Napoleonic Wars on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Napoleonic Wars
, partof = the
Battles of Austerlitz,
({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=05, day1=18, year1=1803, month2=11, day2=20, year2=1815) , place =
{{flagcountry, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
{{collapsible list , bullets=yes , title={{flagcountry, Habsburg monarchy, civil , {{flagcountry, Holy Roman Empire{{efn, Dissolved in 1806. Many states of the Empire were allies of France before its dissolution, including
'' and others...'' , {{flagcountry, Austrian Empire{{efn, The term ''Austrian Empire'' came into use after Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804, by which Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor took the title Emperor of Austria (Kaiser von Österreich) in response. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, and consequently ''Emperor of Austria'' became Francis' primary title. For this reason, ''Austrian Empire'' is often used instead of ''Holy Roman Empire'' for brevity's sake when speaking of the Napoleonic Wars, even though the two entities are not synonymous.{{efn, name="Austria&Prussia", After the French victory against the Fourth and Fifth coalitions, Prussia and Austria became allies of France and contributed forces to the French Invasion of Russia in 1812. Both countries joined the Sixth Coalition when the invasion failed. * {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Hungary (1526-1867){{efn, The
36
} in the Imperial and Royal Army, and also by a traditional army ("insurrectio"). The Hungarian Diet voted to join in war and agreed to pay one third of the war expenses., group=lower-alpha {{unbulleted list , {{flagcountry, Russian Empire{{efn, name="Russia", Russia was a leading member of the Coalition, but became an ally of France from the signing of the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807 until it was invaded by France in 1812. During this time, it was nominally at war with the United Kingdom,
'' and others...'' , {{flagdeco, Kingdom of Naples, 1811
French allies:{{unbulletedlist , {{flagdeco, Spain, 1785
351
, url-access=registration , French clients and allies: 500,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813) , Total: 2,000,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813) , casualties1 = {{Unbulleted list , {{flagicon, Austrian Empire Austria: 350,220 killed in action (500,000 total dead) , {{flagicon, Spain, 1785 Spain: more than 300,000 killed in action and more than 586,000 dead in total including civilians{{sfn, Canales, 2004 , {{flagicon, Russian Empire Russia: 289,000 killed in action{{harvnb, White, 2014 cites {{harvnb, Danzer (600,000 total dead including civilians) , {{flagicon, Kingdom of Prussia, 1803 Prussia: 134,000 killed in action (300,000 total dead including civilians) , {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom: 125,000{{harvnb, White, 2014 cites {{harvnb, Payne killed in action (300,000 total dead) , {{flagicon, Kingdom of Portugal, 1750 Portugal: up to 250,000 total dead or missing including civilians , {{flagicon, Ottoman Empire, 1793 Ottoman Empire: 50,000 total dead or missing
Total: 4,000,000 total military and civilian dead or missing , casualties2 = {{flagicon, First French Empire French Empire: * 306,000 French killed in action{{sfn, White, 2014 * 65,000 French allies killed in action{{sfn, Philo, 2010 * 800,000 French and allies killed by wounds, accidents or disease{{sfn, Philo, 2010 * 600,000 civilians killed{{sfn, Philo, 2010 {{flagicon, Napoleonic Italy Italy: 120,000 total dead or missing including civilians{{harvnb, White, 2014, loc=''Napoleonic Wars'' cites {{harvnb, Urlanis, 1971
Total: 2,000,000 dead , campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Napoleonic Wars {{Campaignbox Anglo-French wars {{OSM Location map , coord = {{coord, 48, 14 , zoom = 3 , float = right , nolabels = 1 , width = 300 , height = 240 , title = Napoleonic Wars , auto-caption=1 , shapeD=n-circle , shape-colorD=dark blue , label-colorD=dark blue , shape-outlineD=white , label-sizeD = 12 , label-posD = left , mark-sizeD=16 , mark-coord1 = {{coord, 49.13, 16.76 , mark-title1 = Third Coalition: Germany 1803:... Austerlitz... , mark-coord2 = {{coord, 52.52, 13.41 , mark-title2 = Fourth Coalition: Prussia 1806:...
193–194
} There are numerous opinions on the date to use as the formal beginning of the Napoleonic Wars; 18 May 1803 is often used, when Britain and France ended the only short period of peace between 1792 and 1814.{{sfn, Kagan, 2007, pp=42–43 The Napoleonic Wars began with the
51
} Tactically, the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Army had redefined the role of artillery, while Napoleon emphasised mobility to offset numerical disadvantages,{{Cite book , last=Geoffrey Wawro , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gtuAhd9qARkC&pg=PA9 , title=Warfare and Society in Europe, 1792–1914 , publisher=Routledge , year=2002 , isbn=978-0-203-00735-8 , page=9 , access-date=18 June 2015 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930225924/https://books.google.com/books?id=gtuAhd9qARkC&pg=PA9 , archive-date=30 September 2015 , url-status=live and aerial surveillance was used for the first time in warfare.{{sfn, Palmer, 1941, pp=81–83 The highly successful Spanish guerrillas demonstrated the capability of a people driven by fervent nationalism against an occupying force.{{sfn, Tone, 1996, pp=355–382{{page range too broad, date=May 2021 Due to the longevity of the wars, the extent of Napoleon's conquests, and the popularity of the ideals of the French Revolution, the period had a deep impact on European social culture. Many subsequent revolutions, such as the Russian Revolution, looked to the French as a source of inspiration,{{sfnm , 1a1=Shlapentokh , 1y=1997 , 1pp=220–228 , 2a1=Palmer , 2a2=Colton , 2a3=Kramer , 2y=2013 , 2pp=81–83 while Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, its core founding tenets greatly expanded the arena of human rights and shaped modern political philosophies in use today.{{sfn, Desan, Hunt, Nelson, 2013, pp=3, 8, 10
193–194
} He further reorganised the French military forces, establishing a large reserve army positioned to support campaigns on the Rhine or in Italy. Second Battle of Zurich, Russia had already been knocked out of the war, and, under Napoleon's leadership, the French Battle of Marengo, decisively defeated the Austrians in June 1800, crippling Austrian capabilities in Italy. Austria was Battle of Hohenlinden, definitively defeated that December, by Jean Victor Marie Moreau, Moreau's forces in
Beyond minor naval actions against British imperial interests, the Napoleonic Wars were much less global in their scope than preceding conflicts such as the Seven Years' War, which historians term a "world war".
Britain gathered allies to form the Third Coalition against The French Empire after Napoleon was self-proclaimed as emperor.{{sfn, Schroeder, 1994, pp=231–86{{page range too broad, date=May 2021{{sfn, Kagan, 2007, pp=141ff In response, Napoleon Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom, seriously considered an invasion of Great Britain, massing 180,000 troops at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Boulogne. Before he could invade, he needed to achieve naval superiority—or at least to pull the British fleet away from the English Channel. A complex plan to distract the British by threatening their possessions in the 
In April 1805, Britain and Russia signed a treaty with the aim of removing the French from the Batavian Republic (roughly present-day Netherlands) and the Swiss Confederation (Napoleonic), Swiss Confederation. Austria joined the alliance after the annexation of Genoa and the proclamation of Napoleon as Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic), King of Italy on 17 March 1805. Sweden, which had already agreed to lease Swedish Pomerania as a military base for British troops against France, entered the coalition on 9 August.
The Austrians began the war by invading
In the next stage of the war, the French drove Russian forces out of Poland and employed many Polish and German soldiers in several sieges in Silesia and Pomerania, with the assistance of Dutch and Italian soldiers in the latter case. Napoleon then turned north to confront the remainder of the Russian army and to try to capture the temporary Prussian capital at Königsberg. A tactical draw at Battle of Eylau, Eylau (7–8 February 1807), followed by capitulation at Siege of Danzig (1807), Danzig (24 May 1807) and the Battle of Heilsberg (10 June 1807), forced the Russians to withdraw further north. Napoleon decisively beat the Russian army at Friedland (14 June 1807), following which Alexander had to make peace with Napoleon at Treaty of Tilsit, Tilsit (7 July 1807). In Germany and Poland, new Napoleonic client states, such as the Kingdom of Westphalia, Duchy of Warsaw, and Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic), Republic of Danzig, were established. Early that same year, the French Siege of Kolberg (1807), besieged the fortified town of Kolberg, which resulted in a lifting of the siege by a peace treaty on 2 July.
By September, Marshal Guillaume Brune completed the occupation of Swedish Pomerania, allowing the Swedish army to withdraw with all its munitions of war.
Britain's first response to Napoleon's Continental System was to launch a major naval attack against Denmark-Norway, Denmark. Although ostensibly neutral, Denmark was under heavy French and Russian pressure to pledge Royal Danish Navy, its fleet to Napoleon. London could not take the chance of ignoring the Danish threat. In August 1807, the Royal Navy Battle of Copenhagen (1807), besieged and bombarded Copenhagen, leading to the capture of the History of the Danish navy, Dano–Norwegian fleet, and assuring use of the sea lanes in the North and Baltic seas for the British merchant fleet. Denmark joined the war on the side of France, but without a fleet it had little to offer,{{sfn, Ryan, 1953{{page needed, date=May 2021{{sfn, Munch-Petersen, 2007{{page needed, date=May 2021 beginning an engagement in a Gunboat War, naval guerrilla war in which small gunboats attacked larger British ships in Danish and Norwegian waters. Denmark also committed themselves to participate in a war against Sweden together with France and Russia.
At Tilsit, Napoleon and Alexander had agreed that Russia should force Sweden to join the Continental System, which led to a Finnish War, Russian invasion of Finland in February 1808, followed by a Dano-Swedish War of 1808–1809, Danish declaration of war in March. Napoleon also sent an auxiliary corps, consisting of troops from France, Kingdom of Spain (Napoleonic), Spain and
243
} The Peninsular campaigns witnessed 60 major battles and 30 major sieges, more than any other of the Napoleonic conflicts, and lasted over 6 years, far longer than any of the others. France and her allies lost at least 91,000 killed in action and 237,000 wounded in the peninsula.{{sfn, Clodfelter, 2017, page=157 From 1812, the Peninsular War merged with the
Austria achieved some initial victories against the thinly spread army of Marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier, Berthier. Napoleon left Berthier with only 170,000 men to defend France's entire eastern frontier (in the 1790s, 800,000 men had carried out the same task, but holding a much shorter front).
In the east, the Austrians drove into the Duchy of Warsaw but suffered defeat at the Battle of Raszyn on 19 April 1809. The Army of the Duchy of Warsaw captured West Galicia following its earlier success. Napoleon assumed personal command and bolstered the army for a counter-attack on Austria. After a few small battles, the well-run campaign forced the Austrians to withdraw from Bavaria, and Napoleon advanced into Austria. His hurried attempt to cross the Danube resulted in the major Battle of Aspern-Essling (22 May 1809) – Napoleon's first significant tactical defeat. But the Austrian commander, Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, Archduke Charles, failed to follow up on his indecisive victory, allowing Napoleon to prepare and seize Vienna in early July. He defeated the Austrians at Battle of Wagram, Wagram, on 5–6 July. (It was during the middle of that battle that Marshal Charles XIV John of Sweden, Bernadotte was stripped of his command after retreating contrary to Napoleon's orders. Shortly thereafter, Bernadotte took up the offer from Sweden to fill the vacant position of Crown Prince there. Later he actively participated in wars against his former Emperor.)
The War of the Fifth Coalition ended with the Treaty of Schönbrunn (14 October 1809). In the east, only the Tyrolean Rebellion, Tyrolese rebels led by Andreas Hofer continued to fight the French-Bavarian army until finally defeated in November 1809. In the west, the Peninsular War continued. Economic warfare between Britain and France continued: The British continued a naval blockade of French-controlled territory. Due to military shortages and lack of organisation in French territory, many breaches of the Continental System occurred and the French Continental System was largely ineffective and did little economic damage to Great Britain. Both sides entered further conflicts in attempts to enforce their blockade. As Napoleon realised that extensive trade was going through Spain and Russia, he invaded those two countries; the British fought the United States in the War of 1812 (1812–1815).
In 1810, the French Empire reached its greatest extent. Napoleon married Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, Marie-Louise, an Austrian Archduchess, with the aim of ensuring a more stable alliance with Austria and of providing the Emperor with an heir (something his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Joséphine, had failed to do). As well as the French Empire, Napoleon controlled the Swiss Confederation, the
The abdication of Kings Charles IV of Spain and Ferdinand VII of Spain and the installation of Napoleon's brother as King Joseph Bonaparte, José provoked civil wars and revolutions, leading to the independence of most of Spain's mainland American colonies. In Hispanic America, Spanish America, many local elites formed juntas and set up mechanisms to rule in the name of Ferdinand VII, whom they considered the legitimate Spanish monarch. The outbreak of the Spanish American wars of independence in most of the empire was a result of Napoleon's destabilizing actions in Spain, and led to the rise of Strongman (politics), strongmen in the wake of these wars. The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 caused an exodus of French soldiers into Latin America, where they joined ranks with the armies of the independence movements.{{Cite journal , last=Orellana Billiard , first=Jorge Andrés , year=2018 , title=BERGUÑO HURTADO, Fernando. Los soldados de Napoleón en la Independencia de Chile. 1817–1830 , url=http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2314-15492018000100011 , url-status=live , journal=Revista de historia americana y argentina , language=es , volume=53 , issue=1 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522161122/http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2314-15492018000100011 , archive-date=22 May 2020 , access-date=13 July 2019 While these officials had a role in various victories such as the Capture of Valdivia (1820), some are held responsible for significant defeats at the hands of the royalists, as was the case at the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada (1818).
In contrast, the Portuguese House of Braganza, royal family escaped to Colonial Brazil, Brazil and established the court there, resulting in political stability for Portuguese America. In 1816, Brazil was proclaimed an equal part of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, paving the way to Brazilian independence six years later.
The Haitian Revolution began in 1791, just before the
The Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 resulted in the Anglo-Russian War (1807–1812), Anglo–Russian War (1807–1812). Emperor Alexander I declared war on Britain after the British attack on Denmark in September 1807. British men-of-war supported the Swedish fleet during the Finnish War and won victories over the Russians in the Gulf of Finland in July 1808 and August 1809. The success of the Russian army on land, however, forced Sweden to sign peace treaties with Russia in 1809 and with France in 1810, and to join the blockade against Britain. But Franco–Russian relations would become progressively worse after 1810, and the Russian war with Britain effectively ended. In April 1812, Britain, Russia, and Sweden signed secret agreements directed against Napoleon.{{sfn, Palmer, 1974{{page needed, date=May 2021
The central issue for both Emperor of the French, Emperor Napoleon, Napoleon I and Emperor of Russia, Tsar Alexander I was control over Poland. Each wanted a semi-independent Poland he could control. As Esdaile notes, "Implicit in the idea of a Russian Poland was, of course, a war against Napoleon."{{sfn, Esdaile, 2009, p=438 Schroeder says Poland was "the root cause" of Napoleon's war with Russia, but Russia's refusal to support the Continental System was also a factor.{{sfn, Schroeder, 1994, p=419
In 1812, at the height of his power, Napoleon invaded Russia with a pan-European {{lang, fr, Grande Armée, consisting of 450,000 men (200,000 Frenchmen, and many soldiers of allies or subject areas). The French forces crossed the Neman, Niemen river on 24 June 1812. Russia proclaimed a Patriotic War, and Napoleon proclaimed a Second Polish war. The Poles supplied almost 100,000 men for the invasion force, but against their expectations, Napoleon avoided any concessions to Poland, having in mind further negotiations with Russia.{{sfn, Riehn, 1990{{page needed, date=May 2021
The {{lang, fr, Grande Armée marched through Russia, winning some relatively minor engagements and the major Battle of Smolensk (1812), Battle of Smolensk on 16–18 August. In the same days, part of the French Army led by Marshal of France, Marshal Nicolas Oudinot was stopped in the First Battle of Polotsk, Battle of Polotsk by the right wing of the Russian Army, under command of General Peter Wittgenstein. This prevented the French march on the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg; the fate of the invasion was decided in Moscow, where Napoleon led his forces in person.
The main Imperial Russian Army was commanded by Field Marshal Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, who recognized that Napoleon's immediate goal was a decisive battle to crush the main Russian force in the west. In response, the Russian army used scorched-earth tactics as it withdrew east, and harried the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée with light Cossack cavalry. The {{lang, fr, Grande Armée did not adjust its operational methods in response.{{sfn, Riehn, 1990, pp=138–140 Provisioning such an enormous army with adequate food and fresh water had proven difficult since the very start of the campaign, exacerbated by the sparse terrain of western Russia; diseases such as typhus and dysentery rapidly became rampant among the rank and file. These factors led to most of the losses of the main column of the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée, which in one case amounted to 95,000 men, including deserters, in a week.{{sfn, Riehn, 1990, p=185
The main Russian army retreated for almost three months. This constant retreat led to the increasing unpopularity of Barclay de Tolly (who was a Baltic German and already mistrusted by the Russian elite) and a respected Russian veteran, Prince Mikhail Kutuzov, was made the new Commander-in-Chief by Tsar Alexander. Finally, the two armies engaged in the Battle of Borodino on 7 September,{{sfn, Haythornthwaite, 2012{{page needed, date=May 2021 in the vicinity of Moscow. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 men and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties.
The battle was indecisive; the French captured the main positions on the battlefield but failed to destroy the Russian army. While Kutuzov had recognized the political need to give battle, he also recognized that Barclay de Tolly's strategies had proven effective, and that the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée was bleeding personnel and supplies more and more severely with every step they took deeper into Russia. Napoleon's logistical difficulties meant that French casualties simply could not be replaced, whereas the Russian army could reinforce itself far more readily.
Napoleon, Napoleon I entered Moscow on 14 September, after the Russian Army had retreated yet again.{{sfn, Riehn, 1990, pp=253–254 By then, the Russians had largely evacuated the city and released criminals from the prisons to inconvenience the French; the governor, Count Fyodor Rostopchin, ordered the city Fire of Moscow (1812), to be burnt. Alexander I refused to capitulate, and the peace talks attempted by Napoleon failed. Rather than withdraw further east, the Russian army withdrew south, rebuilding its strength and preparing to interfere with a French withdrawal. In October, with no sign of clear victory in sight, Napoleon began the disastrous Great Retreat from Moscow.
The French tried to reach Kaluga and swing through southern Russia, where they could find food and forage supplies. In the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, the replenished Russian army blocked the road to Kaluga. While an indecisive engagement, it nevertheless doomed the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée; with the Russians refusing to be dislodged, Napoleon was forced to retreat back down the Smolensk road along which he had already advanced, and which had already been denuded of supplies – most crucially, food.
The French supply chain, already in tatters from the attrition of wagons and horses, began to collapse completely. The lack of horses also rendered Napoleon's cavalry ineffective, leaving the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée vulnerable to sustained guerrilla warfare by Russian peasants and irregular troops. The {{lang, fr, Grande Armée was dealt a further catastrophic blow by the onset of the Russian Winter, which the underfed and undersupplied {{lang, fr, Grande Armée was unprepared to cope with.
When the remnants of Napoleon's army Battle of Berezina, struggled across the Berezina River in November with the Russian army in pursuit, only 27,000 fit soldiers survived, with 380,000 men dead or missing and 100,000 captured.{{sfn, Upshall, p=17, 1993 Napoleon then left his men and returned to Paris to prepare the defence against the advancing Russians. The campaign had effectively ended on 14 December 1812, when the last enemy troops left Russia. The Russians had lost around 210,000 men, but with their shorter supply lines, they soon replenished their armies. For every six soldiers of the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée that entered Russia, only one would make it out in fighting condition.
In the 
Napoleon succeeded in bringing the imperial forces in the region to around 650,000—although only 250,000 came under his direct command, with another 120,000 under Nicolas Charles Oudinot and 30,000 under Davout. The remaining imperial forces came mostly from the Confederation of the Rhine, especially Saxony and Bavaria. In addition, to the south, Murat's Kingdom of Naples and Eugène de Beauharnais's Kingdom of Italy had 100,000 armed men. In Spain, another 150,000 to 200,000 French troops steadily retreated before Anglo-Portuguese forces numbering around 100,000. Thus around 900,000 Frenchmen in all theatres faced around 1,800,000 coalition soldiers (including the strategic reserve under formation in Germany). The gross figures may mislead slightly, as most of the German troops fighting on the side of the French fought at best unreliably and stood on the verge of defecting to the Allies. One can reasonably say that Napoleon could count on no more than 450,000 men in Germany—which left him outnumbered about four to one.{{sfn, Riley, 2013, p=206
Following the end of the armistice, Napoleon seemed to have regained the initiative at Battle of Dresden, Dresden (August 1813), where he once again defeated a numerically superior coalition army and inflicted enormous casualties, while sustaining relatively few. The failures of his marshals and a slow resumption of the offensive on his part cost him any advantage that this victory might have secured. At the Battle of Leipzig in Saxony (16–19 October 1813), also called the "Battle of the Nations", 191,000 French fought more than 300,000 Allies, and the defeated French had to retreat into France. After the French withdrawal from Germany, Napoleon's remaining ally, Denmark–Norway, became isolated and Treaty of Kiel, fell to the coalition.
