Musa ibn Nusayr, the governor of North Africa was approached by Count Julian of Spain with complaints of cruel treatment by King Roderic. As a result of this the Muslim ruler despatched General Tariq ibn Ziyad with an army of 7,000 soldiers across the Straits to Spain, in 711 A.C.

General Tariq was a seasoned warrior well known for his indomitable courage and bravery. He was also looked upon as a hero by the soldiers who were proud to serve under his leadership.

The narrow stretch of sea separating Spain from the African coast was crossed by Tariq and his men in small boats. They were ready for battle as soon as they landed on the shore.

King Roderic of Spain was both surprised and angry at the daring of the Muslims. Placing himself at the head of a huge army, the king publicly took an oath that he would crush the invaders and throw them into the sea through which they had come.

As Roderic drew nearer to the coast with his formidable army, the Muslim soldiers, began to show uneasiness, for they were on the coast of a strange country and the enemy also heavily outnumbered them.

Tariq at once noticed the uneasiness among his soldiers, but he knew that this was not caused by any feeling of fear, for they were perfectly trained soldiers, and the heroes of many famous battles. They were waiting for his lead to reassure them.

General Tariq acted quickly. Uttering a short prayer to Allah, the General gave orders that will always be remembered in the military history of the world. He ordered that all the boats that brought him and his men across the straits be burnt.

When this was done, he turned to his soldiers and said:

"Brothers in Islam! We now have the enemy in front of us and the deep sea behind us. We cannot return to our homes, because we have burnt our boats. We shall now either defeat the enemy and win or die a coward's death by drowning in the sea. Who will follow me?"

The soldiers gave a mighty cry of "Allahu Akbar" and rushed towards the enemy like a whirlwind driving everything with them.

The Spaniards turned and ran bewildered and defeated leaving the battlefield to the Muslims.

This marked the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Spain in the middle of the 8th century of the Christian era. Muslims ruled the country for hundreds of years so gloriously and well that Moorish Spain became the fountain-head of culture and civilisation for the whole continent of Europe.

General Tariq Ibn Ziyad will ever live in the memory of men for the famous rock on the Spanish mainland still bears his name: Jabal-at-Tarig, (the Mountain of Tariq)- Gibraltar.
After landing on the coastal strip overlooking the rock which was later named as ‘Jabal-ul-Tariq’ (Gibraltar), its conqueror Tariq Bin Zayid, ordered the burning of the ships that had brought his Muslim troops from Africa in 711 A.D. Why are you doing this. Sir?’ cried the astonished soldiers. How will we return? Enquired some. Tariq remained unmoved by these appeals. In reply, he uttered those historic words, which will always inspire people to embark on brave deeds. He said: ‘We have not come her to return. Either we shall conquer and establish ourselves here or we will perish.’ Emboldened by these words. Tariq and his soldiers routed one of the most formidable armies of the West and carried the banner of Islam even beyond the high walls of the Pyrenees. Soon after the death of the Holy Prophet of Islam (sws), the Muslims were threatened from all sides. The mighty neighbouring Empires of the Roman and Persians were conspiring to uproot this new force. But the Arabs not only met this challenge but also crushed the two greatest Empires of the world, and in less than half a century their arms held sway over the three known continents. The Islamic principles of equality and fraternity had enabled the conquered and newly converted races to take their share in the government along with the noblest of the Arabs. Islam recognised no distinction of caste and creed and readily patronised talent wherever found. This is why all capable slaves have occupied the highest positions in an Islamic polity and many slave dynasties have magnificently ruled over Muslim subjects. Tariq bin Ziyad, a newly converted Berber slave wsa a lieutenant of Musa bin Nusair, the Muslim Viceroy of Africa. The Berber slave was destined to be the conqueror of Spain, the biggest Muslim territory in Europe, which, for eight centuries under the Muslims, kept aloft the torch of civilisation and culture that at last dispelled the gloom that had enveloped the Mediaeval Europe. At this time, when Africa was enjoying the blessings of toleration, justice and prosperity under the Muslims, neighbouring Spain was groaning under the tyranny, and bigotry of its Gothic ruler. The honour of women was not safe and the tillers of the soil were put to heavy taxation. The rulers and their henchmen revelled in luxury while the masses groaned in poverty. A large number of refugees from Spain both Christians and Jews who had suffered under the Gothic rule had taken refuge in Muslim Africa. One of them was Julian, the Governor of Ceuta, whose daughter. Florinda, had been dishonoured by Roderick, the Gothic King of Spain. They appealed to Musa to liberate their country from the tyrant’s yoke. In response to their prayer and with the sanction of the Caliph, Musa made a reconnaissance on the southern coast of Spain. The report was favourable and in May 711, Tariq bin Zaid with 7,000 Muslims crossed the Straits in ships in small contingents. As his troops landed in Europe, Tariq concentrated them on a hill, which took the name of ‘Jabl-ul-Tariq’ (The Rock of Tariq) now called Gibraltar, and urged them either to conquer or perish. They had no intention to go back home. The Gothic King Roderick collected a huge army of more than one lakh solders. Tariq, too was reinforced by 5,000 soldiers dispatched by Musa and now his army numbered 12,000. The two armies met at the mouth of river Barbate, on the shores of a lagoo of Janda and fought a decisive battle on July 9th, 711, A.D. The two armies were unequally matched. The Christians by Tariq was irresistible and the Goths were completely routed with terrible losses. King Roderick was drowned in the river. This remarkable victory of Tariq broke the morale of the Spaniards, and henceforward, they did not dare face the Muslims in the open. Therefore, the armies of Tariq met little resistance in the interior of Spain. His was a triumphant march from place to place in the Peninsula. Tariq had divided his small army into four divisions and directed one of his lieutenants towards Cordova, the other towards Malaga, the third towards Granada and himself at the head of the main body hurriedly marched upon Toledo, the Capital of Spain. All these cities capitulated without much resistance. The Goths were paralysed by the rapidity of Tariq’s movement and the severity of his blows. The Gothic armies fled before him. ‘God’, says an analyst, ‘filled the hearts of idolators with terror and alarm.’ The oppressed masses of Spain hailed the Muslims as their liberators. The exemplary treatment of Tariq and his men endeared him to the conquered races. The fiercest battle of the entire campaign was fought at Ecija, which resulted in the victory of Tariq’s forces. Toledo, the Capital of Spain, also capitulated after little resistance. Here Tariq was joined by his Master Musa bin Nusair, thee Muslim viceory of Africa. Hence forward, the two generals moved side by side and in less than two years, the whole of Spain was in Muslim hands Portugal was conquered, a few years after. ‘This constituted the last and the most sensational of the major Arab campaigns’, writes Philip K. Hitti,’ and resulted in the addition to the Moslem world of the largest European territory ever held by them… In its swiftness of execution and completness of success, this expedition into Spain holds a unique place in the Mediaeval Military Annals. Musa and Tariq would have easily conquered the whole of Europe which lay at their feet. There was none to stop their victorious advance, but Providence meant otherwise. When they were planning the conquest of Europe, they received summons from the Caliph to present themselves at Damascus. They exhibited a rare discipline by obeying the orders of the Caliph, reaching Damascus at the earliest possible time. Tariq died there afterwards. The conquest of Spain by Muslims opened a new era for the Peninsula. It brought about a social revolution in which the freedom of religion was fully recognised. The intoleration and persecution of the Christians gave place to toleration and large-heartedness. The captured Christian cities received favourable terms which were faithfully observed. Individual acts of violence by the Muslim soldiers were severely punished. No properties or estates were confiscated. Instead, the Muslims introduced an intelligent system of taxation, which soon brought prosperity to the Peninsula and made it a model country in the West. The Christians had their own judges to settle their disputes. All communities had equal opportunities for entry into the public services. This wise an generous administration of Muslim conquerors had its good effects. The Christians including their priests, who had first left their homes in terror came back and passes a happy and prosperous life. A well-known Christian writer says: ‘The Moors (Muslims) organised that wonderful kingdom of Cordova, which was the marvel of the Middle Ages, and which, when all Europe was plunged in barbaric ignorance and strife, alone held the torch of learning and civilisation bright and shining before the Western world.’ Tariq ibn Ziyad was sent by Musa ibn Nusayr in the year 711 AD as a chief commander to conquer Andalus. His men numbered 12000-17000. On his journey he decided to take some rest and sleep. It is said whilst sailing across the sea, which separates Africa from Andalus, he saw in his dream the prophet (pbuh) surrounded by arabs of the Muhajiruun and Ansaars, who with unsheathed swords and bended bows stood by him. They also heard the prophet (pbuh) say " take courage, O Tariq! and accomplish what you are destined to perform. " On hearing this, he looked around him and saw the messenger of Allah (pbuh) and his companions entering Andalus. Tariq immediately awoke from his sleep with a smile, and from that moment on he never doubted victory. Tariq advanced towards a small mountain in the sea which later became known as Jabal Tariq (Mount Tariq) derived from which is the modern name: Gibraltar. Here Tariq and his army disembarked into the darkness of the night. He then set fire to his fleet and in his determination to conquer Andalus he told his army " I have now burnt the ships, and now there is no return for us and here we will conquer or die fighting." The king of the time, King Roderick, heard about the seizure and immediately prepared his army which numbered 100,000. King Roderick set off with confidence that they will make each and every Arab his prisoner. Roderick took his army to Cordova to attack Tariq and his armies. Before the battle, Tariq gave a speech which portrayed his valiance, determination and ideology regarding the life after death. In this speech he also mentioned his desire to kill King Roderick with his own hands. After his influential speech, Tariq and his army with their white turbans and spears in their hands proceeded towards the battlefield. When Tariq reached the battlefield he saw his ambition and aimed his arrow towards him and killed him. He had now fulfilled his long felt desire and gained victory for the Muslims. It is said in the confusion that followed the defeated Christian soldiers fled for their lives, the body of King Roderick had also disappeared. The Muslims had a zeal for knowledge, they were advanced in architecure and were masters in science. When Tariq and his army conquered a large portion of Spain in 711-718 AD, which mainly consisted of the Moors who were a Muslim tribe from North Africa, they immediately implemented Islamic law ( Shariah ) with Caliphates. the muslim ruled with islamic law for over 800 years. However when the Muslim government of Spain collapsed during the early 1000s due to the fighting amongst the groups of Moors, the country split into many small Moorish states and independent cities. This was not the only reason for the downfall of a nation which ruled for many centuries. This was due to the fact that the leaders did not rule according to the Islamic law and chose an un-islamic life. Below is an extract from the hadith. Abdullah ibn Umar narrates ; "The Prophet (pbuh) came to us and said O muhajiruun, you may be afflicted by five things, may Allah forbid you live to see them, if leaders do not govern according to the book of Allah, you should realize this will not happen without Allah making them into groups and making them fight another. " ( Ibn Majah, Kitab al Fitan, 4019,2/1332 ) you can see from this small extract how the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had advanced knowledge of the future and how correct his prophecies were to be. Inter-islam

