I have called special attention to the extent and pertinacity of Napoleon's schemes for the foundation of a French Colonial Empire in India, Egypt, South Africa, and Australia; and there can be no doubt that the events of the years 1803-13 determined, not only the destinies of Europe and Napoleon, but the general trend of the world's colonization.
As it has been necessary to condense the story of Napoleon's life in some parts, I have chosen to treat with special brevity the years 1809-11, which may be called the _constans aetas_ of his career, in order to have more space for the decisive events that followed; but even in these less eventful years I have striven to show how his Continental System was setting at work mighty economic forces that made for his overthrow, so that after the _debacle_ of 1812 it came to be a struggle of Napoleon and France _contra mundum_.
While not neglecting the personal details of the great man's life, I have dwelt mainly on his public career.

Apart from his brilliant conversations, his private life has few features of abiding interest, perhaps because he early tired of the shallowness of Josephine and the Corsican angularity of his brothers and sisters.

But the cause also lay in his own disposition.

He once said to M.Gallois: "Je n'aime pas beaucoup les femmes, ni le jeu--enfin rien: _je suis tout a fait un etre politique_." In dealing with him as a warrior and statesman, and in sparing my readers details as to his bolting his food, sleeping at concerts, and indulging in amours where for him there was no glamour of romance, I am laying stress on what interested him most--in a word, I am taking him at his best.
I could not have accomplished this task, even in the present inadequate way, but for the help generously accorded from many quarters.

My heartfelt thanks are due to Lord Acton, Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge, for advice of the highest importance; to Mr.Hubert Hall of the Public Record Office, for guidance in my researches there; to Baron Lumbroso of Rome, editor of the "Bibliografia ragionata dell' Epoca Napoleonica," for hints on Italian and other affairs; to Dr.Luckwaldt, Privat Docent of the University of Bonn, and author of "Oesterreich und die Anfaenge des Befreiungs-Krieges," for his very scholarly revision of the chapters on German affairs; to Mr.F.H.E.