Napoleon I (1769-1821), also known as Napoleon Bonaparte, crowned himself emperor of the French. He was the greatest military genius of his time and perhaps the greatest general in history. He created an empire that covered most of western and central Europe.
Napoleon was also an excellent administrator. He introduced many reforms, including the creation of a strong central government and the revision and organization of French laws into collections called codes. Many of Napoleon’s reforms are evident today in the institutions of France and of areas once under French control.
Napoleon stood 5 feet 2 inches (157 centimeters) tall, about average for Frenchmen of his time, though most French generals and statesmen were taller. He earned the nickname le Petit Caporal (the little corporal) in 1796 at the Battle of Lodi, near Milan, Italy. In the battle, General Bonaparte startled his troops by personally aiming the cannon, a risky job usually performed by a corporal.
Napoleon was an inspirational and dramatic leader. He could also be cynical and demanding, though this side of his character was usually hidden from the public. In addition, Napoleon had great energy and ambition. He personally directed complex military maneuvers and at the same time controlled France’s press, police system, foreign policy, and domestic affairs. He chose capable subordinates and rewarded them generously with medals, wealth, military rank, and titles of nobility.
Napoleon’s ambition ultimately led him to overextend his power. His downfall also resulted in part from feelings of nationalism in areas invaded by French troops and from economic hardship brought on by Napoleon’s attempts to exclude British goods from continental Europe. Other factors that contributed to his downfall included bitter reaction to the taxes and conscription (the draft) that he imposed across his empire and opposition to Napoleon of many of Europe’s royal rulers.
Early life and career
Boyhood.
Napoleon was born on Aug. 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, on the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1768, France had bought Corsica from the Italian city-state of Genoa. Napoleon was the fourth child and second son of Carlo and Letizia Ramolino Buonaparte (later given the French spelling Bonaparte). Napoleon’s parents came from noble Italian families. His father was an eloquent lawyer and a prominent citizen of Corsica. Napoleon’s mother was beautiful and strong-willed.
In 1779, at the age of 9, Napoleon entered a French military school at Brienne (now known as Brienne-le-Château), a town in France near Troyes. An average student in most subjects, Napoleon excelled in mathematics. In 1784, he was chosen for the elite military academy École Militaire in Paris, from which he graduated a year later.
Early military career.
In October 1785, at the age of 16, Napoleon entered the French Army as a second lieutenant. He joined an artillery regiment and briefly attended the royal artillery school in Auxonne, near Dole. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1791 and to captain in 1792.
The French Revolution broke out in 1789 (see French Revolution). During the early 1790’s, Napoleon spent many months in Corsica on leave from the French Army. While there, he served in the Corsican National Guard. Napoleon also joined the Jacobins, a radical political society in France. Many Jacobins wanted to make France a democratic republic. Napoleon’s membership in the society brought him into conflict with the governor of Corsica, Pasquale Paoli, who was a royalist (supporter of the French monarchy). After the revolutionary French government executed King Louis XVI in January 1793, Paoli declared the Bonapartes outlaws. The family fled to France, where Napoleon returned to the French Army.
In June 1793, a group of Jacobins led by Maximilien Robespierre gained control of the French government (see Robespierre). Several French cities revolted against the new regime. At Toulon, a British naval fleet aided the rebels. After the French artillery commander at Toulon was wounded, Napoleon was sent to replace him. In December 1793, Napoleon positioned the artillery on high ground overlooking Toulon’s harbor and fired down on the British ships. The fleet withdrew and French troops gained control of Toulon. For his role in the victory, Napoleon was named brigadier general at the age of 24.
Napoleon’s star had risen, but soon it seemed about to set. In July 1794, Robespierre fell from power and was executed. In August, Napoleon was imprisoned for about a week. After his release, he returned to the army.
The “whiff of grapeshot.”
In 1795, Napoleon was in Paris when angry mobs there tried to attack the ruling National Convention at the royal palace called the Tuileries. Royalists who hoped to destroy the convention before it could put a new constitution into effect had encouraged the mobs. Vicomte Paul de Barras, whose troops were guarding the palace, had seen Napoleon in action at Toulon and now sent for him. Napoleon defended the palace with cannon fire that killed or wounded hundreds of people and quickly cleared the streets. This cannon fire later became known as the “whiff of grapeshot.” Hailed as a hero, Napoleon was promoted to major general. A new government, called the Directory, was installed with Barras as one of its five directors.
