He was a key figure in the struggle of the Patriots against the Orangists, and as a general in the French army he cleared the path for the Batavian Republic. Not all his political involvements were successful, however, and following several failed coups Daendels fell out of favour with the national administration. Louis Napoleon nonetheless appointed him governor general of the Dutch East Indies in 1807. Daendels also joined Napoleon’s failed 1812 Russian campaign. He went on to hold his final post as the governor of Dutch territory in Guinea, where his turbulent life ended due to malaria in 1818.
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