1. Rise and Fall

2.  Napoleon was born in Corsica on August 15, 1769  At age 9 he enrolled in military college in Brienne, France  Eventually enrolling in the military academy in Paris as an artillery specialist

3.  Graduated in September of 1785 (ranked 42 nd of 58 students) as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery  1793 Napoleon successfully forced the Anglo-Spanish fleet from Toulon, bringing it back under French Control  He was promoted to Brigadier General as a result

4.  With the execution of Robespierre in July of 1794, and in order to avoid another dictatorship, the National Assembly set up the Directory  A 5 person council that controlled the government and the army  Napoleon was promoted under Robespierre and was temporarily thrown in jail for being a Jacobin  Was later released because of his value as a military commander

5.  Under the Directory, Napoleon is promoted to second in command of the Army of the Interior  October 1795 Paris rebellion  Royalists attempted to take over the National Convention  “Give them a whiff of grapeshot”

6.  By 1795 the coalition against France was dissolving, leaving just Austria and England  Napoleon convinced the Directory to let him attack Austrian positions in Italy  In March 1796 was promoted to commander of the Army of Italy  By October of 1797 Napoleon had pushed Austria out of Italy

7. 1796 1799

8.  May 1798 Napoleon planned on blocking English trade to India by conquering the Ottoman Empire and controlling Egypt  Also wanted to uncover the secrets of the ancient world

9.  Rapid success early  August 1798 Battle of the Nile  Defeated by the English leaving him with no naval support  After failing to take Acre in 1799 Napoleon abandoned his land forces and returned to France  His land troops continued to occupy Egypt until 1801

10.  The Rosetta Stone  Text written in 3 languages, Hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek  Allowed for the translation of Hieroglyphs and the beginning of understanding of ancient Egypt

11.  With the government under pressure from Austria, Russia and Brittan, Napoleon was able to set himself up as the first and most powerful of three consults  Used his control of the army to place himself in power  This ended the power of the Directory  As First Consult he brought peace to France for the first time in 10 years

12.  1802 the French people vote to amend the constitution to allow the First Consult to remain for life  May 18, 1804 Napoleon declares himself Emperor “I found the crown of France just lying in the gutter … I picked it up with the tip of my sword”

13.  Over the next decade Napoleon continued to gain control of a large portion of Europe.  He set up his relatives as kings of conquered countries

18.  A series of defeats to a coalition of Brittan, Prussia, Austria, and Russia followed the Russian campaign  This was the result of the destruction of his army in Russia and Brittan no longer fighting in North America  March 1814 Paris falls  April 6 1814 Napoleon abdicates his throne  Exiled to the island of Elba

20.  After about a year, Napoleon escapes the island and attempts to regain his throne  He is greeted as a hero in France and raises an army  Again for the 7 th time, the countries of Europe unite against him and he is defeated at Waterloo  Exiled to the island of Saint Helena where he remained until his death on May 5 1821  Shortly after Napoleon’s second exile, Louis XVIII (Louis the XVI’s brother) is restored as king

22.  French civil code established in 1804  Includes things such as:  All male citizens are equal  Hereditary, nobility, and class privileges are removed  Freedom from church laws  Freedom of the press  Freedom of contract  Security of personal property  Still the basis for much of French law today

23.  The French Revolution was the seed of the Enlightenment  The ideas, such as the Napoleonic Code, that took root because of it spread with Napoleon and his conquests all over Europe  The Napoleonic Code also spread to South America and contributed to a number of revolutions  The map of Europe was forever changed because of Napoleon