Napoleon Bonaparte Research Paper

Rise of The French Empire: Napoleonic Era

General Napoleon Bonaparte is known as one of the greatest military leaders in the history. He was given the position, as first council of France. This was the beginning of the Napoleonic era. The Napoleonic era is a time in the history of France, that started at 1799. This era began with the rise of a great leader Napoleon Bonaparte, whose coup d'état overthrew the Directory, and replaced it with the French Consulate. After that, the first French empire was ruled by Napoleon as he was given the heading as Emperor of the French, On 18th May 1804. Then, Napoleonic Wars took place from 1803 to 1815, it was a sequence of conflicts aiming for the French Empire. But throughout these series of events,

For instance, in 1796 he became commander in chief of all French forces in Italy. From Italy Napoleon invaded Austria, France’s most powerful enemy. As Napoleon approached Vienna, the Austrians surrendered and were forced to give up Belgium to France. Napoleon’s victories made him very popular with the French people. He was able to convince France’s government – the Directory- that he could cut off British trade to Asia by occupying Egypt. In 1799 Napoleon overthrew the French government. Since the French government at that time wasn’t strong enough because of it’s loss in wars, with the help of Napoleons disciples he was able to dominate. As First Consul, Napoleon held all the power, although is was a consulate with three men that was created to govern France. As soon as he was in control of France Napoleon began to reform the country. He modernized the government, founded the Bank of France and reorganized higher education. The system of education produced by Napoleon was intended to provide an educated elite that would run the country and the military. It was also made to increase the middle class, which would then be successful. Mostly, there was a great use on patriotism in the schools. But his greatest achievement was the Code Napoleon, a collection of laws that allowed people many liberties they had received during the Revolution. The code still forms the basis of civil law in France. In 1803 the beginning of The Napoleonic Wars, when France made a disaster on Europe, and collected a vast assortment of land. He was a vicious and mostly an undefeated force, and a major contributor to the rise of the French empire. In the Napoleonic Wars he fought against Prussia, Austria, Great Britain and Russia. France became a striking dominant force in Western Civilization. It was involved in many wars before the First World War, and won more than