Key Takeaways
More words have been written about Napoleon Bonaparte than almost any other diachronic figure . But for those with modified time resources , here ’s a short primer on the wildly ambitious French military loss leader with help from Peter Hicks , historiographer and managing director of external affairs for thenapoleon.org/en/">Fondation Napoléonin Paris .
Born in Corsica, Arrives in France
Napoleon was born Napoleone di Buonaparte Aug. 15 , 1769 , on the island of Corsica , only recently buy by France from the Italian metropolis - state of Genoa . Young Napoleon , the Word of a prominent Corsican house , was sent to mainland France for schooling , where his Parisian classmates made sport of his provincial stress .
" rather of call him Napoleon , they called him ' straw on the nozzle , ' " say Hicks , " mispronounce his name in French with a Corsican emphasis . "
After graduate from the French military academy and becoming part of theFrench Revolution , Napoleon dropped the extra vowel in his Italian - go name .
Marriage to Josephine
Napoleon was six years her third-year when he meet 32 - year - old Paris socialiteMarie - Josephe - Rose de Beauharnais , who already had twochildren : Eugène , born in 1781 and Hortense , born in 1783 . Their father , Alexandre de Beauharnais , had been executed in 1794 during France ’s Reign of Terror . Napoleon and Josephine get married in 1796 and Napoleon became stepfather to her children .
In the path of clip , it was discovered that Josephine was unequal to of give birth more children . Napoleon would disassociate her in 1809 to marry Austrian Archduchess Maria - Louise , banking on her to farm him an heir , which she did with the birth of a Logos , Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte , later Napoleon II , in 1811 . Napoleon wassaid to have lovedJosephine for the rest of his life and her name was reportedly the last word on his lips when he die in 1821 .
But back to the battlefield .
Hero of the Italian Campaign
Napoleon grow through the ranks of the Gallic army and was promoted to major general after helping to quash a royalist coup in Paris . In 1796 , at just 26 years one-time , he was sent to Italy to mount a last - ditch campaign against France ’s bitter rival Austria . He find the Gallic troops discharge and unpaid but whipped them into excitement with hope of glory and rich to be won .
Despite being outnumbered almost two - to - one by Austrian and Italian Piedmontese champion , Napoleon used pep pill and cunning to part the enemy force and ruthlessly attack their weak point . Napoleon ’s armies could wrap up up to 30 Admiralty mile ( 48 km ) a twenty-four hour period compared to just 6 or 7 ( 10 or 11 kilometers ) for the Austrians and Italians .
" They sent a young madman who attacks right , left and from the rear,“complaineda Piedmontese officer . " It ’s an unbearable direction of making warfare . "
When the Austrians and Italians surrendered , Napoleon demanded payment in Au , which he gave to his fighting military personnel , sealing their loyalty . countersign of his effort spread far and panoptic .
" Napoleon really burst onto the scene with the staggering achiever of the first Italian campaign , which put him on the radiolocation with the rest of Europe , " says Hicks . " Everybody wanted to acknowledge , ' Who is this guy ? ' "
Visions of Empire in the Exotic East
It did n’t take long for Napoleon to begin check himself as the Gallic avatar ofJulius CaesarorAlexander the Great . He could have made a maneuver for emperor in 1797 , but palpate the moment was n’t quite right in Paris . So he rallied his Army and set off for Egypt , where he hoped to cut off British trade with India .
Napoleon student Jean Tulardcalledthe Egyptian campaign , " probably the crazy pleasure trip in the account of France . " Napoleon marched 35,000 troops across the desert from the port metropolis of Alexandria toward Cairo . At the Battle of the Pyramids , he faced a wall of 10,000 unfearing Mameluke fighter on horseback .
" Soldiers , " Napoleonshoutedto his troops , " from the tiptop of these pyramids , 40 century see down upon you . "
The French , following Napoleon ’s ingenious battlefield strategies , crushed the saber - handle Mamelukes and took Cairo . But while Napoleon was daydreaming of subjugation — " I saw myself founding a novel faith , " he laterwrote , " march into Asia riding an elephant , a pillbox on my head , and in my hand the new Koran " — the British struck back , destroying the Gallic fleet docked in the Mediterranean .
run aground in Egypt , Napoleon determine to peck more fights with the local . He took on the Turks in Syria and pelt the hundred - old walls at the ancient city of Acre . But by 1798 , morale was down in the mouth and a civil warfare was raging back home . Napoleon check an possibility for his triumphant retort , so he abandon his troop in Egypt and secretly made for France .
The Egyptian campaign was n’t a total washing , though . Napoleon ’s soldier , while dig to reinforce a fortress wall in 1799 , made an accidental find in the Nile Delta — theRosetta Stone .
From First Consul to Emperor
When Napoleon arrived in France in October 1798 , he establish his country in topsy-turvyness . The state coffer were empty , a coalition of foeman was on the attack , and the Gallic central government lead by a five - man Directory was divided and crumble . France needed a strong , authoritarian drawing card and Napoleon experience just the right bozo for the job .
In a matter of weeks , he plotted with two of the Directors and some flush backers to cover a coup d’etat . They convinced the legislative assembly that another monarchist putsch was imminent , pretense for relocating the politics to a country castle and sending in troops to " protect " them .
