The Rise and Fall of Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte ruled more of Europe than any man since Rome — and left a law book that still governs France. From 24-year-old artillery captain at Toulon in 1793 to the self-coronation at Notre Dame in 1804, the documentary shows how the corps system, mass conscription and the Civil Code of 1804 built his war machine and why Austerlitz in 1805 looked like genius. It traces the disaster in Russia in 1812, defeat at Leipzig in 1813, exile on Elba, the Hundred Days and Waterloo in 1815 to his death on St. Helena in 1821.