In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte was confronted by Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès—one of five Directorsconstituting the executive branch of the French government—who sought his support for a coup d'état to overthrow th

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In the War of the Third Coalition, Napoleon swept away the remnants of the old Holy Roman Empire and created in southern Germany

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The Treaties of Tilsit ended the war between Russia and France and began an alliance between the two empires that held as much power as the rest

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Napoleon had hardly succeeded in putting down the revolt in Germany when the emperor of Russia himself headed a European insurrection against Napoleon. To put an end to this, to ensure his own access to the Mediterranean and exclude his chief rival, Napoleon

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Napoleon gained support by appealing to some common concerns of the French people. These included dislike of the emigrant nobility who had escaped persecution, fear by some of a restoration of the Ancien Régime, a dislike and suspicion of foreign

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• French départements in 1801 during the Consulate
• French départements in 1812
• Map of the First French Empire in 1812, divided into 133 départements, with the kingdoms of

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Undermining forces, however, had already begun to impinge on the faults inherent in Napoleon's achievements. Britain, protected by the English Channel and its navy, was persistently active, and rebellion of both the governing and of the governed broke out everywhere.

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