Sher Shah Suri, "The Lion King", founder of the Suri Dynasty, was born in 1472 in Punjab. His original name was Farid. He was the son of a petty Afghan Jagirdar. Ill-treated by his stepmother, he left home at an early age. He went to Jaunpur where he set himself to serious study and there he acquired good command over the Arabic and Persian languages. Because of his abilities, he was soon appointed by his father to manage the family Jagir. But again because of his stepmother, he left his father's Jagir and went to Bihar where he later joined the service of Babur.

Seeing the weaknesses in the Mughal rule and military organization, Sher Shah took advantage of the problems faced by Humayun. Eventually he managed to overthrow the Mughal rulers. His reign barely spanned five years, but is a landmark in the history of the Sub-continent. With his deep knowledge and practical experience, he made many brilliant additions and improvements to the existent system. Sher Shah was a capable military and civilian administrator. He set up reforms in various areas. Akbar later built on these reforms and extended them further. Many of these reforms pertained to the army, but the principal reforms for which he is remembered are those connected with revenue administration. Numerous civil works were carried out during his short reign.

Sher Shah ruled for a short period of five years in which he not only consolidated his power but also brought about important reforms. He died in 1545 from a gunpowder explosion. He was a practical and farsighted ruler who was way ahead of his contemporaries. He is remembered in history for the numerous reforms that he undertook to strengthen the government. He was in truth the greatest ruler that sat upon the throne of Delhi.

SHER SHAH SURI AND EARY MUGHALS

The glorious history of Islam is a great contribution to the human civilization. The righteous predecessors illuminated the world after a long period of darkness. They raised an insurmountable civilization and glory. They became the real bearers of the banner of Islam. They saved the Muslims from deviation and bewilderment, as they exerted all their effort to follow Almighty Allah's teachings. The earth was adorned with their light, and the heavens were embellished with the nobility of the martyrs among them, who were great examples of devotion and sincerity.

Allah is He Who raised the minaret of this true religion and exalted its rank by the hands of the righteous people and true believers. Such people were as sublime as the stars in the heaven and the moon on a dark night. Nour-ud-Din Mahmoud Zangi was one of those ever-shining stars.

Under his rule, a new great phase of jihad started in the Levant. He had one goal: uniting Muslims and liberating their occupied lands. To this end, he initiated an Islamic renaissance that stressed the need for an "Islamic life."

He restored the affairs of Muslims to the right track by means of his justice, diligence, and staidness. He succeeded in bringing the light of Islam into many territories and left no stone unturned for the sake of uniting Muslims. He elevated them in all aspects of life within an integrated Islamic pattern to regain the Islamic glory and expel the unjust occupation of the Crusaders.


