Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Emperor of France in 1804-1814 and in March - June 1815. 1799 - carried out a coup d'état and became First Consul. 1804 - proclaimed emperor. Established a dictatorial regime. Thanks to the victorious wars, he significantly expanded the territory of the empire, made most of the countries of Western and Central Europe dependent on France. 1814 - abdicated the throne. 1815 - took the throne again, but after the defeat at Waterloo he abdicated the throne for the second time. He spent the last years of his life on the island of St. Helena.
Napoleon was born in 1769 in August, in the town of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. His father was a small landed nobleman - Carlo Bonaparte, who practiced law. They write that Napoleon was a gloomy and irritable child from an early age. His mother loved him, but she gave him and her other children a very severe upbringing. The Bonapartes lived economically, but the family did not feel the need. 1779 - 10-year-old Napoleon was placed on a government account at a military school in Brienne (Eastern France). 1784 - the 15-year-old future emperor successfully completed the course and transferred to the Paris military school, from where he entered the army in October 1785 with the rank of lieutenant.
Bonaparte sent most of his salary to his mother (his father had died by that time), leaving himself only for the most meager food, not allowing any entertainment. In the same house where he rented a room, there was a second-hand bookseller's shop, and Napoleon began to spend all his free time reading books. He could hardly count on a quick advancement in the career ladder, but the Great French Revolution, which began in 1789, opened his way to the top. 1793 - Napoleon was promoted to captain and sent to the army, besieging Toulon, captured by the British and royalists.
The political leader here was the Corsican Salichetti. Bonaparte offered him his plan of storming the city, and Salichetti allowed him to arrange the batteries as he wanted. The results were beyond expectations - unable to withstand the brutal cannonade, the British left the city, taking away the leaders of the rebellion on their ships. The fall of Toulon, which was considered an impregnable fortress, had a great public outcry and important consequences for Napoleon Bonaparte himself. 1794, January - he was awarded the rank of brigadier general.
However, having laid the foundation of his career with such brilliance, Bonaparte almost stumbled on the first step. He became too close to the Jacobins, and after the fall of Robespierre in July 1794, he went to prison. In the end, he was forced to leave the active army. 1795, August - the future emperor got a job in the topographic department of the Committee of Public Safety. This position did not bring much money, but it made it possible to be in full view of the leaders of the Convention. Soon, fate gave Napoleon Bonaparte another opportunity to show his outstanding abilities. 1795, October - the royalists openly prepared a counter-revolutionary coup in Paris. On October 3, the Convention appointed one of its main leaders, Barras, the head of the Paris garrison. He was not a military man and entrusted the suppression of the rebellion to General Napoleon.
By morning, the general had brought all the artillery pieces available in the capital to the palace and took aim at all approaches. When the rebels began their assault at noon on October 5, Napoleon's cannons thundered towards them. Particularly terrible was the beating of the royalists on the porch of the Church of St. Roch, where their reserve stood. It was over by the middle of the day. Leaving hundreds of corpses behind, the rebels fled. This day played a much greater role in the life of Napoleon Bonaparte than his first victory at Toulon. His name became widely known in all strata of society and they began to look at him as a managerial, quick-witted and decisive person.
February 1796 - Napoleon got himself appointed to the post of commander of the southern army, located on the borders of Italy. The directory considered this direction as secondary. Military operations here began only with the aim of diverting the attention of the Austrians from the main, German, front. However, the future emperor himself had a different opinion. On April 5, he began his famous Italian campaign.
Over the course of several months, the French gave the Austrians and their Piedmontese allies several bloody battles and completely defeated them. All of Northern Italy fell under the control of the revolutionary troops. 1797, April - The Austrian Emperor Franz sent Napoleon an official peace proposal, which was signed on October 17 in the town of Campo Formio. Under its terms, Austria gave up most of its possessions in Lombardy, from which the puppet Cisalpine Republic, dependent on France, was created.
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In Paris, the message of peace was greeted with wild jubilation. The directors wanted to entrust Napoleon with the war against England, but he proposed another plan for consideration: to conquer Egypt in order to threaten British rule in India from there. The proposal was accepted. 1798, July 2 - 30,000 French soldiers in full battle formation disembarked on the Egyptian coast and entered Alexandria. On July 20, in view of the pyramids, they met the enemy. The battle lasted several hours and ended in the complete defeat of the Turks.
The future emperor moved to Cairo, which he took without much difficulty. At the end of the year, he set out for Syria. The hike was terribly difficult, especially due to the lack of water. 1799, March 6 - The French took Jaffa, but the siege of Acre, which lasted two months, was unsuccessful, since Napoleon did not have siege artillery. This failure decided the outcome of the entire campaign. Bonaparte realized that his enterprise was doomed to failure and on 23 August 1799 left Egypt.
He sailed to France with the firm intention to overthrow the Directory and seize the supreme power in the state. Circumstances favored his plan. On October 16, as soon as Bonaparte entered the capital, major financiers immediately expressed their support for him, offering several million francs. On the morning of November 9 (18th Brumaire according to the revolutionary calendar), he summoned the generals on whom he could rely especially, and announced that it was time to "save the republic." Cornet, a loyalist to Napoleon, announced in the Council of Elders a "terrible conspiracy of terrorists" and a threat to the republic.