Napoleon then fought a series of battles in France, including the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, but the overwhelming numbers of the Allies steadily forced him back. The Allies Battle of Paris (1814), entered Paris on 30 March 1814. During this time Napoleon fought his Six Days' Campaign, in which he won many battles against the enemy forces advancing towards Paris. During this entire campaign, he never managed to field more than 70,000 men against more than half a million coalition soldiers. At the Treaty of Chaumont (9 March 1814), the Allies agreed to preserve the coalition until Napoleon's total defeat.{{sfn, Dwyer, 2013, pp=464–498
Napoleon determined to fight on, even now, incapable of fathoming his fall from power. During the campaign, he had issued a decree for 900,000 fresh conscripts, but only a fraction of these materialised, and Napoleon's schemes for victory eventually gave way to the reality of his hopeless situation. Napoleon abdicated on 6 April. Occasional military actions continued in Italy, Spain, and Holland in early 1814.{{sfn, Dwyer, 2013, pp=464–498 An armistice was signed with the Allied Powers on 23 April 1814. The Treaty of Paris (1814), First Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814, officially ended the War of the Sixth Coalition.
The victors exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba and restored the French House of Bourbon, Bourbon monarchy in the person of Louis XVIII. They signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814), Treaty of Fontainebleau (11 April 1814) and initiated the
The Seventh Coalition (1815) pitted Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, the 
Napoleon took the reserve of the Army of the North, and reunited his forces with those of Ney to pursue Wellington's army, after he ordered Marshal Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy, Grouchy to take the right wing of the Army of the North and stop the Prussians regrouping. In the first of a series of miscalculations, both Grouchy and Napoleon failed to realise that the Prussian forces were already reorganised and were assembling at the city of Wavre. The French army did nothing to stop a rather leisurely retreat that took place throughout the night and into the early morning by the Prussians. As the 4th, 1st, and 2nd Prussian Corps marched through the town towards Waterloo, the 3rd Prussian Corps took up blocking positions across the river, and although Grouchy engaged and defeated the Prussian rearguard under the command of Lt-Gen Johann von Thielmann, von Thielmann in the Battle of Wavre (18–19 June) it was 12 hours too late. In the end, 17,000 Prussians had kept 33,000 badly needed French reinforcements off the field.
Napoleon delayed the start of fighting at the Battle of Waterloo on the morning of 18 June for several hours while he waited for the ground to dry after the previous night's rain. By late afternoon, the French army had not succeeded in driving Wellington's forces from the escarpment on which they stood. When the Prussians arrived and attacked the French right flank in ever-increasing numbers, Napoleon's strategy of keeping the coalition armies divided had failed and a combined coalition general advance drove his army from the field in confusion.
Grouchy organised a successful and well-ordered retreat towards Paris, where Marshal Davout had 117,000 men ready to turn back the 116,000 men of Blücher and Wellington. General Dominique Vandamme, Vandamme was defeated at the Battle of Issy and negotiations for surrender had begun.
On arriving at Paris three days after Waterloo, Napoleon still clung to the hope of a concerted national resistance; but the temper of the Corps législatif, legislative chambers, and of the public generally, did not favour his view. Lacking support Napoleon abdicated again on 22 June 1815, and on 15 July he surrendered to the British squadron at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, Rochefort. The Allies exiled him to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he died on 5 May 1821.
In Italy, Joachim Murat, whom the Allies had allowed to remain King of
France's constant warfare with the combined forces of different combinations of, and eventually all, of the other major powers of Europe for over two decades finally took its toll. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, France no longer held the role of the dominant historical powers, power in Continental Europe, as it had since the times of Louis XIV, as the 
The Napoleonic wars also played a key role in the independence of the Latin American colonies from Spain and Portugal. The conflict weakened the authority and military power of Spain, especially after the Battle of Trafalgar. There were many uprisings in Spanish America, leading to the Spanish American wars of independence, wars of independence. In Portuguese America, Brazil experienced greater autonomy as it now Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil, served as seat of the Portuguese Empire and ascended politically to the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, status of Kingdom. These events also contributed to the Liberal Revolution of 1820, Portuguese Liberal Revolution in 1820 and the Independence of Brazil in 1822.{{sfn, Keen, Haynes, 2012, loc=chpt. 8
The century of relative transatlantic peace, after the Congress of Vienna, enabled the "greatest intercontinental migration in human history"{{sfn, Keeling, 1999, p=39 beginning with "a big spurt of immigration after the release of the dam erected by the Napoleonic Wars." Immigration inflows relative to the US population rose to record levels (peaking at 1.6 per cent in 1850–51){{sfn, Keeling, 2007, pages=267–268{{page range too broad, date=May 2021 as 30 million Europeans relocated to the United States between 1815 and 1914.{{sfn, Jones, 1992, pp=78–79, ps=: Jones referred to this migration as "one of the wonders of the age."
Another concept emerged from the Congress of Vienna—that of a unified Europe. After his defeat, Napoleon deplored the fact that his dream of a free and peaceful "European association" remained unaccomplished. Such a European association would share the same principles of government, system of measurement, currency and Civil Code. One-and-a-half centuries later, and after two world wars several of these ideals re-emerged in the form of the European Union.
Until the time of Napoleon, European states employed relatively small armies, made up of both national soldiers and mercenary, mercenaries. These regulars were highly drilled, professional soldiers. Ancien Régime armies could only deploy small field armies due to rudimentary staffs and comprehensive yet cumbersome logistics. Both issues combined to limit field forces to approximately 30,000 men under a single commander.
Military innovators in the mid-18th century began to recognise the potential of an entire nation at war: a "nation in arms".
The scale of warfare dramatically enlarged during the Revolutionary and subsequent Napoleonic Wars. During Europe's major pre-revolutionary war, the Seven Years' War of 1756–1763, few armies ever numbered more than 200,000 with field forces often numbering less than 30,000. The French innovations of separate corps (allowing a single commander to efficiently command more than the traditional command span of 30,000 men) and living off the land (which allowed field armies to deploy more men without requiring an equal increase in supply arrangements such as depots and supply trains) allowed the French republic to field much larger armies than their opponents. Napoleon ensured during the time of the French republic that separate French field armies operated as a single army under his control, often allowing him to substantially outnumber his opponents. This forced his continental opponents to also increase the size of their armies, moving away from the traditional small, well-drilled Ancien Régime armies of the 18th century to mass conscript armies.
The Battle of Marengo, which largely ended the War of the Second Coalition, was fought with fewer than 60,000 men on both sides. The 
Britain had 750,000 men under arms between 1792 and 1815 as its British Army, army expanded from 40,000 men in 1793{{cn, date=April 2024 to a peak of 250,000 men in 1813. Over 250,000 sailors served in the Royal Navy. In September 1812, Russia had 900,000 enlisted men in its Imperial Russian Army, army, and between 1799 and 1815 2.1 million men served in its army. Another 200,000 served in the Imperial Russian Navy. Out of the 900,000 men, the field armies deployed against France numbered less than 250,000.
There are no consistent statistics for other major combatants. Austrian Army during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Austria's forces peaked at about 576,000 (during the War of the Sixth Coalition) and had little or no naval component yet never fielded more than 250,000 men in field armies. After Britain, Austria proved the most persistent enemy of France; more than a million Austrians served during the long wars. Its large army was overall quite homogeneous and solid and in 1813 operated in Germany (140,000 men), Italy and the Balkans (90,000 men at its peak, about 50,000 men during most of the campaigning on these fronts). Austria's manpower was becoming quite limited towards the end of the wars, leading its generals to favour cautious and conservative strategies, to limit their losses.
Prussia never had more than 320,000 men under arms at any time. In 1813–1815, the core of its Prussian Army, army (about 100,000 men) was characterised by competence and determination, but the bulk of its forces consisted of second- and third-line troops, as well as Landwehr, militiamen of variable strength. Many of these troops performed reasonably well and often displayed considerable bravery but lacked the professionalism of their regular counterparts and were not as well equipped. Others were largely unfit for operations, except sieges. During the 1813 campaign, 130,000 men were used in the military operations, with 100,000 effectively participating in the main German campaign of 1813, German campaign, and about 30,000 being used to besiege isolated French garrisons.{{sfn, Leggiere, 2014
Spanish Army (Peninsular War), Spain's armies also peaked at around 200,000 men, not including more than 50,000 guerrillas scattered over Spain. In addition the Maratha Empire, the
online
political and diplomatic context * Bruce, Robert B. et al. ''Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age 1792–1815: Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics'' (2008
excerpt and text search
* Clausewitz, Carl von (2018). ''Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign.'' Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. {{ISBN, 978-0-7006-2676-2 * Clausewitz, Carl von (2020). ''Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 1.'' Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. {{ISBN, 978-0-7006-3025-7 * Clausewitz, Carl von (2021). ''The Coalition Crumbles, Napoleon Returns: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 2.'' Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. {{ISBN, 978-0-7006-3034-9 * Gates, David. ''The Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815'' (NY: Random House, 2011) * Gulick, E.V. "The final coalition and the Congress of Vienna, 1813–15," in C.W. Crawley, ed. ''The New Cambridge Modern History: IX. War and Peace in an age of upheaval 1793–1830'' (Cambridge University Press, 1965) pp. 629–668
online
* Markham, Felix. "The Napoleonic Adventure" in C.W. Crawley, ed. ''The New Cambridge Modern History: IX. War and Peace in an age of upheaval 1793–1830'' (Cambridge University Press, 1965) pp. 307–336
online
* Alan Palmer, Palmer, Alan. ''An Encyclopaedia of Napoleon's Europe'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984) {{ISBN, 978-0-29778-394-7 * {{Cite book , last=Pope , first=Stephen , title=The Cassel Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars , publisher=Cassel , year=1999 , isbn=0-304-35229-2 * Ross, Steven T. ''European Diplomatic History, 1789–1815: France Against Europe'' (1969) * Ross, Steven T. ''The A to Z of the Wars of the French Revolution'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010); 1st ed. was ''Historical dictionary of the wars of the French Revolution'' (Scarecrow Press, 1998) * {{Cite journal , last=Rothenberg , first=Gunther E. , author-link=Gunther E. Rothenberg , year=1988 , title=The Origins, Causes, and Extension of the Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon , journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History , volume=18 , pages=771–793 , doi=10.2307/204824 , jstor=204824 , number=4 * Rothenberg, E. Gunther. ''The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon'' (1977) * {{Cite book , last=Schneid , first=Frederick C. , url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-20101025334 , title=The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , publisher=Institute of European History , year=2011 , location=Mainz * Schneid, Frederick C. ''Napoleon's Conquest of Europe: The War of the Third Coalition'' (2005
excerpt and text search
* Schneid, Frederick C. ''Napoleonic Wars: The Essential Bibliography'' (2012
excerpt and text search
121 pp
online review in H-FRANCE
* Smith, Digby George. ''The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book: Actions and Losses in Personnel, Colours, Standards, and Artillery'' (1998) * Stirk, Peter. "The concept of military occupation in the era of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars." ''Comparative Legal History'' 3#1 (2015): 60–84.
excerpt vol 1
* Elting, John R. ''Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grand Armée'' (1988). * Forrest, Alan I. ''Napoleon's Men: The Soldiers of the Empire Revolution and Empire'' (2002). * Forrest, Alan. ''Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society during Revolution and the Empire'' (1989
excerpt and text search
* Gallaher, John G. ''Napoleon's Enfant Terrible: General Dominique Vandamme'' (2008)
excerpt
* Griffith, Paddy. ''The Art of War of Revolutionary France, 1789–1802'' (1998
excerpt and text search
* Haythornthwaite, Philip J. ''Napoleon's Military Machine'' (1995
excerpt and text search
* Hazen, Charles Downer. ''The French Revolution and Napoleon'' (1917
online free
* Nester, William R. ''Napoleon and the Art of Diplomacy: How War and Hubris Determined the Rise and Fall of the French Empire'' (2011)
excerpt
* Parker, Harold T. "Why Did Napoleon Invade Russia? A Study in Motivation and the Interrelations of Personality and Social Structure," ''Journal of Military History'' (1990) 54#2 pp. 131–14
in JSTOR
* Riley, Jonathon P. ''Napoleon as a General'' (Hambledon Press, 2007) * Alexander Mikaberidze, Mikaberidze, Alexander. ''The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History'' (Oxford University Press) February 2020 * Wilkin Bernard and Wilkin René: ''Fighting for Napoleon: French Soldiers’ Letters 1799–1815'' Pen and Sword Military (2016) * Wilkin Bernard and Wilkin René: ''Fighting the British: French Eyewitness Accounts from the Napoleonic Wars'' Pen and Sword Military (2018) * Geerts, Gérard A. ''Samenwerking en Confrontatie: De Frans-Nederlandse militaire betrekkingen, voornamelijk in Franse tijd'' (Bataafschse Leeuw, 2002)
online
* Forrest, Alan et al. eds. ''War Memories: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Culture'' (2013) * Gill, John H. "From Great Captains to Common Grognards: research opportunities in Napoleonic military history." ''War & Society'' 41.1 (2022): 69–84. {{doi, 10.1080/07292473.2022.2021752 * Hyatt, Albert M.J. "The Origins of Napoleonic Warfare: A Survey of Interpretations." ''Military Affairs'' (1966) 30#4 pp. 177–185. * Linch, Kevin. "War Memories: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Culture." ''Social History'' 40#2 (2015): 253–254. * Martin, Jean-Clément. "War Memories. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Culture." ''Annales Historiques De La Revolution Francaise''. (2015) No. 381. * {{Cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VT7fAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA391 , title=Reader's Guide to Military History , publisher=Routledge , year=2001 , isbn=978-1-135-95970-8 , editor-last=Messenger , editor-first=Charles , pages=391–427 evaluation of the major books on Napoleon and his wars published by 2001. * Alexander Mikaberidze, Mikaberidze, Alexander. "Recent Trends in the Russian Historiography of the Napoleonic Wars," ''Journal of Military History'' (2010) 74#1 pp. 189–194.
online
* Kennedy, Catriona. ''Narratives of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Military and Civilian Experience in Britain and Ireland'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) * Leighton, James. ''Witnessing the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in German Central Europe'' (2013), diaries, letters and accounts by civilian
Online review
"A new scholarly journal in 2023: ''European Review of Studies on the Napoleonic and Restoration Periods''{{-"
The Legend of Bonaparte
The Napoleonic Wars Exhibition held by The European Library
15th Kings Light Dragoons (Hussars) Re-enactment Regiment
Reenactment and Living History Society
Napoleon, His Army and Enemies
Napoleonic Guide
*
War and Peace
' by Leo Tolstoy at Project Gutenberg
Napoleonic Wars
Fondation Napoléon
The Napoleon Series
{{Client states of the Great French War {{Napoleonic Wars {{Waterloo Campaign {{History of Europe {{Authority control Napoleonic Wars, 1800s conflicts 1800s in France 1810s conflicts 1810s in France Anglo-French wars
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (sometimes called the Great French War or the Wars of the Revolution and the Empire) were a series of conflicts between the French and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompas ...
, image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg
, caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battles of Austerlitz,
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Friedland, Aspern-Essling, Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
and Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, date = {{start and end dates, 1803, 5, 18, 1815, 11, 20, df=yes({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=05, day1=18, year1=1803, month2=11, day2=20, year2=1815) , place =
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
, Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
, Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, French Guiana
French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...
, Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
, North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
, West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
, Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...
.
, result = Coalition victory
, combatant1 = Coalition forces:{{flagcountry, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
{{collapsible list , bullets=yes , title={{flagcountry, Habsburg monarchy, civil , {{flagcountry, Holy Roman Empire{{efn, Dissolved in 1806. Many states of the Empire were allies of France before its dissolution, including
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
, Saxony
Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
, Baden
Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine.
History
The margraves of Ba ...
and Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...
.
* {{flagcountry, Electorate of Hanover{{efn, Hanover was in personal union with the United Kingdom. It was annexed by Westphalia in 1806 and restored as the Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
in 1814. Hanover contributed troops to the British Army (see King's German Legion) and to Wellington's army during the Waterloo Campaign.
* {{flag, Liechtenstein, 1719'' and others...'' , {{flagcountry, Austrian Empire{{efn, The term ''Austrian Empire'' came into use after Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804, by which Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor took the title Emperor of Austria (Kaiser von Österreich) in response. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, and consequently ''Emperor of Austria'' became Francis' primary title. For this reason, ''Austrian Empire'' is often used instead of ''Holy Roman Empire'' for brevity's sake when speaking of the Napoleonic Wars, even though the two entities are not synonymous.{{efn, name="Austria&Prussia", After the French victory against the Fourth and Fifth coalitions, Prussia and Austria became allies of France and contributed forces to the French Invasion of Russia in 1812. Both countries joined the Sixth Coalition when the invasion failed. * {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Hungary (1526-1867){{efn, The
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
participated in the war with separate Hungarian regiments{{sfn, Arnold, 1995, 36
} in the Imperial and Royal Army, and also by a traditional army ("insurrectio"). The Hungarian Diet voted to join in war and agreed to pay one third of the war expenses., group=lower-alpha {{unbulleted list , {{flagcountry, Russian Empire{{efn, name="Russia", Russia was a leading member of the Coalition, but became an ally of France from the signing of the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807 until it was invaded by France in 1812. During this time, it was nominally at war with the United Kingdom,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
and the Ottoman Empire.
, {{flagcountry, Prussia, 1803{{efn, name="Austria&Prussia"
, {{flag, Sweden, naval{{efn, name="Sweden", When Russia allied with France, it conquered Finland, which was under Swedish rule at the time. After Marshal Bernadotte became Crown Prince of Sweden, Sweden nominally declared war on the United Kingdom, but no actual fighting was done. Sweden became a leading member of the Sixth Coalition and declared war on France in 1812.
, {{flagdeco, Spain, 1785 Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
{{efn, name="Spain", Under Charles IV, Spain was an ally of France in the War of the Third Coalition
The War of the Third Coalition () was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, First French Empire, France and French client republic, its client states under Napoleon I an ...
and the Invasion of Portugal. King Charles was deposed in 1808 by his son, Ferdinand VII, who preferred an alliance with the United Kingdom over France. Napoleon intervened and forced both of them to abdicate, placing his brother, Joseph on the Spanish throne, creating a French client state in Spain. This triggered the Spanish War of Independence, and Spain joined the Coalition against France.
, {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Portugal, 1750
, {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Naples, 1738{{efn, Until 1806.
, {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Sicily
, {{flagdeco, Kingdom of Sardinia, 1814 Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
, {{flag, Papal States, old
, {{flagicon image, Flag of Agha Mohammad Khan.svg Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
{{efn, name="Iran", The Iranian Qajar Dynasty fought a war against Russia from 1804 to 1813. At the start of the war, Iran received support from France. When Russia became an ally of France in 1807, French support for Iran ended, and Iran was instead supported by the United Kingdom.
, {{flagcountry, Ottoman Empire, 1793{{efn, name="Ottoman Empire", The Ottoman Empire fought against Napoleon in the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria as part of the French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
. During the Napoleonic era of 1803 to 1815, the Empire participated in two wars against the Allies: against Britain in the Anglo-Turkish War (1807–1809) and against Russia in the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812). Russia was allied with Napoleon 1807–1810.
, {{flagcountry, Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro{{efn, 1806–1807, 1813–1814
, {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Bavaria{{efn, name="German States 1", From 1813.
, {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Saxony, 1806{{efn, name="German States 1"
, {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Württemberg, 1803{{efn, name="German States 1"
, {{flagcountry, Baden, 1806{{efn, name="German States 1"
, {{flagdeco, Bourbon Restoration Bourbon France{{efn, name="Seventh Coalition", 1815.
, {{flagcountry, United Kingdom of the Netherlands{{efn, name="Seventh Coalition"
, {{flagcountry, Duchy of Brunswick, 1814{{efn, name="Seventh Coalition"
, , {{flagcountry, Nassau, 1806{{efn, name="Seventh Coalition"
, {{flagdeco, Denmark Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
{{efn, name="Denmark", After the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, Denmark-Norway became an ally of France. After losing Norway to Sweden in 1814, Denmark switched sides and joined the Coalition.
, {{flagdeco, Switzerland Swiss Confederation{{efn, name="Seventh Coalition"
, {{flagdeco, Tuscany, habsburg Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
{{efn, name="Seventh Coalition"
, combatant2 = {{collapsible list
, bullets=yes
, title={{flagcountry, First French Empire, French Empire, name=French Empire{{efn, French Republic
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
before 1804.
, {{flagcountry, Batavian Republic{{efn, Became the Kingdom of Holland in 1806.
, {{flagdeco, Netherlands Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...
{{efn, Annexed into France in 1810.
, {{flagdeco, Kingdom of Etruria Etruria
Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...
{{efn, Annexed into France in 1807.
, {{flagicon image, Early Swiss cross.svg Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, {{flagdeco, Napoleonic Italy Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, {{flagicon image, Flag of the Principality of Lucca (1805-1809).svg Lucca-Piombino
, Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austrian Empire, Austria ...
{{efn, Sixteen of France's allies among the German states (including Bavaria and Württemberg) established the Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austrian Empire, Austria ...
in July 1806 following the Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV French Republican calendar, FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near t ...
(December 1805).
* {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Bavaria{{efn, name="German States 2", Until 1813.
* {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Saxony, 1806{{efn, name="German States 2"
* {{flagcountry, Westphalia{{efn, name="German States 2"
* {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Württemberg, 1803{{efn, name="German States 2"
* {{flagcountry, Baden, 1806{{efn, name="German States 2"'' and others...'' , {{flagdeco, Kingdom of Naples, 1811
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
{{efn, From 1806.
, {{flagcountry, Duchy of Warsaw
, {{flag, Napoleonic Spain{{efn, name="Spain"
, {{flagicon image, Banner of the Lithuanian Provisional Governing Commission.svg Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
{{efn, 1812.