Birth and Origin

Nour-ud-Din Mahmoud Zangi was born in AH 511 (1118 CE). His grandfather Aq Sunqur Al-Hajib ruled Aleppo and other places in the Levant; his father, Zangi, who was brought up in Iraq, ruled Mosul and the Levant. He conquered Edessa, Al-Ma`arrah, Kafr Tab, and many other cities to deliver them from the hands of disbelievers.

When Zangi passed away, Nour-ud-Din succeeded him as king in AH 541 (1146 CE). Nour-ud-Din Mahmoud Zangi (also known as Ibn Al-Qasim) was born 20 years after the fall of Jerusalem in the hands of the Crusaders. He was tall, good-looking, and dark-skinned and had a light beard.


His Piety and Morals

He was a good calligrapher, a scholar of religion, and a follower of the Prophet's Sunnah. He was persistent in performing congregational Prayers, excellent in reciting the Glorious Qur'an, incorruptible, and keen on doing good deeds. At nightfall, he would perform `Isha' Prayer and sleep for a while. Then, he would get up in the middle of the night, perform ablution, and pray until dawn.

A provident king, he used to seek lawful means for food and clothes. He never wore any unlawful garment, like silk, or put any gold jewelry. He was never heard uttering obscenities, whether he was satisfied or angry. He was keen on hearing any word uttered for the sake of Almighty Allah or any advice compatible with the pure Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

In spite of the vastness of his kingdom and treasury, he never ate or drank from what he owned from his share of the booty or the money appointed for the public good of Muslims until he brought the jurists and asked for their religious advice and acted accordingly. He never touched the gifts he received from the kings of other nations. Rather, he would send them to the House of Treasury for the reconstruction of old mosques.

An-Nuri Pulpit

He was famous for his sound, erudite knowledge. He was well-versed in the Hanafi school of fiqh and was licensed to relate the Prophet's hadiths. He wrote a book on the concept of jihad. Though lenient and merciful, this sedate person, Nour-ud-Din, was also gifted with a great deal of charisma and an awe-inspiring personality.

Full of humbleness, he forbade the preachers from making du`aa' for him during their sermons, using his great titles. He used to bring honest men from every place and ask them about the needy among their people. He enjoined service for all regardless of social status.

Prince Baha'-ud-Din `Ali ibn As-Sukkari, one of the closest friends of Nour-ud-Din, narrated, "One day, I was with him [Nour-ud-Din] in the battlefield in Edessa. The sun was behind us; whenever we marched forward, our shadows appeared in front of us, and when we came back, our shadows were behind us; then he raced his horse while looking back and said to me, 'Do you know why I am racing my horse and looking back?' I said, 'No.' He replied, 'This situation is like our worldly life: It escapes from those who seek it and seeks those who escape from it."

He was so ascetic that his expenses were not different from those of the poorest and neediest of his subordinates. When his wife complained of the hardships of life, he called her in and gave her three shops that he owned in Homs and told her, "That is all what I have. Do not expect me to lay a finger on the money of the Muslims I am entrusted with; I fear the wrath of Allah."


Courageous Mujahid

His courage and wisdom were incomparable. At times of war, he was the most courageous and steadfast. Moreover, his tactics were unique, and he was exceptionally keen to enquire about the affairs of his troops. In a word, he was a role model in this field.

He conquered Aleppo and many other cities, including the Egyptian cities that were about to be completely invaded by the Franks. He captured some Frankish princes and defeated the forces of the Romans and the Franks in a place called Harim (a fortress in Aleppo). Furthermore, he managed to control many villages in Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey).

Ibn Al-Athir, the Arab historian, said:

I have heard many people say that they had never seen a horseman better than him. He was the best polo player of his time; he had the ability to hit the ball, make his horse run, pick up the ball, and throw it again to the farthest point of the playground.

He would say, "If we leave the horses in their stalls, they will not be able to race, turn smoothly, or obey the horsemen in the battlefield. I swear to Allah, that is what made me play polo."

It is rare to find a person who plays games for the sake of Allah. This is a clear indication that he did not do anything aimlessly; this, indeed, is the merit of great rulers.

Ibn Al-Athir added:

Even his enemies used to say, "Ibn Al-Qasim [Nour-ud-Din] is close to Allah. He did not win the battles because of the huge numbers of soldiers and warriors but because of his supplication and Prayer at night. He used to pray at night and raise his hands high supplicating Allah. Thus, Allah answers him and gives him whatever he asks."

Nour-ud-Din was a strategist who used his skill and military tactics, particularly to defeat the Franks and conquer most of their lands. He also built a lot of watchtowers in the territories bordering the lands of the Franks. To protect the Muslims as much as he could, he sent efficient soldiers with carrier pigeons that would carry warnings to the homeland if the soldiers saw the enemy. This would give the people a chance to take defensive action.

He dealt with his soldiers in an exemplary manner. The property of a dead soldier was given to his son. If the son was mature enough, he would be allowed to take it over. Yet, if the son was still too young to take proper care of the property, Nour-ud-Din would appoint a wise man to be responsible for the property until the son grew mature and wise enough to take it over. This encouraged the soldiers and motivated them to fight steadfastly, for they were sure that the lands were theirs and would be their sons' afterward.


Defender of Shari`ah and Sunnah

Nour-ud-Din built an institute for teaching Hadith in Damascus and allotted much money to it and to those who worked there. To the best of our knowledge, he was the first ruler to build an institute for Hadith.

In Aleppo, he supported all the attempts to apply the Prophetic sunnah concerning the Adhan (call to Prayer) and devoured the evil plots and discord of the dissenters. He established schools and charities and spread justice. In Egypt, he revived the Sunnah of the Prophet and stopped all bid`ah (deviations) in the religious life.

He was an extraordinary example in adhering to the teachings of Islam. He would never let anyone tamper with the authentic principles of religion. If anyone dared to commit any illegal act concerning religion, Nour-ud-Din would justly punish him or her. He was decisive in this respect. He used to say, "We keep the roads safe from the thieves and robbers, who are less harmful, so will we not preserve the religion and secure it? It is most worthy of safeguarding."

He built many mosques and set an endowment apart for the scholars and reciters of Qur'an. Indeed, this act was unprecedented. He allocated a great fortune for the endowments.

Nour-ud-Din banned drinking and selling of wine all over the Islamic state. He was quoted to have said, "Allah, Glory be to Him, created people, and He knows what is best for them; He enacted a law that is for their benefit. People's welfare can be perfectly achieved by adopting this Islamic law. If there were more benefit in something other than the Islamic law, Allah would have prescribed it. Therefore, we are in no need of any other law."

His most favored company was restricted to religious scholars whom he used to hold in a lofty position. Even the princes used to envy those scholars. If one of the attendants criticized any of the scholars, he would reproach him or her, saying, "And who is infallible? I think that the perfect person is the one whose sins can be counted."