To restore order, the Council immediately appointed Napoleon the head of all the armed forces located in the capital and its environs. Once at the head of the army, Napoleon Bonaparte demanded a radical change in the constitution. To the sound of drums, the grenadiers burst into the assembly hall and expelled all the deputies from it. Most of them fled, but a few were captured and escorted to Bonaparte. He ordered them to vote on the decree on self-dissolution and transfer of all power to three consuls. In fact, all the power was concentrated in the hands of the first consul, who was declared to be General Napoleon.
1800, May 8 - After quickly putting an end to urgent internal affairs, Bonaparte went to a big war against the Austrians, who again occupied Northern Italy. On June 2, he captured Milan, and on the 14th, a meeting of the main forces took place near the village of Marengo. All the advantage was on the side of the Austrians. Nevertheless, their army was utterly defeated. According to the Luneville peace, the remnants of Belgium, Luxembourg and all German possessions on the left bank of the Rhine were torn away from Austria. Napoleon signed a peace treaty with Russia even earlier. 1802, March 26 - a peace treaty with England was signed in Amiens, which put an end to the difficult 9-year war of France against all of Europe.
Two years of peaceful respite, which France received after the Luneville Peace, the future emperor devoted to tireless work in the field of organizing the country's government and legislation. He was clearly aware of the fact that the new system of bourgeois relations that had developed in France after the revolution was not able to function normally without the fundamental development of new legal norms. It was a very difficult matter, but Bonaparte set about it, organized it and completed it with the same speed and thoroughness that has always distinguished his work. 1800, August - A commission was formed to draft a civil code of laws.
1804, March - the code signed by Bonaparte became the basic law and the basis of French jurisprudence. Like much of what was created under him, this code functioned under all subsequent regimes and governments for many years after Bonaparte's death, evoking deserved admiration for its clarity, consistency and logical consistency in protecting the interests of the bourgeois state. At the same time, work began on the commercial code, which was to serve as an important addition to the civil one. 1804, April - the Senate issued a decree giving the first consul Bonaparte the title of Emperor of France. 1804, December 2 - Pope Pius VII solemnly crowned and anointed Napoleon to the throne at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
1805, summer - a new European war broke out, in which, in addition to Great Britain, Austria and Russia entered. Napoleon Bonaparte swiftly opposed the Allies. On December 2, a general battle broke out in the hilly area around the Prazen Heights, west of the village of Austerlitz. The Russians and Austrians suffered complete defeat in it. Emperor Franz asked for peace.
Under the terms of the concluded agreement, he ceded the Venetian region, Friul, Istria and Dalmatia to Bonaparte. All of southern Italy was also occupied by the French. But soon Prussia came out on the side of Russia against France. The war was expected to be very difficult. But already on October 14, 1806, in two battles held simultaneously near Jena and Auerstedt, the Prussians were severely defeated. The defeat of the enemy was complete.
Only the insignificant remnants of the Prussian army survived and retained the appearance of a soldier. The rest were killed, taken prisoner or fled to their homes. On October 27, the Emperor of France entered Berlin solemnly. On November 8, the last Prussian fortress, Magdeburg, surrendered. Russia remained the most stubborn enemy of Napoleon on the continent. On December 26, near Pultusk, a major battle with Bennigsen's Russian corps took place, which ended in vain. Both sides were preparing for a decisive battle. It deployed on February 8, 1807 near Preussisch-Eylau. After a long and extremely bloody battle, the Russians retreated. However, a complete victory did not work out again. 1807, summer - Napoleon moved to Konigsberg.
Bennigsen had to rush to his defense and concentrated his troops on the western bank of the Alla River near the town of Friedland. He had a chance to take the battle at very disadvantageous positions, so the heavy defeat turned out to be to some extent natural. The Russian army was thrown back to the opposite bank. Many soldiers drowned in the process. Almost all the artillery was abandoned and ended up in the hands of the French. On June 19, an armistice was concluded, and on July 8 the emperors Napoleon and Alexander I signed a final peace in Tilsit. Russia became an ally of France.
The Napoleonic Empire reached the zenith of its power. 1807 October - The French invade Portugal. 1808, May - Spain was also rapidly occupied. But soon a powerful uprising broke out here, which, despite all efforts, Napoleon could not suppress. 1809 - news came that Austria was about to enter the war. Napoleon Bonaparte left the Pyrenees and hastily left for Paris. Already in April, the Austrians were stopped and driven back across the Danube.
On July 6, they suffered a heavy defeat at Wagram. A third of their army (32,000 people) died on the battlefield. The rest retreated in disarray. At the beginning of the negotiations, Napoleon demanded that Emperor Franz cede the best Austrian possessions: Carinthia, Carinthia, Istria, Trieste, part of Galicia and pay an indemnity of 85 million francs. The Austrian emperor was forced to agree to these demands.