French allies:{{unbulletedlist , {{flagdeco, Spain, 1785
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
{{efn, name="Spain"
, {{flagcountry, Denmark-Norway{{efn, name="Denmark"
, {{flagcountry, Russian Empire{{efn, name="Russia"
, {{flagcountry, Austrian Empire{{efn, name="Austria&Prussia"
, {{flagcountry, Prussia, 1803{{efn, name="Austria&Prussia"
, {{flag, Sweden, naval{{efn, name="Sweden"
, {{flagicon image, Flag of Agha Mohammad Khan.svg Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
{{efn, name="Iran"
, {{flagcountry, Ottoman Empire, 1793{{efn, name="Ottoman Empire"
, {{flagcountry, Austrian Empire{{sfn, Leggiere, 2014{{efn, 1809–1813, {{nowrap, {{flag, Denmark–Norway{{efn, 1807–1814Denmark–Norway remained neutral until the Battle of Copenhagen (1807). The King of Denmark-Norway was compelled to cede The Kingdom of Norway to The King of Sweden by the Treaty of Kiel
The Treaty of Kiel () or Peace of Kiel ( Swedish and or ') was concluded between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Sweden on one side and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway on the other side on 14 January 1814 ...
in 1814. Following a brief Swedish campaign against Norway, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
entered a personal union
A personal union is a combination of two or more monarchical states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, involves the constituent states being to some extent in ...
with Sweden., {{flagicon image, Flag of Agha Mohammad Khan.svg Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
{{efn, 1804–1807, 1812–1813, {{flag, Ottoman Empire, 1793{{efn, 1807–1812, name="07-12"{{!{{flag, Kingdom of Prussia, 1803{{efn, , name="07-12"{{sfn, Leggiere, 2014, {{flag, Russian Empire{{efn, name="07-12", {{flagcountry, Spanish Empire{{efn, 1803–1808, {{flag, Ottoman Empire, 1793{{efn, 1807–1812, name="07-12", {{flag, Ottoman Empire, 1793{{efn, 1807–1812, name="07-12"The Ottoman Empire fought against Napoleon in the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria as part of the French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
. During the Napoleonic era of 1803 to 1815, the Empire participated in two wars against the Allies: against Britain in the Anglo-Turkish War (1807–1809) and against Russia in the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812).
, {{flagicon, Netherlands Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...
Russia was allied with Napoleon 1807–1810., {{flag, Papal States, old, {{flagicon image, Flag of Agha Mohammad Khan.svg
, commander1 = {{Unbulleted list
, {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
, {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland George, Prince Regent
, {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Henry Addington
, {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland William Pitt{{Natural Causes
, {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland William Grenville
, {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland William Cavendish-Bentinck
, {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Spencer Perceval{{Assassinated, Assassination of Spencer Perceval
, {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Robert Jenkinson
, {{flagicon, Habsburg monarchy, civil Francis I
, {{flagicon, Kingdom of Prussia, 1803 Frederick William III
, {{flagicon, Russian Empire Alexander I
{{unbulleted list
, {{flagicon image, Flag of Spain (1785–1873, 1875–1931).svg, link=History of Spain (1808–1874) Ferdinand VII{{efn, Nominally only. Ferdinand abdicated in 1808, but was proclaimed King by the Supreme Central Junta that year. Although recognised as King, he was unable to act as such, and the governing of the parts of Spain that were not occupied by the French fell to the Central Junta and later the Cortes of Cadiz.
, {{flagicon, Sweden, naval Gustav IV Adolf
, {{flagicon, Sweden, naval Charles John
, {{flagicon, Kingdom of Portugal, 1750 Prince Regent John
, {{flagicon, Ottoman Empire, 1793 Selim III
, {{flagicon, Ottoman Empire, 1793 Mustafa IV
, {{flagicon, Ottoman Empire, 1793 Mahmud II
Mahmud II (, ; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. Often described as the "Peter the Great of Turkey", Mahmud instituted extensive administrative, military, and fiscal reforms ...
, {{flagicon, Netherlands William I
, commander2 = {{Unbulleted list
, {{flagicon, First French Empire Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
{{surrendered
, {{flagicon, Kingdom of Bavaria Maximilian I Joseph
, {{flagicon, Batavian Republic Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
Rutger Jan, Count Schimmelpenninck (31 October 1761 – 15 February 1825), Lord of Nyenhuis, Peckedam and Gellicum, was a Dutch jurist, ambassador and politician who served as Grand Pensionary of the Batavian Republic from 1805 to 1806. Histori ...
, {{flagicon image, Flag of the Netherlands.svg, link=Kingdom of Holland Louis I
, {{flagicon, Napoleonic Italy Eugène de Beauharnais
, {{flagicon image, Flag of the Kingdom of Naples (1811).svg, link=Kingdom of Naples (Napoleonic) Joachim Murat{{Executed
, {{flagicon, Kingdom of Saxony, 1806{{flagicon, Duchy of Warsaw Frederick Augustus I
, {{flagicon, Duchy of Warsaw Józef Poniatowski{{KIA
, {{flagicon image, Flag of Spain (1785–1873, 1875–1931).svg, link=History of Spain (1700–1808) Charles IV
, {{flagicon image, Flag of Kingdom of Naples (1806-1808).svg, link=Kingdom of Naples (Napoleonic){{flagicon, Napoleonic Spain Joseph I{{efn, King of Naples
The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first Sicilian Vespers, separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501)
House of Anjou
...
from 1806 to 1808. King of Spain
The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country.
The Spanish ...
from 1808 to 1813.
, {{flagicon, Westphalia Jérôme Napoleon I
, {{flagicon, Kingdom of Württemberg, 1803 Frederick I
, {{flagicon, Denmark-Norway Frederick VI
, {{flagicon image, Flag of Agha Mohammad Khan.svg, link=Qajar Iran Fath Ali Shah Qajar
, strength1 = {{Unbulleted list, {{flagicon, Russian Empire Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
: 900,000 regulars, cossacks and militia at peak strength (1812) {{sfn, Riehn, 1991, p=50 {{Citation not found, {{flagicon, Kingdom of Prussia, 1803 Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
: 320,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1806){{sfn, Leggiere, 2014, {{flagcountry, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: 250,000 regulars, sailors, marines and militia at peak strength (1813)Chandler & Beckett, p. 132{{Citation not found, date=April 2021, {{flagicon, Austrian Empire Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
: 300,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1809), {{flagicon, Spain, 1785 Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
: 198,520 regulars, guerrillas and militia at peak strength (1812){{cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ywM9AAAAYAAJ&q=4+may+1814&pg=PR13, title=The Life of the Most Noble Arthur, Duke of Wellington, last=Elliott, first=George, year=1816, publisher=J. Cundee, location=London, page=xiii–xiv, access-date=22 November 2023, archive-date=8 December 2023, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208132731/https://books.google.com/books?id=ywM9AAAAYAAJ&q=4+may+1814&pg=PR13#v=snippet&q=4%20may%201814&f=false, url-status=live{{Efn, 38,520 of which being irregulars (guerillas, militias), {{flagcountry, Kingdom of Portugal, 1750: 50,000 regulars, guerrillas and militia at peak strength (1809), {{flagicon, Sweden, naval Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
: 50,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813), {{flagicon, United Netherlands Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
: 36,500 regulars and militia at peak strength (1815)
, {{flagicon, Ottoman Empire, 1793 Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
: 350,000 regulars
Other coalition members: 100,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813)
Total: 3,000,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813)
, strength2 = {{Unbulleted list
, {{flagicon, First French Empire French Empire: 1,200,000 regulars, sailors, marines and militia at peak strength (1813){{Cite book , last=John France , url=https://archive.org/details/perilousgloryris0000fran , title=Perilous Glory: The Rise of Western Military Power , publisher=Yale UP , year=2011 , isbn=978-0-300-17744-2 , pag351
, url-access=registration , French clients and allies: 500,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813) , Total: 2,000,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813) , casualties1 = {{Unbulleted list , {{flagicon, Austrian Empire Austria: 350,220 killed in action (500,000 total dead) , {{flagicon, Spain, 1785 Spain: more than 300,000 killed in action and more than 586,000 dead in total including civilians{{sfn, Canales, 2004 , {{flagicon, Russian Empire Russia: 289,000 killed in action{{harvnb, White, 2014 cites {{harvnb, Danzer (600,000 total dead including civilians) , {{flagicon, Kingdom of Prussia, 1803 Prussia: 134,000 killed in action (300,000 total dead including civilians) , {{flagicon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom: 125,000{{harvnb, White, 2014 cites {{harvnb, Payne killed in action (300,000 total dead) , {{flagicon, Kingdom of Portugal, 1750 Portugal: up to 250,000 total dead or missing including civilians , {{flagicon, Ottoman Empire, 1793 Ottoman Empire: 50,000 total dead or missing
Total: 4,000,000 total military and civilian dead or missing , casualties2 = {{flagicon, First French Empire French Empire: * 306,000 French killed in action{{sfn, White, 2014 * 65,000 French allies killed in action{{sfn, Philo, 2010 * 800,000 French and allies killed by wounds, accidents or disease{{sfn, Philo, 2010 * 600,000 civilians killed{{sfn, Philo, 2010 {{flagicon, Napoleonic Italy Italy: 120,000 total dead or missing including civilians{{harvnb, White, 2014, loc=''Napoleonic Wars'' cites {{harvnb, Urlanis, 1971
Total: 2,000,000 dead , campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Napoleonic Wars {{Campaignbox Anglo-French wars {{OSM Location map , coord = {{coord, 48, 14 , zoom = 3 , float = right , nolabels = 1 , width = 300 , height = 240 , title = Napoleonic Wars , auto-caption=1 , shapeD=n-circle , shape-colorD=dark blue , label-colorD=dark blue , shape-outlineD=white , label-sizeD = 12 , label-posD = left , mark-sizeD=16 , mark-coord1 = {{coord, 49.13, 16.76 , mark-title1 = Third Coalition: Germany 1803:... Austerlitz... , mark-coord2 = {{coord, 52.52, 13.41 , mark-title2 = Fourth Coalition: Prussia 1806:...
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
...
, mark-coord3 = {{coord, 39.08, -9.27
, mark-title3 = Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
: Portugal 1807...Torres Vedras
Torres Vedras () is a concelho, municipality in the Portugal, Portuguese district of Lisbon (district), Lisbon, approximately north of the capital Lisbon. It is a strong agricultural region thanks to its vineyards, and has an intense commercial ...
...
, mark-coord4 = {{coord, 42.85, -2.68
, mark-title4 = Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
: Spain 1808... Vitoria...
, mark-coord5 = {{coord, 48.54, 12.15
, mark-title5 = Fifth Coalition: Austria 1809:... Landshut...
, mark-coord6 = {{coord, 55.75, 37.63
, mark-title6 = French invasion of Russia 1812:...Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
...
, mark-coord7 = {{coord, 51.33, 12.38
, mark-title7 = Sixth Coalition: Germany 1813:...Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
...
, mark-coord8 = {{coord, 48.86, 2.35
, mark-title8 = Sixth Coalition: France 1814:...Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
...
, mark-coord9 = {{coord, 50.68, 4.41
, mark-title9 = Hundred Days 1815:... Waterloo...
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a global
Global may refer to:
General
*Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies
*Earth, the third planet from the Sun
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...
series of conflicts fought between the French First Republic
In the history of France, the First Republic (), sometimes referred to in historiography as Revolutionary France, and officially the French Republic (), was founded on 21 September 1792 during the French Revolution. The First Republic lasted un ...
(1803–1804)/First French Empire
The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...
(1804–1815) under the First Consul and Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
, against a fluctuating array of European coalitions. The wars originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789–1799) and from the French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
(1792–1802) and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe
Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...
. The wars are categorised as seven conflicts, five named after the coalitions that fought Napoleon, plus two named for their respective theatres: the War of the Third Coalition
The War of the Third Coalition () was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, First French Empire, France and French client republic, its client states under Napoleon I an ...
, War of the Fourth Coalition
The War of the Fourth Coalition () was a war spanning 1806–1807 that saw a multinational coalition fight against Napoleon's First French Empire, French Empire, subsequently being defeated. The main coalition partners were Kingdom of Prussia, ...
, War of the Fifth Coalition, War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition () (December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation (), a coalition of Austrian Empire, Austria, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia, Russian Empire, Russia, History of Spain (1808– ...
, War of the Seventh Coalition, the Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
, and the French invasion of Russia.
The first stage of the war broke out when Britain declared war on France on 18 May 1803, alongside the Third Coalition. In December 1805, Napoleon defeated the allied Russo Russo may refer to:
* Russo (surname)
* Russo (footballer, 1915–1980), full name Adolpho Milman, Brazilian football forward and manager
* Russo (footballer, born 1976), full name Ricardo Soares Florêncio, Brazilian football defender
* Russo brot ...
- Austrian army at Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
and thus forced Austria to make peace. Concerned about increasing French power, Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
led the creation of the Fourth Coalition, which resumed war in October 1806. Napoleon defeated the Prussians at Jena-Auerstedt and the Russians at Friedland, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. The treaty had failed to end the tension, and war broke out again in 1809, with the Austrian-led Fifth Coalition. At first, the Austrians won a significant victory at Aspern-Essling but were quickly defeated at Wagram.
Hoping to isolate and weaken Britain economically through his Continental System, Napoleon launched an invasion of Portugal, the only remaining British ally in continental Europe. After occupying Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
in November 1807, and with the bulk of French troops present in Spain, Napoleon seized the opportunity to turn against his former ally, depose the reigning Spanish royal family, and declare his brother King of Spain in 1808 as Joseph I. The Spanish and Portuguese thus revolted, with British support, and expelled the French from Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...
in 1814 after six years of fighting.
Concurrently Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, routinely violated the Continental System, prompting Napoleon to launch a massive invasion of Russia in 1812. The resulting campaign ended in disaster for France and the near-destruction of Napoleon's {{lang, fr, Grande Armée.
Encouraged by the defeat, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, and Russia formed the Sixth Coalition and began a campaign against France, decisively defeating Napoleon at Leipzig in October 1813. The allies then invaded France from the east, while the Peninsular War spilled over into southwestern France. Coalition troops captured Paris at the end of March 1814, forced Napoleon to abdicate in April, exiled him to the island of Elba, and restored power to the Bourbons. Napoleon escaped in February 1815 and reassumed control of France for around one Hundred Days. The allies formed the Seventh Coalition, which defeated him at Waterloo in June 1815 and exiled him to the island of Saint Helena, where he died six years later in 1821.{{Cite book , last=Zamoyski , first=Adam , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NqVKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT480 , title=Napoleon: A Life , publisher=Basic Books , year=2018 , isbn=978-0-465-05593-7 , location=London , page=480 , access-date=7 November 2018 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806042616/https://books.google.com/books?id=NqVKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT480 , archive-date=6 August 2020 , url-status=live
The wars had profound consequences on global history, including the spread of nationalism
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
and liberalism
Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
, advancements in civil law, the rise of Britain as the world's foremost naval and economic power, the appearance of independence movements in Spanish America and the subsequent decline of the Spanish and Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...
s, the fundamental reorganization of German and Italian territories into larger states, and the introduction of radically new methods of conducting warfare. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
redrew Europe's borders and brought a relative peace to the continent, lasting until the Revolutions of 1848
The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...
and the Crimean War
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
in 1853.
Overview
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
seized power in a coup on 9 November 1799, establishing a military dictatorship
A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...
.{{sfn, Jones, 1994, p193–194
} There are numerous opinions on the date to use as the formal beginning of the Napoleonic Wars; 18 May 1803 is often used, when Britain and France ended the only short period of peace between 1792 and 1814.{{sfn, Kagan, 2007, pp=42–43 The Napoleonic Wars began with the
War of the Third Coalition
The War of the Third Coalition () was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, First French Empire, France and French client republic, its client states under Napoleon I an ...
, which was the first of the Coalition Wars against the First French Republic after Napoleon's accession as leader of France.
Britain ended the Treaty of Amiens, declaring war on France in May 1803. Among the reasons were Napoleon's changes to the international system in Western Europe, especially in Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, Germany, Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, and the Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. Historian Frederick Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleon's assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, even though King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
was an elector of the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. For its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers.{{sfn, Kagan, 2007, pp=42–43
The British hastily enforced a naval blockade
A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force.
A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...
of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain and sought to eliminate Britain's Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him. The so-called Continental System formed a League of Armed Neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France. The British responded by capturing the Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen, breaking up the league, and later secured dominance over the seas at the Battle of Trafalgar, allowing it to freely continue its strategy.
Napoleon won the War of the Third Coalition at the Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV French Republican calendar, FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near t ...
, forcing the Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
out of the war and formally dissolving the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. Within months, Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
declared war, triggering a War of the Fourth Coalition
The War of the Fourth Coalition () was a war spanning 1806–1807 that saw a multinational coalition fight against Napoleon's First French Empire, French Empire, subsequently being defeated. The main coalition partners were Kingdom of Prussia, ...
. This war ended disastrously for Prussia, which was defeated and occupied at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt within 19 days of the beginning of the campaign. Napoleon subsequently defeated Russia at Friedland, creating powerful client states in Eastern Europe and ending the Fourth Coalition.
Concurrently, the refusal of Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal to commit to the Continental System and Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
's failure to maintain it led to the Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
and the outbreak of the War of the Fifth Coalition. The French occupied Spain and formed a Spain under Joseph Bonaparte, Spanish client kingdom, ending the alliance between the two. Heavy British involvement in the Iberian Peninsula soon followed, while a Walcheren Campaign, British effort to capture Antwerp failed. Napoleon oversaw the situation in Iberia, Battle of Somosierra, defeating the Spanish and Battle of Corunna, expelling the British from the Peninsula. Austria, eager to recover territory lost during the War of the Third Coalition, invaded France's client states in Eastern Europe in April 1809. Napoleon defeated the Fifth Coalition at the Battle of Wagram.
Plans to invade British North America pushed the United States to declare war on Britain in the War of 1812, but it did not become an ally of France. Grievances over control of Duchy of Warsaw, Poland and Russia's withdrawal from the Continental System led to French invasion of Russia, Napoleon invading Russia in June 1812. The invasion was an unmitigated disaster for Napoleon; Scorched-earth, scorched earth tactics, desertion, French strategic failures at the Battle of Borodino, and the onset of the Russian winter compelled Napoleon to retreat with massive losses. Napoleon suffered further setbacks: French power in the Iberian Peninsula was broken at the Battle of Vitoria the following summer, and a new alliance began, the War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition () (December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation (), a coalition of Austrian Empire, Austria, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia, Russian Empire, Russia, History of Spain (1808– ...
.
The coalition Battle of Leipzig, defeated Napoleon at Leipzig in October 1813, precipitating his fall from power and abdication on 6 April 1814. The victors exiled Napoleon to Elba and Bourbon Restoration in France, restored the Bourbon monarchy. Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815, gathering enough support to overthrow the monarchy of Louis XVIII, triggering a Hundred Days, seventh, and final, coalition against him. Napoleon was then Battle of Waterloo, decisively defeated at Waterloo on 18 June 1815, and he abdicated again on 22 June. On 15 July he surrendered to the British at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, Rochefort and was permanently exiled to remote Saint Helena. The Treaty of Paris (1815), Treaty of Paris, signed on 20 November 1815, formally ended the war.
The Bourbon monarchy was once again restored, and the victors began the Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
to restore peace to Europe. As a direct result of the war, the Kingdom of Prussia rose to become a great power,{{Cite book , last=Dwyer , first=Philip G. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FEDKAgAAQBAJ&q=napoleonic+wars+rise+of+prussia&pg=PA255 , title=The Rise of Prussia 1700–1830 , year= 2014 , publisher=Routledge , isbn=978-1-317-88703-4 , access-date=2 October 2020 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207044936/https://books.google.com/books?id=FEDKAgAAQBAJ&q=napoleonic+wars+rise+of+prussia&pg=PA255 , archive-date=7 February 2021 , url-status=live while Great Britain, with its unequalled Royal Navy and British Empire, growing empire, became the world's dominant superpower, beginning the ''Pax Britannica''. The Holy Roman Empire had been dissolved, and the philosophy of nationalism
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
that emerged early in the war contributed greatly to the later Unification of Germany, unification of the German states, Italian unification, and those of the Italian peninsula. The war in Iberia greatly weakened Spanish power, and the Spanish Empire began to unravel; Spanish American wars of independence, Spain would lose nearly all of its American possessions by 1833. The Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...
also shrank, with Independence of Brazil, Brazil declaring independence in 1822.{{sfn, Keen, Haynes, 2012, loc=chpt. 8
The wars revolutionised European warfare; the application of Levée en masse, mass conscription and total war led to campaigns of unprecedented scale, as whole nations committed all their Industrial Revolution, economic and industrial resources to a collective war effort.{{sfn, Bell, 2007, 51
} Tactically, the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Army had redefined the role of artillery, while Napoleon emphasised mobility to offset numerical disadvantages,{{Cite book , last=Geoffrey Wawro , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gtuAhd9qARkC&pg=PA9 , title=Warfare and Society in Europe, 1792–1914 , publisher=Routledge , year=2002 , isbn=978-0-203-00735-8 , page=9 , access-date=18 June 2015 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930225924/https://books.google.com/books?id=gtuAhd9qARkC&pg=PA9 , archive-date=30 September 2015 , url-status=live and aerial surveillance was used for the first time in warfare.{{sfn, Palmer, 1941, pp=81–83 The highly successful Spanish guerrillas demonstrated the capability of a people driven by fervent nationalism against an occupying force.{{sfn, Tone, 1996, pp=355–382{{page range too broad, date=May 2021 Due to the longevity of the wars, the extent of Napoleon's conquests, and the popularity of the ideals of the French Revolution, the period had a deep impact on European social culture. Many subsequent revolutions, such as the Russian Revolution, looked to the French as a source of inspiration,{{sfnm , 1a1=Shlapentokh , 1y=1997 , 1pp=220–228 , 2a1=Palmer , 2a2=Colton , 2a3=Kramer , 2y=2013 , 2pp=81–83 while Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, its core founding tenets greatly expanded the arena of human rights and shaped modern political philosophies in use today.{{sfn, Desan, Hunt, Nelson, 2013, pp=3, 8, 10
Background
{{See also, French Revolutionary Wars The outbreak of the French Revolution had been received with great alarm by the rulers of Europe's continental powers, further exacerbated by the execution of Louis XVI, and the French First Republic, overthrow of the French monarchy. In 1793, Habsburg monarchy, Austria, the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of Naples,Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
, the History of Spain (1700-1808), Kingdom of Spain, and the Kingdom of Great Britain formed the War of the First Coalition, First Coalition to curtail the growing power of revolutionary France. Measures such as Levée en masse, mass conscription, military reforms, and total war allowed France to defeat the coalition, despite the War in the Vendée, concurrent civil war in France. Napoleon, then a general of the French Revolutionary Army, forced the Austrians to sign the Treaty of Campo Formio, leaving only Great Britain opposed to the fledgling French Republic.
