Napoleon Bonaparte. A name synonymous with conquest, revolution, and a legacy that continues to shape the world today. This detailed biography explores the life of Napoleon, from his humble beginnings on the island of Corsica to his ascent as Emperor of France and his eventual downfall.
A Corsican Upbringing (1769-1789):
Napoleon Bonaparte was born Napoleone Buonaparte in Ajaccio, on the French island of Corsica, on August 15, 1769. He was the fourth, and second surviving, child of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer, and his wife, Letizia Ramolino. Napoleon eventually had seven surviving siblings.
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| Portrait made in 1835 by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux |
In 1779, young Napoleon began attending the military college of Brienne, where he studied for five years. At age 15, Napoleon moved on to the military academy in Paris. While Napoleon was still there, his father died of stomach cancer in 1785. This propelled Napoleon to take the reins as the head of the family.
Back home, Napoleon got behind the Corsican resistance to the French occupation, siding with his father’s former ally, Pasquale Paoli. But the two soon had a falling out, and when a civil war in Corsica began in April 1793, Napoleon now an enemy of Paoli and his family relocated to France, where they assumed the French version of their name: Bonaparte.
From Revolutionary Officer to National Hero (1789-1799):
Napoleon’s return to France began with a service with the French military, where he rejoined his regiment at Nice in June 1793. The turmoil of the French Revolution, which began four years prior, created opportunities for ambitious military leaders like Napoleon. The young leader quickly showed his support for the Jacobins, a far-left political movement and the most well-known and popular political club from the French Revolution.
A year after France was declared a republic, King Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. Ultimately, these acts led to the rise of Maximilien de Robespierre and what became, essentially, the dictatorship of the Committee of Public Safety. The years of 1793 and 1794 came to be known as the Reign of Terror, in which as many as 40,000 people were killed. Eventually, the Jacobins fell from power, and Robespierre was executed.
The Italian Campaigns and Rise to Power (1796-1799):
The nation was ruled by the French revolutionary government, or Directory, beginning in 1795. That same year, Napoleon—who had earlier lost Robespierre's favor—won back the Directory's favor by defending the government against forces bent on counterrevolution. Napoleon's efforts eventually earned him the title of commander of the Interior Army. He was also a reliable source of military advice for the Directory.
Napoleon assumed command of the Army of Italy in 1796, a position he had been vying for. The youthful military leader rapidly turned around the 30,000-strong, malnourished, and resentful force. He oversaw the reenergized army's many significant successes against the Austrians, the significant growth of the French empire, and the elimination of an internal threat by the royalists, who wished to return France to a monarchy. All of these successes helped make Napoleon the military’s brightest star.
Napoleon and his army left for the Middle East on July 1, 1798, with the intention of undermining the empire of Great Britain by seizing Egypt and obstructing English trade lines to India. However, the results of his military campaign were disastrous: in the Battle of the Nile on August 1, Admiral Horatio Nelson's fleet crushed Napoleon's forces.
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| Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July 1798 by Louis-François, Baron Lejeune, 1808 |
The defeat damaged Napoleon's reputation as well as France's, and Britain, Austria, Russia, and Turkey united to establish a new alliance against France as a sign of their renewed trust in the commander. After French soldiers were routed in Italy in the spring of 1799, France was forced to cede most of the peninsula. Napoleon returned to France in October of that year, with his army still engaged in combat.
The Coup of 18 Brumaire and the Birth of an Empire (1799-1804):
In November 1799, in an event known as the coup of 18 Brumaire, Napoleon was part of a group that successfully overthrew the French Directory.
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| General Bonaparte surrounded by members of the Council of Five Hundred during the Coup of 18 Brumaire, by François Bouchot |
The Directory was replaced with a three-member Consulate, and Napoleon became first consul, making him France’s leading political figure. In June 1800, at the Battle of Marengo, Napoleon’s forces defeated one of France’s perennial enemies, the Austrians, and drove them out of Italy. The victory helped cement Napoleon’s power as first consul. Additionally, with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, the war-weary British agreed to peace with the French although the peace would only last for a year.
Napoleon worked to restore stability to post-revolutionary France. He centralized the government; instituted reforms in such areas as banking and education; supported science and the arts; and sought to improve relations between his regime and the pope who represented France’s main religion, Catholicism, which had suffered during the revolution. One of his most significant accomplishments was the Napoleonic Code, which streamlined the French legal system and continues to form the foundation of French civil law to this day.
In 1802, a constitutional amendment made Napoleon first consul for life. Two years later, in 1804, he crowned himself emperor of France in a lavish ceremony at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
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| The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David (1804) |
Empress Josephine and Marie-Louise
Emperor Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars (1804-1815):
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of European wars lasting from 1803 to Napoleon’s permanent abdication of power in 1815.
In 1803, in part to raise funds for war, France sold its North American Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million, a transaction known as the Louisiana Purchase. Napoleon then returned to war with Britain, Russia, and Austria.
In 1805, the British registered an important naval victory against France at the Battle of Trafalgar, which led Napoleon to scrap his plans to invade England. Instead, he set his sights on Austria and Russia, beating back both militaries in the Battle of Austerlitz.
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Other victories soon followed, allowing Napoleon to greatly expand the French empire and paving the way for loyalists to his government—including his brothers and other family members—to be installed in Holland, Italy, Naples, Sweden, Spain, and Westphalia.
In 1812, France was devastated when Napoleon’s invasion of Russia turned out to be a colossal failure and the beginning of the end for Napoleon. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Napoleon’s Grand Army were killed or badly wounded: Out of an original fighting force of some 600,000 men, just 10,000 soldiers were still fit for battle.
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| Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, painting by Adolph Northen |
News of the defeat reinvigorated Napoleon’s enemies, both inside and outside of France. Some attempted a failed coup while Napoleon led his charge against Russia and as the British began to advance through French territories. With international pressure mounting and his government lacking the resources to fight back against his enemies, Napoleon surrendered to allied forces on March 30, 1814.
Exile and Legacy (1814-1821):
Napoleon was compelled to resign from office and go into exile on the island of Elba, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Italy, about a week later, on April 6. His banishment was brief, as he saw France bumble about without him.
Napoleon fled the island in March 1815 and returned to Paris without delay. After King Louis XVIII absconded, Napoleon triumphantly reclaimed his position. However, the excitement that greeted Napoleon upon regaining power eventually gave way to long-standing resentment and misgivings about his ability to lead.
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| Napoleon on Saint Helena, watercolour by Franz Josef Sandmann, c. 1820 |
Quotes
- I am never angry when contradicted; I seek to be enlightened.
- I wish my ashes to rest on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of that French people which I have loved so much. I die before my time, killed by the English oligarchy and its hired assassins.
- A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.
- A great people may be killed, but they will not be intimidated.
- He who fears being conquered is certain of defeat.
- Love does more harm than good.
- A man is not dependent upon his fellow creature, when he does not fear death.
- It is the cause, and not the death that makes the martyr.
- Even when I am gone, I shall remain in people’s minds the star of their rights, my name will be the war cry of their efforts, the motto of their hopes.
- Men of genius are meteors, intended to burn to light their century.
- Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
- In choosing a wife, a man does not renounce his mother, and still less is he justified with breaking her heart.
- The only way to lead people is to show them a future: a leader is a dealer in hope.
- Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
- Envy is a declaration of inferiority.
- The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.
- If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.