His Justice

Nour-ud-Din was the first ruler to build a court of justice. He used to attend its sessions four or five days a week to investigate the people's problems and sort them out. He used to bring only scholars and jurists with him. He did not bring guards so that any person — weak or strong, poor or rich — could reach him at any time. He would speak mildly to all of them.

Unlike those of other kings, his court would only abound with scientific and religious talk as well as consultation on jihad. It was free from debauchery, offensiveness, backbite, defamation, or slander.

Nour-ud-Din's justice was manifest in glorifying the acts compatible with pure Shari`ah. He used to say, "We are created and employed for the sake of it [Shari`ah] and are required to fulfill its commandments."

Another evidence of his justice was that he never punished anyone depending on mere accusation. Rather, he used to summon witnesses and incessantly search for evidence. But once the evidence was found, the defendant would be punished, without delay, according to the penalty prescribed by Shari`ah. The rule of law was equally imposed on the king's soldiers and friends.

In other places of the world, excessive punishment and prosecution against people on the grounds of mere suspicion were prevalent at that time. But Nour-ud-Din, who was dubbed the just king, eschewed such tortuous means of governance, which gave rise to security and prosperity in his kingdom despite its vastness. Justice and application of Shari`ah contributed to a great decline in crime rate.

He exempted the inhabitants of the Levant, Arabian Peninsula, Mosul, and Egyptian cities from paying taxes. He used to help the oppressed regardless of their social status, for all people were deemed equal before him. He would listen to the complaints of the oppressed and investigate them himself.

One day, he entered the House of Treasury and noticed an amount of money. Inquiring about it, he was told that Judge Kamal-ud-Din had sent it and that it had been collected from such and such a place. To this, his reply was, "This money is not ours; we do not have any money in the places you mentioned." Then, he ordered that the money be sent back.


Civil Achievements

He was always concerned with the public interest and the living conditions of his people. His thoughts were directed toward serving Islam and establishing the infrastructure of an Islamic state by building schools, mosques, and other institutions.

Aleppo Hospital

He established many projects aimed at benefiting the Muslims and protecting them and their territories. He built walls and established castles in all territories of the Levant, such as Aleppo, Hamah, Homs, Damascus, Shiraz, and Manbij. He spent large amounts of money on these projects.

Also, he established Shafi`i and Hanafi schools in Aleppo, Hamah, Damascus, and other cities. He built mosques throughout the Muslim lands. His mosque in Mosul was an architectural masterpiece. Furthermore, he built one of the most beautiful mosques in Hamah at Al-`Asi (Orontes) River. He dedicated an endowment for the sick, the calligraphers, and the teachers of Qur'an, as well as the inhabitants of Makkah and Madinah.

He also built a lot of hospitals, among which the one in Damascus was the greatest. Nour-ud-Din made it an endowment for all Muslims, rich and poor.

He built guesthouses along the roadsides to save the lives and property of travelers and provide them with warm and comfortable places in winter. He also built many orphanages and spent a lot of money on the orphans and those who cared for them.

This thoughtful ruler granted the Arab princes of his time large areas of land so that they would not increase the taxes imposed on the pilgrims. Furthermore, he ordered his men to build a wall around Madinah and to dig a well at Mount Uhud. He also built bridges and dug many canals.


His Death

Nour-ud-Din adhered to Allah's commands and asked his followers to do the same. Undoubtedly, the one who sets a good example will have his reward and additional rewards equal to those gained by those who follow him until the Day of Judgment.

Ibn Al-Athir said:

I read about the pre-Islamic period and the history of Islam until our modern times, but I have never known a ruler nobler than the Just King Nour-ud-Din, except for the Rightly Guided Caliphs and `Umar ibn `Abdul `Aziz.

Nour-ud-Din was a great warrior and skilled archer who would march at the front line with his fellow warriors in the battlefield, asking Almighty Allah for martyrdom. He wished to be resurrected on the Day of Judgment from the stomachs of beasts or the craws of birds. He used to say:

I fought in many battles and wished to be a martyr, but I have not attained my wish.

On hearing him saying this, Imam Qutb-ud-Din An-Naysaburi told him, "I adjure you by the name of Allah not to risk your life, Islam, and the Muslims, for you are their backbone. If you were to be killed in a battle, the Muslims would be murdered and their lands would be invaded." Nour-ud-Din replied, "What is this all about? Who am I to be considered so important? There is One Who saved Islam and its lands before me: Allah, than Whom there is no other god."

Before his death, Nour-ud-Din prepared for restoring Jerusalem and built the pulpit upon which the first Friday sermon would be addressed upon regaining the city. However, before realizing his lofty goal, he passed away in Shawwal AH 569 (1173 CE). He was buried in the Castle of Damascus, and his body was later taken to his dome at his school near `al-Khayyarin'. May Allah have mercy on his soul.

Adolf Hitler

(1889-1945)

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Founder and leader of the Nazi Party, Reich Chancellor and guiding spirit of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945, Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, on 20 April 1889. The son of a fifty-two-year-old Austrian customs official, Alois Schickelgruber Hitler, and his third wife, a young peasant girl, Klara Poelzl, both from the backwoods of lower Austria, the young Hitler was a resentful, discontented child. Moody, lazy, of unstable temperament, he was deeply hostile towards his strict, authoritarian father and strongly attached to his indulgent, hard-working mother, whose death from cancer in December 1908 was a shattering blow to the adolescent Hitler.

After spending four years in the Realschule in Linz, he left school at the age of sixteen with dreams of becoming a painter. In October 1907, the provincial, middle-class boy left home for Vienna, where he was to remain until 1913 leading a bohemian, vagabond existence. Embittered at his rejection by the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, he was to spend "five years of misery and woe" in Vienna as he later recalled, adopting a view of life which changed very little in the ensuing years, shaped as it was by a pathological hatred of Jews and Marxists, liberalism and the cosmopolitan Habsburg monarchy.

Existing from hand to mouth on occasional odd jobs and the hawking of sketches in low taverns, the young Hitler compensated for the frustrations of a lonely bachelor's life in miserable male hostels by political harangues in cheap cafes to anyone who would listen and indulging in grandiose dreams of a Greater Germany.

In Vienna he acquired his first education in politics by studying the demagogic techniques of the popular Christian-social Mayor, Karl Lueger, and picked up the stereotyped, obsessive anti-Semitism with its brutal, violent sexual connotations and concern with the "purity of blood" that remained with him to the end of his career. From crackpot racial theorists like the defrocked monk, Lanz von Liebenfels, and the Austrian Pan-German leader, Georg von Schoenerer, the young Hitler learned to discern in the "Eternal Jew" the symbol and cause of all chaos, corruption and destruction in culture, politics and the economy. The press, prostitution, syphilis, capitalism, Marxism, democracy and pacifism--all were so many means which "the Jew" exploited in his conspiracy to undermine the German nation and the purity of the creative Aryan race.