A War of the Second Coalition, Second Coalition was formed in 1798 by Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, Kingdom of Naples, Naples, the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, the Papal States, Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, and Gustavian era, Sweden. The French Republic
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, under the French Directory, Directory, suffered from heavy levels of corruption and Chouannerie, internal strife. The new republic also lacked funds, no longer enjoying the services of Lazare Carnot, the Minister of War (France), minister of war who had guided France to its victories during the early stages of the French Revolutionary Wars, Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
, commander of the {{lang, fr, Army of Italy (France), Armée d'Italie in the latter stages of the First Coalition, had French invasion of Egypt and Syria, launched a campaign in Egypt, intending to disrupt the British control of Company rule in India, India. Pressed from all sides, the Republic suffered a string of successive defeats against revitalised enemies, who were supported by Britain's financial help.
Bonaparte returned to France from Egypt on 23 August 1799, his Battle of the Nile, campaign there having failed. He seized control of the French government on November 9, in Coup of 18 Brumaire, a bloodless coup d'état, replacing the Directory with the French Consulate, Consulate and transforming the republic into a ''de facto'' dictatorship.{{sfn, Jones, 1994, p193–194
} He further reorganised the French military forces, establishing a large reserve army positioned to support campaigns on the Rhine or in Italy. Second Battle of Zurich, Russia had already been knocked out of the war, and, under Napoleon's leadership, the French Battle of Marengo, decisively defeated the Austrians in June 1800, crippling Austrian capabilities in Italy. Austria was Battle of Hohenlinden, definitively defeated that December, by Jean Victor Marie Moreau, Moreau's forces in
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
. The Austrian defeat was sealed by the Treaty of Lunéville early the following year, further compelling the British to sign the Treaty of Amiens with France, establishing a tenuous peace.
Start date and nomenclature
No consensus exists as to when theFrench Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
ended and the Napoleonic Wars began. Possible dates include 9 November 1799, when Bonaparte Coup of 18 Brumaire, seized power on 18 Brumaire, the date according to the French Republican Calendar, Republican Calendar then in use;{{sfn, McLynn, 1998, p=215 18 May 1803, when Britain and France ended the one short period of peace between 1792 and 1814; or 2 December 1804, when Coronation of Napoleon, Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor.
British historians occasionally refer to the nearly continuous period of warfare from 1792 to 1815 as the Great French War, or as the final phase of the Anglo-French Second Hundred Years' War, spanning the period 1689 to 1815. Historian Mike Rapport (2013) suggested using the term "French Wars" to unambiguously describe the entire period from 1792 to 1815.{{sfn, Rapport, 2013, p=4
In France, the Napoleonic Wars are generally integrated with the French Revolutionary Wars: ''{{lang, fr, Les guerres de la Révolution et de l'Empire''.
German historiography may count the War of the Second Coalition (1798/9–1801/2), during which Napoleon had seized power, as the ''Erster Napoleonischer Krieg'' ("First Napoleonic War").
In Dutch historiography, it is common to refer to the 7 major wars between 1792 and 1815 as the Coalition Wars (''coalitieoorlogen''), referring to the first two as the French Revolution Wars (''Franse Revolutieoorlogen'').{{Cite encyclopedia , year=1993–2002 , title=coalitieoorlogen , encyclopedia=Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins , publisher=Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum , language=nl
Napoleon's tactics
Napoleon was, and remains, famous for his battlefield victories, and historians have spent enormous attention in analysing them.{{sfn, Chandler, 1966{{page needed, date=May 2021 In 2008, Donald Sutherland wrote:The ideal Napoleonic battle was to manipulate the enemy into an unfavourable position through manoeuvre and deception, force him to commit his main forces and reserve to the main battle and then undertake an enveloping attack with uncommitted or reserve troops on the flank or rear. Such a surprise attack would either produce a devastating effect on morale or force him to weaken his main battle line. Either way, the enemy's own impulsiveness began the process by which even a smaller French army could defeat the enemy's forces one by one.{{sfn, Sutherland , 2008 ,After 1807, Napoleon's creation of a highly mobile, well-armed artillery force gave artillery usage an increased tactical importance. Napoleon, rather than relying on infantry to wear away the enemy's defences, could now use massed artillery as a spearhead to pound a break in the enemy's line. Once that was achieved he sent in infantry and cavalry.{{sfn, McConachy , 2001 , pp=617–640, ps=: McConachy rejects the alternative theory that growing reliance on artillery by the French army beginning in 1807 was an outgrowth of the declining quality of the French infantry and, later, France's inferiority in cavalry numbers{{page range too broad, date=May 2021
356
}
Prelude
Britain was irritated by several French actions following the Treaty of Amiens. Bonaparte annexed Piedmont and Elba, made himself President of the Italian Republic (Napoleonic), Italian Republic, a state in northern Italy that France had set up, and failed to evacuate Batavian Republic, Holland, as it had agreed to do in the treaty. France then continued to interfere with British trade despite peace having been made and complained about Britain harbouring certain individuals and not cracking down on the anti-French press.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, pp=220–222 Malta Protectorate, Malta was captured by Britain during the war and was subject to a complex arrangement in the 10th article of the Treaty of Amiens, where it was to be restored to the Knights of St. John with a Neapolitan garrison and placed under the guarantee of third powers. The weakening of the Knights of St. John by the confiscation of their assets in France and Spain along with delays in obtaining guarantees prevented the British from evacuating it after three months as stipulated in the treaty.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, p=239 The Helvetic Republic was set up by France when it French invasion of Switzerland, invaded Switzerland in 1798. France had withdrawn its troops, but Stecklikrieg, violent strife broke out against the government, which many Swiss saw as overly centralised. Bonaparte reoccupied the country in October 1802 and Act of Mediation, imposed a compromise settlement. This caused widespread outrage in Britain, which protested that this was a violation of the Treaty of Lunéville. Although continental powers were unprepared to act, the British decided to send an agent to help the Swiss obtain supplies, and also ordered their military not to return Cape Colony to Holland as they had committed to do in the Treaty of Amiens.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, pp=248–252 Swiss resistance collapsed before anything could be accomplished, and, after a month, Britain countermanded the orders to not restore Cape Colony. At the same time, Russia finally joined the guarantee regarding Malta. Concerned that there would be hostilities when Bonaparte found out that Cape Colony had been Battle of Muizenberg, retained, the British began to procrastinate on the evacuation of Malta.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, pp=252–258 In January 1803, a government paper in France published a report from a commercial agent which noted the ease with which Egypt Eyalet, Egypt could be conquered. The British seized on this to demand satisfaction and security before evacuating Malta, which was a convenient stepping stone to Egypt. France disclaimed any desire to seize Egypt and asked what sort of satisfaction was required, but the British were unable to give a response.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, pp=258–264 There was still no thought of going to war; Prime Minister Henry Addington publicly affirmed that Britain was in a state of peace.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, p=265 In early March 1803, the Addington ministry received word that Cape Colony had been Battle of Blaauwberg, reoccupied by the British army, in accordance with the orders which had subsequently been countermanded. On 8 March they ordered military preparations to guard against possible French retaliation and justified them by falsely claiming that it was only in response to French preparations and that they were conducting serious negotiations with France. In a few days, it was known that Cape Colony had been surrendered in accordance with the counter-orders, but it was too late. Bonaparte berated the British ambassador in front of 200 spectators over the military preparations.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, pp=264–268 The Addington ministry realised they would face an inquiry over their false reasons for the military preparations, and during April unsuccessfully attempted to secure the support of William Pitt to shield them from damage.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, p=277 In the same month, the ministry issued an ultimatum to France, demanding a retention of Malta for at least ten years, the permanent acquisition of the island of Lampedusa from the Kingdom of Sicily, and the evacuation of Holland. They also offered to recognise French gains in Italy if they evacuated Switzerland and compensated the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), King of Sardinia for his territorial losses. France offered to place Malta in the hands of Russia to satisfy British concerns, pull out of Holland when Malta was evacuated, and form a convention to give satisfaction to Britain on other issues. The British falsely denied that Russia had made an offer, and their ambassador left Paris.{{sfn, Adams, 1805, pp=268–278 Desperate to avoid a war, Bonaparte sent a secret offer where he agreed to let Britain retain Malta if France could occupy the Otranto peninsula in Naples. All efforts were futile, and Britain declared war on 18 May 1803.War between Britain and France, 1803–1814
{{Main, United Kingdom in the Napoleonic WarsBritish motivations
Britain ended the uneasy truce created by the Treaty of Amiens when it had declared war on France in May 1803. The British were increasingly angered by Napoleon's reordering of the international system in Western Europe, especially in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Kagan argues that Britain was especially alarmed by Napoleon's assertion of control over Switzerland. The British felt insulted when Napoleon said it deserved no voice in European affairs (even though King George was an elector of theHoly Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
) and sought to restrict the London newspapers that were vilifying him.{{sfn, Kagan, 2007, pp=42–43
Britain had a sense of loss of control, as well as loss of markets, and was worried by Napoleon's possible threat to its British Empire, overseas colonies. McLynn argues that Britain went to war in 1803 out of a "mixture of economic motives and national neuroses—an irrational anxiety about Napoleon's motives and intentions." McLynn concludes that it proved to be the right choice for Britain because, in the long run, Napoleon's intentions were hostile to the British national interest. Napoleon was not ready for war, and so this was the best time for Britain to stop them. Britain seized upon the Malta issue, refusing to follow the terms of the Treaty of Amiens and evacuate the island.{{sfn, Roberts, 2014, p=309
The deeper British grievance was their perception that Napoleon was taking personal control of Europe, making the international system unstable, and forcing Britain to the sidelines.{{sfnm , 1a1=Grainger , 1y=2004 , 2a1=Schroeder , 2y=1994 , 2p=231{{sfn, Bryant, 1944{{page needed, date=May 2021{{sfn, Kagan, 2007, pp=42–43{{page needed, date=May 2021 Numerous scholars have argued that Napoleon's aggressive posture made him enemies and cost him potential allies.{{sfn, Tulard, 1984, p=351 As late as 1808, the continental powers affirmed most of his gains and titles, but the continuing conflict with Britain led him to start the Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
and the French invasion of Russia, invasion of Russia, which many scholars see as a dramatic miscalculation.{{sfnm , 1a1=Gray , 1y=2007 , 1p=47 , 2a1=Malia , 2y=2006 , 2p=205
There was one serious attempt to negotiate peace with France during the war, made by Charles James Fox in 1806. The British wanted to retain their overseas conquests and have Electorate of Hanover, Hanover restored to George III in exchange for accepting French conquests on the continent. The French were willing to cede Malta, Cape Colony, Tobago, and French Indian posts to Britain but wanted to obtain Sicily in exchange for the restoration of Hanover, a condition which the British refused.{{sfn, Burke, 1808{{page needed, date=May 2021
Unlike its many coalition partners, Britain remained at war during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. Protected by naval supremacy (in the words of Admiral John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, Jervis to the House of Lords "I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea"), Britain did not have to spend the entire war defending itself and could thus focus on supporting its embattled allies, maintaining low-intensity land warfare on a global scale for over a decade. The British government paid out a large amount of money to other European states so that they could pay armies in the field against France. These payments are colloquially known as the Golden Cavalry of St George. The British Army provided long-term support to the Spanish rebellion in the Peninsular War of 1808–1814, assisted by Spanish guerrilla warfare, guerrilla ('little war') tactics. Anglo-Portuguese forces under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley supported the Spanish, who campaigned successfully against the French armies, eventually driving them from Spain and allowing Britain to invade southern France. By 1815, the British Army played the central role in the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
Beyond minor naval actions against British imperial interests, the Napoleonic Wars were much less global in their scope than preceding conflicts such as the Seven Years' War, which historians term a "world war".
Economic warfare
In response to the naval blockade of the French coasts enacted by the British government on 16 May 1806, Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree on November 21, 1806, which brought into effect the Continental System.{{sfn, Schroeder, 1994, pp=307–310 This policy aimed to eliminate the threat from Britain by closing French-controlled territory to its trade. Britain maintained a standing army of 220,000 at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, of whom less than 50% were available for campaigning. The rest were necessary for garrisoning British rule in Ireland, Ireland and the colonies and providing security for Britain. France's strength peaked at around 2,500,000 full-time and part-time soldiers including several hundred thousand National Guard (France), National Guardsmen whom Napoleon could draft into the military if necessary. Both nations enlisted large numbers of sedentary militia who were unsuited for campaigning and were mostly employed to release regular forces for active duty.{{sfn, Kennedy, 1989, pp=128–129 The Royal Navy disrupted France's extra-continental trade by seizing and threatening French shipping and French colonial empire, colonial possessions, but could do nothing about France's trade with the major continental economies, and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity greatly outstripped Britain's. Britain had the greatest industrial capacity in Europe, and its mastery of the seas allowed it to build up considerable economic strength through trade. This ensured that France could never consolidate its control over Europe in peace. Many in the French government believed that cutting Britain off from the Continent would end its economic influence over Europe and isolate it.Financing the war
A key element in British success was its ability to mobilise the nation's industrial and financial resources, and apply them to defeating France. Though the UK had a population of approximately 16 million against France's 30 million, the French numerical advantage was offset by British subsidies that paid for many of the Austrian and Russian soldiers, peaking at about 450,000 men in 1813.{{sfn, Kennedy, 1989, pp=128–129{{sfn, Sherwig, 1969{{page needed, date=May 2021 Under the Anglo–Russian agreement of 1803, Britain paid a subsidy of £1.5 million for every 100,000 Russian soldiers in the field.{{sfn, Palmer, 1974, p=86 British national output continued to be strong, and the well-organised business sector channeled products into what the military needed. Britain used its economic power to expand the Royal Navy, doubling the number of frigates, adding 50 per cent more large ship of the line, ships of the line, and increasing the number of sailors from 15,000 to 133,000 in eight years after the war began in 1793. France saw its navy shrink by more than half.{{sfn, Briggs, 1959, p=143 The smuggling of finished products into the continent undermined French efforts to weaken the British economy by cutting off markets. Subsidies to Russia and Austria kept them in the war. The British budget in 1814 reached £98 million, including £10 million for the Royal Navy, £40 million for the army, £10 million for the allies, and £38 million as interest on the national debt, which had soared to £679 million, more than double the GDP. This debt was supported by hundreds of thousands of investors and taxpayers, despite the higher taxes on land and a new income tax. The cost of the war amounted to £831 million.{{refn, £3 trillion in modern economic cost terms., group=lower-alpha In contrast, the French financial system was inadequate and Napoleon's forces had to rely in part on requisitions from conquered lands.{{sfn, Halévy, 1924, pp=205–228{{page range too broad, date=May 2021{{sfn, Knight, 2013{{page needed, date=May 2021 From London in 1813 to 1815, Nathan Mayer Rothschild was crucial in almost single-handedly financing the British war effort, organising the shipment of bullion to the Duke of Wellington's armies across Europe, as well as arranging the payment of British financial subsidies to their continental allies.{{sfn, Ferguson, 2008, p=78War of the Third Coalition, 1805
{{Main, War of the Third Coalition
Britain gathered allies to form the Third Coalition against The French Empire after Napoleon was self-proclaimed as emperor.{{sfn, Schroeder, 1994, pp=231–86{{page range too broad, date=May 2021{{sfn, Kagan, 2007, pp=141ff In response, Napoleon Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom, seriously considered an invasion of Great Britain, massing 180,000 troops at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Boulogne. Before he could invade, he needed to achieve naval superiority—or at least to pull the British fleet away from the English Channel. A complex plan to distract the British by threatening their possessions in the West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
failed when a Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve, Villeneuve turned back after an indecisive action off Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805), Cape Finisterre on 22 July 1805. The Royal Navy blockaded Villeneuve in Cádiz until he left for Naples on 19 October; the British squadron caught and overwhelmingly defeated the combined enemy fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October (the British commander, Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Lord Nelson, died in the battle). Napoleon never again had the opportunity to challenge the British at sea, nor to threaten an invasion. He again turned his attention to the enemies on the Continent.
In April 1805, Britain and Russia signed a treaty with the aim of removing the French from the Batavian Republic (roughly present-day Netherlands) and the Swiss Confederation (Napoleonic), Swiss Confederation. Austria joined the alliance after the annexation of Genoa and the proclamation of Napoleon as Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic), King of Italy on 17 March 1805. Sweden, which had already agreed to lease Swedish Pomerania as a military base for British troops against France, entered the coalition on 9 August.
The Austrians began the war by invading Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
on 8 September 1805 with an army of about 70,000 under Karl Mack von Leiberich, and the French army marched out from Camp of Boulogne, Boulogne in late July 1805 to confront them. At Battle of Ulm, Ulm (25 September – 20 October) Napoleon surrounded Mack's army, forcing its surrender without significant losses.
With the main Austrian army north of the Alps defeated (another army under Archduke Charles of Austria, Archduke Charles fought against André Masséna's Army of Italy (France), French army in Italy), Napoleon occupied Vienna on 13 November. Far from his supply lines, he faced a larger Austro–Russian army under the command of Mikhail Kutuzov, with Emperor Alexander I of Russia personally present. On 2 December, Napoleon crushed the Austro–Russian force in Moravia at Austerlitz (usually considered his greatest victory). He inflicted 25,000 casualties on a numerically superior enemy army while sustaining fewer than 7,000 in his own force.
Austria signed the Treaty of Pressburg (1805), Treaty of Pressburg (26 December 1805) and left the coalition. The treaty required the Austrians to give up Venetia (region), Venetia to the French-dominated Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic), Kingdom of Italy and the German Tyrol, Tyrol to Bavaria. With the withdrawal of Austria from the war, stalemate ensued. Napoleon's army had a record of continuous unbroken victories on land, but the full force of the Russian army had not yet come into play. Napoleon had now consolidated his hold on France, had taken control of Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and most of Western Germany and northern Italy. His admirers say that Napoleon wanted to stop now, but was forced to continue in order to gain greater security from the countries that refused to accept his conquests. Esdaile rejects that explanation and instead says that it was a good time to stop expansion, for the major powers were ready to accept Napoleon as he was:
{{blockquote, in 1806 both Russia and Britain had been positively eager to make peace, and they might well have agreed to terms that would have left the Napoleonic imperium almost completely intact. As for Austria and Prussia, they simply wanted to be left alone. To have secured a compromise peace, then, would have been comparatively easy. But Napoleon was prepared to make no concessions.{{sfn, Esdaile, 2009, pp=252–253
War of the Fourth Coalition, 1806–1807
{{Main, War of the Fourth Coalition Within months of the collapse of the Third Coalition, the Fourth Coalition (1806–1807) against France was formed by Britain, Prussia, Russia, Kingdom of Saxony, Saxony, and Sweden. In July 1806, Napoleon formed theConfederation of the Rhine
The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austrian Empire, Austria ...
out of the many small German states which constituted the Rhineland and most other western parts of Germany. He German mediatisation, amalgamated many of the smaller states into larger electorates, duchies, and kingdoms to make the governance of non-Prussian Germany smoother. Napoleon elevated the rulers of the two largest Confederation states, Kingdom of Saxony, Saxony and Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria, to the status of kings.
In August 1806, the Prussian king, Frederick William III of Prussia, Frederick William III, decided to go to war independently of any other great power. The army of Russia, a Prussian ally, in particular, was too far away to assist. On October 8, 1806, Napoleon unleashed all the French forces east of the Rhine into Prussia. Napoleon defeated a Prussian army at Battle of Jena, Jena (14 October 1806), and Louis-Nicolas Davout, Davout defeated another at Battle of Auerstädt, Auerstädt on the same day. 160,000 French soldiers (increasing in number as the campaign went on) attacked Prussia, moving with such speed that they destroyed the entire Prussian Army as an effective military force. Out of 250,000 troops, the Prussians sustained 25,000 casualties, lost a further 150,000 as prisoners, 4,000 artillery pieces, and over 100,000 muskets. At Jena, Napoleon had fought only a detachment of the Prussian force. The battle at Auerstädt involved a single French corps defeating the bulk of the Prussian army. Napoleon entered Berlin on 27 October 1806. He visited the tomb of Frederick the Great and instructed his Marshal of the Empire, marshals to remove their hats there, saying, "If he were alive we wouldn't be here today". Napoleon had taken only 19 days from beginning his attack on Prussia to knock it out of the war with the capture of Berlin and the destruction of its principal armies at Jena and Auerstädt. Saxony abandoned Prussia, and together with small states from north Germany, allied with France.
