Napoleon Bonaparte is a name much revered, feared and in past, even despised. The Emperor of France was an extraordinary general, supremely capable leader, and a man loved by the French people and soldiers. Rising from the ashes of what was France after the French Revolution, Napoleon's astute political and military moves saw him ascend to the echelons of power and ultimately lead France to a position of dominance in Europe.

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Napoleon scored victories after victories, shattered no less the five coalitions of anxious European powers attempting to come together to defeat him. Napoleon's military genius prevailed over those only claiming to have it. In his heydays, Napoleon almost had the aura of an invincible god whose presence on the battlefield was enough for his troops to run down the enemy. Even after his defeat against the Sixth Coalition, Napoleon dramatically returned from the exile and took charge of the reigns of his country invigorated by his return.

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May 5 is Napoleon's death anniversary. He passed away in the year 1821.

So much is Napoleon's impact on culture that Waterloo, the place where he suffered his final defeat, often comes to indicate a hopeless, decisive loss.

The battle at Waterloo: Initial moves

After escaping his first exile in 1815, Napoleon reached France generating a wave of support for him. He raised an army with a plan to defeat the Seventh Coalition that was forming to crush him.

Two armies, one an Anglo-Allied force led by Duke of Wellington and other a Prussian army led by Field Marshal Blucher were gathered in the Netherlands. Soldiers in these two allied armies outnumbered Napoleon's own army. His best chance hence was to prevent merger of these two armies.

<blockquote>
I used to say of Napoleon that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men. 
-Duke of Wellington
</blockquote>

The Emporer entered Belgium with his troops attempting to draw wedge between Wellington and Blucher's armies. On June 16, 1815, French army defeated the Prussians at Ligny. The Prussians retreated.

Due to the Prussian defeat, the Duke of Wellington was forced to take a retreat as well. His forces were being chased by Napoleon's soldier.

Wellington retreated with his forces to Waterloo.

Prussians regroup after defeat

The Prussian army had suffered defeat but was still in good shape. It was able to establish contact with Wellington promising support. At this time, the French were under the impression that Prussians were out of the game.

With Prussian promise of support, Wellington decided to make a stand at Waterloo and hold it till Prussian help arrived.

The battle of Waterloo!

Napoleon had 72,000 men and 246 guns at Waterloo. The Anglo-Allied force 68,000 men and 156 guns.

The battle commenced at 11:30 am. Napoleon launched a diversionary attack against a British-held position to lure the Duke of Wellington into sending more forces there. But the British held on.&nbsp;

For next two hours, there were attacks and counterattacks between the French and the British which caused casualties on both sides.

Prussian reinforcements arrive!

This was the turning point of the battle. The 48,000-strong Prussian army arrived in the afternoon and threatened the French right flank forcing Napoleon to take defensive position there.

This resulted in French troops being diverted to defence of the flank than the attack against the British.

But even then, the relentless French attacks pushed the British back and English defence was on the verge of collapse. However, a tactical mistake from Napoleon gave British time to recover.

Charge of the Imperial Guard

Napoleon's Imperial Guard was the most fearsome pack of soldiers. These were battle-hardened veterans, the very best elite troops of the army.

At 7 pm on that evening, Napoleon made his last move and ordered the Imperial Guard to attack the British. The fearsome military unit was known to clinch victories. But at Waterloo they attacked a British position that was very strongly defended.

The Imperial Guard collapsed.

Fall of the French army's most elite unit was a final blow to French morale and soldiers turned and began to flee the battleground. Advancing British and Prussians ensured the grand army was defeated.

