7 Napoleon I 7commanded the army
of Italy in several vic-
torious campaigns.
In 1798 Napoleon
persuaded the willing
French government to
send him and a large
army to Egypt. He won
the Battle of the Pyra-
mids in July 1798, but
his fl eet was destroyed
by the British in the
Battle of the Nile at
Aboukir Bay that same
year. Napoleon then
decided to invade Syria.
At Acre, English troops
fi ghting alongside those
of Turkey held out, and
Napoleon retreated to
Egypt. In July 1799 he
defeated 10,000 Turks
in the Battle of Aboukir.
Shortly after, unrest at
home forced him to return.
The unrest turned out to be a coup that brought
Napoleon to supreme power in 1799, and he instituted
a military dictatorship, with himself as First Consul.
Napoleon introduced numerous reforms in government.
He established the University of France and reformed the
educational system. He founded the Bank of France and
the Legion of Honor. Most signifi cantly, he created the
Napoleonic Code, the fi rst clear, compact statement of
French law in centuries, which became a model for law
Napoleon in His Imperial
Robes, by François Gérard, 1805;
in the National Museum of
Versailles and Trianons. © Photos.
com/Jupiterimages