Famous leaders
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to power at the end of the French Revolution. He became Emperor of France in 1804, and introduced many reforms. Among them was the creation of the Napoleonic Code, a set of laws that is still used as the basis for civil law in many European countries today. As a brilliant military commander, he fought a series of wars in Europe, ending finally in defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He was exiled to the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, where he died in 1821. Napoleon is remembered as a hero of France, a great reformer and a military genius.
Early life
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15th August 1769 in Corsica, shortly after the island became a French territory. His father, Carlo Bonaparte, was a lawyer who initially resisted the French occupation of Corsica. But from the age of nine, Napoleon was educated in schools in mainland France.
In 1784–85 Napoleon attended military college in Paris. During this time, Carlo died, and it fell to Napoleon to provide for his mother, brothers and sisters.
French Revolution
After graduating from military college, Napoleon was made second lieutenant in a training regiment. He spent most of his time over the next few years in his native Corsica, while the events of the Revolution (which began in 1789) unfolded in mainland France. On his return to France in 1791, he joined the Jacobin Club, a political organization that supported the Revolution.
In 1792, the French monarchy was abolished and a republic was established. Many French army officers remained loyal to the king, but Napoleon’s sympathies lay with the republican cause. Accordingly, he was rapidly promoted in the army of the National Convention (the republican assembly), and was given a chance to show his military skills against royalist and British troops at the Siege of Toulon in 1793.
In January 1793, the king, Louis XVI, was executed, followed by his wife, Marie Antoinette, in October. Now 24, Napoleon had risen to the rank of brigadier general, in charge of the artillery in the French Army of Italy.
Saving the revolution
In 1795, there was an uprising in Paris against the National Convention. Napoleon ordered his troops to crush the rebels, and thus save the Convention and the republic. He was awarded with more promotion: now he was advising the new republican government, the Directory, on military matters, and was given the post of commander-in-chief of the Army of Italy. He led his troops into action against the Austrian and Sardinian armies, quickly defeating the king of Sardinia.
It was also in 1795 that Napoleon met Joséphine de Beauharnais, the widow of an army general who had been executed during the Revolution. The two were married in March 1796, just before Napoleon left for his campaigns in Italy.
French Revolutionary Wars
Napoleon showed his skill in military tactics and strategy in the campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars, which were a series of conflicts between the French republic and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1802. He forced Austria to negotiate peace and took control of northern Italy, including the Republic of Venice. The members of the Directory wanted to attack Britain, but Napoleon knew that he could not mount an invasion of Britain until he had control of the seas. Instead, he chose to mount a campaign in Egypt, hoping to threaten Britain by taking control of the sea routes linking it to its most important colony, India. Initially victorious in Egypt, Napoleon suffered defeat at the hands of the British navy, under the command of Horatio Nelson, in the Battle of the Nile on 1st August 1798.
The Consulate
In Paris, news of events abroad made the Directory unpopular. Napoleon returned to France in 1799 and joined in a plot that overthrew the Directory. In its place, a new government called the Consulate was set up. Napoleon became the First Consul, and the most powerful man in France. In 1802, he became Consul for life.
Napoleonic Code
Meanwhile, Napoleon fought and defeated the Austrian army at the Battle of Marengo (1800), and signed a short-lived peace treaty with Britain, the Treaty of Amiens, in 1802.
At home, Napoleon oversaw a programme of major reforms that included the reorganization of government, the founding of the Bank of France and the creation of the Napoleonic Code—a set of laws that is still used as the basis for civil law in many European countries today.
Emperor of France
Napoleon was opposed bitterly by French royalists, many of whom were backed by the British government. With so much power now in the hands of one person, there were also concerns that the republic would collapse if Napoleon were killed. For these reasons, Napoleon decided to become emperor of France. It would be a hereditary title, meaning that, if he died, the title would pass to his heir. On 2nd December 1804, Napoleon and Joséphine were crowned emperor and empress of France in Nôtre Dame cathedral in Paris.
Napoleonic Wars
Although Britain had signed a treaty with France, the peace was never likely to last long. Britain was suspicious of Napoleon’s desire to expand the French empire eastwards as well as in the Americas and elsewhere overseas. In 1803, war broke out once again between the two countries. Napoleon stationed his Grand Army on the northern coast of France, in preparation for an invasion of Britain. Napoleon knew that this could still not take place, however, without control of the seas. Even the combined forces of the French and Spanish fleets were no match for the British navy: in October 1805, Britain defeated them at the Battle of Trafalgar, off the coast of Spain.
Napoleon, however, had already turned his attention back to Austria and Russia. He marched his Grand Army inland, defeating the Austrians at Ulm in October 1805, and a combined Austrian and Russian force at the Battle of Austerlitz in December. By the Treaty of Pressburg, large amounts of Austrian territory were given to France.
Setbacks
Having accepted invasion of Britain as impossible, Napoleon attempted to gain power over her by destroying her overseas trade. Under the Continental System he set up in 1806, European countries were forbidden to trade with Britain. When Portugal did not obey, Napoleon invaded Portugal in 1807, and then Spain, once its ally. Known as the Peninsular War, after the Iberian Peninsula, the conflict eventually ended in 1814 in defeat for Napoleon.
In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with a Grand Army of troops drawn from many countries. Napoleon’s army won the Battle of Borodino in September, and arrived in Moscow not long after. But the long, bitterly cold Russian winter set in, the Grand Army was forced to retreat and thousands of troops died in the harsh conditions.
Exile
The disastrous retreat from Moscow, together with defeats in the Peninsular War against Spain and Portugal, were major setbacks for Napoleon. In March 1814, Paris fell to a coalition of European forces, including Britain, Spain, Portugal, Prussia and Russia. Napoleon was forced to give up power on 11th April, and went into exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba, off the west coast
of Italy.
However, Napoleon refused to accept his loss of power. In March 1815, he escaped from Elba and for a brief period, known as the Hundred Days, he dreamed once again of glory. He mustered an army and marched into Belgium, where he was defeated for one final time by the British and Prussians at the Battle of Waterloo. This time there was no return for Napoleon. In June 1815, he was exiled to the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, under the protection of the British. He died there on 5th May 1821.
Consultant: Philip Parker