Who was alive at the same time as Napoleon?

French military leader, French Emperor 1804–1814 and again in 1815

Napoleon lived 1769–1821. Here are the famous people whose lives overlapped with theirs.

Lived: 1769–1821
Lifespan: about 52 years
Born in, as it was then: CorsicaKingdom of France
On today’s map: France

Explore Napoleon’s world on the timeline →

Did you know?

When Napoleon was born, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was already about 13 years old.
Napoleon was about 1 when Ludwig van Beethoven was born.
Napoleon and Immanuel Kant (German philosopher) shared about 35 years on Earth, one born in the Kingdom of France and the other in the Kingdom of Prussia.
Karl Marx outlived Napoleon by about 62 years.

Famous contemporaries of Napoleon

Rulers and commanders

Marie Antoinette 1755–1793 · 24 yrs shared
Otto von Bismarck 1815–1898 · 6 yrs shared
Benjamin Franklin 1706–1790 · 21 yrs shared
George Washington 1732–1799 · 30 yrs shared
Abraham Lincoln 1809–1865 · 12 yrs shared
Louis XVI 1754–1793 · 24 yrs shared

Philosophers and scientists

Karl Marx 1818–1883 · 3 yrs shared
Immanuel Kant 1724–1804 · 35 yrs shared
Charles Darwin 1809–1882 · 12 yrs shared
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712–1778 · 9 yrs shared
Adam Smith 1723–1790 · 21 yrs shared
Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777–1855 · 44 yrs shared

Writers and artists

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791 · 22 yrs shared
Ludwig van Beethoven c. 1770–1827 · 51 yrs shared
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832 · 52 yrs shared
Voltaire 1694–1778 · 9 yrs shared
Victor Hugo 1802–1885 · 19 yrs shared
Richard Wagner 1813–1883 · 8 yrs shared

Explorers and others

James Cook 1728–1779 · 10 yrs shared

Born within five years of Napoleon

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770) · Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770) · John Dalton (1766) · Alexander von Humboldt (1769) · David Ricardo (1772) · Caspar David Friedrich (1774) · Walter Scott (1771) · Thomas Robert Malthus (1766)

About Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte, or simply Napoleon, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

More people

Marie Antoinette · George Washington · Abraham Lincoln · Alexander Hamilton · George III · Queen Victoria · Chester A. Arthur · James A. Garfield