First , Napoleon made a jambon - handed speech present himself as France ’s savior , which the constitutional body violently eliminate , crying " down with the authoritarian ! " and " death to the tyrant ! " He refund the next day with more troops , and in a complicatedseries of political maneuvers , convinced the deputy to thaw the Directory and create a fresh three - individual consul with Napoleon at its head .
After rallying the army to overcome the Austrians , Napoleon realise the title of " First Consul for Life " and decided it was time to bring monarchy back to post - Revolution France . On Dec. 2 , 1804 , after literallysnatching the crownfrom the helping hand of Pope Pius VII , Napoleon named himself Emperor of France .
Napoleon Helped Make Modern France
While still First Consul , Napoleon make severalnew state institutionsand spearhead reforms that pulled the country out of chaos by consolidate power in a strong central government activity .
Among the big changes were to convey religion back to France through a pact with the Pope . Not only did Napoleonic France recognise Catholics , but welcome Protestants and Jews on adequate footing .
Under Napoleon , France create its first fundamental bank building , the franc was introduced , and taxis were pile up in a fair and timely manner . The messy post - Revolution sound system was codified under what ’s known as the Civil Code or theNapoleonic Code . On the flip side , cleaning lady lost almost all sound right and slavery was reintroduced in French colony .
" Government was settled along a top - down complex body part — and it was very much one man at the top , " says Hicks , " but Napoleon ’s reforms bring financial surety , and also political and social stability . "
France Versus the World
Napoleon ’s formula of France was dominated by nonstop fight with European rivals , chiefly Britain , Austria , Prussia and Russia . The Napoleonic Wars traverse from 1796 to 1815 and were bankrolled by Britain , the major economical and military power of the day .
" Britain was happy to have Europe fighting itself so it could consort the rest of the reality , " says Hicks . " Britain paid other countries to do the fighting against France , but the other guys did n’t require much encouraging . They found Napoelonic France quite challenging . "
The British formed alinement after coalition against the French Empire , but Napoleon managed to keep the upper hand and even bring home the bacon more territorial dominion until 1812 , when he made a fatal and failed gamble in Russia .
In Russia, Napoleon Was Beaten by Retreat
When the Russian czar Alexander I back out of Napoleon ’s blockade of British goods in 1811 , Napoleon was livid . Against the advice of his superior general , Napoleon chose to invade Russia with one of the large European regular army ever gather , an estimated 600,000 soldier from France , Italy , Germany and Poland .
Napoleon ’s army charged into Russia in the blazing heat of the summer . The Russians , overwhelmed by the gauze-like routine of foeman fighters , fell back in hideaway , burning the Ithiel Town and countryside behind them . worn out and without towns to bust for supplies , the French force bear from disease and desertion .
in the end , the two armies come across at the Battle of Borodino , where Napoleon threw his men into a vicious , all - day assault that be ten of thousand of living on both sides . The Russians lastly yield and Napoleon marched triumphantly into Moscow , only to find the city in flame .
The Russian winter arrived early and with a payback . Napoleon ’s army , fully unprepared for temperatures as gloomy as -22 degrees F ( -30 degrees C ) , froze to decease by the thousands . Starving soldier bolt down each other over horseflesh . And throughout the trial by ordeal , Cossacks raid the pull back French army , dole out devastating blows to its flank and prat .
Of Napoleon ’s invading regular army of 600,000,only 100,000made it out of Russia alive .
Exile to Elba
After barely escaping total disaster in Russia , Napoleon came home to fight off another coalition of European foes : Britain , Russia , Prussia , Sweden and Austria . With vitiated forces , he held off the coalition for a year before the enemy marched on Paris itself and Napoleon ’s general refused to follow him into a last battle .
On April 12 , 1814 , Napoleon abdicated his crapper and was exiled to the tiny island of Elba between Italy and Corsica . Hicks pronounce that Napoleon ’s expulsion to Elba was " kind of a jape , " less of a punishment for Napoleon than a strategy engineered by the Russians to destabilize Austrian - controlled Italy .
" Cartoons at the time compared Napoleon on Elba to Vesuvius next to Naples , " says Hicks . " It ’s going to blow up , and it did . "
Triumphant Return and Final Defeat at Waterloo
After less than a year in deportation , Napoleon navigate from Elba with 1,000 supporter and land on the French mainland , where he was meet by triumphant crowds . King Louis XVIII , who had been installed by the conglutination ally in Napoleon ’s place , hop-skip townspeople without a fight . The Emperor was back , but not for long .
What play along is know as the Hundred Days Campaign , Napoleon ’s last heroic grasp at magnate . With coalition forces amass against him , Napoleon decided to impress first by invade Belgium . He had some fortune against the Prussians in a preliminary battle , but then he amount up against the British outside the Belgian town of Waterloo .
On June 22 , 1815 , Napoleon abdicated the throne for the second and final time .
Death on St. Helena, an Island Prison
The British were n’t going to take any chances with Napoleon ’s 2nd exile . They prefer the remote tropic island of St. Helena , thousands of miles from France off the sea-coast of Africa . There , in a ramshackle acres called Longwood , a single captive was guarded by 2,800 mankind and a Royal Navy squadron of 11 ship .
Napoleon died May 5 , 1821 , likely from stomach Crab . He was 51 years old . He was immerse on St. Helena , but his clay were finally returned to France where he was entombed at Les Invalides among the heavy French leaders of all time .
