Napoleon Bonaparte, who passed away on 5 May 1821, aged
51, was a French Emperor.
One of the most controversial, influential and celebrated figures
in human history, Napoleon seized upon the opportunities created by the
outbreak of the French Revolution in1789 and became a general at
age 29.
After the French Directory gave him control of the
armed forces, his early military victories established him as a national hero,
and he engineered a coup in 1799 that made him First Consul of the Republic. He
went further and declared himself Emperor of the French in 1804.
Napoleon's stunning military victories over his
European enemies - at Austerlitz in 1805, Friedland in 1807 and Wagram in 1809
- solidified his dominance of virtually the entire continent, and confirmed the
rapid spread of his empire.
After launching the Peninsular War in Spain,
Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, which ended in disaster and the collapse of
his Grand Army. A Sixth Coalition defeated him at Leipzig, invaded France and
forced him to abdicate in 1814. He was exiled to Elba, where he escaped and
took control of France. He was finally defeated by a Seventh Coalition at
Waterloo and exiled to St Helena in the South Atlantic where he died in 1821.
Napoleon's foreign and domestic achievements,
particularly the Napoleonic Code, greatly influenced the foundations of most of
the modern Western world.
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