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Italian Campaign 🟢
April 1796-1797
Though Napoleon was greatly outnumbered, he launched the Italian Campaign against Austrian and Piedmontese troops. He won, which greatly boosted his military career and gave him rule over Italy. -
Egyptian Campaign 🔴
1798-1799
Napoleon took 35,000 and ambitious intentions to Egypt. Unfortunately, he lost many troops to the plague and failed battles. He sailed back to France, leaving his troops behind. It was a failure because of the troops he abandoned and the disastrous battles. -
Consulate 🟢
Napoleon got rid of the Directory and replaced it with the Consulate. In this new position, he was able to modernize the government and institute the Napoleonic Code. -
Banque de France 🟢
After the revolution, France was in a deep recession. To pull them out of it, Napoleon created the Banque de France, which had the power to distribute currency, which would hopefully decrease inflation. It helped France, and is still in place today. -
Concordat of 1801 🟢
The Concordat of 1801 undid many of the reforms during the Revolution, and regulated relations between Napoleon and the Catholic Church. It resolved some conflict between revolutionaries and the Catholics. While it did give a lot of power back to the papacy, the balance of relations between the church and the state remained in Napoleon’s favor. -
Consul for Life 🟢
The Concordat of 1801 undid many of the reforms during the Revolution, and regulated relations between Napoleon and the Catholic Church. It resolved some conflict between revolutionaries and the Catholics. While it did give a lot of power back to the papacy, the balance of relations between the church and the state remained in Napoleon’s favor. -
Napoleonic Code 🟡
The laws in France varied greatly throughout the country, so Napoleon consolidated the laws into a single civil code called the “Napoleonic code.” Though it was impactful and important to the development of France, it deprived women of many rights and reintroduced colonial slavery. -
Declared Self Emperor 🟡
On May 18th, 1804 Napoleon declared himself emperor of France. December 2nd was his coronation ceremony, which took place in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. During the ceremony, he took the crown right from the Pope’s hands and crowned himself. However, he found his new job to be difficult, and often would spend hours working alone to avoid the court. -
Battle of Trafalgar 🔴
Lord Nelson of the British Royal Navy had 27 ships against 33 French ones, led by Napoleon. The French were destroyed; 19 ships were lost in comparison to zero British ones. After 5 hours of fighting, a French sniper killed Nelson, but the British still won. This loss for Napoleon ensured that he would never invade Britain. -
Abolished the Holy Roman Empire 🟢
After conquering several German nations, Napoleon set his eyes on the Holy Roman Empire. He convinced 16 states to ally with him under the Treaty of the Confederation of Rhine. The treaty made them formally leave the Holy Roman Empire. Though the title belonged to the Hapsburgs, Napoleon wanted to become the Holy Roman Emperor. Fearing Napoleon’s power and the Confederation of Rhine, Franz II of Austria, he dissolved the Empire before Napoleon could capture his title. -
Continental System 🟡
November 21st, 1806-1814
Napoleon designed the Continental System to blockade Great Britain. The blockade would require neutral and French allies to not trade with the British. Part of the system worked— it hurt the English economy and fueled unemployment protests. Additionally, it helped manufacturing in several parts of France. Unfortunately, because of the British’s superiority at sea, the French forces were stretched thin and it damaged parts of France dependent on oversea trade. -
Resistance in Spain 🔴
1808-1814
In the Iberian Peninsula, British forces held off an invasion from Napoleon’s superior armies with the help of Spanish and Portuguese allies. After Napoleon occupied Madrid, the Spanish resisted. When he ordered his soldiers to quell the rebellion, 12,000 surrendered after a defeat at Bailén. This led to him removing troops from Spain, which emboldened others to resist Napoleon as well. -
Invasion of Russia 🔴
Napoleon led the Grande Armée across the Neman River, intending to invade Russia from present-day Poland. However, the Russian Army did not want to engage with Napoleon’s 500,000 troops, and retreated further into Russia. Unfortunately, over the next six months, the ill-prepared Grande Armée suffered greatly. They lost over 300,000, and the Russians 200,000. The disaster that was the Russian invasion resulted in Napoleon’s abdication and exile to Elba. -
Battle of Nations at Leipzig 🔴
October 16th-19th, 1813
In terms of numbers of troops and artillery, the Battle of Nations, or the Battle of Leipzig, was the largest in the Napoleonic Wars. A combination of the Russians, Prussians, Swedes, and Austrians made an army of 370,000 against Napoleon’s 198,000. After two days, the battle became Napoleon’s first obvious defeat. France lost 73,000 troops and the allies lost 54,000. -
Abdication 🟡
After stepping down from power, Napoleon was exiled to an island in the Mediterranean by the victors of the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. Louis the XVIII was recognized as king. Unfortunately, the return of Louis was not as smooth as expected. An economic depression made people want Napoleon back. In March of 1815, he escaped Elba and returned to France. -
Hundred Days 🟡
March 20th-July 8th, 1815
The Hundred Days was the period between Napoleon escaping exile from Elba and when he was abdicated permanently and replaced with Louis XVIII again. On March 1st, Napoleon marched with 1,500 men into Paris. Louis the XVIII fled, and Napoleon was free to make changes to the Imperial Constitution to create more allies within France. However, Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia teamed up against him and ultimately defeated him at Waterloo. -
Waterloo 🔴
Four nations—Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia— had made an alliance against Napoleon. Feeling threatened, he decided to defeat each nation one by one before they could make an attack on him together. Napoleon almost defeated the Prussian army, but waited too long to attack again. Prussian reinforcements arrived along with the British army camped by Waterloo, and they destroyed Napoleon and his army. The battle ended Napoleon’s military career.