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Napoleon was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio,
Corsica, and was given the name Napoleone (in French his name became
Napoleon Bonaparte). He was the second of eight children of Carlo
(Charles) Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino Buonaparte, both of the
Corsican-Italian gentry. No Buonaparte had ever been a professional
soldier. Carlo was a lawyer who had fought for Corsican
independence, but after the French occupied the island in 1768, he
served as a prosecutor and judge and entered the French aristocracy
as a count. Through his father's influence, Napoleon was educated at
the expense of King Louis XVI, at Brienne and the École Militaire,
in Paris. Napoleon graduated in 1785, at the age of 16, and joined
the artillery as a second lieutenant.
After the Revolution began, he became a lieutenant
colonel (1791) in the Corsican National Guard. In 1793, however,
Corsica
declared independence, and Bonaparte, a French patriot and a
Republican, fled to France with his family. He was assigned, as a
captain, to an army besieging Toulon, a naval base that, aided by a
British fleet, was in revolt against the republic. Replacing a
wounded artillery general, he seized ground where his guns could
drive the British fleet from the harbor, and Toulon fell. As a
result Bonaparte was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 24.
In 1795 he saved the revolutionary government by dispersing an
insurgent mob in Paris. In 1796 he married Joséphine de Beauharnais,
the widow of an aristocrat guillotined in the Revolution and the
mother of two children.
Also in 1796, Bonaparte was made commander of the
French army in Italy. He defeated four Austrian generals in
succession, each with superior numbers, and forced Austria and its
allies to make peace. The Treaty of Campo Formio provided that
France keep most of its conquests. In northern Italy he founded the
Cisalpine (Italian) Republic (later known as the kingdom of
Italy) and strengthened his
position in France by sending millions of francs worth of treasure
to the government. In 1798, to strike at British trade with the
East, he led an expedition to Turkish-ruled Egypt, which he
conquered. His fleet, however, was destroyed by the British admiral
Horatio Nelson, leaving him stranded. Undaunted, he reformed the
Egyptian government and law, abolishing serfdom and feudalism and
guaranteeing basic rights. The French scholars he had brought with
him began the scientific study of ancient Egyptian history. In 1799
he failed to capture Syria, but he won a smashing victory over the Turks at
Abu Qir (Abukir).
France, meanwhile, faced a new coalition; Austria, Russia, and
lesser powers had allied with Britain.
Bonaparte, no modest soul, decided to leave his army
and return to save France. In Paris, he joined a conspiracy against
the government. In the coup d'etat of November 9-10, 1799 (18-19
Brumaire), he and his colleagues seized power and established a new
regime—the Consulate. Under its constitution, Bonaparte, as first
consul, had almost dictatorial powers. The constitution was revised
in 1802 to make Bonaparte consul for life and in 1804 to create him
emperor. Each change received the overwhelming assent of the
electorate. In 1800, he assured his power by crossing the Alps and
defeating the Austrians at Marengo. He then negotiated a general
European peace that established the Rhine River as the eastern border of
France. He also concluded an agreement with the pope (the Concordat
of 1801), which contributed to French domestic tranquillity by
ending the quarrel with the Roman Catholic church that had arisen
during the Revolution. In
France the administration was reorganized, the court system was
simplified, and all schools were put under centralized control.
French law was standardized in the Code Napoleon, or civil code, and
six other codes. They guaranteed the rights and liberties won in the
Revolution, including equality before the law and freedom of
religion.
In April 1803 Britain, provoked by Napoleon's
aggressive behavior, resumed war with France on the seas; two years
later Russia and Austria joined the British in a new coalition.
Napoleon then abandoned plans to invade England and turned his
armies against the Austro-Russian forces, defeating them at the
Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805. In 1806 he seized the
kingdom of Naples and made his elder brother Joseph king, converted
the Dutch Republic into the kingdom of Holland for his brother
Louis, and established the Confederation of the Rhine (most of the
German states) of which he was protector. Prussia then allied itself
with Russia and attacked the confederation. Napoleon destroyed the
Prussian army at Jena and Auerstädt (1806) and the Russian army at
Friedland. At Tilsit (July 1807), Napoleon made an ally of Czar
Alexander I and greatly reduced the size of Prussia (see TILSIT,
TREATY OF). He also added new states to the empire: the kingdom of
Westphalia, under his brother Jerome, the duchy of
Warsaw, and others.
In 1809 Napoleon beat the Austrians again at Wagram,
annexed the Illyrian Provinces (now part of Slovenia, Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro), and abolished
the Papal States. He also divorced Joséphine, and in 1810 he married
the Habsburg archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of the Austrian
emperor. By thus linking his dynasty with the oldest ruling house in
Europe, he hoped that his son, who was born in 1811, would be more readily
accepted by established monarchs. In 1810 also, the empire reached
its widest extension with the annexation of
Bremen, Lübeck, and other parts of
north Germany, together with the entire kingdom of
Holland, following the forced abdication of Louis Bonaparte.
In all the new kingdoms created by the emperor, the
Code Napoléon was established as law. Feudalism and serfdom were
abolished, and freedom of religion established (except in Spain).
Each state was granted a constitution, providing for universal male
suffrage and a parliament and containing a bill of rights.
French-style administrative and judicial systems were required.
Schools were put under centralized administration, and free public
schools were envisioned. Higher education was opened to all who
qualified, regardless of class or religion. Every state had an
academy or institute for the promotion of the arts and sciences.
Incomes were provided for eminent scholars, especially scientists.
Constitutional government remained only a promise, but progress and
increased efficiency were widely realized. Not until after
Napoleon's fall did the common people of Europe, alienated from his
governments by war taxes and military conscription, fully appreciate
the benefits he had given them.
In 1812 Napoleon, whose alliance with Alexander I had
disintegrated, launched an invasion of
Russia that ended in a disastrous retreat from
Moscow. Thereafter all Europe united against him, and although he fought on, and brilliantly, the odds
were impossible. In April 1814, his marshals refused to continue the
struggle. After the allies had rejected his stepping down in favor
of his son, Napoleon abdicated unconditionally and was exiled to the
Mediterranean island of
Elba.
Marie Louise and his son were put in the custody of her father, the
emperor of Austria. Napoleon never saw either of them again.
Napoleon himself, however, soon made a dramatic comeback. In March
1815, he escaped from Elba, reached France, and marched on Paris,
winning over the troops sent to capture him. In Paris, he
promulgated a new and more democratic constitution, and veterans of
his old campaigns flocked to his support. Napoleon asked peace of
the allies, but they outlawed him, and he decided to strike first.
The result was a campaign into Belgium, which ended in defeat at the
Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815. In Paris, crowds begged him to
fight on, but the politicians withdrew their support. Napoleon fled
to Rochefort, where he surrendered to the captain of the British
battleship Bellerophon. He was then exiled to Saint Helena, a remote
island in the south Atlantic Ocean, where he remained until his
death from stomach cancer on May 5, 1821.
Napoleon was sometimes a tyrant and always an authoritarian, but one
who believed in ruling by mandate of the people, expressed in
plebiscites. He was also a great enlightened monarch—a civil
executive of enormous capacity who changed French institutions and
tried to reform the institutions of Europe and give the Continent a common law. Few deny that he was a military
genius. At
St. Helena, he said, “Waterloo will erase the memory
of all my victories.” He was wrong; for better or worse, he is best
remembered as a general, not for his enlightened government, but the
latter must be counted if he is justly to be called Napoleon the
Great.
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