In the next stage of the war, the French drove Russian forces out of Poland and employed many Polish and German soldiers in several sieges in Silesia and Pomerania, with the assistance of Dutch and Italian soldiers in the latter case. Napoleon then turned north to confront the remainder of the Russian army and to try to capture the temporary Prussian capital at Königsberg. A tactical draw at Battle of Eylau, Eylau (7–8 February 1807), followed by capitulation at Siege of Danzig (1807), Danzig (24 May 1807) and the Battle of Heilsberg (10 June 1807), forced the Russians to withdraw further north. Napoleon decisively beat the Russian army at Friedland (14 June 1807), following which Alexander had to make peace with Napoleon at Treaty of Tilsit, Tilsit (7 July 1807). In Germany and Poland, new Napoleonic client states, such as the Kingdom of Westphalia, Duchy of Warsaw, and Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic), Republic of Danzig, were established. Early that same year, the French Siege of Kolberg (1807), besieged the fortified town of Kolberg, which resulted in a lifting of the siege by a peace treaty on 2 July.
By September, Marshal Guillaume Brune completed the occupation of Swedish Pomerania, allowing the Swedish army to withdraw with all its munitions of war.
Scandinavia and Finland
{{Main, Gunboat War, Finnish War, Dano-Swedish War of 1808–1809
Britain's first response to Napoleon's Continental System was to launch a major naval attack against Denmark-Norway, Denmark. Although ostensibly neutral, Denmark was under heavy French and Russian pressure to pledge Royal Danish Navy, its fleet to Napoleon. London could not take the chance of ignoring the Danish threat. In August 1807, the Royal Navy Battle of Copenhagen (1807), besieged and bombarded Copenhagen, leading to the capture of the History of the Danish navy, Dano–Norwegian fleet, and assuring use of the sea lanes in the North and Baltic seas for the British merchant fleet. Denmark joined the war on the side of France, but without a fleet it had little to offer,{{sfn, Ryan, 1953{{page needed, date=May 2021{{sfn, Munch-Petersen, 2007{{page needed, date=May 2021 beginning an engagement in a Gunboat War, naval guerrilla war in which small gunboats attacked larger British ships in Danish and Norwegian waters. Denmark also committed themselves to participate in a war against Sweden together with France and Russia.
At Tilsit, Napoleon and Alexander had agreed that Russia should force Sweden to join the Continental System, which led to a Finnish War, Russian invasion of Finland in February 1808, followed by a Dano-Swedish War of 1808–1809, Danish declaration of war in March. Napoleon also sent an auxiliary corps, consisting of troops from France, Kingdom of Spain (Napoleonic), Spain and Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...
, led by Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, to Denmark to participate in the invasion of Sweden. But British naval superiority prevented the armies from crossing the Øresund strait, and the war came mainly to be fought along the Swedish–Norwegian border. At the Congress of Erfurt (September–October 1808), France and Russia further agreed on the division of Sweden into two parts separated by the Gulf of Bothnia, where the eastern part became the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland. British voluntary attempts to assist Sweden with humanitarian aid remained limited, and did not prevent Sweden from adopting a more Napoleon-friendly policy.{{sfn, Götz, 2014, pp=519–539{{page range too broad, date=May 2021
The war between Denmark and Britain effectively finished with a British victory at the Battle of Lyngør in 1812, involving the destruction of the last large Dano–Norwegian ship—the frigate ''HDMS Najaden (1811), Najaden''.
Poland
{{Main, Duchy of Warsaw In 1807, Napoleon created a powerful outpost of his empire in Central Europe. History of Poland, Poland had recently been Partitions of Poland, partitioned by its three neighbours, but Napoleon created the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which depended on France from the beginning. The duchy consisted of lands seized by Austria and Prussia; its Grand Duke was Napoleon's ally King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, but Napoleon appointed the intendants who administered the country. The population of 4.3 million was released from occupation and, by 1814, sent about 200,000 men to Napoleon's armies. That included about 90,000 who marched with him to Moscow; few marched back. The Russians strongly opposed any move towards an independent Poland and one reason Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 was to punish them. The Grand Duchy was absorbed into the Russian Empire as a semi-autonomous Congress Poland in 1815; Poland did not become a sovereign state again until 1918, following the collapse of the neighbouring Russian, German Empire, German and Austria–Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empires in the aftermath of World War I. Napoleon's impact on Poland was significant, including the Napoleonic legal code, the abolition of serfdom, and the introduction of modern middle-class bureaucracies.{{sfn, Riley, 2013, pp=27–28{{sfn, Grab, 2003, pp=176–187Peninsular War, 1808–1814
{{Main, Peninsular War The Iberian conflict began when Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal continued trade with Britain, despite French restrictions. WhenSpain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
failed to maintain the Continental System, the uneasy Spanish alliance with France ended in all but name. French troops gradually encroached on Spanish territory until they occupied Madrid, and installed a client monarchy. This provoked an explosion of Dos de Mayo Uprising, popular rebellions across Spain. Heavy British involvement soon followed.
After defeats in Spain suffered by France, Napoleon took charge and enjoyed success, retaking Madrid, defeating the Spanish, and forcing a withdrawal of the heavily out-numbered British army from the Iberian Peninsula (Battle of Corunna, 16 January 1809). But when he left, the guerrilla war against his forces in the countryside continued to tie down great numbers of troops. The outbreak of the War of the Fifth Coalition prevented Napoleon from successfully wrapping up operations against British forces by necessitating his departure for Austria, and he never returned to the Peninsular theatre. The British then sent in a fresh army under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington).{{sfn, Fremont-Barnes, 2014{{page needed, date=May 2021 For a time, the British and Portuguese remained restricted to the area around Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
(behind their impregnable Lines of Torres Vedras), while their Spanish allies were Siege of Cádiz, besieged in Cádiz.
The Peninsular war proved a major disaster for France. Napoleon did well when he was in direct charge, but severe losses followed his departure, as he severely underestimated how much manpower would be needed. The effort in Spain was a drain on money, manpower and prestige. Historian David Gates called it the "Spanish ulcer".{{sfn, Gates, 1986{{page needed, date=May 2021 Napoleon realised it had been a disaster for his cause, writing later, "That unfortunate war destroyed me ... All the circumstances of my disasters are bound up in that fatal knot."{{sfn, Tone, 2010, 243
} The Peninsular campaigns witnessed 60 major battles and 30 major sieges, more than any other of the Napoleonic conflicts, and lasted over 6 years, far longer than any of the others. France and her allies lost at least 91,000 killed in action and 237,000 wounded in the peninsula.{{sfn, Clodfelter, 2017, page=157 From 1812, the Peninsular War merged with the
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition () (December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation (), a coalition of Austrian Empire, Austria, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia, Russian Empire, Russia, History of Spain (1808– ...
.
War of the Fifth Coalition, 1809
{{More citations needed section, date=May 2021 {{Main, War of the Fifth Coalition The Fifth Coalition (1809) of Britain and Austria against France formed as Britain engaged in thePeninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
in Spain and Portugal. The sea became a major Theater (warfare), theatre of war against Napoleon's allies. Austria, previously an ally of France, took the opportunity to attempt to restore its imperial territories in Germany as held prior to Austerlitz. During the time of the Fifth Coalition, the Royal Navy won a succession of victories in the French colonies. On land the major battles included Battle of Raszyn, Battles of Raszyn, Battle of Eckmuhl, Eckmuhl, Battle of Raab, Raab, Aspern-Essling, and Battle of Wagram, Wagram.
On land, the Fifth Coalition attempted few extensive military endeavours. One, the Walcheren Expedition of 1809, involved a dual effort by the British Army and the Royal Navy to relieve Austrian forces under intense French pressure. It ended in disaster after the Army commander, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, failed to capture the objective, the naval base of French-controlled Antwerp. For the most part of the years of the Fifth Coalition, British military operations on land (apart from the Iberian Peninsula) remained restricted to hit-and-run operations executed by the Royal Navy, which dominated the sea after having beaten down almost all substantial naval opposition from France and its allies and blockading what remained of France's naval forces in heavily fortified French-controlled ports. These rapid-attack operations were aimed mostly at destroying blockaded French naval and mercantile shipping and the disruption of French supplies, communications, and military units stationed near the coasts. Often, when British allies attempted military actions within several dozen miles or so of the sea, the Royal Navy would arrive, land troops and supplies, and aid the coalition's land forces in a concerted operation. Royal Navy ships even provided artillery support against French units when fighting strayed near enough to the coastline. The ability and quality of the land forces governed these operations. For example, when operating with inexperienced guerrilla forces in Spain, the Royal Navy sometimes failed to achieve its objectives because of the lack of manpower that the Navy's guerrilla allies had promised to supply.
Austria achieved some initial victories against the thinly spread army of Marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier, Berthier. Napoleon left Berthier with only 170,000 men to defend France's entire eastern frontier (in the 1790s, 800,000 men had carried out the same task, but holding a much shorter front).
In the east, the Austrians drove into the Duchy of Warsaw but suffered defeat at the Battle of Raszyn on 19 April 1809. The Army of the Duchy of Warsaw captured West Galicia following its earlier success. Napoleon assumed personal command and bolstered the army for a counter-attack on Austria. After a few small battles, the well-run campaign forced the Austrians to withdraw from Bavaria, and Napoleon advanced into Austria. His hurried attempt to cross the Danube resulted in the major Battle of Aspern-Essling (22 May 1809) – Napoleon's first significant tactical defeat. But the Austrian commander, Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, Archduke Charles, failed to follow up on his indecisive victory, allowing Napoleon to prepare and seize Vienna in early July. He defeated the Austrians at Battle of Wagram, Wagram, on 5–6 July. (It was during the middle of that battle that Marshal Charles XIV John of Sweden, Bernadotte was stripped of his command after retreating contrary to Napoleon's orders. Shortly thereafter, Bernadotte took up the offer from Sweden to fill the vacant position of Crown Prince there. Later he actively participated in wars against his former Emperor.)
The War of the Fifth Coalition ended with the Treaty of Schönbrunn (14 October 1809). In the east, only the Tyrolean Rebellion, Tyrolese rebels led by Andreas Hofer continued to fight the French-Bavarian army until finally defeated in November 1809. In the west, the Peninsular War continued. Economic warfare between Britain and France continued: The British continued a naval blockade of French-controlled territory. Due to military shortages and lack of organisation in French territory, many breaches of the Continental System occurred and the French Continental System was largely ineffective and did little economic damage to Great Britain. Both sides entered further conflicts in attempts to enforce their blockade. As Napoleon realised that extensive trade was going through Spain and Russia, he invaded those two countries; the British fought the United States in the War of 1812 (1812–1815).
In 1810, the French Empire reached its greatest extent. Napoleon married Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, Marie-Louise, an Austrian Archduchess, with the aim of ensuring a more stable alliance with Austria and of providing the Emperor with an heir (something his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Joséphine, had failed to do). As well as the French Empire, Napoleon controlled the Swiss Confederation, the Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austrian Empire, Austria ...
, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic), Kingdom of Italy. Territories allied with the French included:
* the kingdoms of Denmark–Norway
* the Kingdom of Spain (Napoleonic), Kingdom of Spain (under Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's elder brother)
* the Kingdom of Westphalia (Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother)
* the Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples, Kingdom of Naples (under Joachim Murat, husband of Napoleon's sister Caroline Bonaparte, Caroline)
* the Principality of Lucca and Piombino (under Elisa Bonaparte (Napoleon's sister) and her husband Felice Pasquale Baciocchi, Felice Baciocchi);
and Napoleon's former enemies, Sweden, Prussia and Austria.
Subsidiary wars
The Napoleonic Wars were the direct cause of wars in the Americas and elsewhere.Serbian Revolution
{{Main, First Serbian Uprising The Serbian Revolution coincided with the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812) (in which the French diplomat, Horace François Bastien Sébastiani de La Porta played a very important role in provoking the war), which were a proxy conflict of the Coalition Wars, having most of the time Revolutionary Serbia, Serbs revolutionaries the Russo-Serbian Alliance (1807), support of the Russian Empire, while theOttoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
was an Franco-Ottoman alliance#A final, but short-lived, alliance, ally of the French Empire.{{Cite journal , last=Meriage , first=Lawrence P. , date=September 1978 , title=The First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813) and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of the Eastern Question , journal=Slavic Review , language=en , volume=37 , issue=3 , pages=421–439 , doi=10.2307/2497684 , jstor=2497684 , issn=0037-6779 This was due to the fact that both empires feared Napoleon's moves to the east as the subsequent Peace of Pressburg (1805), Peace of Pressburg brought France into Balkan affairs.{{Cite web , title=A Brief History of the Serbian Insurrections 1804–1817 , url=https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/Serbia/c_SerbianInsurrection.html , first1=Dale , last1=Pappas , date=May 2009 , access-date=2023-06-10 , website=The Napoleon Series , archive-date=10 June 2023 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610013140/https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/Serbia/c_SerbianInsurrection.html , url-status=live The most radical and liberal rebels were also inspired in some way by the French Revolution (specially the rise of nationalism
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
) and the autonomy of the Illyrian Provinces (Serbs initially felt that French presence in the region could have developed into military aid in support of the insurrection against Ottoman rule as a Sister republic, but Napoleon didn't want to increase Russian or Austrian influence in the region).
During the first phase, from 1804 to 1806, it was a Conservatism, conservative Reactionary, reaction to new abuses by the Janissaries and Dahis, after they killed Hadji Mustafa Pasha, Hadyi Mustafa Pasha (vizier of the Sanjak of Smederevo. He created a militia of Serb notables and realized the Slaughter of the Knezes, because the Janissaries, expelled from Belgrade, found refuge with Osman Pazvantoğlu, governor of the Sanjak of Vidin (in present-day Bulgaria), who pursued his own policy and sought independence, which brought him into conflict with the Serbs and later with the Sublime Porte. Thus, the Serbs appealed to Sultan Selim III for assistance against the Dahis, who had since rejected the authority of the Porte. Also, Karađorđe negotiated with the Austrian captain Sajtinski. At this meeting, he expressed the wish of the Serbian people that the Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
receive him as a kingdom under his protection like in the Kingdom of Serbia (1718–1739), past, as Habsburg-occupied Serbia (1788–1791), occupation of 1788–1791 was still a fresh memory. However, the Austrian authorities, due to difficulties with Napoleon and because they wanted to maintain their neutrality, in order to be correct with the Porte, could not accept his offers. So, the Serbs were forced to ask for the protection of the Russians, and therefore, on May 3, 1804, the Serb leaders sent a letter to the Russian envoy in Constantinople, in which they spoke of the problems and wishes of the Serbian people, but they also stressed that they would continue to be loyal to the Sultan. Due to the recent Russo-Ottoman alliance against France's expanding influence in the Balkans (the approach of French troops to the Turkish territories, like French rule in the Ionian Islands (1797–1799), occupation of Corfu and other Ionian islands in 1797–99, influenced the Porte to conclude an alliance with Russia in 1798), the Russian government had a neutral policy toward the Serbian revolt until summer 1804, in which the goal was now to having Constantinople recognize Russia as the guarantor of peace in the region.
In 1806, the Serbs rejected Ičko's Peace (the Ottomans seemed ready to grant Ottoman Serbia, Serbia autonomy, similar to that enjoyed by neighbouring Wallachia, in order to enter in the Napoleonic Wars as an ally of the French) as they desired Russian support for their independence, starting a new phase of the First Serbian Uprising, uprising in which the Serbs planned to create their own Nation state, national state, which would also include the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the pashaliks of Vidin, Nis (Serbia), Nis, Leskovac, and Pazardzhik Province, Pazar. Also, in the Traditionalist conservatism, Traditionalist circles of Serbia rebels,''Ослобођење, независност и уједињење Србије и Црне Горе''. Београд: Историјски музеј Србије. 1999. p. 116. Petar I Petrović-Njegoš, Petar I of Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro, Montenegro developed a plan in 1807 to restore the medieval Serbian Empire ("Slaveno–Serb empire"), consisting on unify Podgorica, Spuž, Žabljak, the Bay of Kotor, Bosnia (region), Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dubrovnik and Dalmatia with Montenegro,Јован Милићевић (1994). "Петар I Петровић, Идеја о обнови српске државе". ''Црна Гора 1797–1851''. ''Историјa српског народа, V-1''. Београд. pp. 170–171. which he informed the Russian court and was also viewed by Habsburg Serbs, Habsburg Serb metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović. The title of Emperor of the Serbs would be held by the Emperor of Russia, Russian emperor as Tsar, but with the condition that Russians respected the Autocephaly, independence-autocephaly of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church. So, in February 1807, Petar I planned an invasion of Herzegovina by Montenegrins, montenegrin forces and asked for Karađorđe's aid, wanting to connect the territory occupied by the Serbian rebel forces and Montenegro, which succeeded after the Battle of Suvodol in 1809. This support of Montenegro for the Serbs was reinforced due to the fact that in the war of 1807–1812, Ottoman troops, supported by French detachments on Illyria, attacked Montenegro along the entire border, and the Montenegrins did not have time to repel all the attacks. However, they managed to force the French troops to withdraw from Dubrovnik and conquered the Bay of Kotor. Napoleon himself offered Petar I the title "Patriarch of the entire Serbian nation or of the entire Illyricum" on the condition that he cease cooperation with Russia and accept a French protectorate, which he refused for fear of an eventual papal status jurisdiction or an Anti-clericalism, Anti-clerical policy.{{Cite web , title=MONTENEGRINA – digitalna biblioteka crnogorske kulture i nasljedja , url=https://www.montenegrina.net/pages/pages1/istorija/cg_u_xix_vijeku/napoleon_pominje_crnogorce_marsalu_marmonu.htm , access-date=2023-06-10 , website=www.montenegrina.net , archive-date=8 April 2023 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408193254/https://www.montenegrina.net/pages/pages1/istorija/cg_u_xix_vijeku/napoleon_pominje_crnogorce_marsalu_marmonu.htm , url-status=live
However, the Treaty Of Tilsit between France and Russia against the Ottomans helped put a stop to hostilities in the Balkans, with a truce taking place (which was perceived extremely negatively in Serbia, despite the fact that the truce did not apply to the Serb rebels), also, there was a secret clause that provides for the division of Turkish possessions in the Balkans between Russia and France and the cancellation of the Slaveno-Serb empire project. In 1809, Karađorđe appealed to an alliance with the Habsburgs and Napoleon, with no success, even wrote personally to Napoleon seeking military assistance, and in 1810, dispatched an emissary to French Empire. However, the French did not believe that the rebels had the military capacity to defeat the Ottomans or expulse them from the Balkans. In 1812, under pressure from Napoleon, Russia was forced to sign the Treaty of Bucharest (1812), Treaty of Bucharest, which restored peace with the Ottomans. One of the clauses of the treaty provided for the maintenance of Serbian autonomy, also, a truce was signed according to the Article 8 of the Treaty. Then, the Russians encouraged Karađorđe and his followers to negotiate directly with the Porte.
War of 1812
{{Main, War of 1812 {{See also, The United States and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars The War of 1812 coincided with the War of the Sixth Coalition. Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, while Europeans often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. The United States declared war on Britain due to a variety of reasons, including British support for Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans resisting US settler expansion, Orders in Council (1807), interference with American merchant shipping, the impressment of Royal Navy deserters from US merchantmen and Expansionism, expansionist American desires to occupy The Canadas, Canada. France had interfered with American shipping well, and the United States had considered declaring war on France. The war ended in a military stalemate, and there were no boundary changes at the Treaty of Ghent, which took effect in early 1815 when Napoleon was on Elba.{{sfn, Black, 2009{{page needed, date=May 2021Latin American Revolutions
{{Main, Spanish American wars of independence, War of Independence of Brazil, Haitian Revolution
The abdication of Kings Charles IV of Spain and Ferdinand VII of Spain and the installation of Napoleon's brother as King Joseph Bonaparte, José provoked civil wars and revolutions, leading to the independence of most of Spain's mainland American colonies. In Hispanic America, Spanish America, many local elites formed juntas and set up mechanisms to rule in the name of Ferdinand VII, whom they considered the legitimate Spanish monarch. The outbreak of the Spanish American wars of independence in most of the empire was a result of Napoleon's destabilizing actions in Spain, and led to the rise of Strongman (politics), strongmen in the wake of these wars. The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 caused an exodus of French soldiers into Latin America, where they joined ranks with the armies of the independence movements.{{Cite journal , last=Orellana Billiard , first=Jorge Andrés , year=2018 , title=BERGUÑO HURTADO, Fernando. Los soldados de Napoleón en la Independencia de Chile. 1817–1830 , url=http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2314-15492018000100011 , url-status=live , journal=Revista de historia americana y argentina , language=es , volume=53 , issue=1 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522161122/http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2314-15492018000100011 , archive-date=22 May 2020 , access-date=13 July 2019 While these officials had a role in various victories such as the Capture of Valdivia (1820), some are held responsible for significant defeats at the hands of the royalists, as was the case at the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada (1818).
In contrast, the Portuguese House of Braganza, royal family escaped to Colonial Brazil, Brazil and established the court there, resulting in political stability for Portuguese America. In 1816, Brazil was proclaimed an equal part of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, paving the way to Brazilian independence six years later.
The Haitian Revolution began in 1791, just before the French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
, and continued until 1804. France's defeat resulted in the independence of Saint-Domingue and led Napoleon to sell the territory making up the Louisiana Purchase to the United States.
