Napoleonic Era

The Napoleonic era was relatively short, starting in 1799 and ending in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo. 

Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769.  He was serving in the army when the French Revolution started in 1789 and quickly rose to general. In 1799, he led a coup d'état, seizing power and establishing the French Consulate. In 1804 he declared himself Emperor and set out to conquer Europe.

Over the next ten years, his armies acquired control of most of continental Europe by conquest or alliance. The ill-fated invasion of Russia in 1812 was a turning point. Napoleon abdicated the throne in 1814 and was sent to exile on the island of Elba. The next year, he escaped from Elba and briefly returned to power. This was known as the Hundred Days Campaign, which ended with Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. He was then exiled to the remote island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. He was 51 years old.