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Napoleon: Western Europe
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Napoleon is the most charismatic general in French history, famed for his military successes and (at the same time) for not quite conquering Europe. Starting as a second lieutenant in the French artillery, he rose quickly through the ranks until he staged a 1799 coup that made him First Consul of France. (In 1804 he went further, proclaiming himself emperor.) He led his armies to victory after victory, and by 1807 France ruled territory that stretched from Portugal to Italy and north to the river Elbe. But Napoleon's attempts to conquer the rest of Europe failed; a defeat in Moscow in 1812 nearly destroyed his empire, and in 1814 he was deposed and exiled to the island of Elba. The next year he returned to Paris and again seized power, but this success was short-lived: the French army's 1815 loss to the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo finished Napoleon for good. He was sent into exile on the island of St. Helena, where he died in 1821.
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Napoleon was one of the greatest military commanders in history. He has ... been portrayed as a power hungry conqueror. Napoleon denied those accusations. He argued that he was building a federation of free peoples in a Europe united under a liberal government. But if this was his goal, he intended to achieve it by taking power in his own hands. However, in the states he created, Napoleon granted constitutions, introduced law codes, abolished feudalism, created efficient governments and fostered education, science, literature and the arts.
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In a continuous series of campaigns from 1805 to 1809 Napoleon won considerable victories (including Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Wagram), and established an empire which, through annexation and the establishment of vassal states, covered most of Europe, excluding Russia. He distributed thrones and territories to his relatives and favourites. But he could not always be absent from Paris. The campaigns were improvised; his armies were not properly supplied; the rate of desertion was high; the British were successful in organizing a series of coalitions against him. The Spanish campaign (1808-13), where Napoleon led his forces for a relatively short time, saw his first defeats. The Russian campaign (1812) was a disaster.
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Interestingly, Napoleon, the greatest soldier of his age and one of the best of all time, was not particularly innovative. He did not originate any dynamic new weapons or devise new tactics. Rather, he proved himself a master of adaptation, using what worked well, discarding what did not, and maximizing current technology, including the recent improvements in European road networks and the increased production capacity of the French arms industry. Napoleon, through coordination, close supervision, selection of effective subordinates, and an integration of forces, achieved and maintained peak performance from his army. Even more important, Napoleon knew that any army's success lay in the spirit and morale of its individual soldiers. Napoleon's command presence, charisma, natural leadership, and personal bravery created and perpetuated a fighting spirit heretofore unknown on European battlefields.
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The French defeat was a fatal blow to the Napoleonic adventure and made Alexander the conqueror of Napoleon and the "savior of Europe." In February 1815, Napoleon tried to regain his lost power, but the adventure did not last, and the Hundred Days did not harm Alexander's prestige. The tsar personally took part in the Congress of Vienna and engaged in the construction of a new political and geopolitical order in Europe. During the congress, Alexander's Russia took great advantage of the victory over Napoleon from both diplomatic and territorial points of view. But beyond this geopolitical concrete outcome, the collective and messianic triumph over the invader constituted in Russia a major step toward the birth of a modern national identity.
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During the next 14 months of peace Napoleon drastically altered Europe. He became president of the Italian Republic, he reshaped Switzerland with France. He annexed Piedmont, Parma, and the island of Elba to France. He ... reshaped a lot of France. He re-established the University of France, reformed the education system, and he founded the Bank of France and Legion of Honor. He also made the Napoleonic Code: The first clear, compact statement of the French law.
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