Barbary Wars
{{Main, Barbary Wars During the Napoleonic Wars, the United States, Sweden, and Sicily fought against the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean.Invasion of Russia, 1812
{{Main, French invasion of Russia
The Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 resulted in the Anglo-Russian War (1807–1812), Anglo–Russian War (1807–1812). Emperor Alexander I declared war on Britain after the British attack on Denmark in September 1807. British men-of-war supported the Swedish fleet during the Finnish War and won victories over the Russians in the Gulf of Finland in July 1808 and August 1809. The success of the Russian army on land, however, forced Sweden to sign peace treaties with Russia in 1809 and with France in 1810, and to join the blockade against Britain. But Franco–Russian relations would become progressively worse after 1810, and the Russian war with Britain effectively ended. In April 1812, Britain, Russia, and Sweden signed secret agreements directed against Napoleon.{{sfn, Palmer, 1974{{page needed, date=May 2021
The central issue for both Emperor of the French, Emperor Napoleon, Napoleon I and Emperor of Russia, Tsar Alexander I was control over Poland. Each wanted a semi-independent Poland he could control. As Esdaile notes, "Implicit in the idea of a Russian Poland was, of course, a war against Napoleon."{{sfn, Esdaile, 2009, p=438 Schroeder says Poland was "the root cause" of Napoleon's war with Russia, but Russia's refusal to support the Continental System was also a factor.{{sfn, Schroeder, 1994, p=419
In 1812, at the height of his power, Napoleon invaded Russia with a pan-European {{lang, fr, Grande Armée, consisting of 450,000 men (200,000 Frenchmen, and many soldiers of allies or subject areas). The French forces crossed the Neman, Niemen river on 24 June 1812. Russia proclaimed a Patriotic War, and Napoleon proclaimed a Second Polish war. The Poles supplied almost 100,000 men for the invasion force, but against their expectations, Napoleon avoided any concessions to Poland, having in mind further negotiations with Russia.{{sfn, Riehn, 1990{{page needed, date=May 2021
The {{lang, fr, Grande Armée marched through Russia, winning some relatively minor engagements and the major Battle of Smolensk (1812), Battle of Smolensk on 16–18 August. In the same days, part of the French Army led by Marshal of France, Marshal Nicolas Oudinot was stopped in the First Battle of Polotsk, Battle of Polotsk by the right wing of the Russian Army, under command of General Peter Wittgenstein. This prevented the French march on the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg; the fate of the invasion was decided in Moscow, where Napoleon led his forces in person.
The main Imperial Russian Army was commanded by Field Marshal Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, who recognized that Napoleon's immediate goal was a decisive battle to crush the main Russian force in the west. In response, the Russian army used scorched-earth tactics as it withdrew east, and harried the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée with light Cossack cavalry. The {{lang, fr, Grande Armée did not adjust its operational methods in response.{{sfn, Riehn, 1990, pp=138–140 Provisioning such an enormous army with adequate food and fresh water had proven difficult since the very start of the campaign, exacerbated by the sparse terrain of western Russia; diseases such as typhus and dysentery rapidly became rampant among the rank and file. These factors led to most of the losses of the main column of the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée, which in one case amounted to 95,000 men, including deserters, in a week.{{sfn, Riehn, 1990, p=185
The main Russian army retreated for almost three months. This constant retreat led to the increasing unpopularity of Barclay de Tolly (who was a Baltic German and already mistrusted by the Russian elite) and a respected Russian veteran, Prince Mikhail Kutuzov, was made the new Commander-in-Chief by Tsar Alexander. Finally, the two armies engaged in the Battle of Borodino on 7 September,{{sfn, Haythornthwaite, 2012{{page needed, date=May 2021 in the vicinity of Moscow. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 men and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties.
The battle was indecisive; the French captured the main positions on the battlefield but failed to destroy the Russian army. While Kutuzov had recognized the political need to give battle, he also recognized that Barclay de Tolly's strategies had proven effective, and that the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée was bleeding personnel and supplies more and more severely with every step they took deeper into Russia. Napoleon's logistical difficulties meant that French casualties simply could not be replaced, whereas the Russian army could reinforce itself far more readily.
Napoleon, Napoleon I entered Moscow on 14 September, after the Russian Army had retreated yet again.{{sfn, Riehn, 1990, pp=253–254 By then, the Russians had largely evacuated the city and released criminals from the prisons to inconvenience the French; the governor, Count Fyodor Rostopchin, ordered the city Fire of Moscow (1812), to be burnt. Alexander I refused to capitulate, and the peace talks attempted by Napoleon failed. Rather than withdraw further east, the Russian army withdrew south, rebuilding its strength and preparing to interfere with a French withdrawal. In October, with no sign of clear victory in sight, Napoleon began the disastrous Great Retreat from Moscow.
The French tried to reach Kaluga and swing through southern Russia, where they could find food and forage supplies. In the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, the replenished Russian army blocked the road to Kaluga. While an indecisive engagement, it nevertheless doomed the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée; with the Russians refusing to be dislodged, Napoleon was forced to retreat back down the Smolensk road along which he had already advanced, and which had already been denuded of supplies – most crucially, food.
The French supply chain, already in tatters from the attrition of wagons and horses, began to collapse completely. The lack of horses also rendered Napoleon's cavalry ineffective, leaving the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée vulnerable to sustained guerrilla warfare by Russian peasants and irregular troops. The {{lang, fr, Grande Armée was dealt a further catastrophic blow by the onset of the Russian Winter, which the underfed and undersupplied {{lang, fr, Grande Armée was unprepared to cope with.
When the remnants of Napoleon's army Battle of Berezina, struggled across the Berezina River in November with the Russian army in pursuit, only 27,000 fit soldiers survived, with 380,000 men dead or missing and 100,000 captured.{{sfn, Upshall, p=17, 1993 Napoleon then left his men and returned to Paris to prepare the defence against the advancing Russians. The campaign had effectively ended on 14 December 1812, when the last enemy troops left Russia. The Russians had lost around 210,000 men, but with their shorter supply lines, they soon replenished their armies. For every six soldiers of the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée that entered Russia, only one would make it out in fighting condition.
War of the Sixth Coalition, 1812–1814
{{Main, War of the Sixth Coalition Seeing an opportunity in Napoleon, Napoleon I's historic defeat, Prussia,Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
and several other German states switched sides, joining Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and others opposing Napoleon.{{sfn, Dwyer, 2013, pages=431–474{{page range too broad, date=May 2021 Napoleon vowed that he would create a new army as large as the one he had sent into Russia, and quickly built up his forces in the east from 30,000 to 130,000 and eventually to 400,000. Napoleon inflicted 40,000 casualties on the Allies at Battle of Lützen (1813), Lützen (2 May 1813) and Battle of Bautzen (1813), Bautzen (20–21 May 1813). Both battles involved forces of over 250,000, making them some of the largest conflicts of the wars so far. Klemens von Metternich in November 1813 offered Napoleon the Frankfurt proposals. They would allow Napoleon to remain Emperor of the French, Emperor but First French Empire, France would be reduced to its "natural frontiers" and lose control of most of Italy and Germany and the Netherlands. Napoleon still expected to win the wars, and rejected the terms. By 1814, as the Allies were closing in on Paris, Napoleon, Napoleon I did agree to the Frankfurt proposals, but it was too late and he rejected the new harsher terms proposed by the Allies.{{sfn, Riley, 2013, p=206
In the Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, renewed the Anglo-Portuguese Army, Anglo-Portuguese advance into Spain just after New Year in 1812, besieging and capturing the fortified towns of Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1812), Ciudad Rodrigo, Siege of Badajoz (1812), Badajoz, and crushing a French army at the Battle of Salamanca. As the French regrouped, the Anglo-Portuguese entered Madrid and advanced towards Siege of Burgos, Burgos, before retreating all the way to Portugal when renewed French concentrations threatened to trap them. As a consequence of the Salamanca campaign, the French were forced to end their long siege of Cádiz and to permanently evacuate the provinces of Andalusia and Asturias.{{sfn, Young, Lawford, 2015{{page needed, date=May 2021
In a strategic move, Wellesley planned to move his supply base from Lisbon to Santander, Spain, Santander. The Anglo-Portuguese forces swept northwards in late May and seized Burgos. On 21 June, at Vitoria, the combined Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish armies won against Joseph Bonaparte, finally breaking French power in Spain. The French had to retreat from the Iberian peninsula, over the Pyrenees.{{sfn, Glover, 1963{{page needed, date=May 2021
The belligerents declared an armistice from 4 June 1813 (continuing until 13 August) during which time both sides attempted to recover from the loss of approximately a quarter of a million men in the preceding two months. During this time coalition negotiations finally brought Austria out in open opposition to France. Two principal Austrian armies took the field, adding 300,000 men to the coalition armies in Germany. The Allies now had around 800,000 front-line soldiers in the German theatre, with a strategic reserve of 350,000 formed to support the front-line operations.{{sfn, Riley, 2013, p=206
Napoleon succeeded in bringing the imperial forces in the region to around 650,000—although only 250,000 came under his direct command, with another 120,000 under Nicolas Charles Oudinot and 30,000 under Davout. The remaining imperial forces came mostly from the Confederation of the Rhine, especially Saxony and Bavaria. In addition, to the south, Murat's Kingdom of Naples and Eugène de Beauharnais's Kingdom of Italy had 100,000 armed men. In Spain, another 150,000 to 200,000 French troops steadily retreated before Anglo-Portuguese forces numbering around 100,000. Thus around 900,000 Frenchmen in all theatres faced around 1,800,000 coalition soldiers (including the strategic reserve under formation in Germany). The gross figures may mislead slightly, as most of the German troops fighting on the side of the French fought at best unreliably and stood on the verge of defecting to the Allies. One can reasonably say that Napoleon could count on no more than 450,000 men in Germany—which left him outnumbered about four to one.{{sfn, Riley, 2013, p=206
Following the end of the armistice, Napoleon seemed to have regained the initiative at Battle of Dresden, Dresden (August 1813), where he once again defeated a numerically superior coalition army and inflicted enormous casualties, while sustaining relatively few. The failures of his marshals and a slow resumption of the offensive on his part cost him any advantage that this victory might have secured. At the Battle of Leipzig in Saxony (16–19 October 1813), also called the "Battle of the Nations", 191,000 French fought more than 300,000 Allies, and the defeated French had to retreat into France. After the French withdrawal from Germany, Napoleon's remaining ally, Denmark–Norway, became isolated and Treaty of Kiel, fell to the coalition.
Napoleon then fought a series of battles in France, including the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, but the overwhelming numbers of the Allies steadily forced him back. The Allies Battle of Paris (1814), entered Paris on 30 March 1814. During this time Napoleon fought his Six Days' Campaign, in which he won many battles against the enemy forces advancing towards Paris. During this entire campaign, he never managed to field more than 70,000 men against more than half a million coalition soldiers. At the Treaty of Chaumont (9 March 1814), the Allies agreed to preserve the coalition until Napoleon's total defeat.{{sfn, Dwyer, 2013, pp=464–498
Napoleon determined to fight on, even now, incapable of fathoming his fall from power. During the campaign, he had issued a decree for 900,000 fresh conscripts, but only a fraction of these materialised, and Napoleon's schemes for victory eventually gave way to the reality of his hopeless situation. Napoleon abdicated on 6 April. Occasional military actions continued in Italy, Spain, and Holland in early 1814.{{sfn, Dwyer, 2013, pp=464–498 An armistice was signed with the Allied Powers on 23 April 1814. The Treaty of Paris (1814), First Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814, officially ended the War of the Sixth Coalition.
The victors exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba and restored the French House of Bourbon, Bourbon monarchy in the person of Louis XVIII. They signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814), Treaty of Fontainebleau (11 April 1814) and initiated the Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
to redraw the map of Europe.{{sfn, Dwyer, 2013, pp=464–498
War of the Seventh Coalition, 1815
{{See also, Hundred Days, Neapolitan War
The Seventh Coalition (1815) pitted Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
and several smaller German states against France. The period known as the Hundred Days began after Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed at Cannes (1 March 1815). Travelling to Paris, picking up support as he went, he eventually overthrew Louis XVIII. The Allies rapidly gathered their armies to meet him again. Napoleon raised 280,000 men, whom he distributed among several armies. To add to the 90,000-strong standing army, he recalled well over a quarter of a million veterans from past campaigns and issued a decree for the eventual draft of around 2.5 million new men into the French army, which was never achieved. This faced an initial coalition force of about 700,000—although coalition campaign plans provided for one million front-line soldiers, supported by around 200,000 garrison, logistics and other auxiliary personnel.
Napoleon took about 124,000 men of the Army of the North on a pre-emptive strike against the Allies in Belgium. He intended to attack the coalition armies before they combined, in hope of driving the British into the sea and the Prussians out of the war. His march to the frontier achieved the surprise he had planned, catching the Anglo-Dutch Army in a dispersed arrangement. The Prussians had been more wary, concentrating 75 per cent of their army in and around Ligny. The Prussians forced the {{lang, fr, Armée du Nord to fight all the day of the 15th to reach Ligny in a delaying action by the Prussian 1st Corps. He forced Prussia to fight at Battle of Ligny, Ligny on 16 June 1815, and the defeated Prussians retreated in disorder. On the same day, the left wing of the {{lang, fr, Armée du Nord, under the command of Marshal Michel Ney, succeeded in stopping any of Wellington's forces going to aid Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Blücher's Prussians by fighting a blocking action at Battle of Quatre Bras, Quatre Bras. Ney failed to clear the cross-roads and Wellington reinforced the position. But with the Prussian retreat, Wellington too had to retreat. He fell back to a previously reconnoitred position on an escarpment at Mont-Saint-Jean, Belgium, Mont St Jean, a few miles south of the village of Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo.
Napoleon took the reserve of the Army of the North, and reunited his forces with those of Ney to pursue Wellington's army, after he ordered Marshal Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy, Grouchy to take the right wing of the Army of the North and stop the Prussians regrouping. In the first of a series of miscalculations, both Grouchy and Napoleon failed to realise that the Prussian forces were already reorganised and were assembling at the city of Wavre. The French army did nothing to stop a rather leisurely retreat that took place throughout the night and into the early morning by the Prussians. As the 4th, 1st, and 2nd Prussian Corps marched through the town towards Waterloo, the 3rd Prussian Corps took up blocking positions across the river, and although Grouchy engaged and defeated the Prussian rearguard under the command of Lt-Gen Johann von Thielmann, von Thielmann in the Battle of Wavre (18–19 June) it was 12 hours too late. In the end, 17,000 Prussians had kept 33,000 badly needed French reinforcements off the field.
Napoleon delayed the start of fighting at the Battle of Waterloo on the morning of 18 June for several hours while he waited for the ground to dry after the previous night's rain. By late afternoon, the French army had not succeeded in driving Wellington's forces from the escarpment on which they stood. When the Prussians arrived and attacked the French right flank in ever-increasing numbers, Napoleon's strategy of keeping the coalition armies divided had failed and a combined coalition general advance drove his army from the field in confusion.
Grouchy organised a successful and well-ordered retreat towards Paris, where Marshal Davout had 117,000 men ready to turn back the 116,000 men of Blücher and Wellington. General Dominique Vandamme, Vandamme was defeated at the Battle of Issy and negotiations for surrender had begun.
On arriving at Paris three days after Waterloo, Napoleon still clung to the hope of a concerted national resistance; but the temper of the Corps législatif, legislative chambers, and of the public generally, did not favour his view. Lacking support Napoleon abdicated again on 22 June 1815, and on 15 July he surrendered to the British squadron at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, Rochefort. The Allies exiled him to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he died on 5 May 1821.
In Italy, Joachim Murat, whom the Allies had allowed to remain King of Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
after Napoleon's initial defeat, once again allied with his brother-in-law, triggering the Neapolitan War (March to May 1815). Hoping to find support among Italian nationalists fearing the increasing influence of the Habsburgs in Italy, Murat issued the Rimini Proclamation inciting them to war. The proclamation failed and the Austrians soon crushed Murat at the Battle of Tolentino (2–3 May 1815), forcing him to flee. The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Bourbons returned to the throne of Naples on 20 May 1815. Murat tried to regain his throne, but after that failed, he was executed by firing squad on 13 October 1815.
The Treaty of Paris (1815), Second Treaty of Paris, signed on 20 November 1815, officially marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
Political effects
The Napoleonic Wars brought radical changes to Europe, but the reactionary forces returned and Bourbon Restoration in France, restored the Bourbon house to the French throne. Napoleon had succeeded in bringing most of Western Europe under one rule. In most European countries, subjugation in the French Empire brought with it many liberal features of the French Revolution including democracy, due process in courts, abolition of serfdom, reduction of the power of the Catholic Church, and demand for constitutional limits on monarchs. The increasing voice of the Middle class, middle classes with rising commerce and industry meant that restored European monarchs found it difficult to restore pre-revolutionary absolute monarch, absolutism and had to retain many of the reforms enacted during Napoleon's rule. Institutional legacies remain to this day in the form of Civil Law (legal system), civil law, with clearly defined code of law, codes of law—an enduring legacy of the Napoleonic Code.
France's constant warfare with the combined forces of different combinations of, and eventually all, of the other major powers of Europe for over two decades finally took its toll. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, France no longer held the role of the dominant historical powers, power in Continental Europe, as it had since the times of Louis XIV, as the Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
produced a "Balance of power (international relations), balance of power" by resizing the main powers so they could balance each other and remain at peace. In this regard, Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
was restored in its former borders, and also received large chunks of Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Poland and Kingdom of Saxony, Saxony. Greatly enlarged, Prussia became a permanent Great Power. In order to drag Prussia's attention towards the west and France, the Congress also gave the Prussian Rhineland, Rhineland and Prussian Westphalia, Westphalia to Prussia. These industrial regions transformed agrarian Prussia into an industrial leader in the nineteenth century. Britain emerged as the most important economic power, and its Royal Navy held unquestioned naval superiority across the globe well into the 20th century.
After the Napoleonic period, nationalism, a relatively new movement, became increasingly significant. This shaped much of the course of future European history. Its growth spelled the beginning of some states and the end of others, as the map of Europe changed dramatically in the hundred years following the Napoleonic Era. Rule by Fief, fiefdoms and aristocracy was widely replaced by national ideologies based on shared origins and culture. Bonaparte's reign over Europe sowed the seeds for the founding of the nation-states of Unification of Germany, Germany and Italian unification, Italy by starting the process of consolidating city-states, kingdoms and Principality, principalities. At the end of the war, Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden mainly as a compensation for the loss of Grand Duchy of Finland, Finland which the other coalition members agreed to, but because Norway had signed its Constitution of Norway, own constitution on 17 May 1814 Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
initiated the Swedish–Norwegian War (1814). The war was a short one taking place between 26 July – 14 August 1814 and was a Swedish victory that put Norway into a Union between Sweden and Norway, personal union with Sweden. The union was peacefully dissolved in 1905. The United Kingdom of the Netherlands created as a buffer state against France dissolved rapidly with the Belgian Revolution, independence of Belgium in 1830.
The Napoleonic wars also played a key role in the independence of the Latin American colonies from Spain and Portugal. The conflict weakened the authority and military power of Spain, especially after the Battle of Trafalgar. There were many uprisings in Spanish America, leading to the Spanish American wars of independence, wars of independence. In Portuguese America, Brazil experienced greater autonomy as it now Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil, served as seat of the Portuguese Empire and ascended politically to the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, status of Kingdom. These events also contributed to the Liberal Revolution of 1820, Portuguese Liberal Revolution in 1820 and the Independence of Brazil in 1822.{{sfn, Keen, Haynes, 2012, loc=chpt. 8
The century of relative transatlantic peace, after the Congress of Vienna, enabled the "greatest intercontinental migration in human history"{{sfn, Keeling, 1999, p=39 beginning with "a big spurt of immigration after the release of the dam erected by the Napoleonic Wars." Immigration inflows relative to the US population rose to record levels (peaking at 1.6 per cent in 1850–51){{sfn, Keeling, 2007, pages=267–268{{page range too broad, date=May 2021 as 30 million Europeans relocated to the United States between 1815 and 1914.{{sfn, Jones, 1992, pp=78–79, ps=: Jones referred to this migration as "one of the wonders of the age."
Another concept emerged from the Congress of Vienna—that of a unified Europe. After his defeat, Napoleon deplored the fact that his dream of a free and peaceful "European association" remained unaccomplished. Such a European association would share the same principles of government, system of measurement, currency and Civil Code. One-and-a-half centuries later, and after two world wars several of these ideals re-emerged in the form of the European Union.
Military legacy
Enlarged scope
Until the time of Napoleon, European states employed relatively small armies, made up of both national soldiers and mercenary, mercenaries. These regulars were highly drilled, professional soldiers. Ancien Régime armies could only deploy small field armies due to rudimentary staffs and comprehensive yet cumbersome logistics. Both issues combined to limit field forces to approximately 30,000 men under a single commander.
Military innovators in the mid-18th century began to recognise the potential of an entire nation at war: a "nation in arms".
The scale of warfare dramatically enlarged during the Revolutionary and subsequent Napoleonic Wars. During Europe's major pre-revolutionary war, the Seven Years' War of 1756–1763, few armies ever numbered more than 200,000 with field forces often numbering less than 30,000. The French innovations of separate corps (allowing a single commander to efficiently command more than the traditional command span of 30,000 men) and living off the land (which allowed field armies to deploy more men without requiring an equal increase in supply arrangements such as depots and supply trains) allowed the French republic to field much larger armies than their opponents. Napoleon ensured during the time of the French republic that separate French field armies operated as a single army under his control, often allowing him to substantially outnumber his opponents. This forced his continental opponents to also increase the size of their armies, moving away from the traditional small, well-drilled Ancien Régime armies of the 18th century to mass conscript armies.