Marriage.
In 1796, Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais, a beautiful woman of French descent from Martinique in the West Indies. Josephine’s first husband, Vicomte Alexandre de Beauharnais, had been sent to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. See French Revolution (Terror and equality). When Napoleon met her, Josephine was a leader of fashionable French society. She was six years older than Napoleon and had two children by her previous marriage.
Rise to power
Victories in Italy.
From 1792 to 1795, France had been at war with much of Europe. By 1796, Austria had become France’s chief enemy. Days after marrying Josephine, Napoleon left Paris to take command of a French army on the Italian-French border—an underfed, ill-equipped force of about 38,000 soldiers. The Directory hoped that he could tie up Austrian forces in Italy while larger French armies won the war by marching through Germany and attacking Vienna, Austria’s capital.
Instead, Napoleon won the war. In less than a year, he defeated four armies, each larger than his own. He won a final victory by marching over the Alps and threatening Vienna in early 1797. In October, France and Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, which enlarged France’s territory.
Egypt invaded.
Napoleon returned to Paris, where once again he was hailed as a hero. Napoleon had political ambitions, but he felt that he still lacked enough influence to gain control of the government. Therefore, he concentrated on strengthening his military reputation. Late in 1797, the Directory offered to put Napoleon at the head of an invasion of England. But he declined the offer. Instead, he proposed that he invade Egypt to destroy British trade with the Middle East. The Directory agreed to the plan. In May 1798, Napoleon sailed for Egypt with about 38,000 troops.
Napoleon reached Egypt in July. There, he defeated the Mamluks, Egypt’s military rulers, in the Battle of the Pyramids near Cairo (see Mamluks). On August 1, however, the French fleet anchored in Abu Qir Bay was destroyed in the Battle of the Nile by a British fleet commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson. As a result, Napoleon’s army was stranded in Egypt. The Ottoman Empire then formed an alliance with the United Kingdom and Russia and declared war on France. In 1799, Napoleon’s troops invaded Ottoman Syria and advanced as far as the fortress Acre (now Akko, Israel), which Napoleon failed to capture. Meanwhile, Napoleon learned that an Ottoman army was preparing to invade Egypt. He retreated to Egypt, where he met and defeated the Ottomans at Abu Qir, near Abu Qir Bay. About this time, Napoleon learned that Austria, the United Kingdom, and Russia had formed a coalition against France and had defeated the French army in Italy. He left his army in the command of General Jean Kléber and sailed for France.
First consul of France
News of Napoleon’s victory at Abu Qir arrived with him in Paris. Napoleon formed key political alliances and seized control of the French government on Nov. 9, 1799, in a bold move known as the Coup d’État of Eighteenth Brumaire. A new constitution, approved by the French people, replaced the Directory with a three-member Consulate. Napoleon became first consul. The other consuls served as his advisers. After 10 years of revolution and civil disorder, the French wanted a strong leader.
Peacemaking.
As first consul, Napoleon sought peace through victory over other nations. In May 1800, he led a famous march across the Alps, through the Great St. Bernard Pass and into the Po Valley of northern Italy. In June, his army surprised and defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Marengo. In 1801, Austria signed the Treaty of Luneville, which reaffirmed the Treaty of Campo Formio. With Austria defeated, the war-weary British agreed to peace in 1802 in the Treaty of Amiens. Russia had dropped out of the coalition against France in 1799. For the first time in 10 years, Europe was at peace.
Administrator and lawmaker.
Napoleon proved to be a superb civil administrator. One of his greatest achievements was his supervision of the revision and collection of French law into codes. The new law codes—seven in number—incorporated some of the freedoms gained by the people of France during the French Revolution, including religious toleration and the abolition of serfdom. The most famous of the codes, the Code Napoléon or Code Civil, still forms the basis of French civil law (see Code Napoléon). Napoleon also centralized France’s government by appointing prefects to administer regions called departments, into which France had been divided in 1790.
The Napoleonic empire
French aggression.
Napoleon was not content simply to govern France. His thoughts soon turned to conquest. At first, he sought to extend French influence in the Western Hemisphere. In 1800, Napoleon forced Spain to cede to France the Louisiana Territory in North America. But the army that he sent to take possession of the territory was destroyed trying to restore French rule over the former colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti). Frustrated, Napoleon abandoned his plans for the Western Hemisphere and turned his attention to Europe. By 1803, France had annexed the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy and Napoleon had become president of the Italian Republic, which bordered Piedmont on the east. Also, fearful of the United Kingdom’s naval power, Napoleon had tried to stop British trade with the rest of Europe. He anticipated war with the United Kingdom and in 1803 sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States to raise money for the war. War with the United Kingdom began later that year.
