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Napoleon I, Emperor of France (Napoleon Bonaparte) (1769-1821) (see also Napoleonic wars). Born Napoleone Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica, the second son of an impecunious lawyer, Napoleon lost his father when he was only 15 and quickly assumed much of the burden of supporting his mother and numerous siblings. Educated at Autun and Brienne, he distinguished himself in mathematics and science in particular. Having entered the École Militaire in 1784 he was, a year later, commissioned into the artillery. In between discharging his professional duties and visiting his impoverished family in Corsica, he undertook an intensive study of military history and theory. Indeed, on moving to Auxonne, France's premier artillery school at the time, Bonaparte became acquainted with, among other military thinkers, the commandant, Baron du Teil, a celebrated gunner who, recognizing his potential, took a keen, paternal interest in his training.

Although once an ardent Corsican nationalist, Bonaparte was gradually alienated by separatist sentiments and eventually moved his family to France. In the interim, he witnessed the fall of the Bourbons in 1792, developing an ever deeper loathing for the disorder that followed the storming of the Tuileries. On the other hand, the French Revolutionary wars provided Capt Bonaparte with the perfect opportunity to make a name for himself. His skilful handling of the artillery at the siege of Toulon in 1793 compelled the British invaders to relinquish their conquest, and he was duly rewarded with promotion to brigadier general. He quickly fell from favour, however. A friend of Robespierre's brother, he was arrested following the coup d'état of 9 Thermidor and imprisoned for a time. Thereafter, he found himself unemployed and was considering emigrating when the political pendulum swung in his favour. A Directory member, Paul Barras, ordered Bonaparte to defend the Convention from a hostile crowd. This he did with a show of force, dispersing the mob with a ‘whiff of grapeshot’.

Initially, a grateful Directory rewarded the young general with the command of the Army of the Interior. Early in 1798 he was appointed to lead the Army of Italy, which he did with conspicuous success. His victories induced the Austrians to conclude the Peace of Campo Formio (1797), and Paris turned its attention to Britain. Having judged the Royal Navy's mastery of the Channel to be incontestable, an invasion was deemed impracticable, but a blow against British trading interests through an Egyptian expedition seemed to have much to recommend it. Accordingly, in 1798, forces under Bonaparte sailed from Toulon, captured Malta, and landed in Egypt. Defeating the Mamelukes at the battle of the Pyramids, Bonaparte took Cairo only to have his maritime communications severed by Nelson's destruction of the French flotilla at Aboukir Bay. Invading Syria in 1799, he endeavoured to capture Acre before turning back into Egypt, where, at Aboukir, he routed a Turkish army which had recently arrived from Rhodes.

This strengthened the French grip on Egypt. However, Bonaparte had concluded that there were bigger fish to fry and, leaving his army, secretly returned to France, which was being menaced by the forces of the Second Coalition. Publication of the news of his recent triumph at Aboukir raised his standing with the public still further—so much so that, on his return, the Directory, corrupt and discredited, felt threatened by him. Their fears were not to prove groundless: in the coup d'état of Brumaire 1799 they were overthrown and Bonaparte became one of three consuls. He wasted no time in establishing himself as first Consul and persuading the other two to withdraw into private life, leaving him as France's de facto ruler.

Realizing that if he were to consolidate his own position and reinvigorate his war-weary country he would have to secure her a period of peace, in 1800 Napoleon set out in search of a decisive confrontation with France's principal opponent, Austria, and embarked on a second Italian campaign. It was a mercurial, brilliant affair which culminated in his victory at Marengo. Defeated in Germany, too, the Austrians ratified the Treaty of Lunéville, dismembering the Second Coalition. Britain's PM, William Pitt ‘the younger’, resigned and his successor, the recapture of Egypt notwithstanding, quickly sought an agreement with France.

With the signing of the Peace of Amiens, ten years of incessant conflict came to an end and Napoleon's popularity reached new heights. Freed from the distractions of war, he was now able to embark on a series of important domestic reforms: the state bureaucracy was overhauled, improving the efficiency of the administration in general and the government's ability to exploit the country's manpower and other resources in particular; a Concordat with the Pope was reached, restoring some legitimacy and tranquillity to France's relations with Rome and, by extension, to those between Napoleon's Catholic subjects and his regime; a scientifically uniform and versatile set of weights and measures was created; the Bank of France was established to support business and regulate the state's finances; a metal-based currency, with the franc's value fixed at 5 grains of silver, replaced the Revolutionary assignats; French law in its entirety was codified; international industrial exhibitions were staged and economic development encouraged; and the control of education was centralized, with emphasis being placed on the creation of élitist secondary schools—the lycées—which drew their pupils primarily from middle-class families and prepared them for a life of public service as doctors, functionaries, and officers.

All of this helped strengthen Napoleon's own position. A pragmatic rationalist, a child of the Enlightenment who subordinated rights to efficiency where necessary, he successfully replaced the chaos of the Revolution with order and, for a time at least, with peace. Le peuple proved suitably thankful. A plebiscite made him consul for life, while several royalist-inspired assassination attempts only helped reinforce popular support for a hereditary succession. Believing that the Bourbons had debased the title of king, and anxious to avoid any association with the ancien régime, Napoleon, who in any case saw himself as the successor of Charlemagne, now proposed the establishment of the French empire. The necessary legislation was passed by the enfeebled Tribunate and, given popular endorsement through a plebiscite, Napoleon was proclaimed emperor, his coronation taking place in December 1804. In 1805, he was to be proclaimed king of Italy, too, while his siblings and marshals were likewise to be granted titles and lands as part of his policy of creating a new, imperial aristocracy. The dynasty was further underpinned by the institution of a system of civil and military awards, notably the Légion d'Honneur.

Amiens yielded but a brief, peaceful interlude in the continuing rivalry between Europe's great powers. Britain resumed hostilities against France in 1803 and, over the next ten years, orchestrated the formation of a further four coalitions against her. The first three of these were shattered by Napoleon in a series of dazzling campaigns which firmly established him as the pre-eminent commander of his age and as one of the greatest military leaders in history. So spectacular was his success that by the beginning of 1810, he found himself presiding over the largest empire Europe had seen since Roman times.

Domestic reforms followed in the wake of his conquering armies. Although its application was inevitably uneven, the Code Napoléon was intended to serve as a universal set of principles founded on reason. Extended to an ever-greater area of Europe, its impact lingers in many regions to this day. In parallel to this, Napoleon's unprecedented style of waging war compelled his enemies to adapt and modernize not only their armed forces but also every other organ of state power. Even semi-feudalistic Russia and the multinational Austrian empire were obliged to try to arouse and exploit rather dangerous concepts like nationalism and patriotism in a bid to counter the passions unleashed by the French Revolution and harnessed by Napoleon.

