French statesman and commander, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. He came from the family of an ordinary Corsican nobleman.
In 1784 he graduated from the Brienne Military School, and in 1785 from the Paris Military School. He began professional military service in 1785 with the rank of sub-lieutenant of artillery in the royal army.
From the first days of the Great French Revolution of 1789-1799, Bonaparte became involved in the political struggle on the island of Corsica and joined the most radical wing of the Republicans. In 1792 in Valence he joined the Jacobin Club.
In 1793, supporters of France in Corsica, where Bonaparte was at that time, were defeated. Conflict with Corsican separatists forced him to flee the island to France. Bonaparte became commander of an artillery battery in Nice. He distinguished himself in the battle against the British at Toulon, was promoted to brigadier general and appointed chief of artillery of the Alpine Army. After the counter-revolutionary coup in June 1794, Bonaparte was removed from office and arrested for connections with the Jacobins, but was soon released. He was listed in the reserve of the War Ministry, and in September 1795, after refusing the offered position of commander of an infantry brigade, he was dismissed from the army.
In October 1795, a member of the Directory (French government in 1795-1799), Paul Barras, who led the fight against the monarchist conspiracy, took Napoleon as an assistant. Bonaparte distinguished himself during the suppression of the royalist rebellion in October 1795, for which he was appointed commander of the troops of the Paris garrison. In February 1796, he was appointed commander of the Italian Army, at the head of which he carried out the victorious Italian campaign (1796-1797).
In 1798-1801 he led the Egyptian expedition, which, despite the capture of Alexandria and Cairo and the defeat of the Mamelukes in the Battle of the Pyramids, was defeated.
In October 1799, Bonaparte arrived in Paris, where a situation of acute political crisis reigned. Relying on influential circles of the bourgeoisie, on November 9-10, 1799, he carried out a coup d'etat. The government of the Directory was overthrown, and the French Republic was led by three consuls, the first of whom was Napoleon.
The concordat (agreement) concluded with the Pope in 1801 provided Napoleon with the support of the Catholic Church.
In August 1802 he achieved his appointment as consul for life.
In June 1804, Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor Napoleon I.
On December 2, 1804, during a magnificent ceremony held in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris with the participation of the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
In March 1805, he was crowned in Milan, after Italy recognized him as its king.
Napoleon I's foreign policy was aimed at achieving political and economic hegemony in Europe. With his rise to power, France entered a period of almost continuous wars. Thanks to military successes, Napoleon significantly expanded the territory of the empire and made most of the states of Western and Central Europe dependent on France.
Napoleon was not only Emperor of France, which extended to the left bank of the Rhine, but also King of Italy, mediator of the Swiss Confederation and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. His brothers became kings: Joseph in Naples, Louis in Holland, Jerome in Westphalia.
This empire was comparable in its territory to the empire of Charlemagne or the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V.
In 1812, Napoleon launched a campaign against Russia, which ended in his complete defeat and became the beginning of the collapse of the empire. The entry of anti-French coalition troops into Paris in March 1814 forced Napoleon I to abdicate the throne (April 6, 1814). The victorious allies retained the title of emperor to Napoleon and gave him possession of the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1815, Napoleon, taking advantage of the people's dissatisfaction with the policies of the Bourbons who replaced him in France and the disagreements that arose between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna, tried to regain his throne. In March 1815, at the head of a small detachment, he unexpectedly landed in the south of France and three weeks later entered Paris without firing a single shot. The secondary reign of Napoleon I, which went down in history as the “Hundred Days,” did not last long. The Emperor did not live up to the hopes placed on him by the French people. All this, as well as the defeat of Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo, led him to a second abdication and exile to the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, where he died on May 5, 1821. In 1840, Napoleon's ashes were transported to Paris, to the Invalides
World military historiography highly values the activities of Napoleon I as a commander who skillfully used the objective conditions created by the French bourgeois revolution for the development of military affairs. His military leadership had a great influence on the development of military art in the 19th century.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
Emperor of the French, one of the greatest commanders in world history, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 on the island of Corsica, in the city of Ajaccio. He was the second son of the poor nobleman lawyer Carlo di Buonaparte and his wife Letizia, née Ramolino. After home schooling in sacred history and literacy, in the sixth year Napoleon Bonaparte entered a private school, and in 1779, at the royal expense, to a military school in Brienne. From there in 1784 he was sent to Paris, a military school that bore the name of the academy, and in the fall of 1785 he was promoted to second lieutenant in an artillery regiment stationed in Valence.
Extremely strapped for money, young Bonaparte led a very modest, secluded life here, interested only in literature and the study of works on military matters. While in Corsica in 1788, Napoleon developed fortification projects for the defense of St. Florent, Lamortila and the Gulf of Ajaccio, compiled a report on the organization of the Corsican militia and a note on the strategic importance of the Madeleine Islands; but he considered only literary pursuits to be his serious work, hoping to gain fame and money through them. Napoleon Bonaparte voraciously read books on history, about the East, about England and Germany, was interested in the size of state revenues, the organization of institutions, the philosophy of legislation, and thoroughly absorbed the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the then fashionable Abbot Raynal. Napoleon himself wrote the history of Corsica, the stories “The Earl of Essex”, “The Prophet in Disguise”, “A Discourse on Love”, “Reflections on the Natural State of Man” and kept a diary. Almost all of these works of the young Bonaparte (except for the pamphlet “Letter to Buttafuaco,” the representative of Corsica at Versailles) remained in manuscripts. All these works are full of hatred for France, as the enslaver of Corsica, and fiery love for the homeland and its heroes. Napoleon's papers of that time contain many notes of political content, imbued with a revolutionary spirit.
Napoleon during the French Revolution
In 1786, Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted to lieutenant, and in 1791 to staff captain, with a transfer to the 4th artillery regiment. In France, meanwhile, the Great Revolution began (1789). While in Corsica in 1792, during the formation of the revolutionary national guard there, Napoleon enlisted in it as an adjutant with the rank of captain, and was then selected for the post of junior staff officer in the battalion with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Having given himself up to the struggle of parties in Corsica, he finally broke up with the Corsican patriot Paoli, who did not sympathize with the new republican power in France. Suspecting Paoli of wanting to seek support from the British, Bonaparte made an attempt to take possession of the citadel in Ajaccio, but the enterprise failed, and Napoleon left for Paris, where he witnessed the rampages mob that broke into the royal palace (June 1792). Returning again to Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte again took up the post of lieutenant colonel of the national guard and in 1793 took part in an unsuccessful expedition to Sardinia. Together with Salicetti, deputy from Corsica in the National Assembly. Napoleon again tried to capture the citadel of Ajaccio, but was unsuccessful, and then the popular assembly in Ajaccio declared the Bonaparte family traitors to the fatherland. His family fled to Toulon, and Napoleon himself reported for service in Nice, where he was assigned to coastal batteries, without being punished for misconduct (failure to show up for service on time, participation in Corsican events, etc.), because they needed officers .
This ended Napoleon's period of Corsican patriotism. Looking for an outlet for his ambition, he planned to go to the service of England, Turkey or Russia, but all his plans in this regard failed. Appointed commander of a light battery, Bonaparte took part in suppressing the uprising in Provence, and in the ensuing battle with the rebels his battery rendered great services. This first combat experience made a deep impression on Napoleon. Taking advantage of his leisure time, he wrote a political pamphlet, “Dinner at Beaucaire,” which contained an apology for the revolutionary policies of the convention and the Jacobins, who had just won a victory over the Girondins. He talentedly expressed political views and revealed a remarkable understanding of military affairs. The commissioners of the Convention who were with the army approved “Dinner at Beaucaire” and printed it at public expense. This cemented Napoleon Bonaparte's connection with the Jacobin revolutionaries.
Seeing the favor of the convention towards Napoleon, his friends persuaded him to remain in the detachment under siege of Toulon, which was handed over to the British after the defeat of the Girondins by the Convention, and when the chief of the siege artillery, General Dammartin, was wounded, Napoleon, appointed in his place, turned out to be extremely useful. At the military council, he eloquently outlined his plan for the capture of Toulon, proposing to position the artillery in such a way as to cut off the communication of the city with the roadstead where the English fleet was stationed. Toulon was taken, and Bonaparte was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
Napoleon Bonaparte during the siege of Toulon
In December 1793, Napoleon secured the position of inspector of coastal fortifications and masterfully drew up a project for the defense of the coast from Toulon to Menton, and on February 6, 1794 he was appointed chief of artillery of the Italian army. Napoleon did not limit himself to this role. Having subordinated the commissioners of the convention under the army to his influence, he, developing plans of action, was, in essence, the leader of the entire campaign. The campaign of 1794 ended quite successfully. It was necessary to expand military operations in Italy, for which Bonaparte outlined a plan approved by Robespierre. The plan already outlined the essence of all future Napoleonic military tactics: “In war, as in the siege of a fortress, you must direct all your forces to one point. Once a breach is made, the enemy's balance is upset, all his defensive preparations at other points turn out to be useless - and the fortress is taken. Do not scatter your forces with the intention of hiding the point of attack, but try in every possible way to ensure yourself numerical superiority at it.”
