ABSTRACT
Marengo, after crossing the Alps Dec. Moreau defeats Austrians at
Hohenlinden 1801 Feb. Peace of Lunéville with Austria
July Concordat with the Pope 1802 25 March Treaty of Amiens with Britain;
war of the Second Coalition ends
April Concordat published with the Organic Articles
Aug. Napoleon made Consul for life 1803 18 May Britain declares war on France
Dec. Boulogne invasion force assembled
1804 March Royalist conspiracy; Cadoudal arrested; Duc d’Enghien kidnapped and shot
Dec. Napoleon crowned Emperor 1805 Aug. Napoleon abandons plan to
invade Britain; war of the Third Coalition begins
Oct. Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar Austrian surrender to Napoleon at Ulm
Dec. Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz over Russian and Austrian force; Austria signs Peace of Pressburg
1806 Oct. Prussia defeated at Jena and Auerstädt
Nov. Berlin Decrees establish Continental System
1807 Feb. Inconclusive battle of Eylau with Russia
June Napoleon defeats Russian army at Friedland
July Treaty of Tilsit with Russia; alliance, and Grand Duchy of Warsaw established; Treaty of Tilsit with Prussia; forced to pay indemnity and join Continental System; Third Coalition destroyed
Oct. French army moves through
Spain into Portugal to extend Continental System
1808 Feb. French forces occupy Rome July Joseph Bonaparte made King of
Spain; French army defeated at Bailen by Spanish force
Dec. French under Napoleon’s command recapture Madrid
1809 July Napoleon defeats Austrians at Wagram
1812 June Grande Armée advances into Russia
Sept. Russian defeat at Borodino; French army enters Moscow
Oct. French begin retreat from Moscow
Dec. French survivors return to Germany
1813 Feb.–July Fourth Coalition formed by Russia, Prussia, Austria and Britain
Oct. Battle of the Nations, Leipzig; defeated Napoleon retreats to the Rhine
1814 March Paris occupied by allies 11 April Napoleon abdicates May Bourbon restoration; Louis
XVIII (Comte de Provence) King; Napoleon exiled to Elba First treaty of Paris imposed on France
1815 1 March Napoleon returns for the One Hundred Days
20 March Napoleon arrives in Paris; Louis XVIII flees
18 June Waterloo; Wellington’s stand and Blücher’s arrival defeats Napoleon’s army decisively
22 June Napoleon abdicates again 8 July Louis XVIII is restored again
15 July Napoleon leaves France for exile on St Helena
Nov. Second treaty of Paris
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica in 1769, the son of minor Corsican nobility, which enabled
him to train and qualify as an artillery officer in France in 1785. Following his success with the recapture of Toulon in 1793, he became a general, his rapid promotion helped by the way that war and revolution had thinned down the officer corps of the regular army. He survived the fall of the Jacobin dictatorship in 1794, having been imprisoned briefly, and he re-established himself by his part in crushing the Vendémiaire rising. He was appointed commander of the Army of the Interior by the grateful Directory. In 1796, following his marriage to the widow and fashionable celebrity Josephine de Beauharnais, he took the Army of Italy through a spectacular series of victories over the Austrians, which he made sure were colourfully reported. By 1797 he had the status of a hero at home. In 1798 he led an expedition to Egypt as part of the strategy to dislocate the British empire, but he was stranded there after Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. The next year Napoleon abandoned his army and slipped home to France where he involved himself with Sieyès and others in the Brumaire coup of 1799. He had not been the first or even the second choice accomplice in the coup, which owed its final success mostly to his brother, Lucien, who was President of the Council of Five Hundred.