Napoleon thus posed a threat to the whole European order. His opponents, particularly Britain, were unwilling to grant him a lengthy period of peace in which to consolidate his gains and France found herself in an attritional struggle which proved unsustainable. The ‘Spanish Ulcer’ of 1807-14 (see Peninsular war) was already bleeding France white when the Russian debacle of 1812 jeopardized the whole of Napoleon's gains in central Europe. Victorious at Leipzig, the Sixth Coalition's armies invaded France in 1814, securing Napoleon's abdication and restoring the Bourbons.

Exiled to Elba, Napoleon staked all on one last desperate gamble. Landing in France in March 1815, he deposed the Bourbons in a bloodless revolution. A renewal of the war was unavoidable, and the Allies promptly formed the Seventh Coalition. Although the campaign of the Hundred Days began well, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, abdicated a second time, and was confined on St Helena where he remained until his death. Victorious in nearly all of the 50 battles he fought in his career, for contemporary soldier-theorists, notably Clausewitz and Jomini, Napoleon was the very ‘God of War’, an operational commander of the premier rank.

His personality, like his achievements, both dazzles and repels. A fearless and charismatic leader, he had the knack of inspiring an extraordinary degree of devotion. His nickname, ‘the little corporal’, reflected not merely an easy informality but the use of strong language that real corporals sometimes found surprising. Yet when he chose to be formal he was utterly chilling: in 1810 he stood for fifteen minutes, wordlessly staring at the floor, with a cloud of assembled dignitaries, French and foreign, frozen into immobility around him. His personal tastes were simple: he liked potatoes fried with onions, and was partial to poulet à la provençale, washed down with a little Gevrey Chambertin. When not on campaign, he fluctuated between frenzied activity and languid repose. He enjoyed long, early-morning baths; cheated shamelessly at cards; whittled chair-arms with a penknife, and was a notable opera buff—but sang badly. He drove his staff as hard as he did himself, and would often dictate several letters to his secretaries simultaneously.

His affairs (often managed, in a very businesslike way, by Christophe Duroc, Grand Marshal of the Palace) were legion. During the Egyptian campaign he took a young officer's wife as his mistress, he had a brief affair with his brother Joseph's future sister-in-law, and a longer one with the Polish countess Marie Walewska. In 1796 he married Joséphine de Beauharnais, widow of a general guillotined during the Terror. The marriage was childless and, despite very real affection, he divorced her to marry the Austrian princess Marie-Louise, whose hand was part of the 1809 peace settlement, telling Josephine bluntly: ‘I need a womb.’ Establishing a dynasty mattered enormously to him, and when his son was born he announced: ‘He has my chest, my mouth and my eyes. I trust that he will fulfil his destiny.’

Bibliography

• Collins, I., Napoleon: First Consul and Emperor of the French (London, 1986).
• Geyl, P., Napoleon: For and Against (London, 1964).
• Markham, F., Napoleon (New York, 1963)

— David Gates/Richard Holmes

Napoleon I (1769-1821), emperor of the French, ranks as one of the greatest military conquerors in history. Through his conquests he remade the map of Europe, and through his valuable administrative and legal reforms he promoted the growth of liberalism.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born Napoleon Buonaparte (the spelling change was made after 1796) on Aug. 15, 1769, in the Corsican city of Ajaccio. He was the fourth of 11 children of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Romolino. His father derived from the lesser Corsican nobility. Following the annexation of Corsica by France in 1769, Carlo was granted the same rights and privileges as the French nobility. After an elementary education at a boys' school in Ajaccio, young Napoleon was sent in January 1779 with his older brother Joseph to the College of Autun in the duchy of Burgundy. In May of the same year he was transferred to the more fashionable College of Brienne, another military school, while his brother remained at Autun. Here Napoleon's small stature earned him the nickname of the "Little Corporal."

At Brienne, Napoleon received an excellent military and academic education, and in October 1784 he earned an appointment to the École Militaire of Paris. The royal military school of Paris was the finest in Europe in the years before the Revolution, and Napoleon entered the service of Louis XVI in 1785 with a formal education that had prepared him for his future role in French history. Napoleon joined an artillery unit at Valence, where he again received superior training.

First Military Assignments

Now a second lieutenant, Napoleon continued his education on his own, but he was distracted by Corsica. Until 1793 his thoughts, desires, and ambitions centered on the island of his birth. Following the death of his father, he received an extended leave (1786) to return to Corsica to settle his family's affairs. After rejoining his regiment at Auxonne, he again spent more than a year on his native island (1789-1790), during which time he was influential in introducing the changes brought about by the Revolution. Returning to France, Napoleon was transferred to Valence in June 1791. But by October he had returned to Corsica, where he remained for 7 months. He spent the critical summer of 1792 in Paris and then returned to Corsica for one last episode in October. On this visit he took part in the power struggle between the forces supporting Pasquale Paoli and those supported by the French Republic. After Paoli was victorious, Napoleon and the Bonaparte family were forced to flee to the mainland, and the young officer then turned his attention to a career in the French army.

The Revolution of 1789 did not have a major effect upon Bonaparte in its early years. He did not sympathize with the royalists. Nor did he take an active part in French politics, as his thoughts were still taken up with affairs in Corsica. Napoleon was in Paris when the monarchy was overthrown in August 1792, but no evidence indicates that he was a republican. Upon his return from Corsica in the spring of 1793, Capt. Bonaparte was given a command with the republican army that was attempting to regain control of southern France from the proroyalist forces. He took part in the siege of Avignon, and then while on his way to join the French Army of Italy Napoleon was offered command of the artillery besieging the port of Toulon.

National Acclaim

The siege of Toulon provided Napoleon with his first opportunity to display his ability as an artillery officer and brought him national recognition. France had gone to war with Prussia and Austria in 1792. England, having joined the struggle in 1793, had gained control of Toulon. After his distinguished part in dislodging the British, Napoleon was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He also made the acquaintance of Augustin Robespierre, the younger brother of the powerful Maximilien, and though Napoleon was not politically a Jacobin, he derived benefits from his association with influential party members. The overthrow of the Jacobin regime on 9 Thermidor (July 1794) led to Napoleon's imprisonment in Fort Carré on August 9. When no evidence could be found linking him to the British, Napoleon was released after 10 days of confinement.

Throughout the winter of 1794-1795 Napoleon was employed in the defense of the Mediterranean coast. Then, in April 1795, he was ordered to Paris, and in June he was assigned to the Army of the West. He refused this position, pleading poor health. This refusal almost brought an end to his military career, and he was assigned to the Bureau of Topography of the Committee of Public Safety. While serving in this capacity, he sought unsuccessfully to have himself transferred to Constantinople. Thus Napoleon was in Paris when the royalists attempted to overthrow the Directory on Oct. 5, 1795.

Gen. Paul Barras had been placed in command of the defense of Paris by the government, and he called upon Gen. Bonaparte to defend the Tuileries. Napoleon put down the uprising of 13 Vendémiaire by unhesitatingly turning his artillery on the attackers, dispersing the mob with what he called "a whiff of grapeshot." In gratitude he was appointed commander of the Army of the Interior and instructed to disarm Paris.

