Becoming First Consul at 30 years of age, Napoleon now cut his
hair short. The French people quickly forgot about his
disastrous Egyptian campaign and remembered his stunning
victories in the Italian one. In December of 1799, Napoleon
pushed for peace, but England and Austria rejected his
proposals. So in 1800, Napoleon did the unexpected: restaging
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, he marched his army through the
still-snowy Great Saint Bernard Pass to attack Austria's forces
in Italy. Napoleon took the Austrian army by surprise and
defeated them at the Battle of Marengo on June 14th, 1800. As a
result, Napoleon was able to strong-arm Austrian Emperor Francis
II into signing the Treaty of Luneville on February 9, 1801.
Intimidated by this show of power, the British signed a peace
agreement with France, the Peace of Amiens, on March 27, 1802.
As First Consul, Napoleon was clearly the highest power in the
land, and a fairly absolutist ruler. However, he was still
careful to set up what were largely imaginary re