INTRODUCTION

Napoleon Bonaparte 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a
French emperor and military commander who
rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary
Wars. He was the leader of the French Republic
as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 until
1814, and briefly again in 1815.

Early Life
Napoleon's family was of Italian origin. His paternal ancestors, the Buonapartes, descended from a
minor Tuscan noble family who emigrated to Corsica in the 16th century.
at age 9, Napoleon moved to the French mainland and enrolled at a religious school in Autun to improve his
French (his mother tongue was the Corsican dialect of Italian). Although he eventually became fluent in
French, he spoke with a Corsican accent and his French spelling was poor.
In May, he transferred to the military academy at Brienne-le-Château . He became reserved and melancholic,
applying himself to reading.
In September 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the École militaire in Paris where he trained to become an
artillery officer. He excelled at mathematics, and read widely in geography, history and literature. However,
he was poor at French and German. In September he became the first Corsican to graduate from the École
militaire.

Early career
Return to Corsica
Upon graduating in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned a second lieutenant in La Fère artillery
regiment. He served in Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, but
spent long periods of leave in Corsica which fed his Corsican nationalism. In September 1789, he returned to
Corsica and promoted the French revolutionary cause. Paoli returned to the island in July 1790, but he had no
sympathy for Bonaparte, as he deemed his father a traitor for having deserted the cause of Corsican
independence.
Bonaparte plunged into a complex three-way struggle among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican
nationalists. He became a supporter of the Jacobins and joined the pro-French Corsican Republicans who
opposed Paoli's policy and his aspirations to secede. He was given command over a battalion of Corsican
volunteers and promoted to captain in the regular army in 1792, despite exceeding his leave of absence and a
dispute between his volunteers and the French garrison in Ajaccio.[50][51]
In February 1793, Bonaparte took part in a failed expedition to invade Sardinia. Following allegations that
Paoli had sabotaged the expedition and that his regime was corrupt and incompetent, the French National
Convention outlawed him. In early June, Bonaparte and 400 French troops failed to capture Ajaccio from
Corsican volunteers and the island was now controlled by Paoli's supporters. When Bonaparte learned that
the Corsican assembly had condemned him and his family, the Buonapartes fled to Toulon on the French
mainland.[52][53]

He was resentful of the French monarchy, and supported the French Revolution in 1789 while serving in the
French
army, trying to spread its ideals to his native Corsica. He rose rapidly in the ranks after saving the governing
French Directory by firing on royalist insurgents.
In 1796, he began a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies, scoring decisive
victories, and became a national hero.
In 1804, to consolidate and expand his power, he crowned himself Emperor of the French.
Differences with the United Kingdom meant France faced the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon
shattered this coalition with victories in the Ulm campaign and at the
Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. During the War of the Fourth
Coalition, Napoleon defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt,
marched the Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in June 1807 at Friedland. Two
years later,
the Austrians challenged the French again during the War of the Fifth Coalition, but Napoleon solidified his
grip over Europe after triumphing at the Battle of Wagram.
Hoping to extend the Continental System, his embargo against Britain, Napoleon invaded the Iberian
Peninsula and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808.
In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, resulting in a large
coalition army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig.
The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled
to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy.
In France, the Bourbons were restored to power.
Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France.[17] The Allies responded by
forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The British
exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic, where he died in 1821 at the age of 51.