Marriage and Italian Campaign

In the winter of 1795 Napoleon met Josephine de Beauharnais, the former Mademoiselle Tascher de La Pagerie. Born on the island of Martinique, she had been married to Alexandre de Beauharnais at the age of 16 and had borne him two children, Eugène and Hortense, before separating from him. Alexandre, a nobleman from Orléans, was executed in the last days of the Terror in 1794, leaving Josephine free to marry Napoleon. Their civil ceremony took place on March 9, 1796. Within a few days Napoleon left his bride behind in Paris and took up his new command at the head of the Army of Italy.

On March 26 Napoleon reached his headquarters at Nice, and on March 31 he issued the first orders for the invasion of Italy. The campaign opened on April 12, and within several weeks he had forced Piedmont out of the war. In May, Napoleon marched across northern Italy, reaching Verona on June 3. The campaign was then bogged down by the Austrian defense of Mantua, which lasted 18 months. During this period Napoleon beat back Austrian attempts to relieve the fortified city at Castiglione, Arcole, and Rivoli. Finally, in the spring of 1797, Napoleon advanced on Vienna and forced the Austrians to sign the Treaty of Campoformio (Oct. 17, 1797). The treaty gave France the territory west of the Rhine and control of Italy.

After spending the summer and fall at the palace of Monbello, where he established with Josephine what in reality was the court of Italy, Napoleon returned to Paris the hero of the hour. He was the man who could make war and peace. Napoleon was given command of the Army of England after drawing up a plan to invade that island. However, after a brief visit to the English Channel he abandoned any hope of crossing that turbulent body of water with the available French fleet. Returning to Paris, he gave up his command.

Egyptian Campaign

Napoleon did not wish to remain idle in Paris; nor did the government wish to see a popular general in the capital without a command to occupy him. Thus, when an expedition to Egypt was proposed, probably by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, both the general and his government gave it their support. Strategically, the expedition would extend French influence into the Mediterranean and threaten British control in India. Napoleon sailed from Toulon on May 19, 1798, with an army of 35,000 men. On June 11-12 he captured Malta, and on June 30 the task force reached Alexandria, Egypt. The city was taken, and Napoleon's army marched up the west branch of the Nile to Cairo. In sight of the city and of the Pyramids, the first major battle took place. With minimal losses the French drove the Mamluks back into the desert in the Battle of the Pyramids, and all of lower Egypt came under Napoleon's control.

Napoleon reorganized the government, the postal service, and the system for collecting taxes; introduced the first printing presses; created a health department; built new hospitals for the poor in Cairo; and founded the Institut d'Egypte. During the French occupation the Rosetta Stone was discovered, and the Nile was explored as far south as Aswan. But the military aspect of Napoleon's Egyptian venture was not so rewarding. On Aug. 1, 1798, Horatio Nelson destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir Bay, leaving the French army cut off from France. Then Napoleon's Syrian campaign ended in the unsuccessful siege of Acre (April 1799) and a return to the Nile. After throwing a Turkish army back into the sea at Aboukir (July 1799), Napoleon left the army under the command of Gen. Jean Baptiste Kléber and returned to France with a handful of officers.

The Consulate

Landing at Fréjus on Oct. 9, 1799, Napoleon went directly to Paris, where the political situation was ripe for a coup d'etat. France had become weary of the Directory, and in collaboration with Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Joseph Fouché, and Talleyrand, Napoleon overthrew the government on 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9-10, 1799). The Constitution of the Year VIII provided for the Consulate. Napoleon was named first consul and given virtually dictatorial powers. The trappings of the republic remained - there were two legislative bodies, the Tribunate and the Corps Legislatif - but real power rested in the hands of the first consul.

Napoleon began at once to solve the problems that faced France at the turn of the century. With mailed fist and velvet glove he ended the civil war in the Vendée. He then personally led an army over the Grand-Saint-Bernard Pass into Italy and defeated the Austrians, who had declared war on France while Napoleon was in Egypt, at the Battle of Marengo (June 14, 1800). This victory, which Napoleon always considered one of his greatest, again brought Italy under French control. After a truce that lasted into December, French armies forced Austria out of the war for the second time. The Treaty of Lunéville (Feb. 9, 1801) re-confirmed the Treaty of Campoformio. It was followed on March 25, 1802, by the Treaty of Amiens, which ended, or at least interrupted, the war with England. The Concordat that Napoleon signed with Pope Pius VII in 1801 restored harmony between Rome and Paris, and it ended the internal religious split that had originated in the Revolution. Napoleon also reformed France's legal system with the Code Napoleon.

The Empire

By 1802 Napoleon was the most popular dictator France had ever known, and he was given the position of first consul for life with the right to name his successor. The establishment of the Empire on May 18, 1804, thus changed little except the name of the government. The Constitution of the Year VIII was altered only to provide for an imperial government; its spirit was not changed. The Emperor of the French created a new nobility, set up a court, and changed the titles of government officials; but the average Frenchman noticed little difference.

The Treaty of Amiens proved to be no more than a truce, and in May 1803 the war with England was renewed. The Emperor planned to invade the island kingdom in the summer of 1805, but his naval operations went amiss. In September, Napoleon turned his back on the Channel and marched against Austria, who together with Russia had formed the Third Coalition. At Ulm (October 14) and Austerlitz (December 2) Napoleon inflicted disastrous defeats upon the Allies, forcing Alexander I of Russia to retreat behind the Neman and compelling Austria to make peace. At the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon reached the height of his military career. The Treaty of Pressburg (Dec. 27, 1805) deprived Austria of additional lands and further humiliated the once mighty Hapsburg state.

Victory throughout the Continent

The year 1806 was marked by war with Prussia over increased French influence in Germany. The overconfident Prussian army sang as it marched to total destruction at the battles of Jena and Auerstädt (Oct. 14, 1806), and Napoleon entered Berlin in triumph. Prussia was reduced to a second-rate power, and the fighting moved eastward into Poland as the Russians belatedly came to the aid of their defeated ally. Although at the Battle of Eylau (Feb. 8, 1807) the French were brought to a standstill, on June 14 at Friedland the Emperor drove the Russian army from the field. Alexander I made peace at Tilsit on June 25, 1807. This understanding between the two emperors divided Europe. Alexander was to have a free hand in the east to take Finland and Bessarabia, while Napoleon was free to reshape western and central Europe as he pleased. The most significant result was the creation of the grand duchy of Warsaw (1807). Sweden was defeated in 1808 with Russia's help. Napoleon was now master of the Continent. Only England remained in the field.

Problems with England and Spain

On Oct. 21, 1805, Adm. Horatio Nelson had destroyed the combined Franco-Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar, Spain. This loss made it virtually impossible for Napoleon to invade England. He, therefore, introduced the Continental system, or blockade, designed to exclude all British goods from Europe. In this manner he hoped to ruin the British economy and to force the "nation of shopkeepers" to make peace on French terms. His plan did not work, and it led Napoleon into conflicts with Spain, the papacy, and Russia, and it undoubtedly formed a major cause for the downfall of the Empire.

