Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David.

*Many heads of the Napoleonic House of Bonaparte use the name of 'Napoleon Bonaparte,' but this article refers to the founder, Napoleon I.*

**Napoleon Bonaparte** (CO: *Napulione Buonaparte*), named Emperor as **Napoleon I**, was the First Consul of France from 1799 to 1804 and the Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814. Almost all of his reign was during the Napoleonic Wars, which were named after him.

Born **Napoleone di Buonaparte**, he was born in Corsica to a modest Italian noble house shortly after the island's annexation by France. He served as an artillery officer by the time the French revolution broke out in 1789, and rose through the ranks during the war, becoming a general at age 24 and being given the Army of Italy by the French Directory. He defeated the royalist 13 Vendémiaire revolt.

At the young age of 26, Napoleon lead his first military campaign against Habsburg Austria and allied Italian states in the War of the First Coalition, winning virtually every battle and conquering the Italian peninsula, being known as a war hero in France afterwards. In 1798 he lead another campaign to Egypt against the Ottoman Empire, although the campaign failed, the Rosetta Stone was found by his troops, and more importantly, he used the campaign as a springboard to power, orchestrating a coup in 1799 and named himself 'First Consul of the Republic.'

As First Consul, Bonaparte temporarily ended hostilities between France and Britain in the Treaty of Amiens and sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States of America. He attempted to restore slavery to the French Caribbean, but was only successful in the eastern Caribbean. Napoleon failed to subdue the revolution in France's main Caribbean colony, Saint-Domingue, with it becoming independent Haiti in 1804.

His public approval and ambition inspired him to crown himself Emperor of the French in 1804, bringing France back to a monarchy. In 1805, Britain broke the Treaty of Amiens and joined the War of the Third Coalition against France, although Napoleon lead victories against the Russian Empire and Austrian Empire leading to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1808, Bonaparte invaded the Iberian Peninsula, and named his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Spain. The war in Spain lasted for six years, with the native Spanish utilizing guerilla warfare.

In the summer of 1812, Napoleon lead an invasion against Russia. Although it lead to the destruction of many Russian cities, it almost lead to the complete destruction of the Grande Armée. In 1813, the War of the Sixth Coalition began, and Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig, retreating back to France. The coalition invaded France and captured Paris in 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate, and exiling him to Elba, an island off the coast of Tuscany, Italy. The coalition also restored the House of Bourbon to the French throne.

In 1815, Napoleon escaped Elba and took control of France once again, although he was quickly defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, ending the Napoleonic Wars. He was then exiled to Saint Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic, dying only six years later, although his cause of death is still disputed (Many propose he died of arsenic poisoning).