Life of Napoleon Bonaparte:

August 15, 1769: Napoleon is borne in Corsica

October 28, 1785: He graduated from military academy

December 22, 1793: Post-French Revolution of 1789, Napoleon is made Brigadier General for his courage in internal battles in Toulon

1795: Napoleon becomes general of the army in west

1796: Napoleon marries Josephine

December 5, 1797: Napoleon returns Paris as a hero after defeating Austria

1798: Napoleon begins Egyptian campaign, tastes success

1804: Napoleon becomes Emperor of France

1812: He begins disastrous Russian campaign

1814: After series of setbacks, Napoleon abdicates throne. He is exiled to Elba

1815: Napoleon escapes Elba, returns to France, rallies French army

March 29, 1815: Napoleon takes control of France, begins the "hundred days campaign"

June 18, 1815: Defeat at Waterloo

October 16, 1815: Napoleon sent to exile in St Helena

May 5, 1821: Napoleon dies

Napoleon Bonaparte is a name much revered, feared and in past, even despised. The Emperor of France was an extraordinary general, supremely capable leader, and a man loved by the French people and soldiers.

Napoleon Bonaparte is a name much revered, feared and in past, even despised. The Emperor of France was an extraordinary general, supremely capable leader, and a man loved by the French people and soldiers. Rising from the ashes of what was France after the French Revolution, Napoleon's astute political and military moves saw him ascend to the echelons of power and ultimately lead France to a position of dominance in Europe. Napoleon scored victories after victories, shattered no less the five coalitions of anxious European powers attempting to come together to defeat him. Napoleon's military genius prevailed over those only claiming to have it. In his heydays, Napoleon almost had the aura of an invincible god whose presence on the battlefield was enough for his troops to run down the enemy. Even after his defeat against the Sixth Coalition, Napoleon dramatically returned from the exile and took charge of the reigns of his country invigorated by his return. May 5 is Napoleon's death anniversary. He passed away in the year 1821. So much is Napoleon's impact on culture that Waterloo, the place where he suffered his final defeat, often comes to indicate a hopeless, decisive loss. The battle at Waterloo: Initial moves After escaping his first exile in 1815, Napoleon reached France generating a wave of support for him. He raised an army with a plan to defeat the Seventh Coalition that was forming to crush him. Two armies, one an Anglo-Allied force led by Duke of Wellington and other a Prussian army led by Field Marshal Blucher were gathered in the Netherlands. Soldiers in these two allied armies outnumbered Napoleon's own army. His best chance hence was to prevent merger of these two armies. I used to say of Napoleon that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men. -Duke of Wellington The Emporer entered Belgium with his troops attempting to draw wedge between Wellington and Blucher's armies. On June 16, 1815, French army defeated the Prussians at Ligny. The Prussians retreated. Due to the Prussian defeat, the Duke of Wellington was forced to take a retreat as well. His forces were being chased by Napoleon's soldier. Wellington retreated with his forces to Waterloo. Prussians regroup after defeat The Prussian army had suffered defeat but was still in good shape. It was able to establish contact with Wellington promising support. At this time, the French were under the impression that Prussians were out of the game. With Prussian promise of support, Wellington decided to make a stand at Waterloo and hold it till Prussian help arrived. The battle of Waterloo! Napoleon had 72,000 men and 246 guns at Waterloo. The Anglo-Allied force 68,000 men and 156 guns. The battle commenced at 11:30 am. Napoleon launched a diversionary attack against a British-held position to lure the Duke of Wellington into sending more forces there. But the British held on. For next two hours, there were attacks and counterattacks between the French and the British which caused casualties on both sides. Prussian reinforcements arrive! This was the turning point of the battle. The 48,000-strong Prussian army arrived in the afternoon and threatened the French right flank forcing Napoleon to take defensive position there. This resulted in French troops being diverted to defence of the flank than the attack against the British. But even then, the relentless French attacks pushed the British back and English defence was on the verge of collapse. However, a tactical mistake from Napoleon gave British time to recover. Charge of the Imperial Guard Napoleon's Imperial Guard was the most fearsome pack of soldiers. These were battle-hardened veterans, the very best elite troops of the army. At 7 pm on that evening, Napoleon made his last move and ordered the Imperial Guard to attack the British. The fearsome military unit was known to clinch victories. But at Waterloo they attacked a British position that was very strongly defended. The Imperial Guard collapsed. Fall of the French army's most elite unit was a final blow to French morale and soldiers turned and began to flee the battleground. Advancing British and Prussians ensured the grand army was defeated. Life of Napoleon Bonaparte: August 15, 1769: Napoleon is borne in Corsica October 28, 1785: He graduated from military academy December 22, 1793: Post-French Revolution of 1789, Napoleon is made Brigadier General for his courage in internal battles in Toulon 1795: Napoleon becomes general of the army in west 1796: Napoleon marries Josephine December 5, 1797: Napoleon returns Paris as a hero after defeating Austria 1798: Napoleon begins Egyptian campaign, tastes success 1804: Napoleon becomes Emperor of France 1812: He begins disastrous Russian campaign 1814: After series of setbacks, Napoleon abdicates throne. He is exiled to Elba 1815: Napoleon escapes Elba, returns to France, rallies French army March 29, 1815: Napoleon takes control of France, begins the "hundred days campaign" June 18, 1815: Defeat at Waterloo October 16, 1815: Napoleon sent to exile in St Helena May 5, 1821: Napoleon dies

