page_title: Napoleon
section_title: Early military career
hierarchical_section_title: Napoleon / Early military career
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Napoléon Bonaparte en 1792, Lieutenant-Colonel du 1er bataillon des Gardes nationaux corses
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: Napoleon was able to enter the military academy at Brienne in 1779. He was nine years old when he entered the academy. He moved to the Parisian École Royale Militaire in 1784 and graduated a year later as a second lieutenant of artillery. Napoleon was able to spend much of the next eight years in Corsica. There he played an active part in political and military matters. He came into conflict with the Corsican nationalist Pasquale Paoli, and his family was forced to flee to Marseille in 1793.
  The French Revolution caused much fighting and disorder in France. At times, Napoleon was connected to those in power. Other times, he was in jail. In the French Revolutionary Wars he helped the Republic against royalists who supported the former king of France. In September 1793, he assumed command of an artillery brigade at the siege of Toulon, where royalist leaders had welcomed a British fleet and troops. The British were driven out in December 17, 1793, and Bonaparte was rewarded with promotion to brigadier general and assigned to the French army in Italy in February 1794.
caption: 2nd Lieutenant Bonaparte
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