Since in executing this plan it was necessary to take into account the neutrality of the Genoese Republic, Napoleon was sent there as ambassador. In a week he achieved everything he considered desirable, and at the same time carried out extensive military reconnaissance. Napoleon was already dreaming of being the executor of his plan, perhaps the commander-in-chief, when suddenly the events of 9 Thermidor occurred. Robespierre fell to the guillotine, and Napoleon Bonaparte also faced the guillotine on charges of secret and illegal relations with Robespierre. He was imprisoned in Fort Carré (near Antibes), and this saved him: thanks to the efforts of his friends, Bonaparte was released after 13 days and after some time was appointed to the Western Army, which was pacifying Vendeans, with transfer to infantry. Not wanting to go to the Vendée, Napoleon came to Paris to wait for an opportunity amid revolutionary changes, and on September 15, 1795, he was struck off the list of active service generals for his unwillingness to go to his destination.
Napoleon and the uprising of the 13th Vendémière 1795
At this time, an uprising of the bourgeoisie and royalists was being prepared in Paris, which was to serve as the beginning of a similar uprising throughout France. The convention was preparing for a fight and needed a general they could rely on. Convention member Barras, who was near Toulon and in the Italian army, pointed to Napoleon, and the latter was appointed assistant to Barras, as commander-in-chief of the internal army. Bonaparte masterfully organized the defense on both banks of the Seine, occupied the most important places, and especially skillfully positioned artillery in the narrow streets. When is October 5 ( 13 Vendemier 1795) the battle began, Napoleon appeared on horseback at the most important places and at the right moment: his artillery perfectly fulfilled its role, showering the national guard and crowds of people armed only with guns with grapeshot. The government's victory was complete. Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted to division general, and since Barras resigned the next day, Bonaparte remained commander-in-chief of the internal army. He gave it a solid organization, appointed a special detachment to protect legislative assemblies, established order in Paris and acted as the patron of all who were in disgrace.
Italian campaign of Napoleon 1796-1797
Napoleon's popularity was then extraordinary: he was considered the savior of Paris and the fatherland and they foresaw a new major political force in him. Barras, wanting to remove Napoleon from Paris as a dangerous ambitious man, offered him the post of commander-in-chief of the Italian army, especially since the plan for the war in Italy was drawn up by Bonaparte himself. On March 2, 1796, this appointment of Napoleon took place, on the 9th - his marriage with Josephine Beauharnais, and on the 12th he left for Italian campaign.
The old generals in the army were dissatisfied with Napoleon's appointment, but soon had to recognize the superiority of his genius. The Austrians deeply despised “the boy and his flock of sheep”; however, Bonaparte quickly gave them a high example of the new military art, which began a new era of it. After Battle of Lodi, where Napoleon showed amazing personal courage, his fame reached extraordinary heights. The soldiers who adored Napoleon gave him the nickname “little corporal,” which remained with him in the ranks of the army. Bonaparte showed incorruptibility and selflessness, led the simplest life, wore a very worn uniform and remained poor.
Napoleon on the Arcole Bridge. Painting by A.-J. Grossa, approx. 1801
Napoleon I Bonaparte (cor. Napulione Buonaparte, Italian. Napoleone Buonaparte, French. Napoleon Bonaparte). Born 15 August 1769, Ajaccio, Corsica - died 5 May 1821, Longwood, St Helena. Emperor of the French in 1804-1815, a great commander and statesman who laid the foundations of the modern French state.
Napoleon was born in Ajaccio on the island of Corsica, which for a long time was under the control of the Genoese Republic.
In 1755, Corsica overthrew Genoese rule and from that time on virtually existed as an independent state under the leadership of the local landowner Pasquale Paoli, whose close assistant was Napoleon's father.
In 1768, the Republic of Genoa transferred its rights to Corsica to the French king Louis XV for 40 million francs.
In May 1769, at the Battle of Ponte Nuovo, French troops defeated the Corsican rebels. Paoli and 340 of his companions emigrated to England. Napoleon's parents remained in Corsica; he himself was born 3 months after these events. Paoli remained his idol until the 1790s.
The Buonaparte family belonged to minor aristocrats; Napoleon's ancestors came from Florence and lived in Corsica since 1529.
Carlo Buonaparte, Napoleon's father, served as assessor and had an annual income of 22.5 thousand francs, which he tried to increase through litigation with neighbors over property.
Napoleon's mother, Letizia Ramolino, was an attractive and strong-willed woman, but lacking any education. Her marriage to Carlo was arranged by their parents. Being the daughter of the former governor of Ajaccio, Letizia brought with her a dowry of 175 thousand francs.
Napoleon was the second of 13 children, five of whom died at an early age. In addition to Napoleon himself, 4 of his brothers and 3 sisters survived to adulthood:
Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844)
Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840)
Eliza Bonaparte (1777-1820)
Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846)
Pauline Bonaparte (1780-1825)
Caroline Bonaparte (1782-1839)
Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860)
The name that Napoleon's parents gave him was quite rare: it appears in Machiavelli's book on the history of Florence, and it was also the name of one of his great-uncles.
Little is known about Napoleon's early childhood. As a child, he suffered from a dry cough that could have been bouts of tuberculosis. According to his mother and older brother Joseph, Napoleon read a lot, especially historical literature. He found himself a small room on the third floor of the house and rarely came down from there, missing family meals. Napoleon subsequently claimed that he first read Rousseau's La Nouvelle Heloise at the age of nine. However, his childhood nickname “Balamut” (Italian: “Rabulione”) does not fit well with this image of a frail introvert.
Napoleon's native language was the Corsican dialect of Italian. He learned to read and write Italian in primary school and only began learning French when he was almost ten years old. All his life he spoke with a strong Italian accent.
Thanks to cooperation with the French and the patronage of the governor of Corsica, Count de Marbeuf, Carlo Buonaparte managed to obtain royal scholarships for his two eldest sons, Joseph and Napoleon.
In 1777, Carlo was elected deputy to Paris from the Corsican nobility.
In December 1778, going to Versailles, he took with him both his sons and his brother-in-law Fesch, who had achieved a scholarship to the Aix seminary. The boys were placed at a college in Autun for four months, mainly for the purpose of learning French.
In May 1779, Napoleon entered the cadet school (college) in Brienne-le-Chateau. Napoleon had no friends at college, since he came from a not very rich and noble family, and besides, he was a Corsican with pronounced patriotism for his native island and hostility towards the French as the enslavers of Corsica. The bullying of some classmates forced him to withdraw into himself and devote more time to reading. He read Corneille, Racine and Voltaire, his favorite poet was Ossian.
Napoleon especially loved mathematics and history, he was fascinated by antiquity and such historical figures as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.
Napoleon achieved particular success in mathematics, history and geography; on the contrary, he was weak in Latin and German. In addition, he made quite a lot of mistakes when writing, but his style became much better thanks to his love of reading. The conflict with some teachers even made him popular among his peers and gradually he became their informal leader.
While still in Brienne, Napoleon decided to specialize in artillery. His mathematical talents were in demand in this branch of the military, and here there were the greatest opportunities for a career, regardless of origin. Having passed the final exams, in October 1784 Napoleon was admitted to the Paris Military School. There he studied mathematics, natural sciences, horse riding, military technology, tactics, including becoming acquainted with the innovative works of Guibert and Gribeauval. As before, he shocked teachers with his admiration for Paoli, Corsica, and hostility towards France. He studied excellently during this period, read a lot, making extensive notes.
In total, Napoleon was not in Corsica for almost eight years. Studying in France made him a Frenchman - he moved here at an early age and spent many years here, France was culturally superior to the rest of Europe at the time and the French identity was very attractive.
In 1782, Napoleon's father received a concession and a royal grant of 137.5 thousand francs to create a nursery (fr. pépinière) of mulberry trees. Three years later, the Corsica parliament revoked the concession, allegedly due to non-fulfillment of its terms. At the same time, the Bonapartes were left with large debts and an obligation to repay the grant.
On February 24, 1785, his father died, and Napoleon took over the role of head of the family, although according to the rules his older brother Joseph should have done so. On September 1 of the same year, he completed his education ahead of schedule and began his professional career in the de La Fère artillery regiment in Valence with the rank of second lieutenant of artillery, a rank that was finally confirmed on January 10, 1786.
The expenses and litigation over the nursery completely upset the Bonapartes' financial affairs. In September 1786, Napoleon requested leave with pay, which was then extended twice at his request. During his vacation, Napoleon tried to settle family affairs, including traveling to Paris. In June 1788, he returned to military service and went to Osong, where his regiment was transferred. To help his mother, he had to send her part of his salary. He lived extremely poorly, ate once a day, but tried not to show his depressing financial situation.
According to Russian sources, in 1789 Napoleon tried to enter Russian service. However, shortly before submitting his petition, a decree was issued to accept foreigners into service of a lower rank, to which Napoleon did not agree. French sources deny this story.
In April 1789, Napoleon was sent as second-in-command to Soeur to suppress a food riot. The French Revolution, which began in July with the storming of the Bastille, forced Napoleon to choose between his devotion to Corsican freedom and his French identity. However, the problems with the nursery occupied him at that time more than the unfolding political upheavals.