In May 1913 Hitler left Vienna for Munich and, when war broke out in August 1914, he joined the Sixteenth Bavarian Infantry Regiment, serving as a despatch runner. Hitler proved an able, courageous soldier, receiving the Iron Cross (First Class) for bravery, but did not rise above the rank of Lance Corporal. Twice wounded, he was badly gassed four weeks before the end of the war and spent three months recuperating in a hospital in Pomerania. Temporarily blinded and driven to impotent rage by the abortive November 1918 revolution in Germany as well as the military defeat, Hitler, once restored, was convinced that fate had chosen him to rescue a humiliated nation from the shackles of the Versailles Treaty, from Bolsheviks and Jews.

Assigned by the Reichswehr in the summer of 1919 to "educational" duties which consisted largely of spying on political parties in the overheated atmosphere of post-revolutionary Munich, Hitler was sent to investigate a small nationalistic group of idealists, the German Workers' Party. On 16 September 1919 he entered the Party (which had approximately forty members), soon changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) and had imposed himself as its Chairman by July 1921.

Hitler discovered a powerful talent for oratory as well as giving the new Party its symbol — the swastika — and its greeting "Heil!." His hoarse, grating voice, for all the bombastic, humourless, histrionic content of his speeches, dominated audiences by dint of his tone of impassioned conviction and gift for self-dramatization. By November 1921 Hitler was recognized as Fuhrer of a movement which had 3,000 members, and boosted his personal power by organizing strong- arm squads to keep order at his meetings and break up those of his opponents. Out of these squads grew the storm troopers (SA) organized by Captain Ernst Röhm and Hitler's black-shirted personal bodyguard, the Schutzstaffel (SS).

Hitler focused his propaganda against the Versailles Treaty, the "November criminals," the Marxists and the visible, internal enemy No. 1, the "Jew," who was responsible for all Germany's domestic problems. In the twenty-five-point programme of the NSDAP announced on 24 February 1920, the exclusion of the Jews from the Volk community, the myth of Aryan race supremacy and extreme nationalism were combined with "socialistic" ideas of profit-sharing and nationalization inspired by ideologues like Gottfried Feder. Hitler's first written utterance on political questions dating from this period emphasized that what he called "the anti-Semitism of reason" must lead "to the systematic combating and elimination of Jewish privileges. Its ultimate goal must implacably be the total removal of the Jews."

By November 1923 Hitler was convinced that the Weimar Republic was on the verge of collapse and, together with General Ludendorff and local nationalist groups, sought to overthrow the Bavarian government in Munich. Bursting into a beer-hall in Munich and firing his pistol into the ceiling, he shouted out that he was heading a new provisional government which would carry through a revolution against "Red Berlin." Hitler and Ludendorff then marched through Munich at the head of 3,000 men, only to be met by police fire which left sixteen dead and brought the attempted putsch to an ignominious end. Hitler was arrested and tried on 26 February 1924, succeeding in turning the tables on his accusers with a confident, propagandist speech which ended with the prophecy: "Pronounce us guilty a thousand times over: the goddess of the eternal court of history will smile and tear to pieces the State Prosecutor's submission and the court's verdict for she acquits us." Sentenced to five years' imprisonment in Landsberg fortress, Hitler was released after only nine months during which he dictated Mein Kampf (My Struggle) to his loyal follower, Rudolf Hess. Subsequently the "bible" of the Nazi Party, this crude, half-baked hotchpotch of primitive Social Darwinism, racial myth, anti-Semitism and lebensraum fantasy had sold over five million copies by 1939 and been translated into eleven languages.

The failure of the Beer-Hall putsch and his period of imprisonment transformed Hitler from an incompetent adventurer into a shrewd political tactician, who henceforth decided that he would never again confront the gun barrels of army and police until they were under his command. He concluded that the road to power lay not through force alone but through legal subversion of the Weimar Constitution, the building of a mass movement and the combination of parliamentary strength with extra-parliamentary street terror and intimidation. Helped by Goering and Goebbels he began to reassemble his followers and rebuild the movement which had disintegrated in his absence.

In January 1925 the ban on the Nazi Party was removed and Hitler regained permission to speak in public. Outmaneuvering the "socialist" North German wing of the Party under Gregor Strasser, Hitler re-established himself in 1926 as the ultimate arbiter to whom all factions appealed in an ideologically and socially heterogeneous movement. Avoiding rigid, programmatic definitions of National Socialism which would have undermined the charismatic nature of his legitimacy and his claim to absolute leadership, Hitler succeeded in extending his appeal beyond Bavaria and attracting both Right and Left to his movement.

Though the Nazi Party won only twelve seats in the 1928 elections, the onset of the Great Depression with its devastating effects on the middle classes helped Hitler to win over all those strata in German society who felt their economic existence was threatened. In addition to peasants, artisans, craftsmen, traders, small businessmen, ex-officers, students and declasse intellectuals, the Nazis in 1929 began to win over the big industrialists, nationalist conservatives and army circles. With the backing of the press tycoon, Alfred Hugenberg, Hitler received a tremendous nationwide exposure just as the effects of the world economic crisis hit Germany, producing mass unemployment, social dissolution, fear and indignation. With demagogic virtuosity, Hitler played on national resentments, feelings of revolt and the desire for strong leadership using all the most modern techniques of mass persuasion to present himself as Germany's redeemer and messianic saviour.

In the 1930 elections the Nazi vote jumped dramatically from 810,000 to 6,409,000 (18.3 percent of the total vote) and they received 107 seats in the Reichstag. Prompted by Hjalmar Schacht and Fritz Thyssen, the great industrial magnates began to contribute liberally to the coffers of the NSDAP, reassured by Hitler's performance before the Industrial Club in Dusseldorf on 27 January 1932 that they had nothing to fear from the radicals in the Party. The following month Hitler officially acquired German citizenship and decided to run for the Presidency, receiving 13,418,011 votes in the run-off elections of 10 April 1931 as against 19,359,650 votes for the victorious von Hindenburg , but four times the vote for the communist candidate, Ernst Thaelmann. In the Reichstag elections of July 1932 the Nazis emerged as the largest political party in Germany, obtaining nearly fourteen million votes (37.3 per cent) and 230 seats. Although the NSDAP fell back in November 1932 to eleven million votes (196 seats), Hitler was helped to power by a camarilla of conservative politicians led by Franz von Papen, who persuaded the reluctant von Hindenburg to nominate "the Bohemian corporal" as Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933.

Once in the saddle, Hitler moved with great speed to outmanoeuvre his rivals, virtually ousting the conservatives from any real participation in government by July 1933, abolishing the free trade unions, eliminating the communists, Social Democrats and Jews from any role in political life and sweeping opponents into concentration camps. The Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933 had provided him with the perfect pretext to begin consolidating the foundations of a totalitarian one-party State, and special "enabling laws" were ramrodded through the Reichstag to legalize the regime's intimidatory tactics.

