Having crushed, on October 5, 1795, a royalist insurrection in Paris, the young general Bonaparte was appointed at the head of an army by the Directory, and went to fight the Austrians in Italy. In 1797, Bonaparte signed the Treaty of Campoformio with Austria. In 1798, Bonaparte went on a campaign in Egypt, and received command of the expedition.
Once peace was restored with Austria in 1801 and with England in 1802, General Bonaparte, hero of the revolutionary army, was appointed Consul for life under the Constitution of 1802. The constitution of 1804 proclaimed Napoleon Emperor of the French and the hereditary imperial dignity in his family. The coronation will take place on December 2, 1804 at Notre-Dame de Paris. Bonaparte becomes Napoleon I.
In 1812, Napoleon’s army invaded Russia. Surprised by the winter, she is destroyed by the cold and the Cossacks. European kings seized this opportunity to unite; thus Prussia and Austria declared war in 1813, and Napoleon was defeated at Leipzig.
Having been unable to prevent the invasion of the France, Napoleon abdicated on 6 April 1814. Exiled on the island of Elba, he escaped and in March 1815 regained power during the “Hundred Days“. Louis XVIII fled to Ghent. Defeated on 18 June 1815 at Waterloo, Napoleon abdicated on 22 June and surrendered to the English who exiled him to Saint Helena, where he died on 5 May 1821.