Although Napoleon was involved in suppressing rebellions, he was one of the early supporters of the Society of Friends of the Constitution. In Ajaccio, his brother Lucien joined the Jacobin club. In August 1789, having again received sick leave, Bonaparte went to his homeland, where he stayed for the next eighteen months and actively participated with his brothers in the local political struggle on the side of the revolutionary forces. Napoleon and Salicetti, a member of the Constituent Assembly, supported the transformation of Corsica into a department of France. Paoli, seeing this as a consolidation of the power of Paris, protested from exile. In July 1790, Paoli returned to the island and led the way for separation from France. The Bonapartes, on the contrary, remained loyal to the central revolutionary authorities, approving the unpopular nationalization of church property in Corsica.
In February 1791, Napoleon returned to service, taking with him his younger brother Louis (for whose studies he paid from his salary, Louis had to sleep on the floor). In June 1791 he was promoted to lieutenant and transferred back to Valence. In August of the same year, he again received leave to Corsica (for four months, with the condition that if he did not return before January 10, 1792, he would be considered a deserter).
Arriving in Corsica, Napoleon again plunged into politics and was elected lieutenant colonel in the emerging National Guard. He never returned to Valence. Having entered into conflict with Paoli, in May 1792 he left for Paris at the disposal of the War Ministry. In June he received the rank of captain (although Napoleon insisted that he be confirmed with the rank of lieutenant colonel received in the National Guard). From the moment he entered service in September 1785 until September 1792, Napoleon spent a total of about four years on leave. In Paris, Napoleon witnessed the events of June 20, August 10 and September 2, and supported the overthrow of the king, but spoke disapprovingly of his weakness and the indecisiveness of his defenders.
In October 1792, Napoleon returned to Corsica to his duties as lieutenant colonel of the National Guard. Bonaparte's first combat experience was participation in an expedition to the islands of Maddalena and San Stefano, belonging to the Kingdom of Sardinia, in February 1793.
The landing force landed from Corsica was quickly defeated, but Captain Buonaparte, who commanded a small artillery battery of two cannons and a mortar, distinguished himself: he made every effort to save the guns, but they still had to be abandoned on the shore.
In the same 1793, Paoli was accused before the Convention of seeking to achieve the independence of Corsica from Republican France.
Napoleon's brother Lucien was involved in the accusations. As a result, there was a final break between the Bonaparte and Paoli families. The Bonapartes openly opposed Paoli's course for the complete independence of Corsica and, due to the threat of political persecution, in June 1793 the whole family moved to France. That same month, Paoli recognized George III as King of Corsica.
Napoleon was assigned to the revolutionary Italian Army, then to the Army of the South. At the end of July he wrote a pamphlet in the Jacobin spirit, “Dinner at Beaucaire”(French “Le Souper de Beaucaire”), which was published with the help of the Commissars of the Convention Salichetti and the younger Robespierre and created the author’s reputation as a revolutionary-minded soldier.
In September 1793, Bonaparte arrived in the army besieging Toulon, occupied by the British and royalists, and in October received the post of battalion commander (corresponding to the rank of major). Finally, appointed chief of artillery, in December he carried out a brilliant military operation. Toulon was taken, and at the age of 24 he himself received the rank of brigadier general from the commissioners of the Convention - something between the ranks of colonel and major general. The new rank was assigned to him on December 22, 1793, and in February 1794 it was approved by the Convention.
Having received an appointment to the post of chief artilleryman of the Italian army on February 7, Napoleon participated in a five-week campaign against the kingdom of Piedmont, became acquainted with the command of the Italian army and the theater of operations, and sent proposals to the War Ministry for organizing an offensive in Italy. At the beginning of May, Napoleon returned to Nice and Antibes to prepare a military expedition to Corsica. At the same time, he began to court Desiree Clary, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the late millionaire, a fabric and soap merchant. In August 1794, Désiré's older sister married Joseph Bonaparte, bringing with her a dowry of 400 thousand francs (which finally put an end to the financial problems of the Bonaparte family).
After the Thermidorian coup, Bonaparte was arrested due to his connections with the younger Robespierre (August 10, 1794, for two weeks). After liberation, he continued preparations for the reconquest of Corsica from Paoli and the British. On March 3, 1795, Napoleon set sail from Marseille with 15 ships and 16,900 soldiers, but his expedition was soon dispersed by a British squadron.
In the spring of the same year, he was assigned to the Vendée to pacify the rebels.
Arriving in Paris on May 25, Napoleon learned that he had been appointed to command the infantry, while he was an artilleryman. Bonaparte refused to accept the appointment, citing health reasons. In June, Desiree ended her relationship with him, according to E. Roberts, under the influence of her mother, who believed that one Bonaparte in the family was enough. Being on half his pay, Napoleon continues to write letters to War Minister Carnot regarding the actions of the Italian army. In the absence of any prospects, he even considered the possibility of entering the service of the East India Company.
In August 1795, the War Department required him to undergo a medical examination to confirm the illness. Turning to his political connections, Napoleon received a position in the topographical department of the Committee of Public Safety, which at that time played the role of the headquarters of the French army.
At a critical moment for the Thermidorians, Napoleon was appointed by Barras as his assistant and distinguished himself during the dispersal of the royalist rebellion in Paris on October 5, 1795 (Napoleon used cannons against the rebels on the streets of the capital), was promoted to the rank of division general and appointed commander of the rear forces. Released in 1785 from the Paris Military School into the army with the rank of junior lieutenant, Bonaparte in 10 years went through the entire hierarchy of ranks in the army of what was then France.
At 10 pm on March 9, 1796, Bonaparte had a civil marriage with the widow of General Count Beauharnais, executed during the Jacobin terror, Josephine, the former mistress of one of the then rulers of France, Barras. The witnesses at the wedding were Barras, Napoleon's adjutant Lemarois, husband and wife Tallien and the bride's children - Eugene and Hortensia. The groom was two hours late for the wedding, being very busy with a new appointment. Some consider Barras's wedding gift to the young general position of commander of the Italian army Republic (the appointment took place on March 2, 1796), but Carnot proposed Bonaparte for this position.
Italian campaign
Having taken command of the army, Bonaparte found it in the most miserable financial situation. Salaries were not paid, ammunition and supplies were almost never delivered. Napoleon managed to partially remove these problems, but he understood that to completely solve them he needed to move to enemy territory and organize supplies for the army at its expense.
He based his operational plan on speed of action and on the concentration of forces against enemies who adhered to a cordon strategy and disproportionately stretched their troops. Napoleon himself, by contrast, followed a strategy of "central position", in which his divisions were within a day's march of each other. Being inferior to the allies in numbers, he concentrated his troops for decisive battles and gained a numerical superiority in them. With a quick offensive during the Montenotte campaign in April 1796, he managed to separate the troops of the Sardinian General Colli and the Austrian General Beaulieu and defeat them.
The Sardinian king, frightened by the successes of the French, concluded a truce with them on April 28, which gave Bonaparte several cities and free passage across the Po River. On May 7, he crossed this river, and by the end of May he cleared almost all of Northern Italy from the Austrians. The Dukes of Parma and Modena were forced to conclude a truce, bought with a significant amount of money; A huge indemnity of 20 million francs was also taken from Milan. The pope's possessions were overrun by French troops; he had to pay 21 million francs in indemnity and provide the French with a significant number of works of art. Only the fortress of Mantua and the citadel of Milan remained in the hands of the Austrians. Mantua was besieged on June 3. On June 29, the Milan Citadel fell.
Wurmser's new Austrian army, which arrived from Tyrol, could not improve the situation; after a series of failures, Wurmser himself, with part of his forces, was forced to lock himself in Mantua, which he had previously tried in vain to liberate from the siege. In November, new troops were sent to Italy under the command of Alvintsi and Davidovich. As a result of the battles at Arcola on November 15-17, Alvintsi was forced to retreat. Napoleon showed personal heroism by leading one of the attacks on the Arcole Bridge with a banner in his hands. His adjutant Muiron died, shielding him with his body from enemy bullets.
After the Battle of Rivoli on January 14 - 15, 1797, the Austrians were finally pushed out of Italy, suffering huge losses. The situation in Mantua, where widespread disease and famine were raging, became desperate; on February 2, Wurmser capitulated. On February 17, Bonaparte marched on Vienna.
The weakened and frustrated Austrian troops could no longer offer him stubborn resistance. By the beginning of April, the French were only 100 kilometers from the Austrian capital, but the forces of the Italian army were also running out. On April 7, a truce was concluded, and on April 18, peace negotiations began in Leoben.
While peace negotiations were ongoing, Bonaparte pursued his own military and administrative line, regardless of the instructions sent to him by the Directory. Using the uprising that began on April 17 in Verona as a pretext, on May 2 he declared war on Venice, and on May 15 he occupied it with troops. On June 29, he declared the independence of the Cisalpine Republic, composed of Lombardy, Mantua, Modena and some other adjacent possessions; at the same time, Genoa was occupied, called the Ligurian Republic.
As a result of his victories, Napoleon received significant military booty, which he generously distributed among his soldiers, without forgetting himself and his family members. Part of the funds was sent to the Directory, which was in desperate financial straits. On October 18, peace was concluded with Austria in Campo Formio, ending the War of the First Coalition, from which France emerged victorious. When signing the peace, Napoleon completely ignored the position of the Directory, forcing it to ratify the treaty in the form he needed.
