In 1799, one General Napoléon Bonaparte , who had made a name for himself as commander of the Revolutionary armies in Italy and Egypt, returned to France and took power in a coup d'état. He was appointed First Consul, with power to choose officials and initiate legislation. He redesigned the tax system and created the Bank of France, replaced the power of local institutions by a corps of préfets answerable to himself, made judges into state functionaries - in short, laid the foundations of the modern French administrative system.

Though Napoléon upheld the fundamental reforms of the Revolution, the retrograde nature of his regime became more and more apparent with the proscription of the Jacobins, granting of amnesty to the émigrés and restoration of their unsold property, reintroduction of slavery in the colonies, recognition of the Church and so on. Although alarmingly revolutionary in the eyes of the rest of Europe, his Civil Code worked essentially to the advantage of the bourgeoisie. In 1804 he crowned himself emperor in the presence of the pope.

Decline, however, came only with military failure. After 1808, Spain - under the rule of Napoléon's brother - rose in revolt, aided by the British. This signalled a turning of the tide in the long series of dazzling military successes. The nation began to grow weary of the burden of unceasing war.

In 1812, Napoléon threw himself into a Russian campaign , hoping to complete his European conquests. He reached Moscow, but the long retreat in terrible winter conditions annihilated his veteran Grande Armée. By 1814, he was forced to abdicate by a coalition of European powers, who installed Louis XVIII , brother of the decapitated Louis XVI, as monarch. In a last effort to recapture power, Napoléon escaped from exile in Elba and reorganized his armies, only to meet final defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. Louis XVIII was restored to power.