Napoleon I

French First Republic (formerly)

**Napoleon I** (15 August 1769-5 May 1821), born **Napoleon Bonaparte**, was Emperor of the First French Empire from 18 May 1804 to 6 April 1814 and, briefly, from 20 March to 22 June 1815. Born in Corsica, Bonaparte rose in the ranks of the French Army during the French Revolutionary Wars, rising from being an artillery captain at the Siege of Toulon in 1793 to the commander of the Armee d'Italie in 1796 and the commander of the Armee d'Orient in 1798. Napoleon became the French First Republic's best general during the late 1790s, and the people of France celebrated him as a national hero. In 1799, he seized power from the corrupt French Directory and became the dictatorial "First Consul" of the French Consulate. In 1804, he declared himself Emperor of France and expanded his empire through military campaigns against numerous foes of France, including the United Kingdom, Holy Roman Empire (later the Austrian Empire), Prussia, and the Russian Empire, all of whom formed coalitions to prevent Napoleon from conquering Europe. His empire reached its height in 1809, and he placed numerous family members and generals on the thrones of client states to divide his empire up. In 1812, he made a mistake by invading Russia, where his army was drawn into a war of attrition and suffered extremely high casualties from both the cold and enemy action. In 1814, he was forced to abdicate after his enemies invaded France and captured Paris, and the Bourbon monarch Louis XVIII of France became King of France. Napoleon was exiled to Elba, only to escape to France in 1815 and win over the loyalty of the forces sent to arrest him. Napoleon's army retook Paris, allowing for him to resurrect the French Empire for its last "Hundred Days", and he was defeated by the British and Prussian armies of the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard von Blucher at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Forced to abdicate again, he was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821 at the age of 51.

## Biography

Born into an impoverished Corsican family of noble descent, Napoleon Bonaparte was commissioned as an officer in the French artillery in 1785. He decamped with his family to France at the height of the Revolution in 1793. Proving himself to be an able military officer, he achieved rapid promotion. He also proved an accomplished politician. In 1794, he survived the downfall of the ruling Jacobin clan, with whom he had been closely linked, and in 1796 married Josephine de Beauharnais, who was well-connected to the Directorate - the French governing body that succeeded the Jacobins.

Napoleon was aged 26 when he first took command in the field. The Army of Italy was a semi-mutinous body of men short of equipment, food, and pay. Understanding his soldiers' mix of grumbling self-pity, collective pride, and base rapacity, he won their support with the promise of glory and plunder. He also had exceptional luck, for early victories could easily have ended in disaster.

### Empire Building

Fearing the political ambitions of a successful general, the Directorate was relieved when Napoleon's search for glory took him to Egypt. Though his victories over the Egyptian Mamelukes and Ottoman Turks were negated by Nelson's destruction of the French fleet at Aboukir Bay in 1798, the Middle East expedition provided an exotic boost to the evolving Napoleonic legend. Slipping back to France in 1799, Napoleon ratified his claim to power with a crushing victory over the Austrians at Marengo in 1800, and he took control of the French state. From that point on, Napoleon had the advantage of being both ruler and supreme commander of France and was able to transform the French forces into the tool he required to fulfill his extensive military ambitions.

Napoleon's defeat of Austria (twice), Prussia, and Russia in campaigns between 1805 and 1809 ensured his reputation as one of the greatest military commanders of all time. The basis for his victories was the rapid maneuver of large bodies of troops living off the land. He used speed of movement to achieve "a superiority of force at the point at which one attacks," in his own words. His army appeared unexpectedly behind the enemy or struck at enemy armies in quick succession, before they could concentrate in overwhelming numbers. On the battlefield, Napoleon liked to throw the enemy off balance by drawing the fighting to one wing, then punching with the maximum force of artillery, heavy cavalry, and infantry columns at a point where the enemy line had weakened.

### Overreacher

Napoleon's drive to impose a continent-wide boycott of British imports led to widening war. The placing of his relatives or marshals on European thrones aroused resentment and, in Spain, a full-scale revolt. His marriage to Josephine was annulled in 1810, and he married into the Austrian royal family, but never achieved acceptance Europe-wide as a legitimate ruler. His campaigns became increasingly costly - French casualties were around 8,000 at Austerlitz in 1805, but almost 40,000 at Wagram four years later. Losses in the Russian invasion in 1812 may have been over half a million.

### A Final Flourish

As the war dragged on, a megalomaniac streak began to undermine Napoleon's reasoning, and his health deteriorated due to his constant campaigning. The brilliance of his battlefield tactics waned; at Borodino, in 1812, he merely flung his forces forward in a frontal assault against Russian defensive positions, achieving no more than a Pyrrhic victory at a crippling cost.

Yet, he never lost his hold over his troops. He understood that citizen soldiers required heroic leadership, and he tirelessly cultivated his personal image and mythology. His skills in the large-scale defensive campaigns of 1813-14 have been much admired. His ability to stage a comeback in 1815, a year after the abdication, with Frenchmen flocking to serve him, speaks volumes for his undimmed charisma. But from defeat at Waterloo there was no return.

He was exiled to Saint Helena, a British-controlled island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He died there, and asked for his ashes to be scattered in the Seine among the people of France whom he loved so much.