Napoleon was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. Napoleon was always an agressive child and realized he was meant to have a military career, winning a scholarship to a French Military Academy. After a while in the military academy, he had become an officer in the French army when the French Revolution began in 1789. Napoleon fought well for the Rebublic, helping them to defeat the British at Toulon. He then went back to Corsica, and then civil war broke out which forced him and his family to flee to France. Soon, he married Josephine de Beauharnais and gained command of the French Army in Italy. He then negotiated the Treaty of Campo Formio after defeating the Austrians in 1797. His popularity grew as a result of this victory. Soon after,the Directory agreed to let Napoleon take an army on an Egyptian campaign to capture Egypt and stop British shipping to India. The Directory was soon losing power, so he abandoned his army and rapidly returned to Paris to take advantage of the situation, becoming the first of three consuls in the new government proclaimed in 1799.
As First Consul, Napoleon decided to use his power and end the current fighting between the French and the Church by issuing the Concordat of 1801. In 1804, he set the foundation for much of Europe's legal system by establishing the Napoleonic Code. Also in 1804, he did away with the Consul and crowned himself emperor. In 1805, Napoleon was planning an invasion of England when the Russian and Austrian armies began marching towards France. Napoleon's forces defeated them at Austerlitz, but after the British navy had beat Napoleon's navy at Trafalgar. He started expanding his empire, and soon controlled almost all of Western Europe with the exception of Spain. .
Josephine and Napoleon's relationship were going through tough times. Napoleon realized she was having affairs with various men while he was away, and decided he wanted to split.