In Spain in 1808 French interference led to the removal of the Bourbon dynasty and to the placement of Joseph Bonaparte as king. But the Spanish people refused to accept this Napoleonic dictate and, with aid from Great Britain, kept 250,000 French troops occupied in the Peninsular War (1808-1814). The refusal of Pope Pius VII to cooperate with Napoleon and the blockade led to the Pope's imprisonment and a French take-over of the Papal States. In the case of Russia refusal proved even more serious. Alexander's refusal to close Russian ports to British ships led to Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812, which was highlighted by the Battle of Borodino (September 7) and the occupation of Moscow (September 14-October 19). However, the ultimate result of this Russian campaign was the destruction of the Grand Army of 500,000 troops.

Fall from Glory

The Napoleonic system now began to break up rapidly. At its height three of the Emperor's brothers and his brother-in-law sat on European thrones. Napoleon had also secured an annulment of his marriage to Josephine and then married Marie Louise, the daughter of Emperor Francis II of Austria, in March 1810. Despite this union, Napoleon's father-in-law declared war on him in 1813. Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig (Oct. 16-18, 1813) forced him behind the Rhine, where he waged a brilliant, but futile, campaign during the first 3 months of 1814. Paris fell to the Allies on March 31, 1814, and the hopelessness of the military situation led the Emperor to abdicate at Fontainebleau (April 4, 1814) in favor of his son Napoleon II. However, the Allies refused to recogize the 3-year-old boy, and Louis XVIII was placed on the French throne.

Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, where he was sovereign ruler for 10 months. But as the alliance of the Great Powers broke down during the Congress of Vienna and the French people became dissatisfied with the restored royalists, Napoleon made plans to return to power. Sailing from Elba on Feb. 26, 1815, with 1,050 soldiers, Napoleon landed in southern France and marched unopposed to Paris, where he reinstated himself on March 21. Louis XVIII fled, and thus began Napoleon's new reign: the Hundred Days. The French did not wish to renew their struggle against Europe. Nevertheless, as the Allies closed ranks, Napoleon was forced to renew the war if he was to remain on the throne of France.

The Waterloo campaign (June 12-18) was short and decisive. After a victory over the Prussian army at Ligny, Napoleon was defeated by the combined British and Prussian armies under the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard von Blücher at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. He returned to Paris and abdicated for a second time, on June 22. Napoleon at first hoped to reach America; however, he surrendered to the commander of the British blockade at Rochefort on July 3, hoping to obtain asylum in England. Instead, he was sent into exile on the island of St. Helena. There he spent his remaining years, quarreling with the British governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, and dictating his memoirs. He died on St. Helena, after long suffering from cancer, on May 5, 1821.

Further Reading

The best one-volume work on Napoleon in English is James M. Thompson's slightly pro-British account, Napoleon Bonaparte (1952). Also excellent are Felix Markham, Napoleon (1964), and André Castelot, Napoleon (1971). The two-volume work of Georges Lefebvre, Napoleon (1936; trans. 1969), is a masterful account of the period 1799-1815; primarily a political history, it includes all aspects of the Napoleonic era.

A number of books deal with Napoleon's period of exile: Gilbert Martineau, Napoleon's St. Helena (1966; trans. 1969), which includes illustrations and a good bibliography; Michael John Thornton, Napoleon after Waterloo: England and the St. Helena Decision (1968), detailing the weeks in July and August 1815 during which Napoleon waited his fate on a British warship; and an account based on the diary of the secretary to the governor of St. Helena, Gideon Gorrequer, St. Helena, during Napoleon's Exile: Gorrequer's Diary, edited by James Kemble (1969). One of the best of the many biographies of Josephine is André Castelot, Josephine, translated by D. Folliot (1967), which provides many insights into Napoleon as husband and lover.

Three fine works on Napoleonic military history are Vincent J. Esposito and John R. Elting, A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars (1964); David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966); and Sir James Marshall-Cornwall, Napoleon as Military Commander (1967). A useful account for the general reader of Napoleon's invasion of Russia is in Leonard Cooper, Many Roads to Moscow; Three Historic Invasions (1968). Claude Manceron, Napoleon Recaptures Paris, translated by George Unwin (1969), is a lively account of Napoleon's take-over of Paris in March 1815.

Napoleon (Napoléon Bonaparte, Emperor Napoleon I) (1769-1821)

1. The Rise to Power

Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio, Corsica; his family was of Italian descent. Educated in France at Autun, the military college of Brienne, and the École Militaire in Paris, he served in the École d'Artillerie d'Auxonne. Although he distinguished himself at the Siege of Toulon, he only became a national figure with his suppression of an insurrection in Paris on 13 Vendémiaire (5 October 1795), his marriage on 9 March 1796 to Josephine de Beauharnais, who had an influence in Parisian political circles, and his brilliant leadership of military campaigns in Italy in 1796-7. He sought to attack British power in the Mediterranean and India by his campaign in Egypt, but was foiled by Nelson's defeat of the French fleet at Aboukir Bay (August 1798).

When he returned to France, he found a number of squabbling politicians engaged in conspiracies, fearful of a neo- Jacobin revival and fearful too of the royalists. Bonaparte was an obvious ally, and on 18-19 Brumaire (9-10 November 1799) he forced the legislature to establish a Consulate made up of Siéyès, Ducos, and himself. But Bonaparte was different from the mediocre men who had led France in the years preceding 1799 [see Revolution, 1D]. He was a man of energy, determination, and intelligence, whose abilities as a soldier and administrator were so outstanding that they have sometimes been regarded as unique. He emerged as first consul, then as consul for life (1802), and finally, in 1804, as emperor.

Napoleon (as he should now be called) wished to establish effective government. Important in this process was the codification of laws in a manner that maintained the social hierarchy and asserted the authority of the male, the father, and the state [see Code Civil]. A centralized financial system with the Banque de France controlling the currency was introduced in 1800. Elected bodies were largely ignored, and the regime became more dependent on the administrative system, in which nobles of the ancien régime and a new nobility, derived from the bourgeoisie and the popular classes and attracted by the Légion d'Honneur, cooperated. Censorship was rigorously imposed, dissident groups were brutally suppressed, and the monarchist threat was disposed of by the execution of the duc d' Enghien, an incident which provoked great indignation.

In 1800 Napoleon initiated negotiations with the papacy with a view to establishing religious peace at home (there was once again organized rebellion in parts of western France—see Vendée). The result was the Concordat of 1801, which officially reconciled the Church with the Republic. But Napoleon continued to act high-handedly towards the Church. On 2 December 1804 the pope was present at Notre-Dame, supposedly to crown the emperor and thus sanction his elevated status. But at the crucial moment Napoleon crowned himself, and proceeded to crown Josephine. Years later he forced one of his archbishops to allow a divorce, so that he could marry Marie-Louise of Austria (1810). This was so that he could have a son and heir, who was born a year later (he was proclaimed ‘roi de Rome’ in his cradle, and was briefly recognized as Napoleon II in 1815, but never reigned and died in exile in 1832).

