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Napoleon was chosen to lead French troops into Italy. There, the French defeated the Austrians, who ruled Italy at the time. As a result of the victory, France acquired Belgium from Austria. France also acquired hundreds art treasures from Italy, which were placed in the Louvre, the French national museum.
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Two years later, Napoleon sailed for Egypt, where British forces were stationed. He won a great land victory there, but the British fleet destroyed the French fleet. Nevertheless, the French succeeded in establishing their influence in Egypt. Soldiers their discovered the Rosetta Stone.
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Austria, Russia, and Great Britain defeated forces in Europe. When Napoleon learned about this he saw chance to gain more power. He left his troops in Egypt and returned to Paris. There, he and two other member of The Directory plotted to take over the goverment. On this day they put their plan in into effect and met with success. Napoleon set up this new goverment, The Consulate. Napoleon paced himself at head and took the title First Consul.
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In this year, Napolean led French forces to a victory against Austria.
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France arranged a peace treaty with Great Britain.
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Because Napoleon brought peace and order, he was very popular. In 1802, he asked the people to elect him First Consul for life. They did so in a popular vote.
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In 1803, Great Britain, threatened by Napoleon's actions, decalred war on France. Great Britain and its allies, however, were not able to stop Napoleon and his soldiers.
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In 1804, France made Napoleon emperor of France. His cornation was held in the Notre Dame Cathedral. The Pope came from Rome for the crowning but did not have a chance to place the crown on Napoleon's head. Instead, Napoleon took the crown from the Pope's hands and crowned himself.
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In 1805, Napoleon crowned himself king of Italy.
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In 1806, Napoleon formed the Confederation of Rhine, which consisted of a group of conquered German states.
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In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal.
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In 1809, Napoleon made the Papel States part of France and put the Pope in prison. France's boundaries now included much of Europe.
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Since the French couldn't deteat the British navy, he tried to obtain victory in a different way, He forbade the countries in his empire to trade with Great Britain. His order,however, was hard to enforce, and it prove unsuccesful.
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Napoleon decided to take on Russia. He organized a Grand Army of about 600,000 soldiers of different nationalities. It was the largest army the world had yet seen. In the summer of 1812, the Grand Army invaded Russia. Except for one battle, though, the Russians did not fight. Instead, they retreated, drawing the French deeper into Russia. As the Russians retreated, they burned down their villages and food supplies, leaving nothing for the advancing French.
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In September, Napoleon reached Moscow, which had abandoned by the Russians. Shortly after the French arrived, the city caught fire and three fourths of it was destroyed. The French army now had neither food nor shelter. Napoleon sent several peace propasals to the Russians, which they ignored. He finally gave the order to withdraw.
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The bitter Russian winter had now started. Hundreds of thousands of French soldiers froze to death as temperatures fell to 40 degrees below zero. Thousands more died from disease and lack of food. In the end, fewer than 100,000 made it back to France.
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Napoleon quickly raised another army, but the new soldiers were not well trained. They were defeated by the allied forces of Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain. This was the first time the four countries had joined together to fight Napoleon.
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In 1814, the allies took Paris, and Napoleon was forced to abdicate. He was sent into exile to the small island of Elba off the coast of Italy. He managed to escape, however, and gathered together enough troops to invade France. For 100 days, Napoleon again reigned as emperor.
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The allies, under the British leadership of the Duke of Wellington, finally defeated him in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo.
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After this loss. Napoleon was sent to the island of St. Helena off the coast of west coast of Afica, where he died in 1821.
