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Napoleon Bonaparte was the first emperor of France and one of the world's most significant military leaders, but at a price. He conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century, enjoying many campaign successes, but also suffering several spectacular defeats. Among his accomplishments was the introduction of the Napoleonic Code, which continues to form the foundation of French civil law to this day. Shrewd and calculating, Napoleon was also ruthless in his ambition and responsible for atrocities committed by French troops on the battlefield and across an overseas colonial empire extending from the Americas to Africa.
Click through for an examination of his life and legacy.
Napoleon Bonaparte's early years were difficult. He endured ridicule by his peers for his perceived foreign heritage, poor command of the French language, and short stature. His story begins in Corsica.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, one year after France acquired Corsica from the city-state of Genoa, Italy. As a youngster, Bonaparte attended school on the French mainland, where he eventually mastered the French language.
In 1779, he won a scholarship to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château, graduating in 1785. Pictured is a postcard of a younger statute of Napoleon erected in the town's Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. The left hand is slid in the bight of his tunic, an attitude that became characteristic of the representations of the emperor. Brienne-le-Château is also the location of the Napoleon Museum.
Soon after graduation, Napoleon became a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment of the French army.
Napoleon was on leave in Corsica when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. Still a fervent Corsican nationalist, the young lieutenant became affiliated with the Jacobins, a pro-democracy political group. Napoleon is seen in this engraving addressing a Jacobin club in Corsica.
Napoleon attempted to ingratiate himself with the nationalist Corsican governor, Pasquale Paoli. However, Paoli had no sympathy for Napoleon and after a clash with his former mentor, Bonaparte fled his native island (pictured) and took refuge on mainland France.
Having returned to military duty, Napoleon became associated with Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of revolutionary firebrand Maximilien Robespierre, a Jacobin and key protagonist behind the Reign of Terror. Napoleon rose quickly in the ranks to become a brigadier general in the army. But after the Robespierres' fall from grace and their eventual executions, Napoleon—deemed guilty by association—was briefly placed under arrest in 1794 (pictured) for his ties to the brothers.
Subsequently acquitted of any wrongdoing, Napoleon quickly became a respected military figurehead after commanding a French army that roundly defeated the larger armies of Austria in a series of battles in Italy. In fact, it was at the Battle of Lodi in May 1796 (pictured) that Napoleon truly proved himself to his men, and by the following year France and Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, resulting in territorial gains for the French.
Between battles and grabbing territory, Napoleon found time to marry Joséphine de Beauharnais in 1796. Widowed and with two teenage children, she would eventually become Empress Joséphine. But she was destined never to provide her husband with a son and heir.
In 1798, Napoleon was handed the opportunity by the Directory, the governing five-member committee that had ruled France since 1795, to lead an invasion of England. He declined, citing, correctly, that France's naval strength was not yet sufficient enough to confront the British Royal Navy. Instead, he proposed an invasion of Egypt, ostensibly to eradicate British trade routes with India. Pictured is Napoleon in 1798 visiting the Sphinx.
Napoleon's forces clashed with those of Egypt's military rulers, the Mamluks, at the Battle of the Pyramids (pictured) in July 1798, and scored a bloody but decisive victory. Celebrations, however, were brief. In August, his army was nearly decimated by the British at the Battle of the Nile. A failed 1799 incursion into Ottoman Empire-ruled Syria (during which French forces committed some truly horrendous atrocities against the civilian population, including the murder of women and children), plus brewing political turmoil in France, eventually forced Napoleon's hand and he turned tail back to Paris.
It was during Napoleon's military campaign in Egypt that the famous Rosetta Stone was unearthed. Named after the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta where it was discovered in July 1799 by French officer Pierre-François Bouchard, the ancient artifact provided the key to cracking the code of Egyptian hieroglyphics, a written language deemed lost for over two millennia.
Despite the failures in Egypt, Napoleon returned to France in November 1799 to a hero's welcome. Shortly afterwards in a grab for supreme power, he joined a group that successfully overthrew the French Directory. Effectively a coup d'état, the so-called "Coup of 18 Brumaire" positioned Napoleon as first consul and made him the country's leading political figure.
With the Austrians defeated at the Battle of Marengo in 1800, and a fragile peace negotiated with the British, Napoleon worked to restore his semblance of stability to post-revolutionary France. One of his most significant accomplishments was the Napoleonic Code.
The Napoleonic Code, also known as the French Civil Code of 1804, provided the country with its first coherent set of laws concerning property, colonial affairs, the family, and individual rights. Still extant, with revisions, the code continues to form the foundation of French civil law (and beyond) to this day. Pictured is the end page of the document.
Peace in Europe allowed Napoleon to focus more on French colonies abroad. In order to replenish diminished coffers and fund any future European conflicts, in 1802 he promptly reintroduced slavery in all French Caribbean colonies. Slavery was then restored throughout the entire French colonial empire for another half a century, while the profitable French transatlantic slave trade continued for another 20 years.