2. The Napoleonic Campaigns

The Revolution had shown that the destiny of France was bound up with the rest of Europe. It had been war that had transformed the Revolution in 1792, it was French victory that had helped bring down Robespierre's type of government, and it was continuous warfare that destroyed the Directoire and brought Napoleon to power. Although the Consulate promised peace and succeeded in imposing peace on Austria at Lunéville (1801) and on Britain at Amiens (1802), these treaties accepted many French gains of territory and were unlikely to be lasting. Military operations and diplomacy were directed towards imposing not only a French political system on the remainder of Europe, but also, through the anti-British Continental System (blocus continental), an economic hegemony that would stimulate French enterprise.

In a continuous series of campaigns from 1805 to 1809 Napoleon won considerable victories (including Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Wagram), and established an empire which, through annexation and the establishment of vassal states, covered most of Europe, excluding Russia. He distributed thrones and territories to his relatives and favourites. But he could not always be absent from Paris. The campaigns were improvised; his armies were not properly supplied; the rate of desertion was high; the British were successful in organizing a series of coalitions against him. The Spanish campaign (1808-13), where Napoleon led his forces for a relatively short time, saw his first defeats. The Russian campaign (1812) was a disaster. A new coalition was formed against France, and at Leipzig (1813) he was forced to make his greatest retreat. Faced with the invasion of France, he won some remarkable victories but was unable to halt the allies, who entered Paris on 30 March 1814. Napoleon, at Fontainebleau, found himself isolated, and abdicated (6 April). He was given the kingdom of Elba, where he installed himself and his court.

He was to re-emerge. Bored with Elba, fearful that he was to be transferred to another, quite undesirable island, and calculating that there was much discontent within France, he escaped and landed in France, near Antibes, on 1 March 1815. Now began the Hundred Days, or vol d'aigle (using another metaphor, Marshal Ney, who had been sent to arrest him, later said: ‘Je ne pouvais arrêter l'eau de la mer avec mes mains’). Napoleon entered Paris on 20 March. He introduced a form of liberalism with the ‘Acte Additionnel aux Constitutions de l'Empire’ (1 June), promising liberty of the press and a form of parliamentary government, but it aroused little enthusiasm in political circles. Once again his fate was sealed by a battle on a foreign field, Waterloo. He abdicated again (22 June), and after seeking permission from the British government to go to America, he accepted exile on the Atlantic island of St Helena, where he lived under close supervision with a small group of followers, mainly occupied with the composition of his memoirs.

3. Significance and Legend

It is difficult to sum up Napoleon's significance. He was always a Corsican, viewing the Mediterranean as the vital centre of the world and underestimating the importance of the Atlantic and the Baltic. He was a soldier, seeking and finding military solutions to problems. Politically, it should be remembered that he had been a member of the Jacobin club; there was always in his ideas the belief that strong government should be surrounded by popular approval. Finally, it must be said that he was an adventurer and a gambler, believing in his destiny, prepared to stake everything on one campaign or one battle. He acted as if he knew that he was only to be in power for a short time, and that his power was fragile. Guizot, an experienced politician and perceptive historian, summed him up with these words: ‘C'est beaucoup d'être à la fois une gloire nationale, une garantie révolutionnaire, et un principe d'autorité’.

The young Bonaparte had had literary ambitions; he wrote several pamphlets and contes and envisaged greater works, such as a history of Corsica. He was much influenced by Rousseau. His bestknown work was Le Souper de Beaucaire (1793), a series of conversations posing the question of the authority of the Republic over a dissident Marseille. He had studied many classical authors, and at the imperial court the librarian was regularly summoned to tell the emperor about recent publications; for all his interest in literature, however, he did not approve oppositional writers such as Chateaubriand and Madame de Staël. His own proclamations and orders of the day have been much admired for their laconic vigour.

From the time of the Consulate, Bonaparte had been preoccupied with his own history and with what became known as the Napoleonic legend. On St Helena he requested from the British government that he be sent several hundred volumes, mostly on French history. All his companions, including generals Bertrand, de Montholon, and Gourgaud, were expected to help him to write his history, and from this work many volumes emerged, sometimes containing several versions, notably the Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France sous Napoléon (6 vols., 1823-5) and the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène of Las Cases.

Meanwhile in France the legend was cultivated by Béranger, Hugo, and Balzac. The government of Louis-Philippe contributed to it by having Napoleon's remains brought to Paris and installed in the Invalides. Louis Bonaparte profited from the legend in his political career, and as Napoleon III set up editorial committees (on some of which Mérimée and Sainte-Beuve served) to publish Napoleon's correspondence. 32 volumes appeared between 1858 and 1870, but they are very incomplete.

One understands why Barrès, who continued the Napoleonic legend, hailed him as ‘Napoléon, professeur d'énergie’ and ‘capable de servir de centre, de point de contact aux imaginations françaises, aux plus simples comme aux plus civilisés’. [See also Bonapartism].

[Douglas Johnson]

Bibliography

• P. Geyl, Napoleon: For and Against (1949)
• J. Tulard, Napoléon ou le Mythe du sauveur (1977)
• C. Emsley, The Longman Companion to Napoleonic Europe (1993)

The Russian people first discovered Napoleon as the young and bright general who stood out during the military campaigns of Italy in 1796 - 1797 and of Egypt in 1798 - 1799. By that time, he was deeply admired in Russia for his military genius by both civilians and soldiers such as Alexander Suvorov, who saw in him a "new Hannibal." Later on, Napoleon's victories over European armies reinforced the myth of his military invincibility, until the retreat of Berezina in October - November 1812.

Politically, the coup d'état by which Napoleon came to power in October 1799 (Eighteenth Brumaire) at first reassured the tsar Paul and the conservative and liberal elites, who saw in this new authoritarian regime the end of disorders and excesses brought by the French Revolution. But this feeling did not last: Napoleon's proclamation of his First Consulate for life on August 4,1802, followed by the establishment of the Empire on May 18, 1804, triggered strong negative reactions. For liberals, including the young tsar Alexander I, who acceded to the throne in March 1801, Napoleon became a tyrant who betrayed the Enlightenment ideas through personal interest. For the conservatives, the self-crowned man lacked legitimacy, and his huge political ambitions were dangerous for the European balance.

Alexander first chose to ignore the Napoleonic threat. In 1801 the young tsar decided to maintain Russia outside the European conflict and adopted a pacifist diplomacy: On October 8, 1801, a peace treaty was officially signed with France. But this position became increasingly difficult to maintain when France started to pose a serious threat to Russian interests in the Mediterranean and in the Balkans. So in 1805, Alexander decided to join Austria and Britain in the Third Coalition. The tsar wanted to play a major role in the international theater, lead the fight against Napoleon, and, after the victory, promote a new European order, liberated from the tyrant. However, the military operations were a disaster for Russia, and on December 2, 1805, the battle of Austerlitz was a personal humiliation for Alexander, who, as commander of the Russian forces, ignored General Mikhail Kutuzov's advice not to enter battle before the arrival of more troops.

