Napoleon Bonaparte, the military genius who eventually established a “dictatorship for life” in France, grew up in a setting that could not have been more different from one-man rule. He was born in 1769, at the height of the Enlightenment. We often think of Napoleon as a military dictator whose prestige came out of conquests for the French empire, but his military career actually took off and flourished during the French Revolution.
Napoleon was a supporter of the Revolution. He fought in skirmishes and battles to defend the new French republic. He supported the Jacobins, a radical left-wing political party in revolutionary France that sought to end the reign of Louis XVI and abolish the monarchy altogether. In 1792, Napoleon crushed a royalist attack against the National Convention. Napoleon also defended France from other European powers, who turned on France’s republic in the fear of their own monarchies getting overthrown. Through his military prestige during these times, Napoleon gained recognition.
In an attempt to weaken the British empire, Napoleon attacked Egypt, which would be strategic to eventually reach India. Although victorious, Napoleon and his army were stranded in Egypt due to a destroyed fleet. By the time Napoleon went back to Europe, France was in a political mess.
In a coup d'etat, Napoleon overthrew the French Directory government and became First Consul. He decided to stabilize France by establishing a national bank, the Lycee system of education, and most importantly, a new law code (the Napoleonic Code). The Napoleonic Code outlined general laws, but also incorporated some of the ideas embraced by the French Revolution, such as citizen equality and the formal abolishment of the feudal system.
In 1804, Napoleon fully consolidated his power by crowning himself as Emperor of France. While he was emperor, Napoleon went on endless military campaigns to fulfill his desire of conquest and expansion. He defeated both the Holy Roman Empire and Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, in which the Holy Roman Empire (already decentralized and weak), dissolved into the Confederation of the Rhine. Napoleon also introduced the Continental System, where Britain remained isolated from trade with the rest of Europe.
Napoleon seemed to bring all of Europe under his control, although he was never able to dominate Britain or Russia. In 1812, Napoleon led a disastrous invasion into Russia. His troops struggled in the Russian winter, and by the time he returned to France, his troops had been decimated. Worse still, the rest of Europe teamed up against him, and Napoleon was forced to abdicate the throne and live in exile in Elba. He succeeded in returning to France briefly and tried to reclaim his empire once again, but was defeated once and for all at the Battle of Waterloo against the British. He was exiled (again) to St. Helena, where he died.
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