Napoleon Bonaparte

Where they went

10 related events

1. 1789 – 1799French Revolutionrelated figure

   A popular revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy and founded a republic, spreading the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.

2. 1
   1791 – 1804Haitian Revolutionrelated figure

   Enslaved Africans in French Saint-Domingue rose up, destroyed slavery and won independence as Haiti in 1804 — the first state founded by a slave revolt and the first independent country in Latin America.

3. 2
   1795 – 1799The Directoryrelated figure

   Under the Constitution of Year III five Directors and a two-chamber legislature ran France, relying more and more on the army amid revolts and coups from left and right.

4. 3
   1798 – 1801French Campaign in Egyptcommander

   To cut Britain’s route to India, Napoleon invaded Egypt; he won the Battle of the Pyramids but lost his fleet at the Battle of the Nile and was cut off.

5. 4
   1799Coup of 18 Brumairekey figure

   Back from Egypt, Napoleon joined Sieyès to overthrow the Directory; the Consulate was set up with Napoleon as First Consul.

6. 1803 – 1815Napoleonic Warscommander

   The wars between Napoleon's France and coalitions of Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia. France came to dominate most of the Continent but collapsed after the failed invasion of Russia.

7. 5
   1804Napoleon Crowned Emperormonarch

   Having seized power in a coup, Napoleon became emperor with the approval of a plebiscite and was crowned in Notre-Dame Cathedral (the First Empire). The same year he issued the Napoleonic Code.

8. 6
   1806Continental Systemkey figure

   With the Berlin Decree Napoleon banned trade between continental Europe and Britain, hoping to bring down by economics the country he could not defeat at sea.

9. 7
   1812Napoleon's Invasion of Russiacommander

   Napoleon led a vast army to punish Russia for breaking the Continental System and reached Moscow, but scorched-earth tactics and the winter cold destroyed most of his army on the retreat.

10. 8
    1815Battle of Waterloocommander

    Napoleon, who had escaped Elba and become emperor again, was defeated at Waterloo in Belgium by Wellington’s Anglo-allied army and Blücher’s Prussians. The Hundred Days and the Napoleonic era came to an end.

Related works

People who appear alongside

• Paul Barras1755 – 1829

  Convention deputy who led the Thermidorian Reaction and became the strongman of the Directory until the coup of Brumaire

• Duke of Wellington1769 – 1852

  Arthur Wellesley, British general and statesman who drove the French out of the Iberian Peninsula and defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815; later prime minister

• Alexander I of Russia1777 – 1825

  Emperor of Russia (1801–1825) who defeated Napoleon's invasion, attended the Congress of Vienna in person and proposed the Holy Alliance

• Mikhail Kutuzov1745 – 1813

  Russian field marshal who fought Napoleon's army at Borodino in 1812, gave up Moscow and then pursued and shattered the retreating French

• 
  Louis XVI1754 – 1793

  King of France, executed during the Revolution

• Toussaint Louverture1743 – 1803

  Formerly enslaved leader of the Haitian Revolution who took control of Saint-Domingue but was seized by Napoleon's expedition and died in a French prison

• Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès1748 – 1836

  Cleric and political theorist whose pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? opened the Revolution and who plotted the coup of Brumaire with Napoleon in 1799

Themes this person appears in

• Islamic Empires and the Atlantic World1500 – 1800

  Three centuries in which the Ottomans of Suleiman I, the Mughals of Akbar and the Safavids of Abbas I flourished and then faltered, while across the Atlantic the slave trade and colonies transformed the Americas, leading to American independence

• Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and the English Revolutions1543 – 1796

  The Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton, parliamentary government in England won through the Puritan and Glorious Revolutions, and the Enlightenment that sought to remake society by reason — the groundwork of the civic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution

• Revolutions and Nation-States1776 – 1871

  From the Declaration of Independence to the German Empire — a century in which liberalism and nationalism toppled the old order in Europe and the Americas and built nation-states

• The French Revolution1787 – 1799

  From the Assembly of Notables and the Estates-General to the coup of 18 Brumaire — twelve years that toppled the absolute monarchy, founded a republic, passed through Terror and reaction, and ended with Napoleon