FRENCH HISTORY

Napoleon

Despite the internal battles and problems France endured in the years following the Revolution, the new Revolutionary government also sent the French army to war against many of France’s neighbours. Napoleon’s skills as a military tactician quickly won him a political following.

By 1799, the nation’s belief in Napoleon’s ability was so strong that Napoleon was able to overthrow the government of the time and claim authority as consul of the First Empire. Three years later, a referendum declared him consul for life, and in 1804 he was crowned Emperor of the French by Pope Pius VII.

Napoleon waged several wars in which France gained control of most of Europe. With Napoleon at the helm, the French army were seemingly impossible to beat. But this success didn’t last forever. In 1812 the French army captured Moscow, but the brutal Russian winter proved too harsh for the exhausted troops and many of them died. Two years later, allied armies entered Paris, exiled Napoleon to Elba and restored the House of Bourbon to the French throne at the Congress of Vienna.

Napoleon escaped from his exile in 1815 and after landing in Golfe Juan in southern France, proceeded north, triumphantly entering Paris 20 May. His glorious ‘Hundred Days’ back in power ended with the Battle of Waterloo and his return to exile (to the South Atlantic island of St-Helena, where he died in 1821). In 1840 his remains were moved to the very grand tomb in the Église du Dôme on Paris’ Esplanade des Invalides.