Egyptian campaign
As a result of the Italian campaign, Napoleon gained great popularity in France. On December 25, 1797, he was elected a member of the Institute in the class of physics and mathematics, section of mechanics.
On January 10, 1798, the Directory appointed him commander of the English army. It was planned that Napoleon would organize an expeditionary force to land on the British Isles. However, after several weeks of inspecting the invasion force and analyzing the situation, Napoleon recognized the landing as impracticable and put forward a plan to conquer Egypt, which he saw as an important outpost in the attack on British positions in India. On March 5, Napoleon received carte blanche to organize an expedition. Remembering that Alexander the Great was accompanied by scientists on his eastern campaigns, Napoleon took with him 167 geographers, botanists, chemists and representatives of other sciences (31 of them were members of the Institute).
A significant problem was the Royal British Navy, whose squadron under the command of Nelson entered the Mediterranean Sea. The expeditionary force (35 thousand people) secretly left Toulon on May 19, 1798 and, avoiding a meeting with Nelson, crossed the Mediterranean Sea in six weeks.
Napoleon's first target was Malta, the seat of the Order of Malta. After the capture of Malta in June 1798, Napoleon left a garrison of four thousand on the island and moved with the fleet further to Egypt.
On July 1, Napoleon's troops began landing near Alexandria, and the very next day the city was captured. The army marched on Cairo. On July 21, French troops met with the army assembled by the Mameluke leaders Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey, and the Battle of the Pyramids took place. Thanks to their enormous advantage in tactics and military training, the French completely defeated the Mameluke troops with minor losses.
On July 25, from the accidentally dropped words of his adjutant, Bonaparte learned what had long been gossiped about in Parisian society - that Josephine was unfaithful to him. The news shocked Napoleon. “From that moment on, idealism left his life, and in subsequent years his selfishness, suspicion and egocentric ambition became even more noticeable. All of Europe was destined to feel the destruction of Bonaparte’s family happiness.”
On August 1, the British squadron under the command of Nelson, after two months of searching in the vastness of the Mediterranean Sea, finally overtook the French fleet in the Gulf of Abukir. As a result of the battle, the French lost almost all of their ships (including the flagship Orient, which carried 60 million francs of Maltese indemnity), the survivors had to return to France. Napoleon found himself cut off in Egypt, and the British gained control of the Mediterranean Sea.
On August 22, 1798, Napoleon signed a decree establishing the Institute of Egypt, consisting of 36 people. One of the results of the Institute’s work was the monumental “Description of Egypt,” which created the preconditions for modern Egyptology. The Rosetta Stone, discovered during the expedition, opened up the possibility of deciphering ancient Egyptian writing.
After the capture of Cairo, Napoleon sent a detachment of 3 thousand people under the leadership of Dese and Davout to conquer Upper Egypt, and in the meantime he began active and largely successful measures to subjugate the country and attract the sympathy of influential sections of the local population. Napoleon tried to find mutual understanding with the Islamic clergy, but nevertheless, on the night of October 21, an uprising broke out against the French in Cairo: about 300 French were killed, more than 2,500 rebels were killed during the suppression of the uprising and executed after its completion. By the end of November, calm had established itself in Cairo; opening an amusement park on November 30, Napoleon met Pauline Fouret, the twenty-year-old wife of an officer, whom Napoleon immediately sent on an errand to France.
Incited by the British, the Porte began to prepare an attack on the French positions in Egypt. Based on his principle of “attack is the best defense,” in February 1799 Napoleon began his campaign against Syria.
He took Giza and Jaffa by storm, but was unable to capture Acre, which was supplied from the sea by the British fleet. On May 20, 1799, the retreat began. Napoleon was still able to defeat the Turks, who were stationed near Abukir (July 25), but realized that he was trapped. On August 23, he secretly sailed to France on the frigate Muiron, throwing his army at General Kleber.
Consulate
The crisis of power in Paris reached its climax by 1799, when Bonaparte was with troops in Egypt.
The European monarchies formed a second coalition against Republican France. The Directory could not ensure the stability of the republic within the framework of the norms of the current constitution and resorted to open dictatorship, increasingly relying on the army. In Italy, Russian-Austrian troops under the command of Field Marshal Suvorov liquidated all of Napoleon's acquisitions, and there was even a threat of their invasion of France. In conditions of crisis, emergency measures were taken, reminiscent of the times of terror of 1793.
To prevent the “Jacobin” threat and give greater stability to the regime, a conspiracy was formed, which even included the directors Sieyès and Ducos themselves. The conspirators were looking for a “saber” and turned to Bonaparte as a person who suited them in terms of his popularity and military reputation. Napoleon, on the one hand, did not want to be compromised (contrary to his custom, he wrote almost no letters these days and wore the uniform of the Institute, rather than a general’s uniform, to public events); on the other hand, he actively participated in the preparation of the coup.
The conspirators managed to win over most of the generals to their side. 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799) The Council of Elders, in which the conspirators had a majority, adopted decrees transferring the meetings of the two chambers to Saint-Cloud and appointing Bonaparte commander of the Seine department.
Sieyès and Ducos immediately resigned, and Barras did the same (under pressure and thanks to a bribe), thereby ending the powers of the Directory and creating a vacuum of executive power. However, the Council of Five Hundred, which met on November 10, in which there was a strong influence of the Jacobins, refused to approve the required decree. Its members attacked Bonaparte with threats, who entered the meeting room with weapons and without an invitation. Then, at the call of Lucien, who was the chairman of the Council of Five Hundred, soldiers under the command of Murat burst into the hall and dispersed the meeting. That same evening, it was possible to gather the remnants of the Council (approximately 50 people) and “adopt” the necessary decrees on the establishment of a temporary consulate and a commission to develop a new constitution.
Three temporary consuls were appointed (Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos). Ducos offered the presidency to Bonaparte "by right of conquest", but he refused in favor of daily rotation. The task of the temporary consulate was to develop and adopt a new constitution.
Under Bonaparte's merciless pressure, her project was developed in less than seven weeks. Bonaparte held discussions until late at night in order to break his opponents with fatigue.
In these few weeks, Bonaparte was able to subjugate many of those who had previously supported Sieyès and introduce fundamental amendments to his draft constitution. Sieyès, having received 350 thousand francs and real estate in Versailles and Paris, did not object. According to the project, legislative power was divided between the State Council, the Tribunate, the Legislative Corps and the Senate, which made it helpless and clumsy. The executive power, on the contrary, was gathered into one fist by the first consul, that is, Bonaparte, appointed for ten years. The second and third consuls (Cambaceres and Lebrun) had only advisory votes.
The Constitution was promulgated on December 13, 1799 and approved by the people in a plebiscite in the VIII year of the Republic (according to official data, about 3 million votes against 1.5 thousand, in reality the constitution was supported by about 1.55 million people, the remaining votes were falsified).
At the time Napoleon came to power, France was at war with Great Britain and Austria, which in 1799, as a result of Suvorov’s Italian campaign, regained Northern Italy. Napoleon's new Italian campaign resembled the first. In May 1800, having crossed the Alps in ten days, the French army unexpectedly appeared in Northern Italy.
At the Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800, Napoleon initially succumbed to pressure from the Austrians under the command of Melas, but a counterattack by Dese, who arrived in time, allowed the situation to be corrected (Dese himself was killed). The victory at Marengo made it possible to begin negotiations for peace in Leoben, but it took Moreau's victory at Hohenlinden on December 3, 1800 for the threat to the French borders to be finally eliminated.
The Peace of Luneville, concluded on February 9, 1801, marked the beginning of French dominance not only in Italy, but also in Germany. A year later (March 27, 1802), the Peace of Amiens was concluded with Great Britain, ending the War of the Second Coalition. However, the Peace of Amiens did not eliminate the deep-seated contradictions between France and Great Britain and was therefore fragile.
Napoleon's administrative and legal innovations laid the foundation for the modern state, many of which are still in effect today. Having become a full-fledged dictator, Napoleon radically changed the country's government; carried out an administrative reform, establishing the institution of department prefects and district sub-prefects accountable to the government (1800). Mayors were appointed to cities and villages.
The French Bank was established (1800) to store gold reserves and issue money (this function was transferred to it in 1803).
Until 1936, no major changes were made to the management system of the French Bank, created by Napoleon: the manager and his deputies were appointed by the government, and decisions were made jointly with 15 board members from the shareholders - this ensured a balance between public and private interests.
Well aware of the importance of influencing public opinion, Napoleon closed 60 of the 73 Parisian newspapers and placed the rest under government control.
A powerful police force was created, led by Fouche, and an extensive secret service, headed by Savary.
There was a gradual return to monarchical forms of government. The “you” address, adopted during the years of the revolution, has disappeared from everyday life. Liveries, official ceremonies, palace hunts, and masses in Saint-Cloud returned. Instead of the personalized weapons awarded during the revolution, Napoleon introduced a hierarchically organized Order of the Legion of Honor (May 19, 1802). But while attacking the “left” opposition, Bonaparte, at the same time, sought to preserve the gains of the revolution.
