Short Note on Napoleon Bonaparte

Short Note on Napoleon Bonaparte:

Born at Ajaccio, Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte received a commission in the artillery in 1785 and first distinguished himself at the seizure of Toulon in 1730. Having suppressed a royalist rising in Paris in 1795, Napoleon Bonaparte was given command against the Austrians in Italy and defeated them at Lodi, Arcole, and Rivoli in 1796-97. Egypt-seen as a halfway house to India was overrun, and Syria invaded but his fleet was destroyed by Nelson, at the battle of the Nile. He returned to France to overthrow the government of the Directory and establish his own dictatorship, nominally as the First Consul. The Austrians were again defeated at Marengo in 1800, and the coalition against France shattered, a truce being declared in 1802. A plebiscite the same year made him Consul for life. In 1804, a plebiscite made him Emperor. While creating and extending the legal and educational reforms of Jacobins, he replaced the democratic constitution established by revolution with a centralized despotism, and by his concordat conciliated the Church. War was renewed by Britain in 1803, aided by Austria and Russia from 1805, and Prussia from 1806, Prevented by the Navy from invading England, he drove Austria out of the war by victories at Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805, and Prussia by the victory at Jena in 1806. Then he formed an alliance with Russia at Tilsit (1807). Napoleon now forbade the entry of British goods to Europe, under the “Continental System”, occupied Portugal, and in 1808 placed his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. Both countries revolted, with British aid, and Austria attempted to re-enter the war but was defeated at Wagram. In 1796 Napoleon had married Josephine de Beauharnais, but now to assert his equality with the Hapsburgs, he divorced her to marry the Emperor’s daughter, Marie Louise. When Russia failed to enforce the Continental System, Napoleon occupied Moscow, but his retreat in the bitter winter of 1812 encouraged Prussia and Austria to declare war again in 1813, and Napoleon was defeated at Leipzig and driven from Germany. After a brilliant campaign on French soil, he abdicated in 1814 and was banished to Elba. In March 1815 he reassumed power but was defeated by the Allies at Waterloo. Surrendering to the British, he again abdicated and was exiled to St. Helena.