Napoleon's Invasion Of France

On top of this, Napoleon helped to calm France down after the revolution. He centralized the government, supported science and the arts, and helped to once again improve the relationships of the Pope and France. Napoleon also instituted the Napoleonic code, which ended privileges at birth, instituted freedom of religion, and instituted a civil service that made government positions went to the most qualified in the field. In 1802, Napoleon instituted an amendment in the French Consul that made him First Consul for the rest of his life. In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France in a very extravagant ceremony at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
In 1803, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to the Americans for 15 million dollars,
The Spanish and Portuguese were able to fend off the French with militias of peasant workers who used Guerrilla warfare to ambush French troops. Soon after Napoleon’s defeats in the Iberian Peninsula and Russia, Napoleon lost the decisive Battle of Leipzig, or Battle of Nations, and soon after retreated to France. Now having lost all of his power outside France, and surrounded by coalition forces, France is invaded, and Paris was captured in March 1814. A month later, on April 6th, 1814, Napoleon signs the Treaty of Fontainebleau unwillingly, and was forced to abdicate the throne. Soon after, he was exiled to the small Mediterranean island of Elba, just off the coast of Italy, which he was given sovereignty
On March 20 of the same year, he returned to Paris, where he was welcomed back by cheering crowds. Soon after Napoleon’s arrival, the newly crowned Louis XVIII fled, and Napoleon’s 100 day campaign started. As soon as coalition forces heard the news of Napoleon’s return, they prepared to go to war once again. Napoleon prepared a new army hastily, and planned to strike preemptively before coalition forces could prepare, beating them and redeeming his empire. In June 1815, Napoleon’s forces invaded Belgium, where both British and Prussian troops were stationed. At first the invasion looked good for Napoleon when he won the Battle of Ligny on June 16. But things quickly changed two days later, on June 18, in the Battle of Waterloo. The Battle of Waterloo began after a long rainstorm, and Napoleon halted his order to attack until midday to let the waterlogged ground dry. This delay gave the Prussians enough time to march an additional 30,000 troops into Waterloo, making their army outnumber Napoleon’s by about 26,000 men. Although Napoleon led a strong attack on the British, the influx of Prussian reinforcements quickly flipped the battle on it’s head. By the end of the battle, about 50,000 men were dead. Napoleon was reportedly ill during the campaign in Belgium, which may have led to some of his poor tactical decisions and indecisive acts helped