Here some information about the life of Napoleon, from his rise to power to banishment and exile to the Atlantic Ocean.

1. napoleonnapoleon

2. No directionNo direction
•As the leaders of the French
Revolution continued to
come and go, each more
radical than the one before
him, a group needed to step
up and take control.

3. No directionNo direction
•This group called
themselves the DirectoryDirectory, a
five-person panel that tried
to control the Revolution
and to take control of
France.

4. No directionNo direction
•They were not able to do so.
•The people of France
needed a a strong and
powerful leader who could
promise to bring France
back to the top of Europe.

5. No directionNo direction
•That man was NapoleonNapoleon
BonaparteBonaparte.

6. powerpower
•Napoleon was a short,
stubborn man from the
island of Corsica in the
Mediterranean Sea.

7. powerpower
•He was given a fine
education and his love of
reading helped him to
achieve acceptance into the
finest military schools in
France.

8. powerpower
•With this education,
Napoleon was able to come
in and quickly take control
of the situation in a power
vacuum in France.

9. controlcontrol
•In order to gain control, he,
his brother and two
members of the government
running France during the
revolution, launched a
coup d’etatcoup d’etat.

10. controlcontrol
•A coup d’etat happens when
a government is suddenly
changed or overthrown by a
small group of people.

11. In chargeIn charge
•Once he had control in
France, he had a plebiscite,
or vote of the people, in
order to have them believe
that they had actually
chosen him as their leader.

12. In chargeIn charge
•He established state
schools, called lycees, that
trained students to be
government employees.

13. In chargeIn charge
•The opportunity to go the
lycees was open to anyone,
which only increased his
popularity with the people
of France.

14. In chargeIn charge
•He also put in place a
system of laws called the
Napoleonic Code, which
gave France a set of laws
that attempted to treat
everyone equally.

15. In chargeIn charge
• The problem with the code was
that it took away some of the
basic rights that had been
given to people under either
the National Assembly or the
Legislative Assembly.

16. In chargeIn charge
•Now that Napoleon had
taken control of the
government in France, he
decided it was time to make
France a powerful nation
again.

17. In chargeIn charge
•The people of France made
him almost a dictator and
then “elected” him emperor
of France because of the
good things that he did for
them.

18. expansionexpansion
• Napoleon decided that it
would be a good idea to bring
his way of life to all of the
people of Europe and maybe
the world.

19. expansionexpansion
• He was able to recapture land
in North America that had
been taken from France by
Spain, but when he couldn’t
hold on to it (because of
problems in Haiti) he was
forced to let it go.

20. expansionexpansion
• Part of that land was sold to
the United States and became
known as the Louisiana
Purchase.

21. expansionexpansion
• He decided to focus his
attention on Europe, and was
able to force the leaders of
Austria, Prussia, and Russia to
sign peace treaties with him.

22. expansionexpansion
• He turned his attention to the
last remaining European
power, England.
• Had Napoleon been able to
fight England in a land battle
he might have done better.

23. expansionexpansion
• But the battle took place near the
Strait of Gibraltar at the entrance
to the Mediterranean Sea, which
put Napoleon at a disadvantage.
• He was defeated there but still
believed that he could conquer all
of Europe.

24. expansionexpansion
• In order to help make this
happen, he declared a
blockade, which closed all of
the ports of European
continent from trade and
communication with England.

25. expansionexpansion
• He called this plan the
Continental System, because it
would make the nations on the
continent of Europe less
dependent on England for
everything and give them more
power.

26. expansionexpansion
•His military training for
land battles made him quite
successful and he
conquered land from Spain
to Russia.

27. expansionexpansion
•It was his invasion of
Russia, though, that caused
his downfall.

28. expansionexpansion
•He began an invasion
of Russia in the fall of
1811.

29. expansionexpansion
• With the Russian winter fast
approaching and his supply
lines stretched thin, Napoleon
was in trouble when the
Russian army retreated further
and further into their country.

30. expansionexpansion
•When the spring of 1812
came, Napoleon was no
match for the Russian
troops that came at him.

31. expansionexpansion
•He was quickly defeated
and exiled.
•He briefly escaped from
exile but was defeated at the
Battle of Waterloo and sent
away again.

32. expansionexpansion
•Europe now had to try and
reconstruct their continent
and figure out what came
next.