The Battle of Marengo, which largely ended the War of the Second Coalition, was fought with fewer than 60,000 men on both sides. The Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV French Republican calendar, FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near t ...
which ended the War of the Third Coalition involved fewer than 160,000 men. The Battle of Friedland which led to peace with Russia in 1807 involved about 150,000 men.
After these defeats, the continental powers developed various forms of mass conscription to allow them to face France on even terms, and the size of field armies increased rapidly. The Battle of Wagram of 1809 involved 300,000 men, and 500,000 fought at Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
in 1813, of whom 150,000 were killed or wounded.
About a million French soldiers became casualties (wounded, invalided or killed), a higher proportion than in the First World War. The European total may have reached 5,000,000 military deaths, including disease.{{sfn, Bell, 2007, p=7{{sfn, Kennedy, 1989, pp=99–100{{Verify source, date=May 2021
France had the second-largest population in Europe by the end of the 18th century (28 million, as compared to Britain's 12 million and Russia's 35 to 40 million).{{sfn, McEvedy, Jones, 1978, pp=41–222{{page range too broad, date=May 2021 It was well poised to take advantage of the ''levée en masse''. Before Napoleon's efforts, Lazare Carnot played a large part in the reorganisation of the French Revolutionary Army from 1793 to 1794—a time which saw previous French misfortunes reversed, with Republican armies advancing on all fronts.
The French army peaked in size in the 1790s with 1.5 million Frenchmen enlisted although battlefield strength was much less. Haphazard bookkeeping, rudimentary medical support and lax recruitment standards ensured that many soldiers either never existed, fell ill or were unable to withstand the physical demands of soldiering.
About 2.8 million Frenchmen fought on land and about 150,000 at sea, bringing the total for France to almost 3 million combatants during almost 25 years of warfare.
Britain had 750,000 men under arms between 1792 and 1815 as its British Army, army expanded from 40,000 men in 1793{{cn, date=April 2024 to a peak of 250,000 men in 1813. Over 250,000 sailors served in the Royal Navy. In September 1812, Russia had 900,000 enlisted men in its Imperial Russian Army, army, and between 1799 and 1815 2.1 million men served in its army. Another 200,000 served in the Imperial Russian Navy. Out of the 900,000 men, the field armies deployed against France numbered less than 250,000.
There are no consistent statistics for other major combatants. Austrian Army during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Austria's forces peaked at about 576,000 (during the War of the Sixth Coalition) and had little or no naval component yet never fielded more than 250,000 men in field armies. After Britain, Austria proved the most persistent enemy of France; more than a million Austrians served during the long wars. Its large army was overall quite homogeneous and solid and in 1813 operated in Germany (140,000 men), Italy and the Balkans (90,000 men at its peak, about 50,000 men during most of the campaigning on these fronts). Austria's manpower was becoming quite limited towards the end of the wars, leading its generals to favour cautious and conservative strategies, to limit their losses.
Prussia never had more than 320,000 men under arms at any time. In 1813–1815, the core of its Prussian Army, army (about 100,000 men) was characterised by competence and determination, but the bulk of its forces consisted of second- and third-line troops, as well as Landwehr, militiamen of variable strength. Many of these troops performed reasonably well and often displayed considerable bravery but lacked the professionalism of their regular counterparts and were not as well equipped. Others were largely unfit for operations, except sieges. During the 1813 campaign, 130,000 men were used in the military operations, with 100,000 effectively participating in the main German campaign of 1813, German campaign, and about 30,000 being used to besiege isolated French garrisons.{{sfn, Leggiere, 2014
Spanish Army (Peninsular War), Spain's armies also peaked at around 200,000 men, not including more than 50,000 guerrillas scattered over Spain. In addition the Maratha Empire, the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, Army of the Kingdom of Naples (Napoleonic), Naples and the Duchy of Warsaw each had more than 100,000 men under arms. Even small nations now had armies rivalling the size of the Great Powers' forces of past wars but most of these were poor quality forces only suitable for garrison duties. The size of their combat forces remained modest yet they could still provide a welcome addition to the major powers. The percentage of French troops in the {{lang, fr, Grande Armée which Napoleon led into Russia was about 50 per cent while the French allies also provided a significant contribution to the French forces in Spain. As these small nations joined the coalition forces in 1813–1814, they provided a useful addition to the coalition while depriving Napoleon of much-needed manpower.
Innovations
The initial stages of the Industrial Revolution had much to do with larger military forces—it became easy to mass-produce weapons and thus to equip larger forces. Britain was the largest single manufacturer of armaments in this period. It supplied most of the weapons used by the coalition powers throughout the conflicts. France produced the second-largest total of armaments, equipping its own huge forces as well as those of theConfederation of the Rhine
The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austrian Empire, Austria ...
and other allies.
Napoleon showed innovative tendencies in his use of mobility to offset numerical disadvantages, as demonstrated in the rout of the Austro–Russian forces in 1805 in the Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV French Republican calendar, FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near t ...
. The French Army redefined the role of artillery, forming independent, mobile units, as opposed to the previous tradition of attaching artillery pieces in support of troops.
The Semaphore line, semaphore system had allowed the French War-Minister, Carnot, to communicate with French forces on the frontiers throughout the 1790s. The French continued to use this system throughout the Napoleonic wars. Aerial surveillance was used for the first time when the French used a hot-air balloon to survey coalition positions before the Battle of Fleurus (1794), Battle of Fleurus, on 26 June 1794.{{sfn, Palmer, 1941, pp=81–83
Total war
{{Main, Total war Historians have explored how the Napoleonic wars became total wars. Most historians argue that the escalation in size and scope came from two sources. First was the ideological clash between revolutionary/egalitarian and conservative/hierarchical belief systems. Second was the emergence ofnationalism
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
in France, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere, that made these "people's wars" instead of contests between monarchs.{{sfn, Stoker, Schneid, Blanton, 2008, pp=24, 31–32, 38 Bell has argued that even more important than ideology and nationalism were the intellectual transformations in the culture of war that came about through the Age of Enlightenment.{{sfn, Bell, 2007, pp=7–13 One factor, he says, is that war was no longer a routine event but a transforming experience for societies—a total experience. Secondly, the military emerged in its own right as a separate sphere of society distinct from the ordinary civilian world. The French Revolution made every civilian a part of the war machine, either as a soldier through universal conscription, or as a vital cog in the home front machinery supporting and supplying the army. Out of that, says Bell, came "militarism", the belief that the military role was morally superior to the civilian role in times of great national crisis. The fighting army represented the essence of the nation's soul.{{efn, Many historians say it was not the "first" total war; for a critique of Bell see {{Cite book , last=Frederick C. Schneid , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V086MVIushMC&pg=PA1802 , title=Napoleonic Wars , publisher=Potomac Books , year=2012 , isbn=978-1-59797-578-0 , page=1802 , access-date=18 June 2015 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930174847/https://books.google.com/books?id=V086MVIushMC&pg=PA1802 , archive-date=30 September 2015 , url-status=live As Napoleon proclaimed, "It is the soldier who founds a Republic and it is the soldier who maintains it." Napoleon said on his career "I closed the gulf of anarchy and brought order out of chaos. I rewarded merit regardless of birth or wealth, wherever I found it. I abolished feudalism and restored equality to all religion and before the law. I fought the decrepit monarchies of the Old Regime because the alternative was the destruction of all this. I purified the Revolution."
Use of military intelligence
Intelligence played a pivotal factor throughout the Napoleonic Wars and could very well have changed the tide of war. The use and misuse of military intelligence dictated the course of many major battles during the Napoleonic Wars. Some of the major battles that were dictated by the use of intelligence include: The Battle of Waterloo, Battle of Leipzig, Battle of Salamanca, and the Battle of Vitoria. A major exception to the greater use of superior military intelligence to claim victory was the Battle of Jena in 1806. At the Battle of Jena even Prussian superior military intelligence was not enough to counter the sheer military force of Napoleons' armies. The use of intelligence varied greatly across the major world powers of the war. Napoleon at this time had more supply of intelligence given to him than any French general before him. However, Napoleon was not an advocate of military intelligence at this time as he often found it unreliable and inaccurate when compared to his own preconceived notions of the enemy. Napoleon rather studied his enemy via domestic newspapers, diplomatic publications, maps, and prior documents of military engagements in the theaters of war in which he would operate. It was this stout and constant study of the enemy which made Napoleon the military mastermind of his time. Whereas, his opponents—Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia—were much more reliant on traditional intelligence-gathering methods and were much quicker and more willing to act on them. The methods of Intelligence during these wars were to include the formation of vast and complex networks of corresponding agents, codebreaking, and cryptanalysis. The greatest cipher to be used to hide military operations during this time was known as the Great Cipher, Great Paris Cipher used by the French. However, thanks to the hard work of British codebreakers like George Scovell, the British were able to crack French ciphers and gain vast amounts of military intelligence on Napoleon and his armies.{{sfn, Andrew , 2018 }{{page needed, date=May 2021Diplomatic espionage
French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Talleyrand served as a source of intelligence for the Coalition powers against Napoleon. At the Congress of Erfurt in September–October 1808, Talleyrand secretly counseled Tsar Alexander. Alexander's attitude towards Napoleon was one of apprehensive opposition. Talleyrand believed Napoleon would eventually destroy the empire he had worked to build across multiple rulers. After his resignation in 1807 from the ministry, Talleyrand began to accept bribes from hostile powers (mainly Austria, but also Russia), to betray Napoleon's secrets.{{cite book , last=Lawday , first=David , title=Napoleon's Master: A Life of Prince Talleyrand , publisher=St. Martin's Press , year=2007 , isbn=978-0-312-37297-2 , location=New York Various agents of Napoleon were known such as Madame d'Oettlinger.In fiction
{{Main, Napoleonic Wars in fiction {{See also, List of Napoleonic Wars films The Napoleonic Wars were a defining event of the early 19th century, and inspired many works of fiction, from then until the present day. * Leo Tolstoy's epic novel ''War and Peace'' recounts Napoleon's wars between 1805 and 1812 (especially the disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia and subsequent retreat) from a Russian perspective. * Stendhal's novel ''The Charterhouse of Parma'' opens with a ground-level recounting of the Battle of Waterloo and the subsequent chaotic retreat of French forces. * ''Les Misérables'' by Victor Hugo takes place against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and subsequent decades, and in its unabridged form contains an epic telling of the Battle of Waterloo. * ''Adieu (short story), Adieu'' is a novella by Honoré de Balzac in which can be found a short description of the French retreat from Russia, particularly the battle of Berezina, where the fictional couple of the story are tragically separated. Years later after imprisonment, the husband returns to find his wife still in a state of utter shock and amnesia. He has the battle and their separation reenacted, hoping the memory will heal her state. * William Makepeace Thackeray's novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'' takes place during the 1815 Napoleonic War – one of its protagonists dies at the Battle of Waterloo. Thackeray states in Chapter XXX "We do not claim to rank among the military novelists. Our place is with the non-combatants. When the decks are cleared for action we go below and wait meekly." And indeed he presents no descriptions of military leaders, strategy, or combat; he describes anxious non-combatants waiting in Brussels for news. * ''Sylvia's Lovers'' by Elizabeth Gaskell is set in the English home-front during the Napoleonic Wars and depicts the impressment of sailors by roving press gangs. * ''The Duel (short story), The Duel'', a short story by Joseph Conrad, recounts the story based on true events of two French Hussar officers who carry a long grudge and fight in duels each time they meet during the Napoleonic wars. The short story was adapted by director Ridley Scott into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival's Best First Work award-winning film ''The Duellists''. * ''Mr Midshipman Easy'' (1836), semi-autobiographical novel by Captain Frederick Marryat, who served as a Royal Navy officer (1806–1830) including during Napoleonic Wars, and who wrote many novels, and who was a pioneer of the Napoleonic wars sea story about the experiences of British naval officers. * ''Le Colonel Chabert (novel), Le Colonel Chabert'' by Honoré de Balzac. After being severely wounded during the Battle of Eylau (1807), Chabert, a famous colonel of the cuirassiers, was erroneously recorded as dead and buried unconscious with French casualties. After extricating himself from his grave and being nursed back to health by local peasants, it takes several years for him to recover. When he returns to the Paris of the Bourbon Restoration in France, Bourbon Restoration, he discovers that his "widow", a former prostitute that Chabert made rich and honourable, has married the wealthy Count Ferraud. She has also liquidated all of Chabert's belongings and pretends not to recognise her first husband. Seeking to regain his name and monies that were wrongly given away as inheritance, he hires Derville, an attorney, to win back his money and his honour. * A poem "Borodino (poem), Borodino" by Mikhail Lermontov describes the Battle of Borodino from the perspective of the poet's uncle, a Russian officer. * ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' by Alexandre Dumas, père starts during the tail-end of the Napoleonic Wars. The main character, Edmond Dantès, suffers imprisonment following false accusations of Bonapartist leanings. * The novelist Jane Austen lived much of her life during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and two of her brothers served in the Royal Navy. Austen almost never refers to specific dates or historical events in her novels, but wartime England forms part of the general backdrop to several of them: in ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1813, but possibly written during the 1790s), the local militia (civilian volunteers) has been called up for home defence and its officers play an important role in the plot; in Mansfield Park (1814), Fanny Price's brother William is a midshipman (officer in training) in the Royal Navy; and in ''Persuasion (novel), Persuasion'' (1818), Frederick Wentworth and several other characters are naval officers recently returned from service. * Charlotte Brontë's novel ''Shirley (novel), Shirley'' (1849), set during the Napoleonic Wars, explores some of the economic effects of war on rural Yorkshire. * Arthur Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard serves as a French soldier during the Napoleonic Wars * Fyodor Dostoevsky's book ''The Idiot (novel), The Idiot'' had a character, General Ivolgin, who witnessed and recounted his relationship with Napoleon during the Campaign of Russia. * Roger Brook is a fictional secret agent and Napoleonic Wars Era gallant, later identified as the Chevalier de Breuc, in a series of twelve novels by Dennis Wheatley * The ''Horatio Hornblower, Hornblower'' books by C.S. Forester follow the naval career of Horatio Hornblower during the Napoleonic Wars. The 1951 film "Captain Horatio Hornblower" starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo and directed by Raoul Walsh is a film adaption based on Forester's series of novels. Also by C.S. Forester two novels of the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal: "Death to the French" (1932, published in the United States under the title "Rifleman Dodd"), and "The Gun (novel), The Gun" (1933), later made into a 1957 film, "The Pride and the Passion", with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, directed by Stanley Kramer. * R. F. Delderfield, two novels about the Napoleonic Wars; ''Seven Men of Gascony'' (1949) about seven French infantrymen serving in a succession of Napoleonic campaigns, and ''Too Few For Drums'' (1964) about British soldiers cut off behind the French lines in Portugal in 1810, during the Peninsular War. * The Aubrey–Maturin series of novels is a sequence of 20 historical novels by Patrick O'Brian portraying the rise of Jack Aubrey from Lieutenant to Rear Admiral during the Napoleonic Wars. The film ''Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World'' starring Russell Crowe and directed by Peter Weir is based on this series of books. * The ''Sharpe (novel series), Sharpe'' series by Bernard Cornwell stars the character Richard Sharpe, a soldier in the British Army, who fights throughout the Napoleonic Wars. It was adapted into the Sharpe (TV series), ''Sharpe'' TV Series starring Sean Bean. * The ''Bloody Jack (novel), Bloody Jack'' book series by Louis A. Meyer is set during the Second Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars, and retells many famous battles of the age. The heroine, Jacky, meets Bonaparte. * The Napoleonic Wars provide the backdrop for ''The Emperor'', ''The Victory'', ''The Regency'' and ''The Campaigners'', Volumes 11, 12, 13 and 14 respectively of The Morland Dynasty, a series of historical novels by the author Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. * The Richard Bolitho series by Douglas Reeman, Alexander Kent novels portray this period of history from a naval perspective. * G.S. Beard, author of two novels (2010) about John Fury, British naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. * ''Napoleon's Blackguards'', a novel by Stephen McGarry, set in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars about the travails of an elite unit of Napoleon's Irish Legion. * Robert Challoner, author of three novels in the series about Charles Oakshott, British naval officer in Napoleonic Wars. * David Donachie's John Pearce series about a pressed seaman who becomes a British naval officer during the French Revolution wars and Napoleonic Wars. * Julian Stockwin's Thomas Kydd series portrays one man's journey from pressed man to Admiral in the time of the French and Napoleonic Wars * Simon Scarrow – Napoleonic series. Rise of Napoleon and Wellington from humble beginnings to history's most remarkable and notable leaders. Four books in the series. * The Lord Ramage series by Dudley Pope takes place during the Napoleonic Wars. * Jeanette Winterson's 1987 novel ''The Passion (novel), The Passion'' * Georgette Heyer's 1937 novel ''An Infamous Army'' recounts the fortunes of a family in the run-up to and during the course of, the Battle of Waterloo. Heyer's novel is noted for its meticulous research on the progress of the battle, combining her noted period romance writing with her detailed research into regency history. * ''The Battle (Rambaud novel), The Battle'' (French: ''La Bataille'') is a historical novel by the French author Patrick Rambaud that was first published in 1997 and again in English in 2000. The book describes the 1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling between the French Empire under Napoleon and the Austrian Empire. The novel was awarded the Prix Goncourt and the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française for 1997. * In Jasper Kent's novel ''Twelve'', 1812 Russian Invasion serves as a base story for the book. In later books from The Danilov Quintet, this war is constantly mentioned. * The ''Fighting Sail'' series by Alaric Bond portrays life and action aboard Royal Naval vessels during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. From the lower decks to the quarterdeck Bond's detailed settings are realistic. Narratives are told not just from a commissioned officer's point of view but include varied perspectives, including warranted officers, ordinary and able seamen, marines, supernumeraries, and women aboard presenting a broader, more complete picture of the Georgian Navy.{{Cite web , last=Hayes , first=David , title=Alaric Bond , url=https://www.historicnavalfiction.com/authors-a-z/alaric-bond , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430110700/https://historicnavalfiction.com/authors-a-z/alaric-bond , archive-date=30 April 2021 , access-date=11 May 2021 , website=Historic FictionSee also
{{Portal, France {{div col, colwidth=25em * Serbian Revolution * Austro-Polish War * British Army during the Napoleonic Wars * British invasions of the River Plate * Caribbean campaign of 1803–1810 * Haitian Revolution * Imperial and Royal Army during the Napoleonic Wars * International relations (1648–1814), for diplomacy * Lists of battles of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars * Royal Prussian Army of the Napoleonic Wars * Spanish American wars of independence * Uniforms of La Grande Armée * War of 1812 *Economic and logistical aspects of the Napoleonic Wars *War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition () (December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation (), a coalition of Austrian Empire, Austria, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia, Russian Empire, Russia, History of Spain (1808– ...