Napoleon concluded a concordat with the Pope (1801). Rome recognized the new French government, and Catholicism was declared the religion of the majority of the French. At the same time, freedom of religion was preserved. The appointment of bishops and the activities of the church were made dependent on the government. These and other measures forced Napoleon’s opponents “on the left” to declare him a traitor to the Revolution, although he considered himself a faithful successor of its ideas. Napoleon feared the Jacobins more than the royalist conspirators because of their ideology, knowledge of the mechanisms of power and excellent organization. When the “infernal machine” exploded on December 24, 1800, on the Rue Saint-Nicèse, along which Napoleon was traveling to the Opera, he used this assassination attempt as a pretext for reprisals against the Jacobins, although Fouché provided him with evidence of the royalists’ guilt.
Napoleon managed to consolidate the main revolutionary gains (the right to property, equality before the law, equality of opportunity), ending revolutionary anarchy. In the minds of the French, prosperity and stability were increasingly linked to his presence at the helm of state, which contributed to Bonaparte's next step to strengthen personal power - the transition to a lifelong consulate.
In 1802, Napoleon, relying on the results of the plebiscite, held a senatus consultation through the Senate on the life of his powers (August 2, 1802). The First Consul received the right to present his successor to the Senate, which brought him closer to restoring the hereditary principle. On April 7, 1803, paper money was abolished; the monetary unit became the franc, equal to a five-gram silver coin and divided into 100 centimes; The metal franc established by Napoleon was in circulation until 1928.
Napoleon's domestic policy consisted of strengthening his personal power as a guarantee of preserving the results of the revolution: civil rights, land ownership rights of peasants, as well as those who bought national property during the revolution, that is, confiscated lands of emigrants and churches. The Civil Code (ratified on March 21, 1804), which went down in history as the “Napoleonic Code,” was supposed to ensure all these conquests.
After the discovery of the Cadoudal-Pichegru plot (the so-called “conspiracy of the year XII”), in which the princes of the royal house of Bourbon outside France were supposed to participate, Napoleon ordered the capture of one of them, the Duke of Enghien in Ettenheim, not far from the French border. The Duke was taken to Paris and executed by military court on March 21, 1804. The XII conspiracy caused indignation in French society and was used by the official press to instill in readers the idea of the need for the hereditary power of the First Consul.
First Empire
On Floreal 28 (May 18, 1804), by resolution of the Senate (the so-called Senate Consultation of the XII year), a new constitution was adopted, according to which Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of the French, the positions of the highest dignitaries and great officers of the Empire were introduced, including the restoration of the marshal rank, abolished in the years revolution.
On the same day, five of the six highest dignitaries (the High Elector, the Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, the Arch-Treasurer, the Grand Constable and the Grand Admiral) were appointed. The highest dignitaries formed a large imperial council.
On May 19, 1804, eighteen popular generals were appointed marshals of France, four of them being considered honorary and the rest valid.
In November, the Senate Consultation was ratified following a plebiscite. As a result of the plebiscite and despite the resistance of the State Council, it was decided to revive the tradition of coronation. Napoleon certainly wanted the Pope to participate in the ceremony. The latter demanded that Napoleon marry Josephine according to church rites. On the night of December 2, Cardinal Fesch performed the wedding ceremony in the presence of Talleyrand, Berthier and Duroc.
On December 2, 1804, during a magnificent ceremony held in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris with the participation of the pope, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
The coronation brought to light the hitherto hidden hostility between the Bonaparte families (Napoleon's brothers and sisters) and Beauharnais (Josephine and her children). Napoleon's sisters did not want to carry Josephine's train. Madame Mother refused to come to the coronation at all. In quarrels, Napoleon took the side of his wife and stepchildren, but remained generous towards his brothers and sisters (however, constantly expressing dissatisfaction with them and the fact that they did not live up to his hopes).
Another stumbling block between Napoleon and his brothers was the question of who should be king of Italy and who would inherit imperial power in France. The result of their disputes was a decision according to which Napoleon received both crowns, and in the event of his death the crowns were divided between his relatives.
On March 17, 1805, the Kingdom of Italy was created from the “daughter” Italian Republic, in which Napoleon was president. In the newly formed kingdom, Napoleon received the title of king, and his stepson Eugene Beauharnais received the title of viceroy.
The decision to crown Napoleon with the Iron Crown did a disservice to French diplomacy, as it aroused the hostility of Austria and contributed to its joining the newly formed anti-French coalition.
In May 1805, the Ligurian Republic became one of the departments of France.
War of the Third Coalition
In April 1805, Russia and Great Britain signed the St. Petersburg Union Treaty, which laid the foundation for the third coalition. That same year, Great Britain, Austria, Russia, the Kingdom of Naples and Sweden formed the Third Coalition against France and its allied Spain.
French diplomacy managed to achieve Prussian neutrality in the impending war (Talleyrand promised Frederick William III that Hanover would be taken from the British).
In October 1805, Napoleon created the Office of Extraordinary Property (French domaine extraordinaire) - a special financial institution headed by La Bouierie, designed to collect payments and indemnities from conquered countries and territories. These funds were spent mainly to finance the following military campaigns.
Napoleon planned a landing on the British Isles, but, having received information about the actions of the coalition forces, he was forced to postpone the landing indefinitely and move troops from the coast of Pas-de-Calais to Germany. The Austrian army capitulated at the Battle of Ulm on October 20, 1805. Napoleon occupied Vienna without serious resistance. Russian Emperor Alexander I and Austrian Emperor Franz II arrived at the army. At the insistence of Alexander I, the Russian army stopped retreating and, together with the Austrians, on December 2, 1805, entered the battle with the French at Austerlitz, in which the allies suffered a heavy defeat and retreated in disarray. On December 26, Austria concluded the Peace of Presburg with France.
On December 27, 1805, Napoleon announced that “the Bourbon dynasty has ceased to reign in Naples” because the Kingdom of Naples, contrary to the previous agreement, joined the anti-French coalition. The movement of the French army towards Naples forced King Ferdinand I to flee to Sicily, and Napoleon made his brother Joseph Bonaparte king of Naples. Benevento and Pontecorvo were given, as fief duchies, to Talleyrand and Bernadotte. Napoleon's sister Elisa received Lucca even earlier, then Massa and Carrara, and after the destruction of the Kingdom of Etruria in 1809, Napoleon made Eliza governor of all of Tuscany.
In June 1806, the Kingdom of Holland replaced the puppet Batavian Republic. Napoleon placed his younger brother, Louis Bonaparte, on the throne of Holland.
In July 1806, an agreement was concluded between Napoleon and many rulers of the German states, by virtue of which these rulers entered into an alliance with each other, called the Union of the Rhine, under the protectorate of Napoleon and with the obligation to maintain an army of sixty thousand for him. The formation of the union was accompanied by mediatization (the subordination of small immediate (immediat) rulers to the supreme power of large sovereigns). On August 6, 1806, the Austrian Emperor Franz II announced his abdication of the title and powers of the Holy Roman Emperor and, thus, this centuries-old entity ceased to exist.
War of the Fourth Coalition
Frightened by the growing influence of France, Prussia spoke out against it, putting forward an ultimatum on August 26 demanding the withdrawal of French troops beyond the Rhine. Napoleon rejected this ultimatum and attacked Prussia. In the first major battle of Saalfeld, on October 10, 1806, the Prussians were defeated. This was followed on October 14 by their complete defeat at Jena and Auerstedt. Two weeks after the Jena victory, Napoleon entered Berlin, and soon after Stetin, Prenzlau, and Magdeburg surrendered. An indemnity of 159 million francs was imposed on Prussia.
From Königsberg, where the Prussian king Frederick William III had fled, he begged Napoleon to end the war, agreeing to join the Confederation of the Rhine. However, Napoleon became more and more demanding, and the Prussian king was forced to continue the war. Russia came to his aid, deploying two armies in order to prevent the French from crossing the Vistula. Napoleon addressed the Poles with an appeal inviting them to fight for independence and on December 19, 1806, he entered Warsaw for the first time.
Fierce battles near Charnov, Pultusk and Golymin in December 1806 did not reveal any winners. Returning to Warsaw from Pułtusk, on January 1, 1807, at the postal station in Błon, Napoleon first met twenty-one-year-old Maria Walewska, the wife of an elderly Polish count, with whom he had a long affair.
In the bloody battle between the main forces of the French and Russian armies under the command of General Bennigsen, there were no winners; for the first time in many years, Napoleon did not win a decisive victory.
After the French occupation of Danzig on May 27, 1807 and the Russian defeat at Friedland on June 14, which allowed the French to occupy Königsberg and threaten the Russian border, the Peace of Tilsit was concluded on July 7. The Grand Duchy of Warsaw was formed from the Polish possessions of Prussia. All of its possessions between the Rhine and Elbe were also taken away from Prussia, which, together with a number of former small German states, formed the Kingdom of Westphalia, headed by Napoleon's brother Jerome.
Continental blockade
Having won, on November 21, 1806 in Berlin, Napoleon signed a decree on the continental blockade. From that moment on, France and its allies ceased trade relations with England. Europe was the main market for British goods, as well as colonial goods imported by England - the largest maritime power.
