Key learning points

1. Napoleon seized power in 1799, failed to recapture Saint-Domingue and completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
2. Napoleon made himself 'Emperor of the French' in 1804 and took on absolute power.
3. Napoleon introduced the Code Napoleon in 1804 which replaced feudalism with a modern legal framework.
4. Britain, France and Russia entered a military coalition against France in 1805 known as the Third Coalition.
5. Napoleon conquered much of Europe and exported French laws and ideals to those territories.

Keywords

• Consulate - a Consulate is a government normally ruled by more than one ‘Consul’ in a power-sharing arrangement

• Emperor - an emperor is a ruler with absolute power, with control over an empire, which is usually a group of countries taken by conquest

• Feudal - feudal describes the old French social hierarchy where the king owned all land and distributed it to those below him, who did the same for those below them, in exchange for work, money or service

• Coalition - a coalition is an alliance between countries against a common enemy

Common misconception