Napoleon I Bonaparte (Ajaccio, August 15, 1769 - Santa Elena, May 5, 1821). He was a soldier, First Consul (1799-1804) and Emperor of the French (1804-1815). He was the second son of Carlo Buonaparte (1746-1785) and Leticia Ramolino (1750-1836). He studied at the military College of Brienne and the military school of Paris. He also was Lieutenant of artillery. He welcomed the French Revolution of 1789. In Corsica, he was mixed with the movements that the island lived. He took sides against Pasquale de Paoli (1725-1807), who wanted to call the British to expel the French. In 1793, he was defeated and was forced to leave Corsica. That same year, he was appointed Commander (September) and General (December). In 1794, he was committed to the fall of Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) and was rehabilitated by Paul Barras (1755-1829). In 1795, Barras entrusted Napoleon the command of the troops which were in charge of crush the royalist insurrection against the Convention. Thanks to the success of this mission, in 1796 he was awarded with the command of the army of Italy. In this campaign, it showed the military genius, which ended the war with the signing of the Treaty of Campoformio (October 18, 1797). In 1798, he led an expedition against Egypt, considered a strategic position in the British route to the Indies. He crushed the Mamluks in the battle of the pyramids, but Admiral Horacio Nelson (1758-1805) destroyed his fleet in Abukir. In 1799 (August 22), he heard about the French setbacks in Europe and he left his army to Jean Baptiste Kléber (1753-1800), and then he returned to France. Again in Paris, he defeated the Directory (December 9 and 10) and created plebiscitary Republic in which the people delegated to Bonaparte, who was First Consul, the executive power during 10 years. At the end of a long period of anarchy, the repair work carried out was spectacular: administration reform creating institutions such as Council of State, prefects, judicial organization or codes; he ended with the civil wars that destroyed the eastern part of the country; he also signed the Concordat of 1801 with the Pope; he created an effective financial administration that allowed to put an end to the deficit that affected the revolution; and in the external side, the war that confronted France against the second Coalition ended victoriously. Once they were defeated by Bonaparte at Marengo (June 14, 1800), in Italy by the General Jean Victor Moreau (1763-1813) and in Germany at Hohenlinden (December 3, 1800), the Austrians signed the peace of Luneville (February 9, 1801). In turn, Great Britain accepted to negotiate on the peace of Amiens (March 1802). In 1802, he became Consul for life and in 1804, Emperor. The resumption of the war with Great Britain and the failure of the royalist plots, made him earn the adhesion of the old revolutionary staff. In 1804, he was proclaimed Emperor Senatus-Consultus (May 18) and was consecrated by Pope Pius VII (1742-1823) in the Cathedral of Notre Dame (December 2). Once he had a control over France nearly indisputable, at least until 1812 and at the front of a powerful state of Europe, he could confront the coalition of the Kings that was encouraged by Great Britain. And to overcome them, he conceived the landing of an army on the island concentrated in Boulogne. The project could not be conducted because of the attack to Bavaria, ally of France, Austria and the disaster of the French fleet at Trafalgar. He was beaten in the sea. Napoleon was superior on the continent: he triumphed over the Austrians in Ulm and the Austro-Russian forces at Austerlitz (December 2, 1805). Austria signed the peace of Pressburg (December 26, 1805). In 1806, he faced Prussia where the Prussian army is defeated at Jena (October 14). In 1807, the Russians were defeated at Eylau (February 7-8) and at Friedland (June 14). The zar Alexander I of Russia (1777-1825) signed with Napoleon the agreement of Tilsit (July 1807). Against Great Britain, he conceived the continental blockade (Berlin Decree, November 21, 1806), which consisted in closing the continent to the English goods in order to ruin the foreign trade of Great Britain. But to entirely close Europe to British trade products, he was dragged to a series of conquests. That was how he intervened in Portugal, traditional customer of Great Britain, and then in Spain, where he replaced the gorgonses with his brother Joseph (1768-1844). In Spain, the French General Pierre-Antoine Dupont (1765-1840) was defeated at Bailén (July 19, 1808). To take revenge, Napoleon went to Spain (November 1808 ? January 1809). But the rearmament of Austria forced him to return to France. Once they were defeated at Wagram (July 6, 1809), the Austrians signed the peace of Vienna (October 14, 1809). Napoleon decided to marry again and have heirs, so he divorced Josefina (1763-1814) and married María Luisa de Austria (1791-1847), Archduchess of Austria (April 1-2, 1810), who bore him a son, the King of Rome (1811-1832). When he became allies with the Habsburgs, he accentuated the monarchic character of his power, removed old revolutionaries and introduced a growing number of nobles in the administration. Napoleon reigned over an empire that it covered the half of Europe. France was annexed with Belgium, Holland, the left bank of the Rhine, the Hanseatic cities, a part of Italy (Piedmont, Genoa, Tuscany and Rome that was snatched to the Pope in 1809) and Illyria. Three political formations had Napoleon as Chief: Confederation of the Rhine, which included (in addition to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw) Germany, with the exception of Austria and Prussia; Confederation of Switzerland, and the Kingdom of Italy (Milan). Two States were vassals: Naples was entrusted to Joachim Napoléon Murat (1767-1815), and Spain was granted to his brother Joseph. In Sweden, he was appointed as presumptive heir to a French Marshal, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (1763-1844). The influence of Napoleon reached as far as Java, a Dutch colony. However, the Empire had its weaknesses. Napoleon permitted that the Spanish insurrection progressed. The uprising of the American colonies against Joseph opened to Great Britain some markets that compensated those that the continental blockade made them lose in Europe. Great Britain suffered a serious crisis in 1810, but thanks to the expedition launched by Napoleon against Russia, Great Britain got off. This expedition had origin in the continental blockade, which hardly supported Russia, affected in his hemp wood exports to Great Britain. War broke out in 1812. Napoleon gathered an army of more than 600 thousand men, in which Europe was represented. But when he expected a quick victory on the plains of Poland, Napoleon saw disappear the enemy right in front of him, forcing him to penetrate deep into Russia. The meeting finally took place on the banks of the Moskva, at Borodino (September 7, 1812). Napoleon entered in Moscow that was destroyed partly because of a gigantic fire. The Tsar refused to negotiate, and Napoleon had to evacuate the city. The retreat was a disaster because of cold and hunger. On December 16, only 18 thousand men returned to Poland. The importance of the disaster motivated Germany that bore with difficulty the rigors of a continental blockade which deprived it of sugar and coffee. Prussia, Austria and all the German States turned against Napoleon. Despite the formation of a new army, he was between two fronts: in the East, Germany which he had to evacuate it after the defeat of Leipzig (October 16-19, 1813), and southern Spain, where Wellington expelled the French generals. Once France was invaded, Napoleon could not prevent that the allies entered in Paris, on March 31, 1814. Abandoned by his marshals, he abdicated unconditionally on April 6, 1814. Once he was converted into the Sovereign of the island of Elba, because of his abdication to the imperial throne, Napoleon took advantage of the mistakes of the monarchy restored in Louis XVIII, to try to recover the power in France in February 1815. After that, he remained in it for a hundred days. With Europe associated again, he was defeated at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. He surrendered to the British, who banished him to Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic and there he died on May 5, 1821.