The continental blockade caused damage to the English economy: a year later, a crisis of overproduction in the wool and textile industries began in England; the pound sterling fell.
The blockade also hit the continent. French industry was not able to replace English industry on the European market. In response, in November 1807, London announced a blockade of European ports.
The disruption of trade relations with the English colonies led to the decline of French port cities: La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulon. The population (and the emperor himself, as a big coffee lover) suffered from a lack of familiar colonial goods: coffee, sugar, tea. At the same time, Napoleon established a huge prize of a million francs for the inventor of the technology for producing sugar from beets, which spurred research by scientists in this area and eventually led to the appearance of cheap beet sugar in Europe.
Iberian Wars
In 1807, with the support of Spain, which had been allied with France since 1796, Napoleon demanded that Portugal join the continental system. When Portugal refused to comply with this demand, on October 27, a secret agreement was concluded between Napoleon and Spain on the conquest and division of Portugal, while the southern part of the country was to go to the all-powerful first minister of Spain, Godoy.
On November 13, 1807, the government "Le Moniteur" sardonically announced that "the House of Braganza has ceased to rule - a new proof of the inevitable death of all who associate themselves with England."
Napoleon sent Junot's 25,000-strong corps to Lisbon. After a grueling two-month march through Spanish territory, Junot arrived in Lisbon with 2 thousand soldiers on November 30. The Portuguese Prince Regent João, hearing of the approach of the French, abandoned his capital and fled with his relatives and court to Rio de Janeiro. Napoleon, enraged that the royal family and Portuguese ships had eluded him, on December 28 ordered an indemnity of 100 million francs to be imposed on Portugal.
Expecting to become a sovereign prince under the terms of a secret treaty, Godoy allowed a large number of French troops to be stationed on Spanish territory.
On March 13, 1808, Murat was in Burgos with 100 thousand soldiers and was moving towards Madrid. To calm the Spaniards, Napoleon ordered the rumor to be spread that he intended to besiege Gibraltar. Realizing that with the death of the dynasty he would also die, Godoy began to convince the Spanish king Charles IV of the need to flee from Spain to South America. However, on the night of March 18, 1807, he was overthrown during a rebellion in Aranjuez by the so-called “Fernandists,” who achieved his resignation, the abdication of Charles IV and the transfer of power to the king’s son, Ferdinand VII.
On March 23, Murat entered Madrid. In May 1808, Napoleon summoned both Spanish kings - father and son - to Bayonne for explanations. Finding themselves captured by Napoleon, both monarchs renounced the crown, and the emperor placed his brother Joseph, who had previously been the King of Naples, on the Spanish throne. Now Murat became the king of Naples.
Great Britain began to support the anti-French uprising that broke out in Spain, forcing Napoleon to personally undertake a campaign against the rebels in November 1808.
War of the Fifth Coalition
On April 9, 1809, the Austrian Emperor Franz II declared war on France and moved his army simultaneously to Bavaria, Italy and the Duchy of Warsaw, but Napoleon, reinforced by the troops of the Union of the Rhine, repelled the attack and on May 13 had already captured Vienna.
The French then crossed the Danube and won a victory at Wagram on July 5-6, followed by the Truce of Znaim on July 12, and the Peace of Schönbrunn on October 14. Under this treaty, Austria lost access to the Adriatic Sea. Austria also pledged to transfer part of Carinthia and Croatia to France. France received the county of Görtz (Gorica), Istria with Trieste, Carniola, Fiume (modern Rijeka). Subsequently, Napoleon formed the Illyrian provinces from them.
Crisis of the Empire
Napoleon's policies in the first years of his reign enjoyed the support of the population - not only owners, but also the poor (workers, farm laborers). The fact is that the revival in the economy caused an increase in wages, which was also facilitated by constant recruitment into the army. Napoleon looked like the savior of the fatherland, wars caused national uplift, and victories caused a sense of pride. After all, Napoleon Bonaparte was a man of the revolution, and the marshals around him, brilliant military leaders, sometimes came from the very bottom.
But gradually the people began to get tired of the war, which had lasted for about 20 years. Military recruitment began to cause dissatisfaction. In addition, in 1810 the economic crisis broke out again. Wars in the vastness of Europe were losing their meaning; the costs of them began to irritate the bourgeoisie. It seemed that nothing threatened the security of France, and in foreign policy an increasingly important role was played by the emperor’s desire to strengthen and ensure the interests of the dynasty, preventing, in the event of his death, both anarchy and the restoration of the Bourbons.
In the name of these interests, Napoleon divorced his first wife Josephine, with whom he had no children, and in 1808, through Talleyrand, asked the Russian Emperor Alexander I for the hand of his sister Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, but the emperor rejected this offer.
In 1810, Napoleon was also refused a marriage with another sister of Alexander I, 14-year-old Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna (later Queen of the Netherlands).
In 1810, Napoleon finally married the daughter of the Austrian Emperor, Marie-Louise. An heir was born (1811), but the Emperor's Austrian marriage was extremely unpopular in France.
In February 1808, French troops occupied Rome. By decree of May 17, 1809, Napoleon declared the papal possessions annexed to the French Empire and abolished the power of the Pope.
In response to this, Pope Pius VII excommunicated the “robbers of the inheritance of St. Peter" from the church. The papal bull was nailed to the doors of the four main churches of Rome and sent to all ambassadors of foreign powers at the papal court. Napoleon ordered the Pope's arrest and held him prisoner until January 1814.
On July 5, 1809, the French military authorities took him to Savona and then to Fontainebleau near Paris. Napoleon's excommunication had a negative impact on the authority of his government, especially in traditionally Catholic countries.
Napoleon's allies, who accepted the continental blockade against their interests, did not strive to strictly observe it. Tensions grew between them and France. The contradictions between France and Russia became increasingly obvious. Patriotic movements expanded in Germany, and guerrilla violence continued unabated in Spain.
Trek to Russia
Having broken off relations with Alexander I, Napoleon decided to go to war with Russia. 450 thousand soldiers, gathered into the Great Army from different European countries, crossed the Russian border in June 1812; they were opposed by 193 thousand soldiers in two Russian Western armies.
Napoleon tried to force a general battle on the Russian troops; Dodging the superior enemy and trying to unite, the two Russian armies retreated inland, leaving devastated territory behind them. The Grand Army suffered from hunger, heat, dirt, overcrowding and the diseases they caused; By mid-July, entire detachments had deserted from it.
Having united near Smolensk, the Russian armies tried to defend the city, but to no avail; On August 18, they had to resume their retreat towards Moscow. The general battle fought on September 7 in front of Moscow did not bring Napoleon a decisive victory. Russian troops again had to retreat; on September 14, the Great Army entered Moscow.
The fire that immediately spread after this destroyed most of the city. Counting on concluding peace with Alexander, Napoleon remained in Moscow for an unjustifiably long time; finally, on October 19, he left the city in a southwestern direction.
Having failed to overcome the defenses of the Russian army on October 24 at Maloyaroslavets, the Great Army was forced to retreat through the already devastated terrain in the direction of Smolensk.
The Russian army followed a parallel march, inflicting damage on the enemy both in battles and through partisan actions. Suffering from hunger, the soldiers of the Grand Army turned into robbers and rapists; the angry population responded with no less cruelty, burying the captured marauders alive. In mid-November, Napoleon entered Smolensk and did not find food supplies here. In this regard, he was forced to retreat further towards the Russian border. With great difficulty he managed to avoid complete defeat when crossing the Berezina on November 27-28.
Napoleon's huge, multi-tribal army did not carry within itself the previous revolutionary spirit; far from its homeland in the fields of Russia, it quickly melted away and finally ceased to exist. Having received word of a coup attempt in Paris and wanting to raise more troops, Napoleon left for Paris on December 5th. In his last bulletin he acknowledged the disaster, but attributed it solely to the severity of the Russian winter.
War of the Sixth Coalition
The Russian campaign marked the beginning of the collapse of the Empire. As the Russian army moved west, the anti-Napoleonic coalition grew. Russian, Austrian, Prussian and Swedish troops totaling 320 thousand came out against a hastily assembled new French army of 160 thousand people in the “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig (October 16 - 19, 1813). On the third day of the battle, the Saxons under the command of Rainier, and then the Württemberg cavalry, went over to the Allied side. Defeat in the Battle of the Nations led to the fall of Germany, Holland, and the collapse of the Italian kingdom. In Spain, where the French were defeated, Napoleon had to restore the power of the Spanish Bourbons (November 1813).
At the end of 1813, the Allied armies crossed the Rhine, invaded Belgium and marched on Paris. Napoleon could oppose an army of 250 thousand with only 80 thousand recruits.
In a series of battles, Napoleon won victories over individual Allied formations. However, on March 31, 1814, coalition troops led by the Russian Tsar and the King of Prussia entered Paris.
First renunciation and first exile
On April 6, 1814, at the Fontainebleau Palace near Paris, Napoleon abdicated the throne. On the night of April 12-13, 1814 in Fontainebleau, experiencing defeat, abandoned by his court (next to him were only a few servants, a doctor and General Caulaincourt), Napoleon decided to commit suicide. He took poison, which he always carried with him after the battle of Maloyaroslavets, when he miraculously escaped being captured. But the poison decomposed from long storage, Napoleon survived. By decision of the allied monarchs, he received possession of the small island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea.