Beginning in January 1811, Bonaparte began to seriously prepare for war with Russia. It began on June 24, 1812 with the passage of the French army across the border Niemen. The Emperor of France had by that time about 420,000 soldiers. Russian troops (about 220,000) under the command of Barclay de Tolly were divided into two independent armies (one under the command of Barclay himself, the other - Bagration). The emperor hoped to separate them, surround and destroy each separately. Trying to avoid this, Barclay and Bagration began to hastily retreat inland.
On August 3, they successfully united near Smolensk. In the same month, Emperor Alexander gave the main command over the Russian army to Field Marshal Kutuzov. Shortly thereafter, on September 7, a big battle took place at Borodino. Its outcome remained unclear, despite the fact that both sides suffered huge losses. On September 13, Napoleon entered Moscow. He considered the war over and waited for the start of negotiations.
But further events showed that he was greatly mistaken. Already on September 14, severe fires began in Moscow, destroying all food supplies. Foraging outside the city due to the actions of the Russian partisans also proved to be difficult. Under these conditions, the war began to lose all meaning. It was hardly wise to chase the constantly retreating Kutuzov across the vast devastated country.
Napoleon Bonaparte decided to move the army closer to the western Russian border and on October 19 gave the order to leave Moscow. The country was terribly devastated. In addition to an acute shortage of food, Napoleon's army soon began to suffer from severe frosts. Cossacks and partisans inflicted huge losses on it. The morale of the soldier dropped every day. The retreat soon turned into a real flight. The whole road was littered with corpses. On November 26, the army approached the Berezina and began the crossing. However, only the most combat-ready units managed to cross to the other side. Most of the 14,000 stragglers were killed by the Cossacks. In mid-December, the remnants of the army crossed the frozen Neman.
The Moscow campaign caused irreparable damage to the power of the French emperor. But he still had colossal resources and did not consider the war to be lost. By the middle of the spring of 1813, he pulled off all reserves and created a new army. Meanwhile, the Russians continued to build on their success. In February they went to the Oder, and on March 4 they captured Berlin. On March 19, the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm made an alliance with the Russian emperor. But then a series of failures followed. On May 2, the Russians and the Prussians were defeated at Lützen, and on May 20–21, another one was defeated at Bautzen.
The situation improved after Austria and Sweden entered the war against France on August 11. The Allied forces were now largely superior to those of Bonaparte. In mid-October, all their armies met at Leipzig, where a stubborn battle took place on October 16-19 - the largest and bloody battle in the history of the Napoleonic wars. The French suffered a heavy defeat in it and were forced to retreat.
1814 January - Allies crossed the Rhine. At the same time, Wellington's British army crossed the Pyrenees and entered southern France. On March 30, the allies approached Paris and forced it to surrender. April 4 Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates the throne. The deposed emperor went to the island of Elba, which the allies gave him for life. During the first months he was weighed down by idleness and was in deep thought. But already from November Bonaparte began to listen attentively to the news that reached him from France. Returning to power, the Bourbons behaved even more ridiculous than one might expect of them.
The Emperor was well aware of the change in public mood and decided to take advantage of this. 1815, February 26 - he put the soldiers he had (there were about 1000 in total) on ships and went to the coast of France. On March 1, the detachment landed in the Bay of Juan, from where, through the province of Dauphine, moved to Paris. All the troops sent against him, regiment after regiment, went over to the side of the rebels. On March 19, King Louis XVIII fled Paris, and the next day Napoleon solemnly entered the capital.
But despite this success, Napoleon Bonaparte's chances of staying in power were extremely slim. After fighting alone against the whole of Europe, he could not count on victory. On June 12, the emperor went to the army to begin the last campaign in his life. On June 16, there was a big battle with the Prussians at Linyi. Having lost 20,000 soldiers, the German commander-in-chief Blucher retreated. Napoleon ordered the 36 thousandth corps of Pears to pursue the Prussians, and he turned against the British.
The decisive battle took place 22 km from Brussels near the village of Waterloo. The British put up stubborn resistance. The outcome of the battle was still far from being decided, when about noon the vanguard of the Prussian army appeared on the right flank of Bonaparte - it was Blucher, who managed to break away from Pear and hurry to help Wellington. The unexpected appearance of the Prussians decided the outcome of the campaign. At about 8 pm Wellington launched a general offensive, and the Prussians overturned Napoleon's right flank. The French retreat soon turned into a flight.
On June 21, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris, and the next day he abdicated and went to Rochefort. He expected to sail on some ship to America, but this plan proved to be impossible. Napoleon decided to surrender to the winners. On 15 July he embarked on the British flagship Bellerophon and surrendered himself to the British authorities. He was sent into exile on the remote island of Saint Helena.
There he was placed under the supervision of Governor Tart Lowe, but he could enjoy complete freedom within the island. Bonaparte read a lot, rode horseback, hiked and dictated his memories. But all these activities could not dispel his anguish. From 1819, the first signs of a devastating disease appeared. At the beginning of 1821 there was no longer any doubt that the former emperor was terminally ill with stomach cancer. The severe pains intensified every day, and on May 5, after a severe agony, he died.
K. Ryzhov