1813, Napoleon had lost control of Germany. He was back to square one, only controlling France as it was in 1792, and the other countries would have easily agreed to signing a peace with Napoleon. However, he wanted all or nothing, and so the war continued in 1814. All of his strategies and audacity were in vain, and his defeat was inevitable. Paris was taken by the allies on the last day of March 1814, and Napoleon was forced to abdicate in April. He was allowed to keep the title of emperor and was given full control of the tiny island of Elba. The pope returned to Rome, the Bourbon king of Spain retook his throne, and the dead king Louis XVI’s brother was crowned King Louis XVIII of France.
Of course, Napoleon was not content with his quiet life on Elba, so he escaped, landing in France on March 1, 1815, with an army of eleven hundred. The forces sent against him joined him instead, and within three weeks, Napoleon was once again emperor of France. Napoleon decided to attack before his enemies were prepared, so on June 14 he entered Belgium, where he defeated the Prussian army commanded by Blucher. However, Blucher did not retreat eastward, instead joining the English army led by Wellington. On June 18, the French attacked the English at Waterloo. Wellington held strong, earning his nickname “the Iron Duke,” and that afternoon Blucher led the Prussians in an attack on the French army’s right flank. By nine o’clock that night, the French army had been routed. Napoleon’s defeat at this battle was decisive, and Paris was soon taken by the English and Prussians. Napoleon surrendered to the English and was exiled to the isle of St. Helena, where he died in 1821.
Napoleon Bonaparte was an energetic, ambitious man whose military genius and daring took him far, but ultimately his selfishness, cynicism, and pride led to his downfall. Even though his empire did not last, his impact on Europe and the world is engraved in history. As he said himself, “My true glory is not that I have gained forty battles. Waterloo will efface the memory of those victories. But that which nothing can efface, which will live forever, is my civil code.”
He died choking on a fish bone