May 18: The French Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of France in 1804.

Painting by Georges Rouget showing Napoleon in Saint-Cloud receiving the sénatus-consulte proclaiming him Emperor of the French (1804).Saint-Clouod receiving the senates-consulte proclaiming him Emperor of the French (1804).

“On 18 May, 1804, the Sénat conservateur proclaimed that the government of the Republic had been handed over to an Emperor and that Napoleon Bonaparte had become the "Empereur des Français" under the name of Napoléon 1er".Lentz Thierry.

Saint-Clouod receiving the senates-consulte proclaiming him Emperor of the French (1804).

The Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français) was the title given to Napoleon being First Consul. The title of Emperor was awarded on May 18, 1804 to be crowned on December 2nd. Additionally, a year later, on March 18, 1805 was proclaimed King of Italy.

Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Pest House in Jaffa, 1804, by Baron Antoine-Jean Gros. In the painting, Bonaparte was to be shown as a fearless man with no concern for his own health.  Gros’s painting depicts Bonaparte as he confronted the pestilence during his visit to his men who had contracted the plague.

The title of "Emperor" meant that Napoleon would rule over the people of France, the nation that lived in France and not on France "The Republic" institutionally. The "old regime" or monarchy under the title "King of France" indicated that the king was a personal owner of land and business in France, as a personal possession.

Bonaparte, First Consul, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. 

The title of "Emperor of the French" was approved by Napoleon himself because when he was offered to be "king" he expressed that he had fought for the French Revolution and against the monarchy. So he chose a title that identified him with the French people directly, under the introduction of a new political system copied from Imperial Rome.

Napoleon's Road to Emperor. 1804.