After the defeat of Friedland on June 14, 1806, judging that his forces were unable to continue fighting, the tsar decided to pursue peace with Napoleon. Napoleon was in favor of an agreement with Russia, as his focus had shifted to political control of Central Europe and the war against Britain. On July 7 - 9, 1807, several treaties were signed at Tilsit between the two emperors. The terms were difficult for Prussia, which was partitioned. The Polish provinces forming the Duchy of Warsaw under Saxony and the provinces west of the Elbe were combined to make the Kingdom of Westphalia, which had to pay an indemnity. Russia suffered no territorial losses but had to recognise Napoleon's dominant position in Europe and take part in the continental blockade of British trade. In compensation Russia obtained peace, freedom of action in Eastern

Europe, and the opportunity to gain Finland from Sweden militarily (1808 - 1809), Bessarabia from the Ottoman Empire (with the Bucharest treaty in 1812), and Georgia from Persia (by the Gulistan treaty in 1813).

Despite these large successes, Russia remained hostile toward Napoleon. In 1805 the Orthodox Church declared Napoleon the Antichrist. And for most of the Russian elite who had been raised with French language and culture, Napoleon was the archetypal expression of Barbary, not a Frenchman but a "damned Corsican."

Despite its renewal on September 27, 1808, at Erfurt, the Russian-French alliance was indeed fragile. The two countries had opposite views on the Polish question and were rivals in the Balkans and in the Mediterranean. The Continental blockade became more and more expensive for that Russian economy and was denounced by Alexander in December 1810.

These tensions led Napoleon to initiate a war that he expected to be short. He invaded the Russian territory on June 24, 1812, with an army of more than 400,000 men. On June 28, the French were already in Vilna, and on August 18 they entered Smolensk, forcing the Russians to retreat.

For the Russian people, the invasion was a national trauma, not only because of the brutality of the war - in one day, at the battle of Borodino, on September 7, 1812, the Russians lost 50,000 men and the French 40,000 - but also because of its blasphemous dimension: Napoleon did not hesitate to use churches as stables. On September 14, when Napoleon entered the sacred capital, Moscow the Mother, he found the city empty and devastated by fires, which went on for five days. The burning of Moscow was a terrible shock, and it generated feelings of resentment from the Russian people toward Alexander. But soon it united all the Russians, whatever their social class, in a patriotic and mystic struggle against the invader. Napoleon's promise to liberate the Russian peasants from serfdom had no effect on the people, who, along with the tsar and his elite, sensed the urgency of a physical, moral, and spiritual danger.

For Napoleon, the situation was impossible: On the one hand the lack of supplies prevented him from going any farther; on the other hand, he was unable to force Alexander to negotiate. On October 16, the retreat of the Grand Army began in difficult conditions. Subject to cold, hunger, and typhus, attacked by the partisan movement and by peasants on their way back, less than 10 percent of the Grand Army was able to leave the Russian territory in December 1812.

The French defeat was a fatal blow to the Napoleonic adventure and made Alexander the conqueror of Napoleon and the "savior of Europe." In February 1815, Napoleon tried to regain his lost power, but the adventure did not last, and the Hundred Days did not harm Alexander's prestige. The tsar personally took part in the Congress of Vienna and engaged in the construction of a new political and geopolitical order in Europe. During the congress, Alexander's Russia took great advantage of the victory over Napoleon from both diplomatic and territorial points of view. But beyond this geopolitical concrete outcome, the collective and messianic triumph over the invader constituted in Russia a major step toward the birth of a modern national identity.

Bibliography

Cate, Curtis. (1985). The War of the Two Emperors. New York: Random House.

Hartley, Janet. (1994). Alexander I. London: Longman.

Palmer, Alan. (1967). Napoleon in Russia. London: Simon and Schuster.

Tarle, Eugene. (1979). Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, 1812. New York: Octagon Books.

Wesling, Molly. (2001). Napoleon in Russian Cultural Mythology. New York: Peter Lang.

—MARIE-PIERRE REY

Early Life

The son of Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte (or Buonaparte; see under Bonaparte, family), young Napoleon was sent (1779) to French military schools at Brienne and Paris. He received his commission in the artillery in 1785. After the outbreak of the French Revolution he attempted to join the Corsican patriots led by Pasquale Paoli, but his family was thought to be pro-French. His family was condemned for its opposition to Corsican independence from France and fled the island shortly after the outbreak of civil war in Apr., 1793.

Early Campaigns

Returning to military duty in France, Bonaparte was associated with the Jacobins and first attracted notice by his distinguished part in dislodging the British from Toulon (1793); he was promoted to brigadier general and sent to the Italian front. Returning to military duty in France, briefly under arrest in the Thermidorian reaction (1794; see Thermidor), he was released but remained out of favor.

A political event was to reopen his career overnight. In Oct., 1795, the Convention was assailed by a royalist Parisian uprising (see Vendémiaire), and Paul Barras persuaded the Convention to place Bonaparte in command of the troops. Napoleon dispersed the mob with what he called "a whiff of grapeshot"-which killed about 100 insurgents. He was given command of the army of the interior. After drawing up a plan for an Italian campaign, he was, again with Barras's help, made commander in chief of the army of Italy.

He left for Italy in Mar., 1796, after marrying Josephine de Beauharnais (see Josephine). Assuming command of an ill-supplied army, he succeeded within a short time in transforming it into a first-class fighting force. The brilliant success of his Italian campaign was based on three factors: his supply system, which he made virtually independent of the financially exhausted Directory by allowing the troops to live off the land; his reliance on speed and massed surprise attacks by small but compact units against the Austrian forces; and his influence over the morale of his soldiers.

Napoleon swept across N Italy, forcing Sardinia to sign a separate peace in May, 1796. After his victory at Lodi (May 10), he entered Milan (May 14) and laid siege to Mantua (July, 1796). After the great victories of Arcole (Nov., 1796) and Rivoli (Jan., 1797) and the fall of Mantua (Feb., 1797), Bonaparte began to cross the Alps toward Vienna. However, the slow advance of the northern French armies in Germany and the danger of being cut off in the rear caused him to arrange-without instructions from Paris-the truce of Leoben (Apr., 1797), sealed in October by the Treaty of Campo Formio.

Now the idol of half of Europe, Bonaparte returned to France. His plan for an invasion of Britain across the channel was canceled, and he made alternative plans to crush the British Empire by striking at Egypt and, ultimately, at India. The plan was supported by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand and by the directors. Bonaparte sailed in May, 1798, succeeded in evading Horatio Nelson, and took Malta on the way to Egypt. Shortly after landing at Aboukir (Abu Qir), he won a brilliant victory over the Mamluks in the battle of the Pyramids (July, 1798). His successes, however, were made useless when the French fleet was utterly destroyed (Aug. 1-2) by Nelson in Aboukir Bay.

