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The artist Jacques-Louis David painted The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, 1812.
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.15Napoleon is born Napoleone Buonaparte in Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, which lies to the west of Italy. The island comes under French rule this same year. Napoleon later adopts the French spelling of his name, Napoléon Bonaparte.
1785
After completing his education in France, Napoleon joins the French military, becoming an artillery officer.
1787–95
The French Revolution begins, and Napoleon sides with the revolutionaries. He fights in the French Revolutionary Wars and in 1793 is promoted to brigadier general. In 1795 a new constitution in France places executive power in a five-member Directory. Napoleon becomes a respected adviser on military matters to the Directory.
Public Domain PhotoNapoleon’s numerous reforms in government include the Napoleonic Code, the French civil code enacted on March 21 that clarifies and makes uniform the laws of France. He also reconstructs the French education system. Napoleon declares France a hereditary empire and crowns himself emperor under the name Napoleon I.
Napoleon is shown on the battlefield at Eylau (in Prussia) during one of the Napoleonic Wars (the War of the Third Coalition, 1807) in this oil painting by Antoine-Jean Gros.
DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI—De Agostini/Getty ImagesAt the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, the British fleet under Nelson destroys the French navy. From this point on Napoleon will focus on land battles. He wins major victories in the Battles of Ulm and Austerlitz (1805), Jena and Auerstädt (1806), and Friedland (1807) against an alliance of Russia, Austria, Sweden, and Prussia. The battles are part of what come to be known as the Napoleonic Wars. The resulting Treaties of Tilsit (1807) and the Treaty of Schönbrunn (1809) leave most of Europe, from the English Channel to the Russian border, either part of the French Empire, controlled by France, or allied to it by treaty.
1809–11
After divorcing Joséphine (who did not have any children with Napoleon) in 1809, Napoleon marries Marie-Louise, daughter of the emperor of Austria, in 1810. On March 20, 1811, Marie-Louise bears him a son, the future duke von Reichstadt.
The Battle of Leipzig (October 1813) results in the destruction of what is left of French power in Germany and Poland. Napoleon is forced to withdraw west of the Rhine River. Allied forces invade France, capturing Paris on March 30, 1814. Napoleon is forced to abdicate on April 6 and is forced into exile on the island of Elba, off the west coast of Italy.
A collection of significant facts about the Battle of Waterloo.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny ChmielewskiNapoleon manages to muster a force and returns to France to reestablish himself as emperor for the Hundred Days, but he is decisively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18. Four days later, Napoleon abdicates for the last time. He is exiled again, this time to Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Jacobin Club, the most famous political group of the French Revolution, which became identified with extreme egalitarianism and violence and which led the Revolutionary government from mid-1793 to mid-1794. The Jacobins originated as the Club Breton at Versailles, where the deputies from Brittany
Friedrich Gentz was a German political journalist, famous for his writings against the principles of the French Revolution and Napoleon and as a confidential adviser of Metternich. Though a commoner, he sometimes affected the von of nobility, having received a Swedish knighthood in 1804. Gentz’s
