By 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, self proclaimed Emperor of France, was facing a collapse of his empire. From 1810, at the peak of his political and military power, to the spring of 1814, Napoleon suffered from too many territories to govern and too many wars being fought on too many fronts. Allied forces, from Britain, Prussia, the Netherlands and Belgium all worked toward defeating Napoleon, finally taking the city of Paris on March 31, 1814. Even then, with the capital city under allied control, Napoleon refused to concede defeat, only doing so when his own marshals refused to obey his commands any longer.
Napoleon Abdicates
On April 4th, Napoleon officially abdicated as Emperor of France. The Allied forces decided to exile the former emperor to the small island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany. Instead of a European Empire, Napoleon now ruled over 86 square miles of rough island terrain. The allies immediately restored the Bourbon monarchy, making Louis XVIII the King of France.
Napoleon Escapes From Elba
The allied forces gathered together at the Congress of Vienna in November 1814 to decide best how to divvy up Napoleon’s conquered territories. While the European powers squabbled over who gets what, Napoleon was receiving steady reports that the people of France were unhappy with the restored monarchy and the new French government. So on March 1, 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed at the port of Cannes, along the Mediterranean coast, with a few hindered followers. The soldiers that Louis XVIII dispatched to arrest Napoleon defected and joined with him instead. The thwarted Emperor of France reached Paris on March 20, 1815 and was heartily welcomed by the peasants and middle class. Louis XVIII fled and the allies in Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw.
The Battle of Waterloo
The Allies planned full scale invasion of France for July, 1815. In the meantime, British and Prussian troops stationed in Belgium were responsible for keeping Napoleon contained in France. The troops were under the direction of British war hero, the Duke of Wellington and Prussian commander Gebhard Lebercht von Blücher.
On June 16 Napoleon’s forces defeated the Prussians at Ligny. He then set out to defeat the 96,000 troops at Waterloo. Napoleon was outnumbered, with only 74,000 troops. However he had his Imperial Guard, which had been undefeated for 11 years. When the Imperial Guard was sent to take the ridge that Wellington and his troops held, the unthinkable happened. The Imperial Guard broke in retreat and the battle was over. Napoleon had lost his last hope of regaining power.
Napoleon Exlied to St. Helena
Following the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon tried to hop a ship to America, but was caught by the British. He then begged for asylum from Britain his “oldest and most constant enemy.” Britain said thanks, but no thanks, and proceeded to banish Napoleon to St. Helena, a remote island hundreds of miles off the coast of Africa. Napoleon would never set foot in France again. He spent the last six years of his life on St. Helena, dictating a rather inaccurate (though very entertaining) autobiography.
Despite Napoleons less than glorious end, his legacy was long lasting. The Napoleonic codes, the ideas of the Rights of Man, and other principles from the French Revolution were carried throughout Western Europe and beyond.
Sources:
Godechot, Jacques. The Napoleonic Era in Europe. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
Lang, Sean. European History for Dummies. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, LTD, 2006.
Stavrianos, L.S.. The World Since 1500: A Global History. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966.
Lorri Brown - I am a published freelance writer living in the beautiful foothills of Western Maine. Mom to four wonderful children, my passion for ...
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