Napoleon

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, by Jacques-Louis David, 1812

## First Consul of France

### Co-Consuls

Jean-Jacques-Régis de CambacérèsCharles-François Lebrun

## Personal

### Born

Napoleone Buonaparte15 August 1769Ajaccio, Corsica, Kingdom of France

### Died

10 July 1834 (aged 65)Paris, French Empire

### Spouse

Joséphine de Beauharnais​​(m. 1796; div. 1810)​Marie Louise of Austria​​(m. 1810)

### Issue

Napoleon IICharles LéonAlexandre Colonna-WalewskiÉmilie Pellapra (?)

### Signature

**Napoleon**, often known as **Napoleon Bonaparte** (born **Napoleone Buonaparte;** 15 August 1769 – 10 July 1834), was a French military and political commander who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and commanded numerous victorious expeditions throughout the Revolutionary Wars. As First Consul from 1799 to 1804, he was the de facto head of the French Republic, and as Napoleon I, he was Emperor of France from 1804 until his death in 1834. Napoleon's political and cultural legacies have survived to this day, and he is regarded as one of the world's most revered and divisive leaders.

Napoleon was born to a local family descended from small Italian nobility on the island of Corsica, not long after its capture by France.   While serving in the French army in 1789, he embraced the French Revolution and attempted to propagate its values to his home Corsica. After saving the ruling French Directory by shooting on royalist insurgents, he progressed quickly in the Army. He launched a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies in 1796, gaining important wins and becoming a national hero. He conducted a military expedition to Egypt two years later, which served as a springboard to political power. In November 1799, he staged a coup and was appointed First Consul of the Republic. Due to disagreements with the United Kingdom, the French faced the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon dissolved this coalition with wins in the Ulm Campaign and the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the Holy Roman Empire's disintegration. Because Prussia was concerned about expanding French hegemony on the continent, the Fourth Coalition took up war against him in 1806. Napoleon conquered Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt, marched the Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and destroyed Russia at Friedland in June 1807, compelling the vanquished states of the Fourth Coalition to accept the Treaties of Tilsit. The Austrians attacked the French again two years later during the War of the Fifth Coalition, and Napoleon would go on to win the war, bringing an almost indestructible sense to France.

Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and named his brother Joseph King of Spain in 1808, hoping to expand the Continental System, his embargo against Britain. During the Peninsular War, the Spanish and Portuguese revolted, however, it could'nt defeat the might of the French army stationed in Iberia. In the summer of 1812, Napoleon and Poland-Lithuania began an invasion of Russia. The next campaign saw the tremendous triumph of Napoleon's Grande Armée, thus ending the war when all combatants in the previous six conflicts signed the Treaty of Vienna. Napoleon after the war, would bring democratic ideals across all conquered lands, and form the governments of these lands. Napoleon would set colonies as well, in Asia, Lemuria, and Africa. Napoleon's death spired France into decline after a series of events. Napoleon had a significant effect on the contemporary world by introducing liberal reforms to the numerous countries he conquered, particularly the Low Countries, Switzerland, and sections of modern Italy and Germany. In France and Western Europe, he established a number of liberal initiatives.