The Ottoman Empire, of which Egypt was a province, declared war on France. A French expedition to Syria was repelled at Acre. Back in Egypt, Napoleon defeated Ottoman forces attempting to land at Aboukir (July, 1799). Meanwhile, in Europe matters were going from bad to worse for the French. They were expelled from Italy by the forces of the Second Coalition (see French Revolutionary Wars), and at home the Directory faced political ruin. Unannounced, Napoleon returned to France, leaving General Kléber in charge of a hopeless situation in Egypt, and joined a conspiracy already hatched by Emmanuel Sieyès, one of the directors.

The Consulate

The Directory was overthrown by the coup of 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9-10, 1799), and the Consulate was established with Bonaparte as first consul. The autocratic constitution of the year VIII was accepted by plebiscite. In effect, the constitution established the dictatorship of Bonaparte. As Consul, Napoleon made a point of ruling as a civilian, but he was more authoritarian than Louis XVI. Napoleon declared that France had finished with the "romance of the revolution." He centralized the administration, while giving local prefects considerable power in executing the policies of the central government. Officials and military officers were recruited from several strata of society and from all revolutionary factions, including émigrés. However they were appointed, not elected, and strict obedience was enforced.

Bonaparte's administrative reforms established an efficient modern state that was capable of effectively mobilizing its resources and afforded him vast patronage powers. He established the Bank of France. He also made peace with the Roman Catholic Church by the Concordat of 1801, which reestablished the church in France, but bound it to the success of his regime. He thereby neutralized the antirevolutionary priests who had encouraged peasant unrest (see Chouans) since 1793. Church property was not restored, but church unity and status were reestablished in return for stricter submission to civil authorities. The legal system was reformed with the Code Napoléon, which was begun before Bonaparte's consulate but was marked by his priorities.

While establishing the regime at home, Napoleon also dealt with France's enemies (1800), crossing the St. Bernard pass and defeating (June 14) the Austrians at Marengo, Italy. With the Treaty of Lunéville (1801) with Austria and the Treaty of Amiens (1802) with Great Britain, the Second Coalition was ended and France became paramount on the Continent. Napoleon's ambition did not rest. In Aug., 1802, a plebiscite approved his becoming first consul for life; a modified constitution, that of the year X, came into force. In the same year he incorporated Piedmont into France.

His continued intervention in Italy, Germany, the Helvetic Republic (Switzerland), and the Netherlands as well as his refusal to arrange a commercial treaty with Great Britain aroused British distrust. Britain failed to restore Malta to the Knights Hospitalers, as the Treaty of Amiens had stipulated. In May, 1803, Britain again declared war on France. Napoleon built up his army, apparently preparing to invade England, but the invasion fleet he assembled (1803-5) was repeatedly struck by storms, and a major part of the French fleet was engaged in the disastrous expedition of Charles Leclerc to Haiti.

The Empire

While warfare languished, Napoleon took advantage of the plot of Georges Cadoudal against his life, seized and executed the duc d'Enghien, and had himself proclaimed emperor of the French by a subservient senate and tribunate (May, 1804). Confirmation by a plebiscite was a foregone conclusion, and on Dec. 2, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Napoleon took the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and set it on his own head. An imperial court and a nobility were created.

The constitution of the year XII retained the features of the previous two constitutions, but its liberal provisions were gradually restricted. When Napoleon, in 1805, proclaimed himself king of Italy and annexed Genoa to France, a Third Coalition was formed against him by Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Sweden. Napoleon crushed the Austrians at Ulm, occupied Vienna, and won (Dec. 2, 1805) his most brilliant victory over the combined Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz.

Austria, with the harsh Treaty of Pressburg (Dec. 26), was forced out of the coalition. Prussia, which entered the coalition late in 1806, was thoroughly defeated (Oct. 14) at Jena, and Napoleon entered Berlin in triumph. British sea power, however, had grown stronger than ever through Nelson's victory at Trafalgar (1805), and Napoleon resolved to defeat Britain by economic warfare. His Continental System was answered by the British orders in council.

On land, warfare with Russia continued. The indecisive battle at Eylau (Feb. 8, 1807; now Bagrationovsk) was made good by Napoleon at Friedland (June 14), and Russia submitted. By the treaties of Tilsit (July, 1807; see Sovetsk), King Frederick William III of Prussia lost half of his territories and became a vassal to France; Russia recognized the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, created from Prussian Poland, and other territorial changes. Sweden was defeated in 1808 with the help of Russia.

With only Britain left in the field, Napoleon was now master of the Continent. The whole map of Europe was rearranged. The states of Germany had already been altered by the Confederation of the Rhine; Napoleon's allies, the electors of Bavaria, Württemberg, and Saxony, were made kings; the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved (1806); the kingdoms of Holland and Westphalia were created (1806 and 1807), with Napoleon's brothers Louis and Jérôme Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, family) occupying the thrones.

Napoleon's stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, was made (1805) viceroy of Italy, and a third brother, Joseph Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, family), became (1806) king of Naples. In 1808 Napoleon made Joseph king of Spain after obtaining the abdication of Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII; in Naples, Joseph was replaced with Marshal Joachim Murat, who was married to Napoleon's sister Caroline. Another Napoleonic marshal, Jean Bernadotte, became heir to the Swedish throne in 1810 (see Charles XIV).

An attempt (1809) by Austria to reopen war against France was defeated at Wagram (July 6, 1809) and resulted in the cession of Illyria to France by the Treaty of Schönbrunn. The Papal States were declared annexed to France (1809), and when Pope Pius VII replied with an excommunication, he was imprisoned and later was forced to sign an additional concordat. Napoleon secured an annulment of his marriage with Josephine, who was unable to bear him a child, and was married in Mar., 1810, to Marie Louise, the daughter of the Austrian emperor Francis I (formerly Holy Roman Emperor Francis II). A son was born to them (the "king of Rome," later known as the duke of Reichstadt or Napoleon II), thus insuring the imperial succession.

Decline and Fall

Great Britain had never submitted, and the Continental System proved difficult to enforce. Napoleon's first signs of weakness appeared early in the Peninsular War (1808-14). The victory of 1809 over Austria had been costly, and the victory of Archduke Charles at Aspern (May, 1809) showed that the emperor was not invincible. Everywhere forces were gathering to cast off the Napoleonic yoke.

Napoleon's decision to invade Russia marked the turning point of his career. His alliance with Czar Alexander I, dating from the treaties of Tilsit and extended at the Congress of Erfurt (1808), was tenuous. When the czar rejected the Continental System, which was ruinous to Russia's economy, Napoleon gathered the largest army Europe had ever seen. The Grande Armée, some 500,000 strong, including troops of all the vassal and allied states, entered Russia in June, 1812. The Russian troops, under Mikhail Kutuzov, fell back, systematically devastating the land.

After the indecisive battle of Borodino (Sept. 7), in which both sides suffered terrible losses, Napoleon entered Moscow (Sept. 14), where only a few thousand civilians had stayed behind. On Sept. 15, fires broke out all over Moscow; they ceased only on Sept. 19, leaving the city virtually uninhabitable. With his troops decimated, his prospective winter quarters burned down, his supply line overextended, and the Russian countryside and grain stores empty, Napoleon, after sending an unsuccessful feeler to the czar for peace, began his fateful retreat on Oct. 19. Stalked by hunger, the Grande Armée, now only a fifth of its original strength, reached the Berezina River late in November. After the passage of that river, secured at a terrible sacrifice, the retreat became a rout.