With support from the nationalists, Hitler gained a majority at the last "democratic" elections held in Germany on 5 March 1933 and with cynical skill he used the whole gamut of persuasion, propaganda, terror and intimidation to secure his hold on power. The seductive notions of "National Awakening" and a "Legal Revolution" helped paralyse potential opposition and disguise the reality of autocratic power behind a facade of traditional institutions.

The destruction of the radical SA leadership under Ernst Rohm in the Blood Purge of June 1934 confirmed Hitler as undisputed dictator of the Third Reich and by the beginning of August, when he united the positions of Fuhrer and Chancellor on the death of von Hindenburg, he had all the powers of State in his hands. Avoiding any institutionalization of authority and status which could challenge his own undisputed position as supreme arbiter, Hitler allowed subordinates like Himmler, Goering and Goebbels to mark out their own domains of arbitrary power while multiplying and duplicating offices to a bewildering degree.

During the next four years Hitler enjoyed a dazzling string of domestic and international successes, outwitting rival political leaders abroad just as he had defeated his opposition at home. In 1935 he abandoned the Versailles Treaty and began to build up the army by conscripting five times its permitted number. He persuaded Great Britain to allow an increase in the naval building programme and in March 1936 he occupied the demilitarized Rhineland without meeting opposition. He began building up the Luftwaffe and supplied military aid to Francoist forces in Spain, which brought about the Spanish fascist victory in 1939.

The German rearmament programme led to full employment and an unrestrained expansion of production, which reinforced by his foreign policy successes--the Rome-Berlin pact of 1936, the Anschluss with Austria and the "liberation" of the Sudeten Germans in 1938 — brought Hitler to the zenith of his popularity. In February 1938 he dismissed sixteen senior generals and took personal command of the armed forces, thus ensuring that he would be able to implement his aggressive designs.

Hitler's saber-rattling tactics bludgeoned the British and French into the humiliating Munich agreement of 1938 and the eventual dismantlement of the Czechoslovakian State in March 1939. The concentration camps, the Nuremberg racial laws against the Jews, the persecution of the churches and political dissidents were forgotten by many Germans in the euphoria of Hitler's territorial expansion and bloodless victories. The next designated target for Hitler's ambitions was Poland (her independence guaranteed by Britain and France) and, to avoid a two-front war, the Nazi dictator signed a pact of friendship and non-aggression with Soviet Russia. On 1 September 1939 German armies invaded Poland and henceforth his main energies were devoted to the conduct of a war he had unleashed to dominate Europe and secure Germany's "living space."

The first phase of World War II was dominated by German Blitzkrieg tactics: sudden shock attacks against airfields, communications, military installations, using fast mobile armor and infantry to follow up on the first wave of bomber and fighter aircraft. Poland was overrun in less than one month, Denmark and Norway in two months, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and France in six weeks. After the fall of France in June 1940 only Great Britain stood firm.

The Battle of Britain, in which the Royal Air Force prevented the Luftwaffe from securing aerial control over the English Channel, was Hitler's first setback, causing the planned invasion of the British Isles to be postponed. Hitler turned to the Balkans and North Africa where his Italian allies had suffered defeats, his armies rapidly overrunning Greece, Yugoslavia, the island of Crete and driving the British from Cyrenaica.

The crucial decision of his career, the invasion of Soviet Russia on June 22, 1941, was rationalized by the idea that its destruction would prevent Great Britain from continuing the war with any prospect of success. He was convinced that once he kicked the door in, as he told Jodl (q.v.), "the whole rotten edifice [of communist rule] will come tumbling down" and the campaign would be over in six weeks. The war against Russia was to be an anti-Bolshivek crusade, a war of annihilation in which the fate of European Jewry would finally be sealed. At the end of January 1939 Hitler had prophesied that "if the international financial Jewry within and outside Europe should succeed once more in dragging the nations into a war, the result will be, not the Bolshevization of the world and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."

As the war widened — the United States by the end of 1941 had entered the struggle against the Axis powers — Hitler identified the totality of Germany's enemies with "international Jewry," who supposedly stood behind the British-American-Soviet alliance. The policy of forced emigration had manifestly failed to remove the Jews from Germany's expanded lebensraum, increasing their numbers under German rule as the Wehrmacht moved East.

The widening of the conflict into a world war by the end of 1941, the refusal of the British to accept Germany's right to continental European hegemony (which Hitler attributed to "Jewish" influence) and to agree to his "peace" terms, the racial-ideological nature of the assault on Soviet Russia, finally drove Hitler to implement the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" which had been under consideration since 1939. The measures already taken in those regions of Poland annexed to the Reich against Jews (and Poles) indicated the genocidal implications of Nazi-style "Germanization" policies. The invasion of Soviet Russia was to set the seal on Hitler's notion of territorial conquest in the East, which was inextricably linked with annihilating the 'biological roots of Bolshevism' and hence with the liquidation of all Jews under German rule.

At first the German armies carried all before them, overrunning vast territories, overwhelming the Red Army, encircling Leningrad and reaching within striking distance of Moscow. Within a few months of the invasion Hitler's armies had extended the Third Reich from the Atlantic to the Caucasus, from the Baltic to the Black Sea. But the Soviet Union did not collapse as expected and Hitler, instead of concentrating his attack on Moscow, ordered a pincer movement around Kiev to seize the Ukraine, increasingly procrastinating and changing his mind about objectives. Underestimating the depth of military reserves on which the Russians could call, the caliber of their generals and the resilient, fighting spirit of the Russian people (whom he dismissed as inferior peasants), Hitler prematurely proclaimed in October 1941 that the Soviet Union had been "struck down and would never rise again." In reality he had overlooked the pitiless Russian winter to which his own troops were now condemned and which forced the Wehrmacht to abandon the highly mobile warfare which had previously brought such spectacular successes.

The disaster before Moscow in December 1941 led him to dismiss his Commander-in-Chief von Brauchitsch, and many other key commanders who sought permission for tactical withdrawals, including Guderian, Bock, Hoepner, von Rundstedt and Leeb, found themselves cashiered. Hitler now assumed personal control of all military operations, refusing to listen to advice, disregarding unpalatable facts and rejecting everything that did not fit into his preconceived picture of reality. His neglect of the Mediterranean theatre and the Middle East, the failure of the Italians, the entry of the United States into the war, and above all the stubborn determination of the Russians, pushed Hitler on to the defensive. From the winter of 1941 the writing was on the wall but Hitler refused to countenance military defeat, believing that implacable will and the rigid refusal to abandon positions could make up for inferior resources and the lack of a sound overall strategy.

Convinced that his own General Staff was weak and indecisive, if not openly treacherous, Hitler became more prone to outbursts of blind, hysterical fury towards his generals, when he did not retreat into bouts of misanthropic brooding. His health, too, deteriorated under the impact of the drugs prescribed by his quack physician, Dr. Theodor Morell. Hitler's personal decline, symbolized by his increasingly rare public appearances and his self-enforced isolation in the "Wolf's Lair," his headquarters buried deep in the East Prussian forests, coincided with the visible signs of the coming German defeat which became apparent in mid-1942.