Crowned emperor.
In 1802, the French people had approved a constitutional amendment that made Napoleon first consul for life. In May 1804, the French Senate and people voted him their emperor. Napoleon crowned himself emperor on December 2 in ceremonies at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
Dominates Europe.
By 1805, Austria, Russia, and Sweden had joined the United Kingdom in a new coalition against France. In September 1805, Napoleon led his troops into Germany. In October, he captured an Austrian army at Ulm. In December, he demolished the Austrian and Russian armies at Austerlitz. But earlier that year, Admiral Nelson had destroyed the fleets of France and Spain, France’s ally, near Trafalgar, a cape on Spain’s southern coast. This victory gave the United Kingdom control of the seas and ended any chance of Napoleon’s invading the United Kingdom.
In 1806, Prussia joined Russia in mounting a new campaign against France. In October, Napoleon’s forces overwhelmed the Prussian army at Jena and at nearby Auerstedt (also spelled Auerstädt). In June 1807, Napoleon demolished Russian armies at Friedland. In 1809, he defeated the Austrians again at Wagram, near Vienna.
After each victory, Napoleon enlarged his empire. In 1806, he set up the Confederation of the Rhine, made up of a number of western German states, and placed it under his protection. He also carved provinces of Germany and Italy into principalities and dukedoms, and gave them to friends and relatives. In 1806, he made his brother Joseph king of Naples, and his brother Louis king of Holland. In 1807, Napoleon made his brother Jerome king of Westphalia and added to France the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. In 1809, he gave his sister Elisa the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and annexed to France the Illyrian Provinces, which covered much of what are now Slovenia and Croatia. In 1810, he brought his empire to its height by annexing Holland and much of Germany.
Divorce and remarriage.
By 1809, Napoleon had grown concerned about what would become of his vast empire after his death. Josephine, who was now 46 years old, had no children by him, and Napoleon had no heirs. In December, he divorced Josephine to marry a younger woman. In April 1810, he married the 18-year-old Archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria. In 1811, the couple had a son, also named Napoleon, who was given the title king of Rome.
Fall from power
In 1806, Napoleon had issued the Berlin Decree, which barred British ships from ports under French control. The decree was aimed at destroying British trade with continental Europe. In 1807, Napoleon issued the Milan Decree, which was intended to prevent the ships of neutral nations from carrying British goods to continental Europe. Such ships were attacked by French vessels. The system established by the Berlin and Milan decrees for blocking British trade was known as the Continental System.
Portugal, which had long been friendly with the United Kingdom, refused to follow the Berlin Decree. In 1807, the French gained control of Portugal and occupied parts of Spain. In 1808, French forces under Marshal Joachim Murat seized control of Madrid, Spain’s capital. Napoleon removed King Ferdinand VII from the Spanish throne and appointed his brother Joseph king of Spain. Murat took Joseph’s place as king of Naples.
The Peninsular War
began in 1808 when Spanish and Portuguese forces rebelled against French rule. Soon after the war began, British troops joined the fight against France on the peninsula that consisted of Portugal and Spain. By April 1814, all French forces had been driven from the peninsula. Tens of thousands of French soldiers died in the war, and the loss of Spain and Portugal greatly damaged Napoleon’s prestige.
Disaster in Russia.
On Dec. 31, 1810, Czar Alexander I of Russia withdrew from the Continental System. Napoleon felt that the czar’s withdrawal threatened France, and so he assembled a new army to attack Russia. Many years of war had weakened France, but Napoleon raised about 600,000 troops. His allies and subject nations furnished by conscription many of these soldiers. The Russian army had about 200,000 troops.
In June 1812, Napoleon’s army crossed the Niemen River (now known as the Neman River) into Russia. The Russians retreated, denying Napoleon a decisive battle. In September, Napoleon fought the Russians at Borodino, near Moscow. The bloody battle resulted in a narrow French victory, and the Russians withdrew. 
