Napoleon

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Napoleon
Portrait of Napoleon in his late thirties, in high-ranking white and dark blue military dress uniform. In the original image he stands amid rich 18th-century furniture laden with papers, and gazes at the viewer. His hair is Brutus style, cropped close but with a short fringe in front, and his right hand is tucked in his waistcoat.
Emperor of the French
1st reign18 May 1804 – 6 April 1814
SuccessorLouis XVIII[a]
2nd reign20 March 1815 – 22 June 1815
SuccessorLouis XVIII[a]
First Consul of the French Republic
In office
13 December 1799 – 18 May 1804
Born(1769-08-15)15 August 1769
Ajaccio, Corsica
Died5 May 1821(1821-05-05) (aged 51)
Longwood, Saint Helena
Burial15 December 1840
Spouses
(m. 1796; ann. 1810)
Marie Louise of Austria
(m. 1810; sep. 1814)
SignatureNapoleon's signature
1000km
620miles
Saint Helena
19
Exile on Saint Helena Napoleon died on 5 May 1821
Rochefort
18
Surrender of Napoleon on 15 July 1815
Waterloo
17
Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815
Elba
16
Exile to Elba from 30 May 1814 to 26 February 1815
Dizier
15
Battle of Saint-Dizier is the primary link --- Battle of Brienne on 29 January 1814 Battle of La Rothière on 1 February 1814 Battle of Champaubert on 10 February 1814 Battle of Montmirail on 11 February 1814 Battle of Château-Thierry (1814) on 12 February 1814 Battle of Vauchamps on 14 February 1814 Battle of Mormant on 17 February 1814 Battle of Montereau on 18 February 1814 Battle of Craonne on 7 March 1814 Battle of Laon from 9 to 10 March 1814 Battle of Reims (1814) from 12 to 13 March 1814 Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube from 20 to 21 March 1814 Battle of Saint-Dizier on 26 March 1814
Leipzig
14
Battle of Leipzig is the primary link --- Battle of Lützen (1813) on 2 May 1813 Battle of Bautzen (1813) from 20 to 21 May 1813 Battle of Dresden from 26 to 27 August 1813 Battle of Leipzig from 16 to 19 October 1813 Battle of Hanau from 30 to 31 October 1813
Berezina
13
Battle of Berezina from 26 to 29 November 1812
Borodino
12
Battle of Borodino is the primary link --- Battle of Vitebsk on 26 July 1812 Battle of Smolensk on 16 August 1812 Battle of Borodino on 7 September 1812
Wagram
11
Battle of Wagram is the primary link --- Battle of Teugen-Hausen on 19 April 1809 Battle of Abensberg on 20 April 1809 Battle of Landshut (1809) on 21 April 1809 Battle of Eckmühl from 21 to 22 April 1809 Battle of Ratisbon on 23 April 1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling from 21 to 22 May 1809 Battle of Wagram from 5 to 6 July 1809 Battle of Znaim from 10 to 11 July 1809
Somosierra
10
Battle of Somosierra on 30 November 1808
Friedland
9
Battle of Friedland is the primary link --- Battle of Czarnowo on 23 December 1806 Battle of Eylau from 7 to 8 February 1807 Battle of Friedland on 14 June 1807
Jena
8
Battle of Jena–Auerstedt on 14 October 1806
Austerlitz
7
Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805
Marengo
6
Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800
Cairo
5
Revolt of Cairo is the primary link --- Battle of Shubra Khit on 13 July 1798 Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July 1798 Battle of the Nile from 1 to 3 August 1798 Revolt of Cairo from 21 to 22 October 1798 Siege of El Arish from 8 to 20 February 1799 Siege of Jaffa from 3 to 7 March 1799 Siege of Acre (1799) from 20 March to 21 May 1799 Battle of Mount Tabor (1799) on 16 April 1799 Battle of Abukir (1799) on 25 July 1799
Malta
4
French invasion of Malta from 10 to 12 June 1798
Arcole
3
Battle of Arcole is the primary link --- Battle of Montenotte from 11 to 12 April 1796 Battle of Millesimo from 13 to 14 April 1796 Second Battle of Dego from 14 to 15 April 1796 Battle of Ceva on 16 April 1796 Battle of Mondovì from 20 to 22 April 1796 Battle of Fombio from 7 to 9 May 1796 Battle of Lodi on 10 May 1796 Battle of Borghetto on 30 May 1796 Battle of Lonato from 3 to 4 August 1796 Battle of Castiglione on 5 August 1796 Siege of Mantua (1796–1797) from 27 August 1796 to 2 February 1797 Battle of Rovereto on 4 September 1796 Battle of Bassano on 8 September 1796 Second Battle of Bassano on 6 November 1796 Battle of Caldiero (1796) on 12 November 1796 Battle of Arcole from 15 to 17 November 1796 Battle of Rivoli from 14 to 15 January 1797 Battle of Valvasone (1797) on 16 March 1797 Battle of Tagliamento on 16 March 1797 Battle of Tarvis (1797) from 21 to 23 March 1797
Paris
2
13 Vendémiaire on 5 October 1795
Toulon
1
Siege of Toulon (1793) from 29 August to 19 December 1793
Map
Rescale the fullscreen map to see Saint Helena.

Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte;

successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and briefly again in 1815. His political and cultural legacy endures as a celebrated and controversial leader. He initiated many enduring reforms, but has been criticized for his authoritarian rule. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and his wars and campaigns are still studied at military schools worldwide. However, historians still debate the degree to which he was responsible for the Napoleonic Wars, in which between three and six million people died.[2][3]

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica into a family descended from Italian nobility.[4][5] He was resentful of the French monarchy, and supported the French Revolution in 1789 while serving in the French army, trying to spread its ideals to his native Corsica. He rose rapidly in the ranks after saving the governing French Directory by firing on royalist insurgents. In 1796, he began a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies, scoring decisive victories, and became a national hero. Two years later he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic. In 1804, to consolidate and expand his power, he crowned himself Emperor of the French.

Differences with the United Kingdom meant France faced the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered this coalition with victories in the Ulm campaign and at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him. Napoleon defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, marched the Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in June 1807 at Friedland, forcing the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to accept the Treaties of Tilsit. Two years later, the Austrians challenged the French again during the War of the Fifth Coalition, but Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after triumphing at the Battle of Wagram.

Hoping to extend the

forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy. In France, the Bourbons were restored to power
.

Napoleon escaped in February 1815 and took control of France.

Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena
in the Atlantic, where he died in 1821 at the age of 51.

Napoleon had a lasting impact on the world, bringing modernizing reforms to France and Western Europe[c] and stimulating the development of nation states. He also sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803, doubling the latter's size.[2][13] However, his mixed record on civil rights and exploitation of conquered territories adversely affect his reputation.[d]

Early life

Half-length portrait of a wigged middle-aged man with a well-to-do jacket. His left hand is tucked inside his waistcoat.
Napoleon's father, Carlo Buonaparte, fought for Corsican independence under Pasquale Paoli, but after their defeat he eventually became the island's representative to the court of Louis XVI.

Napoleon's family was of Italian origin. His paternal ancestors, the Buonapartes, descended from a minor Tuscan noble family that emigrated to Corsica in the 16th century and his maternal ancestors, the Ramolinos, descended from a minor Genoese noble family.[18] His parents Carlo Maria Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino maintained a home in Ajaccio where Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769. He was the family's fourth child and third son.[e] He had an elder brother, Joseph, and younger siblings Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline, and Jérôme. Two more siblings died at birth, and three in infancy. Napoleon was baptized as a Catholic, under the name Napoleone.[19] In his youth, his name was also spelled as Nabulione, Nabulio, Napolionne, and Napulione.[20]

Napoleon was born one year after the Republic of Genoa ceded Corsica to France.[21] The state sold sovereign rights a year before his birth and the island was conquered by France during the year of his birth. It was formally incorporated as a province in 1770, after 500 years under Genoese rule and 14 years of independence.[f] Napoleon's parents joined the Corsican resistance and fought against the French to maintain independence, even when Maria was pregnant with him. His father Carlo was an attorney who had supported and actively collaborated with patriot Pasquale Paoli during the Corsican war of independence against France;[5] after the Corsican defeat at Ponte Novu in 1769 and Paoli's exile in Britain, Carlo began working for the new French government and in 1777 was named representative of the island to the court of Louis XVI.[5][25]

Madame Mère
, painted by Joseph Karl Stieler (1811)

The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, whose firm discipline restrained a rambunctious child.[25] Later in life, Napoleon said, "The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother."[26] His maternal grandmother had married into the Swiss Fesch family in her second marriage, and Napoleon's uncle, the cardinal Joseph Fesch, fulfilled a role as protector of the Bonaparte family for some years. Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time.[27]