A truce was declared. The Bourbons and emigrants returned to France, seeking the return of their property and privileges (“They learned nothing and forgot nothing”). This caused discontent and fear in French society and in the army.
One hundred days
Taking advantage of the favorable situation, Napoleon fled Elba on February 26, 1815 and triumphantly walked from the Bay of Juan to Paris without firing a shot, greeted by enthusiastic crowds of people. He returned to Paris without interference on March 20. Napoleon commissioned Constant to draft a new constitution, which was adopted after a plebiscite on June 1, 1815.
The war resumed, but France was no longer able to bear its burden. The "Hundred Days" ended with Napoleon's final defeat near the Belgian village of Waterloo (June 18, 1815).
Napoleon was forced to leave France and, relying on the nobility of the British government, voluntarily boarded the English battleship Bellerophon near the Isle of Aix, hoping to receive political asylum from his longtime enemies, the British.
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But the English cabinet decided differently: Napoleon became a prisoner of the British and was sent to the distant island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean. There, in the village of Longwood, Napoleon spent the last six years of his life. Upon learning of this decision, he said: “This is worse than Tamerlane’s iron cage! I would prefer to be handed over to the Bourbons... I have surrendered myself to the protection of your laws. The government is trampling on the sacred customs of hospitality... This is tantamount to signing a death warrant!
The British chose St. Helena because of its distance from Europe, fearing that the emperor would escape from exile again. Napoleon had no hope of a reunion with Marie-Louise and his son: even during his exile on Elba, his wife, under the influence of her father, refused to come to him.
Napoleon was allowed to choose officers to accompany him; they were Henri-Gracien Bertrand, Charles Montolon, Emmanuel de Las Cases and Gaspard Gourgo, who were with him on the English ship. In total, there were 27 people in Napoleon's retinue.
On August 9, 1815, on board the ship Northumberland, under the leadership of British Admiral George Elphinstone Keith, the former emperor leaves Europe. Nine escort ships with 3 thousand soldiers who would guard Napoleon on St. Helena accompanied his ship. On October 17, 1815, Napoleon arrived in Jamestown, the island's only port.
The habitat of Napoleon and his retinue was the vast Longwood House (the former summer residence of the governor), located on a mountain plateau 8 kilometers from Jamestown. The house and the area adjacent to it were surrounded by a six-kilometer-long stone wall. Sentinels were placed around the wall so that they could see each other. Sentinels were stationed on the tops of the surrounding hills, reporting all of Napoleon's actions with signal flags. The British did everything to make Bonaparte's escape from the island impossible.
The deposed emperor initially had high hopes for a change in European (and especially British) policy. Napoleon knew that the Crown Princess of the English throne, Charlotte (daughter of the Prince Regent, the future George IV), was a passionate admirer of his. However, the princess died in childbirth in 1817, while her father and sick grandfather were still alive, not having time to “call” Napoleon, which he had hoped for.
The new governor of the island, Hudson Lowe, further restricts the freedom of the deposed emperor: he narrows the boundaries of his walks, requires Napoleon to show himself to the guard officer at least twice a day, and tries to reduce his contacts with the outside world. Napoleon is doomed to inactivity. His health was deteriorating, Napoleon and his retinue blamed this on the unhealthy climate of the island.
Death of Napoleon
Napoleon's health condition steadily deteriorated. From 1819 he became ill more and more often. Napoleon often complained of pain in his right side and his legs were swollen. His attending physician, François Antommarchi, diagnosed hepatitis. Napoleon suspected that it was cancer - the disease from which his father died. In March 1821, Napoleon's condition deteriorated so much that he no longer doubted his imminent death. On April 13, 1821, Napoleon dictated his will. He could no longer move without outside help, the pain became sharp and painful.
Napoleon Bonaparte died on Saturday, May 5, 1821, at 17:49. He was buried near Longwood in an area called "Geranium Valley."
There is a version that Napoleon was poisoned. This hypothesis was put forward by the Swedish dentist Sten Forshuvud, who examined Napoleon's hair and found traces of arsenic in it.
In 1960, English scientists Forshafwad, Smith and Wassen analyzed the chemical composition of Napoleon's hair from a strand cut from the emperor's head the day after his death using the neutron activation method. The arsenic concentration was approximately an order of magnitude higher than normal.
Another portion of hair was handed over for examination by Clifford Frey, who inherited it from his father, and his father from Napoleon’s personal servant Abram Noverra. The length of the largest hair, 13 cm, made it possible to determine changes in the concentration of arsenic in hair over the course of a year. The analysis showed that during the 4 months of the last year before his death, Napoleon received high doses of arsenic, and the time interval of maximum arsenic accumulation coincided with one of the periods of sharp deterioration in Napoleon's health.
However, the authors of the book “Chemistry in Forensics” L. Leistner and P. Bujtash write that “the increased content of arsenic in hair still does not give grounds to unconditionally assert the fact of deliberate poisoning, because the same data could have been obtained if Napoleon had systematically used drugs , which contain arsenic." Recent studies of Napoleon's hair have shown interesting results. Scientists examined hair not only from the period of his last exile, but also hair from 1814 and even 1804, when he was crowned. Studies have shown a multiple excess of the dose of arsenic in all samples. This gives reason to doubt that Napoleon was poisoned.
Return of remains
In 1840, Louis Philippe, yielding to pressure from the Bonapartists, sent a delegation to Saint Helena led by the Prince of Joinville to fulfill Napoleon's last wish - to be buried in France. Napoleon's remains were transported on the frigate Belle Poule under the command of Captain Charnet to France and buried in the Invalides in Paris.
A sarcophagus made of Shoksha crimson quartzite, mistakenly called red porphyry or marble, with the remains of Emperor Napoleon is located in the crypt of the cathedral. It is guarded by two bronze figures holding a scepter, an imperial crown and an orb.
The tomb is surrounded by 12 statues by Jean-Jacques Pradier, dedicated to the victories of Napoleon.
In the history of France there were many coups and revolutions, monarchies were replaced by republics, and vice versa. Bonaparte was one of the significant figures in the history of this country and all of Europe.
Few people know that after his defeat he abdicated the throne in favor of his young son. The Bonapartists gave him the name Napoleon II. What happened to the rightful heir, how many other Napoleons were there in the history of France?
Sons of Napoleon
The French emperor had three sons, two of them illegitimate. The fate of each of the offspring developed differently.
The ruler had his first son from a relationship with Eleanor de la Pleine. At that time, Napoleon was married to Josephine Beauharnais, but the couple had no children during ten years of marriage. The boy was born on December 13, 1806 at two o'clock in the morning. The Emperor received the good news while in Poland. His first thought was to adopt a child, but she soon disappeared. Napoleon wanted a legitimate heir.
The boy was given the name Charles. Mother and son received annual money for their maintenance. The father loved and spoiled the boy. After his death, he left him a significant amount. However, Charles squandered it very quickly, because he loved to spend money, play cards, and participate in duels. He was dismissed from military service for non-compliance with the regulations, and tried to study to become a clergyman. As a result, the young man found a way to exist - he won an annual allowance from his mother, and later received a pension from his cousin, who became the emperor. After the overthrow of Napoleon III, Count Leon went bankrupt, and was later buried as a beggar tramp.
The birth of Charles prompted the emperor to think about breaking up with his official wife, who was unable to give birth to an heir. He meets Maria Valevskaya, who gives birth to her son Alexander on May 4, 1810. When the mistress returned with her son in her arms to Paris, the emperor had already found a replacement for her. He allocated a significant amount for the maintenance of his son. Maria Valevskaya died very early, and Alexander had to take care of his life himself. In 1830 he took part in the Polish Uprising. After its defeat, the young man moved to Paris, where he became a captain in the French army. After retiring, he was engaged in journalism, drama, carried out diplomatic assignments, was Minister of Foreign Affairs under Napoleon III, and participated in the Paris Congress of 1856. He died in 1868, leaving behind seven children.
Napoleon II, whose biography will be discussed below, was the third son of the emperor. He became the only legitimate child. Who was his mother?
Heir's mother
After his divorce from Josephine, the ruler of France began searching for a wife who would give him a legitimate heir. At a special council it was decided that Napoleon should enter into a marriage alliance with a great power. This would allow him to guarantee his rights in the international arena.
Most ministers saw the best candidate in the sister of Russian Emperor Alexander the First, Anna Pavlovna. There were also those who were inclined towards an alliance with Austria through marriage with Marie-Louise, the daughter of Emperor Franz I.
Alexander the First did not want such a relationship, so he came up with new excuses. Napoleon was tired of waiting, he turned his gaze towards the Austrian party. The agreement was signed in 1810, at the same time a marriage by proxy was concluded in Vienna. Only after this the couple met. They had not seen each other before this.
The emperor fell in love with the young woman as soon as he saw her. A year later (04/20/1811) she gave him an heir, who was named Napoleon-Francois-Joseph. What fate awaited the heir named Napoleon II?