* World war
{{div col end
Notes
{{NotelistReferences
Citations
{{Reflist {{reflist, group=IntelWorks cited
* {{Cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NNU7AQAAMAAJ&q=annual%20register%201803 , title=The Annual Register, Or, A View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year ... , date=1805 , publisher=J. Dodsley , editor-last=Adams , editor-first=John * {{Cite book , last=Andrew , first=Christopher , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AxttDwAAQBAJ , title=Secret World: A History of Intelligence , date=2018 , publisher=Yale University Press , isbn=978-0-300-24052-8 * {{Cite book , last=Arnold , first=James R. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63xTTaYTbrwC , title=Napoleon Conquers Austria: The 1809 Campaign for Vienna , date=1995 , publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group , isbn=978-0-275-94694-4 * {{Cite book , last=Bell , first=David Avrom , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pw5jup_LyHAC , title=The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know it , date=2007 , publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , isbn=978-0-618-34965-4 * {{Cite book , last=Black , first=Jeremy , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k3crAQAAIAAJ , title=The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon , date=2009 , publisher=University of Oklahoma Press , isbn=978-0-8061-4078-0 * {{Cite book , last=Briggs , first=Asa , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEhUMgEACAAJ , title=The Making of Modern England, 1783–1867: The Age of Improvement , date=1959 , publisher=Harper & Row * {{Cite book , last=Bryant , first=Arthur , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzGgAAAAMAAJ&q=Years%20of%20victory:%201802%E2%80%931812 , title=Years of Victory, 1802–1812 , date=1944 , publisher=Collins * {{Cite book , last=Burke , first=Edmund , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J9g7AQAAMAAJ , title=The Annual Register, Or, A View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year ... , date=1808 , publisher=J. Dodsley * {{Citation , last=Canales , first=Esteban , title=1808–1814: demografía y guerra en España , url=http://www.uclm.es/ab/humanidades/profesores/descarga/manuel_ortiz/crisisregimen.pdf , year=2004 , publisher=Autonomous University of Barcelona , language=es , access-date=3 May 2017 * {{Cite book , last=Chandler , first=David G. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=guFnAAAAMAAJ , title=The Campaigns of Napoleon , date=1966 , publisher=Scribner , isbn=978-0-02-523660-8 * {{Cite book , last=Clodfelter , first=Micheal , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kNzCDgAAQBAJ , title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015, 4th ed. , date=2017 , publisher=McFarland , isbn=978-1-4766-2585-0 * {{Cite book , last1=Desan , first1=Suzanne , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jAyeDgAAQBAJ , title=The French Revolution in Global Perspective , last2=Hunt , first2=Lynn , last3=Nelson , first3=William Max , date=2013 , publisher=Cornell University Press , isbn=978-0-8014-6747-9 * {{cite book , last=Dwyer , first=Philip , year=2013 , title=Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power * {{Cite book , last=Esdaile , first=Charles , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOR1NQEACAAJ , title=Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803–1815 , date=2009 , publisher=Penguin Books , isbn=978-0-14-311628-8 * {{Cite book , last=Ferguson , first=Niall , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PS4CVCq-70sC , title=The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition , date=2008 , publisher=Penguin , isbn=978-1-4406-5402-2 * {{Cite book , last=Fremont-Barnes , first=Gregory , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NpeHCwAAQBAJ , title=The Napoleonic Wars (3): The Peninsular War 1807–1814 , date=2014 , publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing , isbn=978-1-4728-0975-9 * {{Cite book , last=Gates , first=David , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VN9nAAAAMAAJ , title=The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War , date=1986 , publisher=Allen & Unwin , isbn=978-0-04-940079-5 * {{Cite book , last=Glover , first=Michael , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7R68zQEACAAJ , title=Wellington's Peninsular Victories: Busaco, Salamanca, Vitoria, Nivelle , date=1963 , publisher=Macmillan * {{Cite journal , last=Götz , first=Norbert , date=2014-06-06 , title=The Good Plumpuddings' Belief: British Voluntary Aid to Sweden During the Napoleonic Wars , journal=The International History Review , volume=37 , issue=3 , pages=519–539 , doi=10.1080/07075332.2014.918559 , issn=0707-5332 , doi-access=free * {{Cite book , last=Grab , first=Alexander , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d48dBQAAQBAJ , title=Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe , date=2003 , publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education , isbn=978-1-4039-3757-5 * {{Cite book , last=Grainger , first=John D. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTIKDcuLoGoC , title=The Amiens Truce: Britain and Bonaparte, 1801–1803 , date=2004 , publisher=Boydell Press , isbn=978-1-84383-041-2 * {{Cite book , last=Gray , first=Colin S. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ulRtsANRIK8C , title=War, Peace and International Relations: An Introduction to Strategic History , date=2007 , publisher=Routledge , isbn=978-1-134-16951-1 * {{Cite book , last=Halévy , first=Elie , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZCs8AAAAIAAJ , title=A History of the English People ...: England in 1815 , date=1924 , publisher=Harcourt, Brace * {{cite book , title=Borodino 1812: Napoleon's great gamble , first=Philip , last=Haythornthwaite , collaboration=Illustrations and graphics by Peter Dennis , publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing , isbn=9781849086974 , date=20 September 2012 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UaW6CwAAQBAJ , via=Google Books , editor1-first=Marcus , editor1-last=Cowper , series=Campaign , volume=246 , publication-place=London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain , access-date=26 September 2021 * {{Cite book , last=Jones , first=Colin , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVNGNIojGgMC , title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of France , date=1994 , publisher=Cambridge University Press , isbn=978-0-521-66992-4 * {{Cite book , last=Jones , first=Maldwyn Allen , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r2jUy7SJo04C , title=American Immigration , date=1992 , publisher=University of Chicago Press , isbn=978-0-226-40633-6 , editor-last=Boorstin , editor-first=Daniel J. * {{Cite book , last=Kagan , first=Frederick , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZdjTr7DCcgC , title=The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801–1805 , date=2007 , publisher=Hachette Books , isbn=978-0-306-81645-1 * {{Cite journal , last=Keeling , first=Drew , year=1999 , title=The Transportation Revolution and Transatlantic Migration , journal=Research in Economic History , volume=19 * {{Cite journal , last=Keeling , first=Drew , date=1 January 2007 , title=Transport Capacity Management and Transatlantic Migration, 1900–1914 , journal=Research in Economic History , publisher=Emerald Group Publishing Limited , volume=25 , pages=225–283 , doi=10.1016/s0363-3268(07)25005-0 , isbn=978-0-7623-1370-9 * {{Cite book , author1-link=Benjamin Keen , last1=Keen , first1=Benjamin , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yZIJAAAAQBAJ , title=A History of Latin America , last2=Haynes , first2=Keith , date=2012 , publisher=Cengage Learning , isbn=978-1-133-70932-9 * {{Cite book , last=Kennedy , first=Paul M. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4ZMl8iS8lAC , title=The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 , date=1989 , publisher=Vintage Books , isbn=978-0-679-72019-5 * {{Cite book , last=Knight , first=Roger , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdZtKP2qLxgC , title=Britain Against Napoleon: The Organization of Victory, 1793–1815 , date=2013 , publisher=Penguin UK , isbn=978-0-14-197702-7 * {{Cite book , last=Leggiere , first=Michael V. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twXBAgAAQBAJ , title=Blücher: Scourge of Napoleon , date=2014 , publisher=University of Oklahoma Press , isbn=978-0-8061-4567-9 * {{Cite book , last=Malia , first=Martin Edward , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rDBKN3kvM4C , title=History's Locomotives: Revolutions and the Making of the Modern World , date=2006 , publisher=Yale University Press , isbn=978-0-300-12690-7 * {{Cite journal , last=McConachy , first=Bruce , year=2001 , title=The Roots of Artillery Doctrine: Napoleonic Artillery Tactics Reconsidered , journal=Journal of Military History , volume=65 , issue=3 , pages=617–640 , doi=10.2307/2677528 , jstor=2677528 , s2cid=159945703 * {{Cite book , last1=McEvedy , first1=Colin , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p98UAQAAIAAJ , title=Atlas of World Population History , last2=Jones , first2=Richard , date=1978 , publisher=Facts on File , isbn=978-0-87196-402-1 * {{Cite book , last=McLynn , first=Frank , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRj1MNP-3xwC , title=Napoleon: A Biography , date=1998 , publisher=Pimlico , isbn=978-0-7126-6247-5 * {{Cite book , last=Munch-Petersen , first=Thomas , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lP70HAAACAAJ , title=Defying Napoleon: How Britain Bombarded Copenhagen and Seized the Danish Fleet in 1807 , date=2007 , publisher=Sutton , isbn=978-0-7509-4280-5 * {{Cite book , last=Palmer , first=Robert Roswell , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXfRAAAAMAAJ , title=Twelve who Ruled: The Committee of Public Safety, During the Terror , date=1941 , publisher=Princeton University Press * {{Cite book , last=Palmer , first=Alan , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C3FpAAAAMAAJ&q=Alexander%20I:%20Tsar%20of%20War%20and%20Peace. , title=Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace , date=1974 , publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson , isbn=978-0-297-76700-8 * {{Cite book , last1=Palmer , first1=R. R. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vmt6CgAAQBAJ , title=A History of the Modern World: 11th Edition , last2=Colton , first2=Joel , last3=Kramer , first3=Lloyd , date=2013 , publisher=McGraw-Hill Higher Education , isbn=978-0-07-759962-1 * {{Cite book , last=Payne , first=Stanley G. , url=https://archive.org/details/historyofspainpo00payn , title=A History of Spain and Portugal: Eighteenth Century to Franco , date=1973 , publisher=University of Wisconsin Press , isbn=978-0299062705 , volume=2 , location=Madison , access-date=2 May 2021 * {{Citation , last=Philo , first=Tom , title=Military and Civilian War Related Deaths Through the Ages , url=http://www.taphilo.com/history/war-deaths.shtml/ , year=2010 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420103253/http://www.taphilo.com/history/war-deaths.shtml , archive-date=20 April 2010{{Unreliable source? , failed=y , date=February 2013{{better source needed , date=February 2013 * {{Cite book , last=Rapport , first=Mike , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wPK7XxVwF6YC , title=The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction , date=2013 , publisher=OUP Oxford , isbn=978-0-19-164251-7 * {{Cite book , last=Riehn , first=Richard K. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZdZnAAAAMAAJ , title=1812: Napoleon's Russian Campaign , date=1990 , publisher=McGraw-Hill , isbn=978-0-07-052731-7 * {{Citation , last=Riehn , first=Richard K. , title=1812: Napoleon's Russian Campaign , year=1991 , edition=Paperback , place=New York , publisher=Wiley , isbn=978-0-471-54302-2 * {{Cite book , last=Riley , first=J. P. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=beq3AAAAQBAJ , title=Napoleon and the World War of 1813: Lessons in Coalition Warfighting , date=2013 , publisher=Routledge , isbn=978-1-136-32135-1 * {{Cite book , last=Roberts , first=Andrew , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjVBAwAAQBAJ , title=Napoleon: A Life , date=2014 , publisher=Penguin , isbn=978-0-698-17628-7 * {{Cite journal , last=Ryan , first=A. N. , date=1953 , title=The Causes of the British Attack upon Copenhagen in 1807 , journal=The English Historical Review , volume=68 , issue=266 , pages=37–55 , doi=10.1093/ehr/lxviii.cclxvi.37 , issn=0013-8266 * {{Cite book , last=Schäfer , first=Anton , title=Zeittafel der Rechtsgeschichte. Von den Anfängen über Rom bis 1919. Mit Schwerpunkt Österreich und zeitgenössischen Bezügen , publisher=Edition Europa Verlag , year=2002 , isbn=3-9500616-8-1 , edition=3rd , language=de * {{Cite book , last=Schroeder , first=Paul W. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BS2z3iGPCigC , title=The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848 , date=1994 , publisher=Clarendon Press , isbn=978-0-19-820654-5 * {{Cite book , last=Sherwig , first=John M. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OInxvgEACAAJ , title=Guineas and Gunpowder: British Foreign Aid in the Wars with France, 1793–1815 , date=1969 , publisher=Harvard University Press , isbn=978-0-674-36775-3 * {{Cite book , last=Shlapentokh , first=Dmitry , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eVKOSX0E2bUC , title=The French Revolution and the Russian Anti-Democratic Tradition: A Case of False Consciousness , date=1997 , publisher=Transaction Publishers , isbn=978-1-4128-2397-5 * {{Cite book , last1=Stoker , first1=Donald , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iks6rVhTHrwC&pg=PA38 , title=Conscription in the Napoleonic Era: A Revolution in Military Affairs? , last2=Schneid , first2=Frederick C. , last3=Blanton , first3=Harold D. , date=2008 , publisher=Taylor & Francis , isbn=978-0-203-67404-8 * {{Cite book , last=Sutherland , first=Donald M. G. , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuwHSN9QTroC , title=The French Revolution and Empire: The Quest for a Civic Order , date=2008 , publisher=John Wiley & Sons , isbn=978-0-470-75826-7 * {{Cite journal , last=Tone , first=John Lawrence , year=1996 , title=Napoleon's uncongenial sea: Guerrilla warfare in Navarre during the Peninsular War, 1808–14. , journal=European History Quarterly , volume=26 , pages=355–382 , doi=10.1177/026569149602600302 , number=3 , s2cid=144885121 * {{Cite book , last=Tone , first=John Lawrence , title=War in an Age of Revolution, 1775–1815 , publisher=Cambridge UP , year=2010 , isbn=978-0-521-89996-3 , editor-last=Chickering , editor-first=Roger , page=243 , chapter=Partisan Warfare in Spain and Total War , editor-last2=Förster , editor-first2=Stig , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2WtMq4LF90C&pg=PA243 * {{Cite book , last=Tulard , first=Jean , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUDiAAAACAAJ , title=Napoleon: The Myth of the Saviour , date=1984 , publisher=Methuen , isbn=978-0-416-39510-5 * {{Cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeQ5AAAACAAJ , title=The Wordsworth Pocket Encyclopedia , date=1993 , publisher=Wordsworth Editions , isbn=978-1-85326-301-9 , editor-last=Upshall , editor-first=Michael * {{Citation , last=White , first=Matthew , title=Statistics of Wars, Oppressions and Atrocities of the Nineteenth Century , url=http://necrometrics.com/wars19c.htm#Napoleonic , year=2014 , access-date=3 May 2017. This source references: ** {{Citation , last=Bodart , first=Gaston , title=Losses of Life in Modern Wars , year=1916 ** {{Citation , last=Dumas , first=Samuel , title=Losses of Life Caused By War , year=1923 ** {{Citation , last=Urlanis , first=Boris , title=Wars and Population , year=1971 ** {{Citation , last=Payne , first=Stanley G. , title=A History of Spain and Portugal , volume=2 ** {{Citation , last=Danzer , title=Arme-Zeitun , language=de ** {{Citation , last=Clodfelter , first=Micheal , title=Warfare and Armed Conflict: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1618–1991 * {{Cite book , last1=Young , first1=Peter , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOOoCgAAQBAJ , title=Wellington's Masterpiece: The Battle and Campaign of Salamanca , last2=Lawford , first2=J. P. , date=2015 , publisher=Routledge , isbn=978-1-317-39728-1Further reading
{{Further reading cleanup, date=May 2021General and reference books
* Bruun, Geoffrey. ''Europe and the French Imperium, 1799–1814'' (1938online
political and diplomatic context * Bruce, Robert B. et al. ''Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age 1792–1815: Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics'' (2008
excerpt and text search
* Clausewitz, Carl von (2018). ''Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign.'' Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. {{ISBN, 978-0-7006-2676-2 * Clausewitz, Carl von (2020). ''Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 1.'' Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. {{ISBN, 978-0-7006-3025-7 * Clausewitz, Carl von (2021). ''The Coalition Crumbles, Napoleon Returns: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 2.'' Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. {{ISBN, 978-0-7006-3034-9 * Gates, David. ''The Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815'' (NY: Random House, 2011) * Gulick, E.V. "The final coalition and the Congress of Vienna, 1813–15," in C.W. Crawley, ed. ''The New Cambridge Modern History: IX. War and Peace in an age of upheaval 1793–1830'' (Cambridge University Press, 1965) pp. 629–668
online
* Markham, Felix. "The Napoleonic Adventure" in C.W. Crawley, ed. ''The New Cambridge Modern History: IX. War and Peace in an age of upheaval 1793–1830'' (Cambridge University Press, 1965) pp. 307–336
online
* Alan Palmer, Palmer, Alan. ''An Encyclopaedia of Napoleon's Europe'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984) {{ISBN, 978-0-29778-394-7 * {{Cite book , last=Pope , first=Stephen , title=The Cassel Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars , publisher=Cassel , year=1999 , isbn=0-304-35229-2 * Ross, Steven T. ''European Diplomatic History, 1789–1815: France Against Europe'' (1969) * Ross, Steven T. ''The A to Z of the Wars of the French Revolution'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010); 1st ed. was ''Historical dictionary of the wars of the French Revolution'' (Scarecrow Press, 1998) * {{Cite journal , last=Rothenberg , first=Gunther E. , author-link=Gunther E. Rothenberg , year=1988 , title=The Origins, Causes, and Extension of the Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon , journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History , volume=18 , pages=771–793 , doi=10.2307/204824 , jstor=204824 , number=4 * Rothenberg, E. Gunther. ''The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon'' (1977) * {{Cite book , last=Schneid , first=Frederick C. , url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-20101025334 , title=The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , publisher=Institute of European History , year=2011 , location=Mainz * Schneid, Frederick C. ''Napoleon's Conquest of Europe: The War of the Third Coalition'' (2005
excerpt and text search
* Schneid, Frederick C. ''Napoleonic Wars: The Essential Bibliography'' (2012
excerpt and text search
121 pp
online review in H-FRANCE
* Smith, Digby George. ''The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book: Actions and Losses in Personnel, Colours, Standards, and Artillery'' (1998) * Stirk, Peter. "The concept of military occupation in the era of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars." ''Comparative Legal History'' 3#1 (2015): 60–84.
Napoleon and French
* Chandler, David G., ed. ''Napoleon's Marshals'' (1987) short scholarly biographies * Dwyer, Philip. ''Napoleon: The Path to Power'' (2008excerpt vol 1
* Elting, John R. ''Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grand Armée'' (1988). * Forrest, Alan I. ''Napoleon's Men: The Soldiers of the Empire Revolution and Empire'' (2002). * Forrest, Alan. ''Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society during Revolution and the Empire'' (1989
excerpt and text search
* Gallaher, John G. ''Napoleon's Enfant Terrible: General Dominique Vandamme'' (2008)
excerpt
* Griffith, Paddy. ''The Art of War of Revolutionary France, 1789–1802'' (1998
excerpt and text search
* Haythornthwaite, Philip J. ''Napoleon's Military Machine'' (1995
excerpt and text search
* Hazen, Charles Downer. ''The French Revolution and Napoleon'' (1917
online free
* Nester, William R. ''Napoleon and the Art of Diplomacy: How War and Hubris Determined the Rise and Fall of the French Empire'' (2011)
excerpt
* Parker, Harold T. "Why Did Napoleon Invade Russia? A Study in Motivation and the Interrelations of Personality and Social Structure," ''Journal of Military History'' (1990) 54#2 pp. 131–14
in JSTOR
* Riley, Jonathon P. ''Napoleon as a General'' (Hambledon Press, 2007) * Alexander Mikaberidze, Mikaberidze, Alexander. ''The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History'' (Oxford University Press) February 2020 * Wilkin Bernard and Wilkin René: ''Fighting for Napoleon: French Soldiers’ Letters 1799–1815'' Pen and Sword Military (2016) * Wilkin Bernard and Wilkin René: ''Fighting the British: French Eyewitness Accounts from the Napoleonic Wars'' Pen and Sword Military (2018) * Geerts, Gérard A. ''Samenwerking en Confrontatie: De Frans-Nederlandse militaire betrekkingen, voornamelijk in Franse tijd'' (Bataafschse Leeuw, 2002)
Austrian, Prussian and Russian roles
* Haythornthwaite, Philip J. ''The Russian Army of the Napoleonic Wars'' (1987) vol 1: Infantry 1799–1814; vol 2: Cavalry, 1799–1814 * Lieven, D. C. "Russia and the Defeat of Napoleon (1812–14)," ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History'' (2006) 7#2 pp. 283–308. * Rothenberg, Gunther E. '' Napoleon's Great Adversaries: The Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army 1792–1814'' (1982) * Schneid, Frederick C. ed. ''European Armies of the French Revolution, 1789–1802'' (2015) Nine essays by leading scholars.Historiography and memory
* Esdaile, Charles. "The Napoleonic Period: Some Thoughts on Recent Historiography," ''European History Quarterly,'' (1993) 23: 415–43online
* Forrest, Alan et al. eds. ''War Memories: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Culture'' (2013) * Gill, John H. "From Great Captains to Common Grognards: research opportunities in Napoleonic military history." ''War & Society'' 41.1 (2022): 69–84. {{doi, 10.1080/07292473.2022.2021752 * Hyatt, Albert M.J. "The Origins of Napoleonic Warfare: A Survey of Interpretations." ''Military Affairs'' (1966) 30#4 pp. 177–185. * Linch, Kevin. "War Memories: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Culture." ''Social History'' 40#2 (2015): 253–254. * Martin, Jean-Clément. "War Memories. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Culture." ''Annales Historiques De La Revolution Francaise''. (2015) No. 381. * {{Cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VT7fAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA391 , title=Reader's Guide to Military History , publisher=Routledge , year=2001 , isbn=978-1-135-95970-8 , editor-last=Messenger , editor-first=Charles , pages=391–427 evaluation of the major books on Napoleon and his wars published by 2001. * Alexander Mikaberidze, Mikaberidze, Alexander. "Recent Trends in the Russian Historiography of the Napoleonic Wars," ''Journal of Military History'' (2010) 74#1 pp. 189–194.
Primary sources
* Dwyer, Philip G. "Public remembering, private reminiscing: French military memoirs and the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars," ''French Historical Studies'' (2010) 33#2 pp. 231–25online
* Kennedy, Catriona. ''Narratives of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Military and Civilian Experience in Britain and Ireland'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) * Leighton, James. ''Witnessing the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in German Central Europe'' (2013), diaries, letters and accounts by civilian
Online review
External links
{{Commons category, Napoleonic Wars {{Wikivoyage, Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic Wars, travel information * {{wikisource inline, list= ** {{cite EB1911, last=Beck , first=Archibald Frank , wstitle=Waterloo Campaign, 1815 , volume=28 , pages=371–381 , noicon=x , short=x ** {{cite EB1911, last=Maude , first=Frederic Natusch , wstitle=Napoleonic Campaigns , volume=19, pages=212–236 , noicon=x , short=x ** {{cite EB1911 , last=Robinson , first=Charles Walker , wstitle=Peninsular War , volume=21 , pages=90–98 , noicon=x , short=x ** {{cite EB1911, last=Rose , first=John Holland , wstitle=Napoleon I. , volume=19 , pages=190–211 , noicon=x , short=x"A new scholarly journal in 2023: ''European Review of Studies on the Napoleonic and Restoration Periods''{{-"
The Legend of Bonaparte
The Napoleonic Wars Exhibition held by The European Library
15th Kings Light Dragoons (Hussars) Re-enactment Regiment
Reenactment and Living History Society
Napoleon, His Army and Enemies
Napoleonic Guide
*
War and Peace
' by Leo Tolstoy at Project Gutenberg
Napoleonic Wars
Fondation Napoléon
The Napoleon Series
{{Client states of the Great French War {{Napoleonic Wars {{Waterloo Campaign {{History of Europe {{Authority control Napoleonic Wars, 1800s conflicts 1800s in France 1810s conflicts 1810s in France Anglo-French wars