On Napoleon's death anniversary, a re-look at the famed Battle of Waterloo

Jacques Chirac couldn’t stand him. Nicolas Sarkozy kept his distance. François Hollande shunned him. But on the 200th anniversary this week of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death, Emmanuel Macron has chosen to do what most recent presidents of France have avoided: honor the man who in 1799 destroyed the nascent French Republic in a putsch.

By choosing to lay a wreath Wednesday at Napoleon’s tomb under the golden dome of Les Invalides, Macron is stepping into the heart of France’s culture wars. Napoleon, always a contested figure, has become a Rorschach test for the French at a moment of tense cultural confrontation.

Was Napoleon a modernizing reformer whose legal code, lycée school system, central bank, and centralized administrative framework laid the basis for post-revolutionary France? Or was he a retrograde racist, imperialist, and misogynist?

By paying his respects to Napoleon, Macron will please a restive French right dreaming of lost glory and of a moment when, under its turbulent emperor, France stood at the center of the world. The French obsession with the romantic epic of Napoleon’s rise and fall is undying, as countless magazine covers and talk shows have underscored in recent weeks.

But in the current zeitgeist, Napoleon’s decisive role as founder of the modern French state tends to pale beside his record as colonizer, warmonger and enslaver. Macron is taking a risk. Officials close to him have portrayed his planned speech as an attempt to look Napoleon “in the face,” light and shadow. Others, however, insist Napoleon should be condemned rather than commemorated.

“How can we celebrate a man who was the enemy of the French Republic, of a number of European peoples, and also the enemy of humanity in that he was an enslaver?” Louis-Georges Tin, an author and activist, and Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison, a political scientist, wrote last month in Le Monde.

They argued that Les Invalides should be turned into a museum of France’s five republics and that Napoleon’s remains, like Franco’s in Spain, be returned to his family. The remains have already journeyed a long way. It took 19 years for them to reach France in 1840, after Napoleon’s lonely death at age 51 in British-imposed exile on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena.

“Yes, the head of state, the commander in chief, must bow down at the tomb of the victor of Austerlitz,” Jean d’Orléans, a descendant of the French monarchy, wrote in Le Figaro, referring to one of Napoleon’s greatest military triumphs. Honoring Napoleon amounts to “honoring the French people, honoring ourselves.”

Yet this brilliant general who fought to free Europe from the feudal shackles of monarchy also restored slavery by decree in the French Caribbean in 1802, after its post-revolutionary abolition in 1794.

Revolts in Guadeloupe and the then French colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, were ruthlessly repressed. Haiti prevailed, declared independence in 1804 and abolished slavery. France, the only country to have ended and then reinstated slavery, did not re-abolish slavery until 1848.

This history has tended to be eclipsed by the magnetism of the Bonapartist saga. Now, as with Jefferson’s slave-owning in the United States, or the criticism in Britain last year of Churchill for his comments about racial hierarchies, a new age has a new focus.

