page_title: Napoleon
section_title: Ruler of France
hierarchical_section_title: Napoleon / Ruler of France
context_page_description: Napoleon Bonaparte was the Emperor of the French and also the King of Italy as Napoleon I. His actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.
  Bonaparte was born in Corsica. His parents were of noble Italian birth. He trained as an officer in mainland France. became important under the First French Republic. He led successful campaigns against Coalitions of enemies of the Revolution. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état to make himself First Consul. Five years later the French Senate declared him Emperor. In the first ten years of the nineteenth century, the French Empire under Napoleon waged the Napoleonic Wars. Every European great power joined in these wars. After a number of victories, France became very important in continental Europe. Napoleon increased his power by making many alliances. He also made his friends and family members rule other European countries as French client states.
  The French invasion of Russia in 1812 became Napoleon's first big defeat. His army was badly damaged and never fully recovered. In 1813, another Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig. The year after that, they attacked France. The Coalition exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba.
context_section_description: Bonaparte returned to Paris in October 1799. France's situation had been improved by a series of victories but the Republic was bankrupt, and the ineffective Directory was unpopular with the French population. He was approached by one of the Directors, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, for his support in a coup to overthrow the constitutional government. The leaders of the plot included his brother Lucien Bonaparte (the speaker of the Council of Five Hundred), Roger Ducos, another Director, Joseph Fouché, and Charles Maurice Talleyrand. Other deputies realised they faced an attempted coup. Faced with their protests, Bonaparte led troops to seize control and disperse them, which left a rump legislature to name Bonaparte, Sièyes, and Ducos as the three provisional Consuls to administer the government.
  Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, but he was outmaneuvered by Bonaparte. Napoleon drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII, and secured his own election as First Consul. This made Bonaparte the most powerful person in France, and he took up residence at the Tuileries.
  In 1800, Napoleon ensured his power by crossing the Alps and defeating the Austrians at Marengo. He then negotiated a general European peace that established the Rhine River as the eastern border of France. He also concluded an agreement with the pope (the Concordat of 1801), which contributed to French domestic tranquility by ending the quarrel with the Roman Catholic Church that had arisen during the French Revolution.
  In France the administration was reorganized, the court system was simplified, and all schools were put under centralized control. French law was standardized in the Napoleonic Code, or civil code, and six other codes. They guaranteed the rights and liberties won in the Revolution, including equality before the law and freedom of religion.
caption: Napoleon during the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in Saint-Cloud
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