Statue of Bonaparte as a schoolboy in Brienne, aged 15, by Louis Rochet [fr] (1853)

When he turned 9 years old, Napoleon moved to the French mainland and enrolled at a religious school in Autun in January 1779. In May, he transferred with a scholarship to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château.[28] In his youth, he was an outspoken Corsican nationalist and supported the state's independence from France.[29][30] As many Corsicans of the time, Napoleon spoke and read Corsican (as his mother tongue) and Italian (as the official language of Corsica).[31][32][33][30] He began learning French in school at the age of around 10.[34] Although he became fluent in French, he spoke with a distinctive Corsican accent and never learned to spell in French.[35] Consequently, Napoleon was routinely bullied by his peers for his accent, birthplace, short stature, mannerisms, and inability to speak French quickly.[32] He became reserved and melancholic, applying himself to reading. An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography ... This boy would make an excellent sailor".[g][37]

One story told of Napoleon at the school is that he led junior students to victory against senior students in a snowball fight, showing his leadership abilities.[38] In early adulthood, Napoleon briefly intended to become a writer; he authored a history of Corsica and a romantic novella.[29]

On completion of his studies at Brienne in 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the École militaire in Paris. He trained to become an artillery officer and, when his father's death reduced his income, was forced to complete the two-year course in one year.[39] He was the first Corsican to graduate from the École militaire.[39] He was examined by the famed scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace.[40]

Early career

Bonaparte, aged 23, as lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of Corsican Republican volunteers. Portrait by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux

Upon graduating in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned a

Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Bonaparte was a fervent Corsican nationalist during this period.[42] He asked for leave to join his mentor Paoli, when Paoli was allowed to return to Corsica by the National Assembly. But Paoli had no sympathy for Napoleon, as he deemed his father a traitor for having deserted the cause of Corsican independence.[43]

He spent the early years of the Revolution in Corsica, fighting in a complex three-way struggle among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. Napoleon embraced the ideals of the Revolution, becoming a supporter of the Jacobins and joining the pro-French Corsican Republicans who opposed Paoli's policy and his aspirations to secede.[44] He was given command over a battalion of volunteers and promoted to captain in the regular army in 1792, despite exceeding his leave of absence and leading a riot against French troops.[45]

When Corsica declared formal secession from France and requested the protection of the British government, Napoleon and his commitment to the French Revolution came into conflict with Paoli, who had decided to sabotage the Corsican contribution to the Expédition de Sardaigne by preventing a French assault on the Sardinian island La Maddalena.[46] Bonaparte and his family were compelled to flee to Toulon on the French mainland in June 1793 because of the split with Paoli.[28]

Although he was born "Napoleone Buonaparte", it was after this that Napoleon began styling himself "Napoléon Bonaparte". His family did not drop the name Buonaparte until 1796. The first known record of him signing his name as Bonaparte was at the age of 27 (in 1796).[47][19][48]

Siege of Toulon

Edouard Detaille

Bonaparte returned to his regiment in Nice and was made captain of a coastal battery.[49] In July 1793, he published a pamphlet, Le souper de Beaucaire (Supper at Beaucaire), demonstrating his support for the National Convention which was now heavily influenced by the Jacobins.[50][51]

In September, with the help of his fellow Corsican Antoine Christophe Saliceti, Bonaparte was appointed artillery commander of the republican forces sent to recapture the port of Toulon which was occupied by British and allied forces.[52] He quickly increased the available artillery and proposed a plan to capture a hill fort where republican guns could dominate the city's harbour and force the British to evacuate. The successful assault on the position on 16-17th December led to the capture of the city.[53]

Toulon brought Bonaparte to the attention of powerful men including Augustin Robespierre, the younger brother of Maximilien Robespierre, a leading Jacobin. He was promoted to brigadier general and put in charge of defences on the Mediterranean coast. In February 1794, he was made artillery commander of the Army of Italy and devised plans to attack the Kingdom of Sardinia.[54][55]

The French army carried out Bonaparte's plan in the

Battle of Saorgio in April 1794, and then advanced to seize Ormea in the mountains. From Ormea, it headed west to outflank the Austro-Sardinian positions around Saorge. After this campaign, Augustin Robespierre sent Bonaparte on a mission to the Republic of Genoa to determine the country's intentions towards France.[56][57]

13 Vendémiaire