With France once again asserting itself on the European and world stage, the remarkable historical career of Napoleon Bonaparte has once again emerged as both an inspiration and a warning. His impact in shaping modern Europe was profound. He and his armies came to dominate the continent, leaving no European country untouched or unchanged. In his own words he was ‘a child of the French Revolution’ and he more than anyone exported its key ideas of equality, meritocracy, human rights, nationalism, civic government and democracy. In doing so he shaped the character of modern European civilisation. This class examines the life of Napoleon from his obscure roots on Corsica; his rise to power and his attempt to reshape Europe through a combination of conquest and reform; the military campaigns of Napoleon from his early victories in Italy to the disasters in Spain and Russia; the devastating consequences for France of his fall from power and concludes by looking at the failure of the restoration powers to supress the ideas that Napoleon had unleashed on the modern world. Lecture style with question and answer time.