7 Napoleon I 71814, the Campaign of France, by Ernest Meissonier, 1864; in the Louvre,
Paris. © Photos.com/Jupiterimages
Napoleon led the French army into Austria and
defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram in 1809,
signing the Treaty of Vienna. Thereafter, except for tem-
porary setbacks in Spain, he was successful, consolidating
most of Europe as his empire by about 1810. In 1812, to
enforce the Treaty of Tilsit, he led an army of about
600,000 into Russia. Napoleon’s forces won the Battle of
Borodino, but were forced to retreat from Moscow with
disastrous losses. His army greatly weakened, he was met
by a strong coalition of Allied powers, who defeated him
at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.
On March 30, 1814, the Allies captured Paris itself.
Napoleon’s generals refused to continue the hopeless