Rommel's defeat at El Alamein and the subsequent loss of North Africa to the Anglo-American forces were overshadowed by the disaster at Stalingrad where General von Paulus's Sixth Army was cut off and surrendered to the Russians in January 1943. In July 1943 the Allies captured Sicily and Mussolini's regime collapsed in Italy. In September the Italians signed an armistice and the Allies landed at Salerno, reaching Naples on 1 October and taking Rome on June 4, 1944. The Allied invasion of Normandy followed on June 6, 1944 and soon a million Allied troops were driving the German armies eastwards, while from the opposite direction the Soviet forces advanced relentlessly on the Reich. The total mobilization of the German war economy under Albert Speer and the energetic propaganda efforts of Joseph Goebbels to rouse the fighting spirit of the German people were impotent to change the fact that the Third Reich lacked the resources equal to a struggle against the world alliance which Hitler himself had provoked.

Allied bombing began to have a telling effect on German industrial production and to undermine the morale of the population. The generals, frustrated by Hitler's total refusal to trust them in the field and recognizing the inevitability of defeat, planned, together with the small anti-Nazi Resistance inside the Reich, to assassinate the Fuhrer on 20 July 1944, hoping to pave the way for a negotiated peace with the Allies that would save Germany from destruction. The plot failed and Hitler took implacable vengeance on the conspirators, watching with satisfaction a film of the grisly executions carried out on his orders.

As disaster came closer, Hitler buried himself in the unreal world of the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin, clutching at fantastic hopes that his "secret weapons," the V-1 and V-2 rockets, would yet turn the tide of war. He gestured wildly over maps, planned and directed attacks with non-existent armies and indulged in endless, night-long monologues which reflected his growing senility, misanthropy and contempt for the "cowardly failure" of the German people.

As the Red Army approached Berlin and the Anglo-Americans reached the Elbe, on 19 March 1945 Hitler ordered the destruction of what remained of German industry, communications and transport systems. He was resolved that, if he did not survive, Germany too should be destroyed. The same ruthless nihilism and passion for destruction which had led to the extermination of six million Jews in death camps, to the biological "cleansing" of the sub-human Slavs and other subject peoples in the New Order, was finally turned on his own people.

On April 29, 1945, he married his mistress Eva Braun and dictated his final political testament, concluding with the same monotonous, obsessive fixation that had guided his career from the beginning: "Above all I charge the leaders of the nation and those under them to scrupulous observance of the laws of race and to merciless opposition to the universal poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry."

The following day Hitler committed suicide, shooting himself through the mouth with a pistol. His body was carried into the garden of the Reich Chancellery by aides, covered with petrol and burned along with that of Eva Braun. This final, macabre act of self-destruction appropriately symbolized the career of a political leader whose main legacy to Europe was the ruin of its civilization and the senseless sacrifice of human life for the sake of power and his own commitment to the bestial nonsense of National Socialist race mythology. With his death nothing was left of the "Greater Germanic Reich," of the tyrannical power structure and ideological system which had devastated Europe during the twelve years of his totalitarian rule.

One of the most brilliant individuals in history, Napoleon Bonaparte was a masterful soldier, an unequalled grand tactician and a superb administrator. He was also utterly ruthless, a dictator and, later in his career, thought he could do no wrong.

Not a Frenchman by birth, Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio on Corsica - only just sold to France by the Italian state of Genoa - on 15 August 1769 and learnt French at the school of Autun and later the military academy at Brienne. He never fully mastered French and his spelling left a lot to be desired.

The revolutionary fever that was spreading when Bonaparte was a teenager allowed a talented individual the opportunity to rise far beyond what could have been achieved only a few years previously.

His first real military opportunity came as a captain of artillery at the siege of Toulon, where he expertly seized crucial forts and was able to bombard the British naval and land forces, eventually forcing them to sail away.

Now a brigadier-general, Bonaparte served in the army campaigning in Italy but found himself arrested and jailed for being an associate of the younger brother of Maximilien Robespierre.

With no position for him after his release, Bonaparte thought about joining the Turkish army and even joining a naval expedition to Australia, but became involved with a member of the Directory, Paul Barras, who used the young man's zeal to put down a royalist mob in 1795 with the now legendary "whiff of grapeshot".

With his loyalty and ruthlessness proven, the next year Bonaparte took up command of the Army of Italy and set off on a campaign that was to take him to absolute power in France and Europe.

Initially treated with suspicion, and not a little contempt, by the older generals he superceded, Bonaparte won over his badly treated soldiers with promises of great things to come and a large helping of personal bravery. Like Caesar, he was not afraid to get into the thick of the fighting to inspire his men.

In a series of battles that included such as Montenotte, Mondovi, Arcola and Rivoli, Bonaparte swept the board of ageing Austrian generals and established himself as one of the leading soldiers of his time.

After masterminding the Peace of Campo Formio, Bonaparte returned to Paris where he took command of the Army of England, an imposing force neutered by England's wooden walls of its navy.

Desperate to be both at Britain and pushing his own reputation, Bonaparte planned an expedition to Egypt to threaten his foe's trading routes. He sailed from Toulon in 1798 and, after capturing Malta, made it to Egypt in early July.

The campaign began brilliantly when he smashed the power of the ruling Mamelukes at the Battle of the Pyramids, but was crippled when Nelson's hound-pack fleet finally caught up with the French navy at Aboukir (Battle of the Nile) and sank all but four of the 17-ship force.

Stranded and with suspect supply lines, Bonaparte moved into Syria and won the battle of Mt Tabor before being halted by fierce and stubborn resistance at Acre.

Stricken with disease and wary of a mass revolt in Cairo, the French made a horrendous march through the deserts of the Sinai, but arrived at Aboukir in good enough condition to crush another Turkish force.

Realising the potential success of his campaign was now limited, if not impossible, Bonaparte decided to abandon his army and get back to the centre of power - Paris - and make sure his position had not been undermined.

Popular with the people, Bonaparte found the loathed Directory very cool towards his surprise arrival and no doubt took pleasure in their discomfort when he, Abbe Sieyes and Roger Ducos seized power in the Coup de Brumaire, which saw them share power as equal consuls. Within months Bonaparte was First Consul and had eased his "equals" into early retirement.

The next stage in Bonaparte's career came in 1800, when he again moved into Italy with another brilliant manouevre that saw him lead the French army over the Alps and surprise the occupying Austrians.

It almost proved to be a blunder - as Bonaparte was in turn caught by surprise at the tenacity of General Melas who attacked him at Marengo. Holding on for grim life the situation was saved for Bonaparte by General Louis Desaix's arrival with reinforcements and what was a lost battle became a stunning victory for the First Consul.