In December Napoleon left his army, returning to Paris to bolster French forces. Of his allies, Prussia was the first to desert; a Prussian truce with the czar (Dec. 30) was followed by an alliance in Feb., 1813. Great Britain and Sweden joined the coalition, followed (Aug., 1813) by Austria, and the "War of Liberation" began. At the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig (Oct. 16-19), Napoleon was forced to retreat. In November the allies offered Napoleon peace if France would return to her natural boundaries, the Rhine and the Alps. Napoleon rejected the offer, and the allies continued their advance. They closed in on Paris, which fell to them on Mar. 31, 1814.

Napoleon abdicated, first in favor of his son and then unconditionally (Apr. 11). He was exiled to Elba, which the allies gave him as a sovereign principality. His victors were still deliberating at the Congress of Vienna (see Vienna, Congress of) when Napoleon, with a handful of followers, landed near Cannes (Mar. 1, 1815). In the course of a triumphant march northward he once more rallied France behind him. King Louis XVIII fled, and Napoleon entered Paris (Mar. 20), beginning his ephemeral rule of the Hundred Days.

Attempting to reconstruct the empire, Napoleon liberalized the constitution, but his efforts were cut short when warfare began again. Napoleon was utterly crushed in the Waterloo campaign (June 12-18). He again abdicated and surrendered himself to a British warship, hoping to find asylum in England. Instead he was shipped as a prisoner of war to the lonely island of Saint Helena, where he spent his remaining years quarreling with the British governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, talking with his ever-dwindling group of followers, and dictating his memoirs., He died May 5, 1821, officially from stomach cancer, but the presence of arsenic in samples of his hair have led some modern researchers to suggest he was poisoned. Napoleon's remains were ordered to be returned to France by Louis Philippe in 1840 and were entombed under the dome of the Invalides in Paris.

Napoleon's Legacy

The Napoleonic legend, the picture of a liberal conqueror spreading the French Revolution throughout Europe and of the quintessential Romantic man of action, was a potent factor in French history and helped make Napoleon's nephew French emperor as Napoleon III. Estimates of Napoleon's place in history differ widely. He was beyond doubt one of the greatest military leaders in history and dominated his times so completely that European history between 1800 and 1815 is commonly described as the Napoleonic era. But his legacy is mixed.

Napoleon promoted the growth of the modern state through his administrative and legal reforms, and his changes in the map of Europe stimulated movements for national unification. However, his use of such ruthless police chiefs as Joseph Fouché to suppress all opposition, if relatively mild by 20th-century standards, set an ominous precedent. More or less apocryphal sayings and anecdotes illustrating Napoleon's character and manners are as innumerable as the books written about him.

Bibliography

See Napoleon's memoirs, dictated to E. de Las Cases et al., and his correspondence. See also biographies by V. Cronin (1971), F. McLynn (1997), A. Schom (1997), and P. Johnson (2002); P. Geyl, Napoleon: For and Against (1949); studies of Napoleon and his era by J. C. Herold (1955), G. Lefebvre (2 vol., tr. 1969), J. Tulard (1971), L. Bergeron (1981), O. Connelly (1985, 1987), R. Asprey (2001), I. Woloch (2001), and D. Lieven (2010).

1769 - 1821

French general and emperor.

The ascendancy of Egypt on the modern world stage can be traced to the period of French occupation, 1798 to 1801. French armies under the command of General Napoléon Bonaparte landed at Abuqir Bay on 1 July 1798, stormed Alexandria the next day, and proceeded to Cairo. On 21 July 1798, outside the city, the French, although less than 30,000 strong, defeated a Mamluk army twice their number and occupied the city. Bonaparte's initial reason for the Egyptian expedition was to threaten Britain's supply line to India. Once in Egypt, however, he realized the advantage to France that an occupation would ensure and set about structuring a system of local government to that end.

Suggesting that he himself was intent on becoming a Muslim, Bonaparte tried to convince the Egyptians of the sincerity of his intentions regarding their country. Among his claimed intentions were the liberation of Egypt from the stranglehold of the Mamluks, the introduction of enlightened government responsive to local needs, and respect for Egyptian religious traditions. Not surprisingly, the Egyptians were quite wary of his conversion, although given his intellectual makeup, he may very likely have found in Islam appealing characteristics.

He appointed diwans, or councils, composed of ulama (Muslim legal scholars), to stabilize local government by giving French policies the sanction of the country's notables. Having established relatively good relations with the local population, Bonaparte set about threatening the Ottoman Porte and Britain through an expedition to Palestine. Defeated and decimated by cholera, his troops returned to Egypt. Bonaparte, informed of the changes in the French political winds, left his army in Egypt in the care of General Jacques Menou and returned to France in August 1799. Menou was forced to capitulate to an Anglo - Ottoman force in 1801; he and the army returned to France.

Though historians considered it a failure from a military perspective, Bonaparte's occupation of Egypt had great impact on the world of learning. One member of the expedition was Jean-François Champollion, whose discovery of the Rosetta Stone in the Nile delta permitted the deciphering of hieroglyphics and the development of Egyptology. The expedition also included dozens of artists as well as hundreds of social and natural scientists representing most of the academic disciplines. Their task was to catalog all the flora, fauna, and architecture - ancient and contemporary - of Egypt as they discovered it. To that end, once he established himself in Cairo, Bonaparte founded the Institut d'Egypte, whose purpose was to store and structure the immense body of newly discovered information. Between 1808 and 1829, the institute published the Description de l'Egypte in twenty-three enormous volumes of narrative and accompanying plates.

Certain recent scholarship has credited Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt with a development of dubious honor: orientalism. Originally considered the study of the Orient, "orientalism," in the post-modernist view, represents the textual deconstruction of the non-Western cultural heritage. The Description de l'Egypte, for instance, in laying bare the structure of Egyptian culture, may be seen as making that structure "vulnerable" to what such critics call Western "imposition."

Bibliography

Herold, J. Christopher. Bonaparte in Egypt. London: Harper and Row. 1962.

Jabarti, Abd al-Rahman al-. Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabarti'sChronicle of the French Occupation, 1798, translated by Shmuel Moreh. Princeton, NJ: M. Wiener, 1993.

— JEAN-MARC R. OPPENHEIM

A French general, political leader, and emperor of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Bonaparte rose swiftly through the ranks of army and government during and after the French Revolution and crowned himself emperor in 1804. He conquered much of Europe but lost two-thirds of his army in a disastrous invasion of Russia. After his final loss to Britain and Prussia at the Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled to the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean. (See map, next page.)

Quotes:

"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide."

"Let the path be open to talent."

"Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals."

"My downfall raises me to infinite heights."

"There is no place in a fanatic's head where reason can enter."

"There are only two forces that unite men -- fear and interest."

See more famous quotes by Napoleon Bonaparte