The story begins in 1768 in Corsica.
For centuries, the island was a Genoese possession.
But separatist revolts force Genoa to ask help from the French army.
In the end, the sovereignty of the island is ceded to France.
The following year, Napoleon Bonaparte is born into a noble family from Ajaccio.
He grows up with his seven brothers and sisters and when he turns 9,
is sent to the military school in Brienne, Champagne.
Napoleon, a good student, is admitted to the military academy in Paris
where he specializes in artillery.
The following year, at age 16, he is appointed second lieutenant of the artillery in Valence.
In France, the economic situation is catastrophic.
The Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War have emptied the coffers of the country.
Louis XVI, struggling with the country’s financial difficulties,
summons to Versailles representatives of the clergy, the nobility and the Third Estate, that is the people,
to find a solution to the crisis.
After disagreements, Third Estate officials seize power by founding the National Assembly,
while in Paris, insurgents take over the royal fortress of Bastille.
The revolutionaries vote for ending feudal privileges
and adopt the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen.
King Louis XVI is then forcibly taken to Paris,
from where he later tries to flee with his family to a royalist stronghold.
But they are spotted and stopped on the way.
Initially, European monarchies remain mute about the French revolution,
seeing the weakening of their French competitor as a good thing.
But the arrest of Louis XVI make them fear that revolutionary ideas might spread
across the continent and threaten their thrones.
Prussia and Austria then combine forces to try and restore the French monarchy.
War breaks out, with the French armies in poor condition.
Facing the Allied army advance on Paris,
the revolutionaries panic and execute all opponents of the revolution.
But eventually an unexpected victory of the French army
pushes the coalition back beyond the country's borders.
The revolutionaries regain confidence and proclaim the Republic.
Louis XVI is then tried and guillotined, further angering European monarchies.
The coalition strengthens, while on the French side, conscriptions swell up the ranks of the army.
Within the country, clashes between royalist and counter-revolutionary forces cause civil wars.
Napoleon and his family, who support the revolution, are driven away by Corsican separatists.
In Toulon, royalists seize the city and receive the military support of Britain and Spain,
that enter the harbor of Toulon with their armies.
After the French army fails to retake the city,
Napoleon is summoned to replace the artillery commander who was injured.
Assessing the situation, he suggests a new plan.
Instead of attacking from the North, he proposes seizing the forts south of the harbor
to install his artillery and attack the allied fleet.
His plan proves successful, and the city is taken back in two days.
Napoleon’s decisive intervention earns him a promotion.
But in Paris, a new coup overthrows the government, and Napoleon loses his title.
A year later, a royalist revolt breaks out in Paris and he is put in-charge of quelling the rebellion,
giving him an opportunity to prove his loyalty for the new government.
He orders his men to fire on the crowd, killing 200 people and ending the insurgency.
As a reward, Napoleon is given command of the French army of Italy.
Before leaving Paris, Napoleon marries Josephine, with whom he had fallen madly in love.
She is the widow of a guillotined viscount and a mother of two.
Napoleon joins his army, which he finds in a poor state.
His men are poorly fed, badly equipped and no longer paid.
Napoleon would assume the role of their charismatic leader
and motivates his troops by promising them the riches of northern Italy.
At this time, two armies are stationed there, a Piedmontese army and an Austrian one.
Napoleon is outnumbered and knows that if both armies unite, he would have no chance.
His plan is to speedily advance his troops,
place them in between both armies, and fight them separately.
On April 10, he launches his attack.
The plan works and after a few battles, he defeats the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Reeling from the attack, the Austrian army retreats to Milan
and stations some troops along the Po river to prevent Napoleon from crossing.
Napoleon sends over a small part of his army as a diversion
while the bulk of his troops cross the river farther east.
This move threatens to break the Austrian line of communication,
thus isolating its army, which then withdraws from Milan without fighting and flees eastward.
For a year, Napoleon maintains an advantage thanks to his troops’ speedy movements,
and because Austrian forces divides itself into smaller armies.
Eventually, Napoleon’s army threatens Vienna, forcing the Emperor of Austria to seek an armistice.
Napoleon negotiates and himself signs the peace treaty.
He obtains the annexation of the Austrian Netherlands
and pushes the boundaries of the country to the Rhine.
Austria receives the Republic of Venice and recognizes the new Italian republics created by Napoleon.
Upon his return to Paris, Napoleon is welcomed as a hero.
The government now asks him to invade Britain, the last enemy of France.
But England has control over the seas and Napoleon is aware of the risk that this entails.
He instead suggests attacking Britain where they least expect it.
By seizing Egypt, he thinks he can threaten the important colony of India.
The government accepts the proposal, as for them this young general,
who is a bit too ambitious and influential, is less dangerous while he is on a mission.
Napoleon leaves from Toulon with hundreds of ships carrying a 40,000-man army.
Along the way, he captures Malta, while British Admiral Nelson,
not knowing Napoleon’s final destination, tries looking for him.
Nelson reaches Alexandria before Napoleon and continues searching for him northward.
Napoleon lands near Alexandria in the Ottoman province of Egypt.
He captures the city and then goes on further south.
At the gates of Cairo, he defeats the Mamluk army and seizes the city.
But in the north, British ships eventually find the French fleet and completely destroy it.
Napoleon and his army find themselves stuck in Egypt.
This information spreads in Europe and leads to the creation of a second anti-French coalition
joined by the Ottoman Empire.
Napoleon then goes back to the east, seizing towns along the way, and begins the siege of Acre.
But the Ottoman resistance, supported by the British, prevents the city from being captured.
Napoleon then hears that the British are preparing for the landing of an Ottoman army in Alexandria.
He leaves to fight them and wins the battle with the last soldiers he had available.
Hearing about the complicated situation in France, he travels alone, leaving behind his army.
When he reaches France, the situation is tense.
Austrian and Russian armies retake Northern Italy, while Paris suffers from political instability.
Napoleon, supported by the people and the army,
involves himself in a coup and is named as First Consul for the following 10 years.
He is now head of the country and can reform it at will.
He consolidates power and prepares a new army to reconquer the North of Italy.
To Austria’s surprise, he crosses the Great St Bernard Pass,
usually deemed impassable, and wins a battle against the Austrians.
A second victory further north eventually defeats the empire.
Within months, a peace treaty was signed by all European powers,
including the UK, their arch enemy.
In France, Napoleon put an end to 10 years of revolutions and instability
and is rewarded with the title of lifelong Consul.
Napoleon takes advantage of peacetime to reform the country.
He reforms the administration, economy, and education.
He begins writing the Civil Code and completely restructures the country's army.
Beyond France, he continues with his expansionist and interventionist policy by redrawing boundaries at will,
which angers other powers, especially the United Kingdom for whom France is too big a risk.
Aware of the situation, Napoleon sells Louisiana to the United States to finance future wars
and to prevent the territory from falling into the hands of the British.
War resumes, but the UK cannot afford to attack France on its territory
and instead decides to focus on diplomatic efforts to rally other powers.
Napoleon, who narrowly escaped an attack, knows his live is in danger.
He tries to sustain the new French model by creating an empire,
hoping that the revolutionary values remain strong, even if he were to die.
On December 2nd, 1804, Napoleon becomes the emperor,
and crowns himself and his wife Josephine in Notre Dame de Paris.
He implements a more authoritarian regime.
From a military standpoint, he makes Spain go to war against the United Kingdom
because he needs its military fleet.
Having now brought together enough armies along the Channel,
Napoleon is ready to invade the United Kingdom.