Napoleon pushed on to Moscow only to find the city nearly deserted. Soon after the French army entered Moscow, fires set by the retreating Russians destroyed large parts of the city. With the bitter Russian winter approaching, Napoleon waited in Moscow for Alexander to offer peace, but no such offer came. In mid-October, Napoleon, unable to supply his troops, began the long retreat from Moscow. His soldiers struggled against snowstorms and freezing temperatures. Soldiers and horses died of starvation and exposure. Russian soldiers called Cossacks killed many of the stragglers. About 500,000 of Napoleon’s troops died, deserted, or were captured during the campaign and the retreat from Russia.
After he returned to Paris, Napoleon admitted the disaster. The French continued to support him, but news of the devastating campaign encouraged his enemies throughout Europe.
The enemy alliance.
After his return from Moscow, Napoleon faced a hostile alliance of Austria, the United Kingdom, Russia, Prussia, and Sweden. In April 1813, Napoleon arrived in Germany with a new army and took the offensive against the allies. He won initial victories at Lützen, Bautzen, and Dresden, but his forces were vastly outnumbered. In October, the two sides fought at Leipzig in the Battle of the Nations. In the battle, Napoleon was defeated, and he retreated into France. The allies pursued him and captured Paris in March 1814.
Exile to Elba.
On April 6, 1814, Napoleon abdicated (gave up) the imperial throne. The allies called for the return of a king of the Bourbon family and placed Louis XVIII, the brother of Louis XVI, on the French throne (see Louis XVIII). Napoleon was exiled from France and made ruler of the tiny island of Elba off the northwest coast of Italy. His wife and son were sent to his wife’s father, the emperor of Austria. Napoleon never saw them again.
On Elba, Napoleon planned his return to France. In February 1815, he sailed from the island with about 1,100 followers who had shared his exile. He landed at Cannes on March 1 and began marching to Paris, gathering supporters along the way. Troops led by Marshal Michel Ney were dispatched from Paris to arrest Napoleon. But when they saw their old leader, the soldiers gladly joined him and hailed him as their emperor. Louis XVIII fled Paris as Napoleon approached. On March 20, Napoleon entered Paris and was carried on the shoulders of cheering crowds into the Tuileries.
The Hundred Days and Waterloo.
Napoleon immediately proclaimed a new constitution that limited his powers. He promised the allies that he would not make war. But the allied leaders considered Napoleon an “enemy and disturber of the peace of the world.” Once again, both sides prepared for battle.
Napoleon advanced into Belgium with about 125,000 troops, hoping to defeat the separate armies of the British Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Marshal Gebhard von Blücher. On June 16, Napoleon defeated Blücher at Ligny, near Fleurus. On June 18, Napoleon attacked Wellington at Waterloo in what has become one of history’s most famous battles. The battle featured spectacular charges by thousands of French cavalry. But just as it seemed the British forces would collapse, Blücher’s troops arrived to reinforce Wellington. Badly outnumbered, the French army suffered a crushing defeat.
Napoleon fled to Paris and abdicated for the second time, on June 22. The period from Napoleon’s return to Paris from Elba to his second abdication is known as the Hundred Days. Napoleon surrendered at Rochefort to Frederick Lewis Maitland, the captain of the British battleship Bellerophon. Shortly afterward, Napoleon was sent to the barren British island of St. Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean.
On St. Helena, Napoleon spent much of his remaining years dictating to friends his version of the events that occurred during his lifetime. He died on May 5, 1821, and was buried on the island. In his will, Napoleon had asked to be buried “on the banks of the Seine, among the French people I have loved so much.” In 1840, the British and French governments had his remains brought to Paris. There, at the Église du Dôme (Church of the Dome), which is part of the Hôtel des Invalides (Home for Disabled Soldiers), the body of Napoleon was laid to rest.
Napoleon’s place in history
Napoleon is both a historical figure and a legend—and it is sometimes difficult to separate the two. The events of his life have fired the imaginations of great writers, filmmakers, and playwrights whose works have done much to create the Napoleonic legend.
Napoleon was one of the greatest military commanders in history. But he has also been portrayed as a power-hungry conqueror. He denied being such a conqueror. He argued that he had tried to build a federation of free peoples in a Europe united under a liberal government. He did intend, though, to achieve this goal by concentrating power in his own hands. But in the states he created, Napoleon granted constitutions; introduced law codes; abolished feudal obligations dating back to the Middle Ages (about the 400’s through the 1400’s); created efficient governments; and fostered education, science, literature, and the arts.