King of Rome
At birth, the boy was proclaimed King of Rome. However, this title was formal. In 1814, the emperor abdicated the throne. He did this in favor of his legal heir, and Napoleon II was declared French Emperor. Only the Bonapartists considered him a ruler, who called the boy this: Napoleon II Eaglet.
The history of this nickname is connected with the repressive regime that was introduced after Napoleon's abdication. It turned out to be unsafe to mention the name of the former emperor, so his followers called him Eagle. The bird was the heraldic symbol of the ruler. It was dangerous to mention his son, who left France, so he was called Eaglet. It is unknown who came up with the nickname, but Edmond Rostand made it famous. In 1900, he wrote the drama “The Little Eaglet” about the life of Napoleon II. In it, a young man is forced to live in a golden German cage.
The three-year-old heir was not crowned because the government in France had changed. In addition, the Russian emperor opposed the coronation. Together with Talleyrand, he insisted that the Bourbons be returned to power.
Marie-Louise took her son and returned to her family in Vienna. There she received the Duchy of Parma and met her future husband, who was initially assigned to keep an eye on her.
From Napoleon to Franz
Napoleon II remained the main hope of the Bonapartists. That is why he was guarded much more carefully than the most dangerous criminal. Everyone understood that the boy's origin could lead to a serious Bonapartist movement not only in France, but throughout the world.
The son of the deposed emperor lived near Vienna (Schönbrunn Castle). He was forced to speak only German, and was addressed by his middle name - Franz. In 1818 he was given the title of Duke of Reichstadt.
The Duke was involved in military service from the age of twelve. Despite all the prohibitions, and perhaps despite them, Franz remembered his origin. He was an ardent admirer of his great father.
Early death
By 1830, Napoleon II, who was about the same height as his father, had risen to the rank of major. It is unknown whether he could have lived up to the hopes of the Bonapartists. His life was short-lived. He died in 1832 from tuberculosis.
Napoleon-Francois was buried in Vienna, next to the other Habsburgs.
Posthumous fate
A hundred years later, Napoleon II (the photo has not survived to this day) was disturbed. In 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered his remains to be transferred to the Cathedral of the Invalides. He was placed next to his father's tomb.
Heir to Napoleon II
The last monarch of France was Napoleon III Bonaparte. He was the nephew of the illustrious Emperor and the cousin of the Duke of Reichstadt. At birth, the future monarch was named Charles Louis Napoleon. Father was Louis Bonaparte. Mother - Hortense de Beauharnais. The marriage between them was forced, so the couple lived in constant separation.
The boy grew up at his uncle's court. Since childhood, he literally worshiped him and was devoted to “Napoleonic” ideas. He strove for power and walked towards his goal, clearing the road ahead of him.
After the overthrow of Bonaparte, the boy, his brother and mother moved to Switzerland, where Hortense acquired Arenenberg Castle. Louis did not receive a systematic school education due to constant moving. In Switzerland he entered military service.
After the death of Napoleon II, Charles Louis became the one who represented Napoleonic ideas and claims. Four years later he tried to seize power in France. His act went down in history as the Strasbourg conspiracy. The attempt was unsuccessful, Bonaparte was exiled to America. He stayed there for a year, after which he settled in Switzerland and then in England.
The second attempt to become the head of France was made in 1840. It also turned out to be unsuccessful. As a result, Charles Louis was arrested with other conspirators and put on trial by the peers. His punishment was life imprisonment with the preservation of all rights. Surprisingly, such a punishment did not exist in French law. The unsuccessful conspirator spent six years in the Gam fortress. At this time, he wrote articles, published books, and communicated with friends. In 1846, Bonaparte fled from the fortress to England. On the island he met Harriet Gowar, who was an actress, owner of a fortune and many useful acquaintances. She helped her lover in many ways.
Reign of Napoleon III
In 1848, a revolution occurred in France. Louis hurried to Paris. He took a wait-and-see approach until the opportunity arose to nominate his candidacy for the presidency. According to the election results, he received 75% of the votes. At the age of forty he became President of the Republic.
He was not satisfied with being president, so in 1851 he dissolved the Assembly and established an empire in the state.
A year later he was proclaimed emperor under the name Napoleon III. According to the Bonapartist tradition, it was taken into account that for fourteen days the head of state was Napoleon II (son of Emperor Bonaparte).
The monarch was in power until 1870. The Franco-Prussian War put an end to his reign. During these years he suffered greatly from gallstones and took opiates. Because of this, he was lethargic and did not think well.
Napoleon the Third surrendered to William the First. A day later, the September Revolution took place in Paris. The empire ceased to exist. The deposed ruler moved to England, where he died in 1873.
Prototype of Baron Munchausen
Many art historians suggest that for the illustrative image of the famous Baron Munchausen, artist Gustave Dore took the appearance of Napoleon III as a prototype. The similarity is manifested in the oval of the head, the shape of the nose, mustache and goatee. Munchausen's coat of arms were three ducks, which can be considered an allusion to the Bonaparte coat of arms (three little bees).
Dynastic connection
There are a total of five Napoleons in history. They were all relatives.
It is customary to begin the genealogy of the Bonapartes with Carlo Buonaparte. He had five sons: Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, Louis, Jerome. Napoleon II is the son of Napoleon the First, Napoleon the Third is the son of Louis, Napoleon the Fourth is the grandson of Louis, Napoleon the Fifth is the grandson of Jerome. In fact, only two from the list ruled; the rest were considered rulers only by the Bonapartists.
French statesman and commander, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. He came from the family of an ordinary Corsican nobleman.
In 1784 he graduated from the Brienne Military School, and in 1785 from the Paris Military School. He began professional military service in 1785 with the rank of sub-lieutenant of artillery in the royal army.
From the first days of the Great French Revolution of 1789-1799, Bonaparte became involved in the political struggle on the island of Corsica and joined the most radical wing of the Republicans. In 1792 in Valence he joined the Jacobin Club.
In 1793, supporters of France in Corsica, where Bonaparte was at that time, were defeated. Conflict with Corsican separatists forced him to flee the island to France. Bonaparte became commander of an artillery battery in Nice. He distinguished himself in the battle against the British at Toulon, was promoted to brigadier general and appointed chief of artillery of the Alpine Army. After the counter-revolutionary coup in June 1794, Bonaparte was removed from office and arrested for connections with the Jacobins, but was soon released. He was listed in the reserve of the War Ministry, and in September 1795, after refusing the offered position of commander of an infantry brigade, he was dismissed from the army.
In October 1795, a member of the Directory (French government in 1795-1799), Paul Barras, who led the fight against the monarchist conspiracy, took Napoleon as an assistant. Bonaparte distinguished himself during the suppression of the royalist rebellion in October 1795, for which he was appointed commander of the troops of the Paris garrison. In February 1796, he was appointed commander of the Italian Army, at the head of which he carried out the victorious Italian campaign (1796-1797).
In 1798-1801 he led the Egyptian expedition, which, despite the capture of Alexandria and Cairo and the defeat of the Mamelukes in the Battle of the Pyramids, was defeated.
In October 1799, Bonaparte arrived in Paris, where a situation of acute political crisis reigned. Relying on influential circles of the bourgeoisie, on November 9-10, 1799, he carried out a coup d'etat. The government of the Directory was overthrown, and the French Republic was led by three consuls, the first of whom was Napoleon.
The concordat (agreement) concluded with the Pope in 1801 provided Napoleon with the support of the Catholic Church.
In August 1802 he achieved his appointment as consul for life.
In June 1804, Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor Napoleon I.
On December 2, 1804, during a magnificent ceremony held in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris with the participation of the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
In March 1805, he was crowned in Milan, after Italy recognized him as its king.
Napoleon I's foreign policy was aimed at achieving political and economic hegemony in Europe. With his rise to power, France entered a period of almost continuous wars. Thanks to military successes, Napoleon significantly expanded the territory of the empire and made most of the states of Western and Central Europe dependent on France.
Napoleon was not only Emperor of France, which extended to the left bank of the Rhine, but also King of Italy, mediator of the Swiss Confederation and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. His brothers became kings: Joseph in Naples, Louis in Holland, Jerome in Westphalia.
This empire was comparable in its territory to the empire of Charlemagne or the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V.
In 1812, Napoleon launched a campaign against Russia, which ended in his complete defeat and became the beginning of the collapse of the empire. The entry of anti-French coalition troops into Paris in March 1814 forced Napoleon I to abdicate the throne (April 6, 1814). The victorious allies retained the title of emperor to Napoleon and gave him possession of the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1815, Napoleon, taking advantage of the people's dissatisfaction with the policies of the Bourbons who replaced him in France and the disagreements that arose between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna, tried to regain his throne. In March 1815, at the head of a small detachment, he unexpectedly landed in the south of France and three weeks later entered Paris without firing a single shot. The secondary reign of Napoleon I, which went down in history as the “Hundred Days,” did not last long. The Emperor did not live up to the hopes placed on him by the French people. All this, as well as the defeat of Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo, led him to a second abdication and exile to the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, where he died on May 5, 1821. In 1840, Napoleon's ashes were transported to Paris, to the Invalides
World military historiography highly values the activities of Napoleon I as a commander who skillfully used the objective conditions created by the French bourgeois revolution for the development of military affairs. His military leadership had a great influence on the development of military art in the 19th century.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources