Napoleon abdicated in April and was exiled to Elba, but returned to France in February 1815. War with Britain resumed in 1803, soon involving other European countries as well, and this struggle lasted until 1814. In 1804, he crowned himself Emperor of the French.
Returning to France, he helped seize power to become First Consul (there were 2 others). In the army he rose from the rank of second lieutenant in the artillery to general in command of the French army in Italy (1796-97) and in Egypt (1798-99). Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica in 1769 and was trained in France as an engineer and artilleryman. The social, political, and legal impacts spread even further in Europe and Spanish America. For a brief time, they made France the most influential power in Europe, as the conflicts cemented many of the fundamental changes emerging from the French Revolution not only in France but also in adjacent lands in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) were a series of wars between France and shifting alliances between other European powers. Through his military exploits and his ruthless efficiency, Napoleon rose from obscurity to become Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 on the island of Corsica.