Claude Ribbe, whose book “Napoleon’s Crimes” caused an outcry when it was published in 2005 because of its descriptions of French brutality in the Caribbean, said: “We can commemorate him, but never celebrate him, because of the shadow of his racism, still felt in France today.”

This view has gained some ground as France has embarked on a reckoning, encouraged by Macron, of its colonial past, particularly in Algeria, and a vigorous debate has begun on whether the country’s purportedly colorblind universalist model masks widespread racism.

Josette Borel-Lincertin, the Socialist president of the departmental council in Guadeloupe, told Le Monde that her community would not participate in tributes to Napoleon, whom every Guadeloupian knows reestablished slavery. “We can only send from this side of the ocean the echo of our pain,” she said.

That echo, in mainland France, can seem faint. Fascination with Napoleon appears more potent than ever, as if, in a time of pandemic-induced uncertainty, he embodies everything France feels it has lost. Napoleon’s life remains a parable for many people, including Macron, of national action, and grandeur — flawed, no doubt, violent without question, but transformative.

This general by his 20s, this “Robespierre on horseback” bearing the anti-clerical message of the 1789 revolution across Europe, this mastermind of the battles of Marengo and Austerlitz, represents a quintessence of French audacity and genius to a France that must now satisfy itself with being a medium-size power.

Pascal Bruckner, a writer, said: “Why the obsession? Because with Napoleon, the Gallic cockerel became an imperial eagle. Now it’s just a tired old hen on its bell tower.”

Éric Zemmour, author of “The French Suicide,” typifies the right’s view of Napoleon. Zemmour likes to recall how it took all of Europe to defeat Napoleon in 1815. By 1940, Nazi Germany crushed France in three weeks. Today, he argues, the country has difficulty even controlling its borders.

It is this caricature of French decline that lay behind a letter last month from 20 retired generals that described France as being in a state of “disintegration” and warned of a possible coup. Marine Le Pen, the rightist leader who is the strongest challenger to Macron in next year’s presidential election, applauded it.

This is the delicate context of Macron’s tribute to a man who came to power in a coup. On May 9, he will mark Europe Day. On May 10, Macron will commemorate the law passed in 2001 that recognized slavery as a crime against humanity.

Gabriel Attal, the government spokesman, said: “To commemorate is to have your eyes wide open on our history and look it in the face. Even with respect to choices that today look questionable.”

Jacques Chirac couldn’t stand him. Nicolas Sarkozy kept his distance. François Hollande shunned him. But on the 200th anniversary this week of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death, Emmanuel Macron has chosen to do what most recent presidents of France have avoided: honor the man who in 1799 destroyed the nascent French Republic in a putsch.