Together with the victory at Hohenlinden, Marengo forced the Austrians to the table and the resulting Peace of Leoben in 1801 and Peace of Amiens (1802) brought to an end a decade of revolution, strife and war.

He also got France back in to the good books of Rome through the Concordat with the Pope, which eased the restrictions and penalties imposed on the church by the Revolution.

Bonaparte's popularity was now unprecedented and he was voted Consul for life. Setting about much-needed civil reforms he turned upside down the old system of running France and introduced the Civil Code.

But all was not safe for Bonaparte and there were several attempts on his life, including a bomb set off in Paris as his carriage went by.

Still, in 1804, the general felt confident and secure enough to declare himself Emperor and the next day created the Marshalate for his most trusted and talented soldiers.

Bonaparte waited until 2 December for his coronation where, with much pomp and ceremony, he crowned himself.

While affairs within France were on a high, Bonaparte committed a serious error when the determined Duc d'Enghien, a Royalist figurehead, was kidnapped from neutral Baden, tried without a lawyer defending him and then executed. The event turned Europe's monarchies forever against him and led to the formation of the Third Coalition to try to bring down his regime.

Bonaparte reacted by amassing a huge army - the first Grande Armee - on the coastline of Europe with the intention of invading Britain but, fortunately for those opposing him, he was never given the opportunity as Admiral Horatio Nelson smashed his naval ambitions at Trafalgar in 1805.

While his political radar may have been off with the D'Enghien affair, his military one was not and knowing his enemies were mobilising against him he prepared a pre-emptive strike.

Secretly redeploying the 200,000-man Grand Armee, Bonaparte had them march by various routes until they were in striking distance of Austria's General Mack, who was waiting at Ulm for the arrival of the Russian army under General Kutusov.

The French manouevre worked brilliantly and General Mack found himself trapped within the city of Ulm with little sign of Kutusov. He made two major attempts to extricate his 27,000 men - at Elchingen and Haslach - but in the end had little choice but to surrender.

With the way to Vienna clear, Bonaparte occupied the enemy capital and then set out after the Russians and the remaining Austrian forces.

He caught them at Austerlitz where, with tactical brilliance, he tricked them in to attacking him and proceeded to destroy them.

The victory led to the Peace of Pressburg and Austria was forced to give up huge areas of influence in Germany and Italy.

With Europe pacified, the French emperor once again turned his eyes towards Britain and developed a plan to wage economic war - the Continental System - on his closest enemy.

With the large number of states under either his control or influence, Bonaparte decided that by excluding Britain from trading with them he could hurt that nation's economy sufficiently to stop it bankrolling more wars on mainland Europe.

Reluctantly adopted by Europe, it didn't take long for the Continental System to begin another war. In order to stop Portugal trading with Britain he sent an army through his ally Spain to enforce the blockade.

Then, inexplicably, he used the presence of French troops in Spain to persuade the King Charles IV to step down and be replaced by Joseph Bonaparte.

The reaction of the Spanish people could have been predicted and an uprising broke out that was to spread across the entire nation and last for six years.

Bonaparte's miscalculation was to cost him more than 200,000 casualties and be a constant drain upon his resources. It was aptly dubbed "the Spanish Ulcer".

Worse was to come as a French army was forced to surrender to a Spanish force at Bailen, destroying the notion of French invincibility, and Britain landed a small army under Arthur Wellesley in Portugal.

It quickly defeated General Junot's Army of Portugal and forced Bonaparte to return to the field at the head of a hastily assembled force.

His campaign was highly successful, defeating the Spanish and putting down the major revolt and he managed to force the British, now under Sir John Moore, into a scrambling retreat to Corunna and evacuation by ship.

Bonaparte's success, however, failed to impress the Austrians and, by 1809, the leaders in Vienna felt confident enough to form the Fifth Coalition with Britain and move against France's Bavarian allies.

Caught by surprise the French, under Marshal Berthier, initially were in serious trouble against the capable Archduke Charles, but the arrival of the emperor bolstered confidence and began to set things to rights.

The French won the battles of Abensberg and Eckmuhl, almost lost Aspern-Essling after Bonaparte's advanced units became trapped against the flooded Danube River with the entire Austrian army bearing down on them, and then defeated Charles at Wagram.

Peace followed and was cemented when Bonaparte, now divorced from Josephine, married Marie-Louise of Austria.

Between 1810 and 1812 tensions between France and Russia kept increasing and, when Tsar Alexander refused to back down despite an army of 600,000 men on his border, Bonaparte ordered an invasion.

Despite being well planned the campaign was doomed by the sheer distances that had to be marched.

Bonaparte was hoping to force a decisive battle soon after entering Russia, but the defenders traded space for time by reteating. There were bloody, but indecisive, battles at Smolensk and Borodino and, when the French finally reached Moscow, they found that the Russians had preferred to set fire to it rather than let the French have it.

Still hoping for peace negotiations, Bonaparte delayed leaving the capital for too long and on his march back to France disaster hit the Grande Armee.

Appalling cold, lack of supplies and constant attacks by Russian forces whittled away the once-magnificent army so that when it finally stumbled out of Russia its survivors numbered fewer than 20,000.

Seeing the French almost on their knees the revenge-seeking Prussians broke their alliance with Paris and, together with Sweden, joined the Tsar's campaign to kick the French out of Germany.

The 1813 Campaign through Germany saw a weakened Bonaparte fight and win the battles of Lutzen, Bautzen and Dresden, but the sheer weight of numbers caught up with him at Leipzig, where some 200,000 Frenchmen took on 400,000 enemy troops in a massive three-day battle.

Defeated, and his forces also facing an unbeaten and advancing British army in Spain, Bonaparte gathered strength for his last roll of the die - the battle for France.

The following campaign saw Bonaparte return to his brilliant best and he won battle after battle with weak and inexperienced forces pitted against seasoned and seemingly innumerable enemies.

Finally, however, the numbers told and he was forced to abdicate by his marshals on 6 April 1814. He gave a final farewell to his Old Guard at Fontainbleau on 20 April and chose 600 men to go into exile with him on Elba.

On the island Bonaparte plotted his return and taking advantage of lax security and in the knowledge there was a growing resentment of the restored Bourbons and Louis XVIII, he landed in France in early March of 1815.

Despite being branded an Enemy of Humanity by his enemies, the French people flocked to him and within months he had rebuilt his army for the expected arrival of the armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden and Britain.

Rather than wait he launched a lightning campaign into Belgium in the hope of catching the British, under the Duke of Wellington, and the Prussians, under Field Marshal Blucher, off guard.

The plan worked, but a series of command errors by subordinates blew the opportunities offered and despite victory at Ligny and a tactical draw at Quatre Bras, he was defeated at Waterloo.

Exiled a second time, the man who ruled Europe spent his last six years on a small island in the South Atlantic called St Helena.

His death in 1821 brought relief to the royal houses of Europe and it was only in 1840 that his body was allowed to return to his beloved France.