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The French Revolution begins.
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A new constitution set up a limited monarchy
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The Legislative Assembly decided to
strike at Austria, which declared the war on Austria in the spring of
1792. -
The French Revolution was entering a more radical and violent stage. Members of the new Paris Commune took the king captive.They forced the Legislative Assembly to suspend the monarchy and to call for a National Convention.
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In September 1792, the newly elected National Convention
began meeting. The Convention had been called to draft a new
constitution. -
In 1792 he became Napoleon became a captain. Two years later, at 24, the Committee of Public Safety made him a brigadier general.
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King Louis XVI is executed; Reign of
Terror begins -
The Committee of Public Safety took over the government
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In less than a year, the new French government had raised a huge army by September 1794, it had over a million soldiers.
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By the summer of 1794, the French had
largely defeated their foreign foes. There
was less need for the Reign of Terror, but it
continued nonetheless. -
The Constitution of 1795 set up two legislative houses.
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In 1796 he became commander of the French armies in Italy. Napoleon defeated the armies of the Papal States and their Austrian allies.
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Napoleon leads coupd’état that topples French government. Napoleon seized power.
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"Napoleon Bonaparte dominated French and European history
from 1799 to 1815. During his reign Napoleon built and lost an
empire and also spread ideas about nationalism in Europe." -
In Paris, Napoleon took part in the coup d’état of 1799 that overthrew the Directory and set up a new government, the
consulate. -
When Napoleon became consul in 1799, France was at war with a European coalition of Russia, Great Britain, and Austria. Napoleon realized the need for a pause in the war. “The French Revolution is not finished,” he said, “so long as the scourge of war lasts. . . . I want peace, as much to settle the present French government, as to save the world from chaos.”
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In 1802 Napoleon was made consul for life. Two years later, he crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I.
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Seven law codes were created, but the
most important was the Civil Code, or
Napoleonic Code, introduced in 1804. -
From 1807 to 1812, Napoleon was the master of Europe. His Grand Empire was composed of three major parts: the French Empire, dependent states, and allied states.
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Between 1808 and 1814, Napoleon created about 3,200 nobles. Nearly 60 percent were military officers, while the rest were civil service or state and local officials.
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Napoleon’s downfall began in 1812 when he decided to invade Russia. Within only a few years, his fall was complete.
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In June 1812, a Grand Army of more than 600,000 men entered Russia. Napoleon’s hopes depended on a quick victory over the Russians.
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Paris was captured in March 1814. Napoleon was soon sent into exile on the island of Elba, off the northwest coast of Italy. The victorious powers restored monarchy to France in the person of Louis XVIII, brother of the executed king, Louis XVI.
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At Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815, Napoleon met a combined British and Prussian army under the Duke of Wellington and suffered a bloody defeat.
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On March 20, 1815, Napoleon entered Paris in triumph. Russia, Great Britain, Austria, and Prussia responded to Napoleon’s return.They again pledged to defeat the man they called the “Enemy and Disturber of the Tranquility of the World.” Meanwhile, Napoleon raised another French army of devoted veterans who rallied from all over France. He then readied an attack on the allied troops stationed across the border in Belgium.
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Napoleon remained in exile until his death in 1821,
