Napoleon: consul, emperor, exile
A Corsican general takes power, crowns himself emperor, gives France the Civil Code and modern institutions, conquers much of Europe and is finally defeated at Waterloo.
- Napoleon the Great — Andrew Roberts, Allen Lane (2014)
- Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution — Laurent Dubois, Harvard University Press (2004)
- The Cambridge Illustrated History of France — Colin Jones, Cambridge University Press (1994)
Napoleon Bonaparte, born in Corsica in 1769, rose as a revolutionary artillery officer and won fame in Italy in 1796–97. In the coup of 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799) he became First Consul, and on 2 December 1804 he crowned himself emperor in Notre-Dame with the pope looking on.
- Napoleon the Great — Andrew Roberts, Allen Lane (2014)
At home he made peace with the Church through the Concordat of 1801, and in 1804 issued the Civil Code, which enshrined equality before the law, property rights and secular marriage while giving husbands authority over wives. It became a model across Europe and Latin America.
- Napoleon the Great — Andrew Roberts, Allen Lane (2014)
- The Cambridge Illustrated History of France — Colin Jones, Cambridge University Press (1994)
- Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution — Laurent Dubois, Harvard University Press (2004)
His victories, from Austerlitz in 1805 onward, made him master of much of Europe, but Spain, the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812 and a coalition of great powers broke him. Exiled to Elba in 1814, he returned for the “Hundred Days” before final defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. He died on St Helena in 1821; his remains were brought back to Les Invalides in 1840.
- Napoleon the Great — Andrew Roberts, Allen Lane (2014)
The man who ended revolutionary chaos, kept its gains of equality before the law and careers open to talent, and gave France glory and lasting institutions. Many French people still see him as one of the greatest figures in their history.
- Napoleon the Great — Andrew Roberts, Allen Lane (2014)
An authoritarian who crushed liberty and the press, waged wars that cost millions of lives across Europe, made married women legally subordinate in his Code, and in 1802 restored slavery in the French colonies. Many French people of Caribbean descent, in particular, reject his celebration.
- Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution — Laurent Dubois, Harvard University Press (2004)
- The Cambridge Illustrated History of France — Colin Jones, Cambridge University Press (1994)
Why it matters today
Napoleon built much of the state French people still live in: the Civil Code, prefects running each department, the lycée, the baccalauréat, the Legion of Honour, the Banque de France. He is also a test of national memory. In 2021 France marked the bicentenary of his death with intense argument over whether to celebrate a moderniser and military genius or condemn a dictator who restored slavery.