Jacques Chirac couldn’t stand him. Nicolas Sarkozy kept his distance. François Hollande shunned him. But on the 200th anniversary this week of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death, Emmanuel Macron has chosen to do what most recent presidents of France have avoided: honor the man who in 1799 destroyed the nascent French Republic in a putsch. By choosing to lay a wreath Wednesday at Napoleon’s tomb under the golden dome of Les Invalides, Macron is stepping into the heart of France’s culture wars. Napoleon, always a contested figure, has become a Rorschach test for the French at a moment of tense cultural confrontation. Was Napoleon a modernizing reformer whose legal code, lycée school system, central bank, and centralized administrative framework laid the basis for post-revolutionary France? Or was he a retrograde racist, imperialist, and misogynist? By paying his respects to Napoleon, Macron will please a restive French right dreaming of lost glory and of a moment when, under its turbulent emperor, France stood at the center of the world. The French obsession with the romantic epic of Napoleon’s rise and fall is undying, as countless magazine covers and talk shows have underscored in recent weeks. But in the current zeitgeist, Napoleon’s decisive role as founder of the modern French state tends to pale beside his record as colonizer, warmonger and enslaver. Macron is taking a risk. Officials close to him have portrayed his planned speech as an attempt to look Napoleon “in the face,” light and shadow. Others, however, insist Napoleon should be condemned rather than commemorated. “How can we celebrate a man who was the enemy of the French Republic, of a number of European peoples, and also the enemy of humanity in that he was an enslaver?” Louis-Georges Tin, an author and activist, and Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison, a political scientist, wrote last month in Le Monde. They argued that Les Invalides should be turned into a museum of France’s five republics and that Napoleon’s remains, like Franco’s in Spain, be returned to his family. The remains have already journeyed a long way. It took 19 years for them to reach France in 1840, after Napoleon’s lonely death at age 51 in British-imposed exile on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena. “Yes, the head of state, the commander in chief, must bow down at the tomb of the victor of Austerlitz,” Jean d’Orléans, a descendant of the French monarchy, wrote in Le Figaro, referring to one of Napoleon’s greatest military triumphs. Honoring Napoleon amounts to “honoring the French people, honoring ourselves.” Yet this brilliant general who fought to free Europe from the feudal shackles of monarchy also restored slavery by decree in the French Caribbean in 1802, after its post-revolutionary abolition in 1794. Revolts in Guadeloupe and the then French colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, were ruthlessly repressed. Haiti prevailed, declared independence in 1804 and abolished slavery. France, the only country to have ended and then reinstated slavery, did not re-abolish slavery until 1848. This history has tended to be eclipsed by the magnetism of the Bonapartist saga. Now, as with Jefferson’s slave-owning in the United States, or the criticism in Britain last year of Churchill for his comments about racial hierarchies, a new age has a new focus. Claude Ribbe, whose book “Napoleon’s Crimes” caused an outcry when it was published in 2005 because of its descriptions of French brutality in the Caribbean, said: “We can commemorate him, but never celebrate him, because of the shadow of his racism, still felt in France today.” This view has gained some ground as France has embarked on a reckoning, encouraged by Macron, of its colonial past, particularly in Algeria, and a vigorous debate has begun on whether the country’s purportedly colorblind universalist model masks widespread racism. Josette Borel-Lincertin, the Socialist president of the departmental council in Guadeloupe, told Le Monde that her community would not participate in tributes to Napoleon, whom every Guadeloupian knows reestablished slavery. “We can only send from this side of the ocean the echo of our pain,” she said. That echo, in mainland France, can seem faint. Fascination with Napoleon appears more potent than ever, as if, in a time of pandemic-induced uncertainty, he embodies everything France feels it has lost. Napoleon’s life remains a parable for many people, including Macron, of national action, and grandeur — flawed, no doubt, violent without question, but transformative. This general by his 20s, this “Robespierre on horseback” bearing the anti-clerical message of the 1789 revolution across Europe, this mastermind of the battles of Marengo and Austerlitz, represents a quintessence of French audacity and genius to a France that must now satisfy itself with being a medium-size power. Pascal Bruckner, a writer, said: “Why the obsession? Because with Napoleon, the Gallic cockerel became an imperial eagle. Now it’s just a tired old hen on its bell tower.” Éric Zemmour, author of “The French Suicide,” typifies the right’s view of Napoleon. Zemmour likes to recall how it took all of Europe to defeat Napoleon in 1815. By 1940, Nazi Germany crushed France in three weeks. Today, he argues, the country has difficulty even controlling its borders. It is this caricature of French decline that lay behind a letter last month from 20 retired generals that described France as being in a state of “disintegration” and warned of a possible coup. Marine Le Pen, the rightist leader who is the strongest challenger to Macron in next year’s presidential election, applauded it. This is the delicate context of Macron’s tribute to a man who came to power in a coup. On May 9, he will mark Europe Day. On May 10, Macron will commemorate the law passed in 2001 that recognized slavery as a crime against humanity. Gabriel Attal, the government spokesman, said: “To commemorate is to have your eyes wide open on our history and look it in the face. Even with respect to choices that today look questionable.”

France battles over whether to cancel or celebrate Napoleon, 200 years since his death

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On Napoleon's death anniversary, a re-look at the famed Battle of Waterloo

France battles over whether to cancel or celebrate Napoleon, 200 years since his death