The First French Empire, commonly known as the French Empire or the Napoleonic Empire, was the regime of Napoleon I in France, through which he dominated much of continental Europe. The Empire lasted from 1804 to 1814 - from the Consulate to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy - and was briefly restored during the Hundred Days period in 1815.
The Empire began when Napoleon - already First Consul - became Emperor of the French on May 18, 1804. He crowned himself on December 2 of the same year at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Its existence was immediately threatened by the War of the Third Coalition, but the decisive French victory at the Battle of Austerlitz ensured its survival. La Grande Armée, the Empire's military machine, then all but destroyed Prussia's armies in 1806, before swinging into Poland and defeating the Russians at the Battle of Friedland in 1807. After Friedland, the Treaty of Tilsit in July 1807 ended two years of bloodshed on the European continent.
French involvement in the Iberian Peninsula eventually sparked the Peninsular War, a brutal six-year conflict that severely weakened the Empire. In 1809, France and Austria fought the War of the Fifth Coalition; France triumphed again and imposed the Treaty of Schönbrunn on the Habsburgs, but diplomatic tensions with Russia led to the catastrophic French invasion of that country in 1812. The War of the Sixth Coalition saw the expulsion of French forces from Germany in 1813. Napoleon abdicated on April 6, 1814; he returned from exile in Elba in 1815, but the French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo caused the ultimate downfall of the First Empire.
At its height in 1812, the French Empire had 130 départements, deployed over 600,000 troops to attack Russia, ruled over 44 million subjects, maintained extensive military presence in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Duchy of Warsaw, and could count Prussia and Austria as nominal allies. The fate of the Empire was inextricably linked to that of the army, whose early victories exported many ideological features of the French Revolution throughout Europe. Seigneurial dues and seigneurial justice were abolished wherever French armies went, aristocratic privileges were eliminated in all places except Poland, and the introduction of the Napoleonic Code throughout the continent made all men equal before the law, established jury systems, and legalized divorce.
Napoleon reordered the map of Europe and granted many noble titles, most of which were extinguished with the fall of the Empire. His rule was highly nepotistic; he placed relatives on the thrones of several European countries.