In 1803, in another effort to raise money for his armies, Napoleon sold France's Louisiana Territory in North America to the newly independent United States for US$15 million—the equivalent of about US$342 million in modern dollars. The lucrative transaction became known as the Louisiana Purchase and allowed the US to claim imperial rights to the land, which in turn gave the nation the "exclusive authority" to take control of estates from its indigenous inhabitants. Pictured is the April 24, 1803 authorization for the purchase of the Louisiana Territory.
Already first consul for life, Napoleon Bonaparte further consolidated his power by crowning himself emperor of France in a lavish and spectacular ceremony at Notre Dame in Paris on December 2, 1804.
The Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815 saw Europe once again plunged into conflict. In October 1805, the French and Spanish Navies suffered a resounding defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar. Napoleon's Grande Armée, battle ready and equipped for an invasion of England, was halted in its tracks.
Two months later in one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon defeated the Austrians and the Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz.
The Battle of Wagram on July 5–6, 1809 resulted in another defeat for the Austrians against a superior French army and forced the Austrians to sue for peace four days later, resulting in further gains for the emperor. Indeed, Napoleon's empire expanded exponentially across much of western and central continental Europe.
With Joséphine de Beauharnais unable to provide Napoleon with offspring, he had their marriage annulled and in 1810—and somewhat ironically—wed the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, Marie Louise. She bore him a son, Napoleon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte, who became known as Napoleon II and was given the title King of Rome.
In the summer of 1812, Napoleon led a full-scale invasion into Russian territory. On September 7, 1812, Napoleon's army suffered heavy casualties at Borodino— the bloodiest of all the engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. France lost approximately 30,000 dead and wounded and Russia 44,000. Napoleon then made the greatest tactical error of his life: deciding to follow the retreating Russian army all the way to Moscow.
Napoleon's forces eventually marched on to Moscow, but were dismayed to discover almost the entire population evacuated. Furthermore, the Russians had adopted a scorched earth policy, setting fires across the city to deprive the French of much-needed food and supplies.
Denied a Russian surrender, a new enemy reared its ugly head, the onset of the Russian winter. His campaign in tatters, Napoleon ordered his exhausted and malnourished troops out of Moscow. Many men froze to death during the catastrophic volte-face; others were picked off by aggressive and vengeful Russian soldiers. Of the 600,000 French troops who began the campaign, less than 100,000 returned home.
As if humiliation in Russia wasn't enough, French forces were also defeated in the Peninsula War (1808–1814). After a series of long and brutal campaigns, Spanish, Portuguese, and British forces eventually drove the French out of the Iberian Peninsula.
In 1813, Napoleon suffered another defeat at the the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of Nations, when his army was scattered by a coalition that included Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish troops.
Napoleon was in France when coalition forces captured Paris in March 1814. Tired and vanquished, he was forced to abdicate the throne. The Treaty of Fontainebleau further sealed his fate when he was exiled to Elba, a dot of an island in the Mediterranean. His wife and son, meanwhile, were dispatched to Austria.
Napoleon managed to escape from Elba on February 26, 1815, and sailed to the French mainland. He was not alone. Over 1,000 supporters accompanied their emperor.
Napoleon was met by cheering crowds in Paris as the new king, Louis XVIII, fled. Soon afterwards the emperor initiated what became known as his Hundred Days campaign.
Napoleon's reemergence rattled the sabers of the Austrians, British, Prussians, and Russians, a coalition of allies that immediately began preparing for war. On June 18, 1815, one of the most famous military confrontations in history took place: the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon's troops were no match for the combined British and Prussian forces, who crushed the French and inflicted further embarrassment on the beleaguered emperor.
Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo proved a watershed. France was unforgiving and on June 22, 1815 he was once again forced to abdicate.
Napoleon's final years were spent in isolation on the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he was exiled to in October 1815.
Napoleon Bonaparte died on Saint Helena on May 5, 1821, aged 51 years, probably from stomach cancer. In his will, Napoleon requested his body be returned to Paris, but the island's British governor insisted the corpse be buried in situ. However, in 1840 Napoleon's remains were eventually returned to France.
Napoleon I was given a state funeral in Paris, after which his remains were entombed in a crypt at Les Invalides.
Sources: (History) (Ville Impériale) (Alpha History) (Rosetta Stone) (National Geographic) (Musée de l'Armée) (Daily Mail)
Napoleon Bonaparte: the rise and fall of the French Emperor
Get to know one of the most important military leaders in the world
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Napoleon Bonaparte was the first emperor of France and one of the world's most significant military leaders, but at a price. He conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century, enjoying many campaign successes, but also suffering several spectacular defeats. Among his accomplishments was the introduction of the Napoleonic Code, which continues to form the foundation of French civil law to this day. Shrewd and calculating, Napoleon was also ruthless in his ambition and responsible for atrocities committed by French troops on the battlefield and across an overseas colonial empire extending from the Americas to Africa.
Click through for an examination of his life and legacy.