page_title: Napoleon
section_title: Middle-Eastern alliances
hierarchical_section_title: Napoleon / Ruler of France / French Empire / Middle-Eastern alliances
context_page_description: Napoleon Bonaparte, born Napoleone di Buonaparte, byname "Le Corse" or "Le Petit Caporal", was a French statesman and military leader who became notorious as an artillery commander during the French Revolution. He led many successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars and was Emperor of the French as Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814 and again briefly in 1815 during the Hundred Days. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions during the Napoleonic Wars. He won many of these wars and a vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over much of continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. He is regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy has made him one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders in human history.
  Corsican by birth, Napoleon was born into a relatively modest family of Italian origin a few months after the island was annexed by the Kingdom of France.
context_section_description: Napoleon continued to entertain a grand scheme to establish a French presence in the Middle East in order to put pressure on Britain and Russia, and perhaps form an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. In February 1806, Ottoman Emperor Selim III recognised Napoleon as Emperor. He also opted for an alliance with France, calling France "our sincere and natural ally". That decision brought the Ottoman Empire into a losing war against Russia and Britain. A Franco-Persian alliance was also formed between Napoleon and the Persian Empire of Fat′h-Ali Shah Qajar. It collapsed in 1807, when France and Russia themselves formed an unexpected alliance. In the end, Napoleon had made no effective alliances in the Middle East.
caption: The Iranian envoy Mirza Mohammed Reza-Qazvini meeting with Napoleon I at the Finckenstein Palace in West Prussia, 27 April 1807, to sign the Treaty of Finckenstein
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