(180015) The continuation of the Revolutionary Wars, fought to preserve French hegemony in Europe. They were initially a guarantee for the political, social, and economic changes of the 1789 Revolution, but increasingly became a manifestation of Napoleon's personal ambitions. The wars began with Napoleon's destruction of the Second Coalition (1800). After a peaceful interlude (18023) Britain resumed hostilities, prompting Napoleon to prepare for invasion, and encouraging the formation of a Third Coalition (18057). While Britain retained naval superiority (1805), Napoleon established territorial domination, sustained by economic warfare, resulting in the invasions of Spain (1808) and Russia (1812). Gradually the French were overwhelmed by the Fourth Coalition (181314); the Hundred Days' epilogue ended with Waterloo (1815).
| Napoleonic Wars | |||||||
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Top: Battle of Austerlitz Bottom: Battle of Waterloo |
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Allies: Great Britain (until 1801)/United Kingdom(from 1801) Prussia Austria Sweden Russia Ottoman Empire Portugal Spain and others |
France Denmark-Norway Kingdom of Bavaria Grand Duchy of Berg
Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt |
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Alexander Suvorov Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher Karl XIV Johan of Sweden Alexander I of Russia Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen |
Napoleon Bonaparte | ||||||
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| Full list | |||||||
| Napoleonic Wars |
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| Third Coalition – Fourth Coalition – Peninsular – Fifth Coalition – Invasion of Russia – Sixth Coalition – Seventh Coalition |
The Napoleonic Wars comprised a series of global conflicts fought during Napoleon Bonaparte's rule over France (1799–1815). They formed to some extent an extension of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789 and continued during the régime of the Second French Empire of 1852–1870. the fall also took place rapidly, beginning with the disastrous invasion of Russia (1812), and Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat, resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France in 1814 and 1815.
No consensus exists as to when the French Revolutionary Wars ended and when the Napoleonic Wars began; Other versions put the period of warfare between 1799 and 1802 in the context of the French Revolutionary Wars, and set the Napoleonic Wars' beginning at the outbreak of war between the United Kingdom and France in 1803, following the brief peace concluded at Amiens in 1802. The Napoleonic Wars ended on 20 November 1815, following Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo and the Second Treaty of Paris.
Political effects of the wars
The Napoleonic Wars brought great changes to Europe. Though Napoleon brought most of Western Europe under his rule (a feat not seen since the days of the Roman Empire), a state of constant warfare between France and the combined other major powers of Europe for over two decades finally took its toll.
In most European countries, the importation of the ideals of the French Revolution (democracy, due process in courts, abolition of privileges, etc.) left a mark. Napoleon mentioned on several occasions his intention to create a single European state, and although his defeat set the thought of a unified Europe back over one-and-a-half centuries, the idea re-emerged after the end of the Second World War.
Military legacy of the wars
The Napoleonic Wars also had a profound military impact. Until the time of Napoleon, European states had employed relatively small armies with a large proportion of mercenaries — who sometimes fought against their own native countries.
Napoleon himself showed innovative tendencies in his use of mobility to offset numerical disadvantages, as brilliantly demonstrated in the rout of the Austro-Russian forces in 1805 in the Battle of Austerlitz. The French Army reorganized the role of artillery, forming independent, mobile units as opposed to the previous tradition of attaching artillery pieces in support of troops. Napoleon standardized cannonball sizes to ensure easier resupply and compatibility among his army's artillery pieces.
France, with the fourth-largest population in the world by the end of the 18th century (27 million, as compared to the United Kingdom's 12 million and Russia's 35 to 40 million), seemed well poised to take advantage of the 'levée en masse'. Because the French Revolution and Napoleon's reign witnessed the first application of the lessons of the 18th century's wars on trade and dynastic disputes, commentators often falsely assume that such ideas arose from the revolution rather than found their implementation in it.
Not all the credit for the innovations of this period should go to Napoleon, however. Lazare Carnot played a large part in the reorganization of the French army from 1793 to 1794-—a time which saw previous French misfortunes reversed, with Republican armies advancing on all fronts.
The sizes of the armies involved give an obvious indication of the changes in warfare. During Europe's major pre-revolutionary war, the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763, few armies ever numbered more than 200,000. By contrast, the French army peaked in size in the 1790s with 1.5 million Frenchmen enlisted.
The United Kingdom had 747,670 men under arms between 1792 and 1815. In September 1812, Russia had about 904,000 enlisted men in its land forces and between 1799 and 1815 a total of 2.1 million men served in the Russian army, with perhaps 400,000 serving from 1792-1799.
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 significantly larger forces.
Another advance affected warfare: the semaphore system had allowed the French War-Minister, Carnot, to communicate with French forces on the frontiers throughout the 1790s.
First Coalition 1792–1797
See also French Revolutionary Wars.The first attempt to crush the First French Republic came between 1792 and 1797 from the First Coalition, which consisted of:
Austria Piedmont the Kingdom of Naples Prussia Spain the Kingdom of Great Britain.French measures, including general conscription (levée en masse), military reform and total war, contributed to the defeat of the First Coalition. Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian campaign in 1796 and 1797 knocked Piedmont out of the war (armistice of Cherasco, 26 April 1796). Piedmont, one of the original members of the Coalition, had persistently threatened the French on the Italian front for four years before Bonaparte assumed command of the French Army of Italy.
The French defeated Papal forces at Fort Urban (French: Urbin;
Second Coalition 1798–1801
The Second Coalition (1798–1801) consisted of the following nations or states:
Austria Great Britain Kingdom of Naples Ottoman Empire Papal States Portugal RussiaThe French government, corrupt and divided under the Directory, suffered from a severe shortage of funds.
Russian involvement also marked a key change from the War of the First Coalition.
The French Republic in this conflict also lacked the services of Lazare Carnot, the war-minister who had guided France to successive victories following massive reform during the 1790s.
After the ill-conceived campaign in Egypt during which disease and attacks by the British and the Ottomans ultimately wore down 40,000 French troops, Bonaparte managed to return to France on August 23, 1799.
The offensive of the Austrian forces on the Rhine and in Italy posed a pressing threat to France, but all Russian troops withdrew from the front after Napoleon persuaded the emperor Paul I of Russia to opt for armed neutrality (1801). Napoleon reorganised the French military and created a reserve army positioned to support campaigns either on the Rhine or in Italy. At the time, the French army had 300,000 troops fighting the Coalition's forces. In Italy, however, increased Austrian pressure reversed the situation, and Napoleon had to mobilise the Reserve Army. Desaix died in the battle and Napoleon later commemorated his bravery by building monuments to him and including his name in the list of generals engraved on the face of the Arc de Triomphe. However, on the Rhine the decisive battle came when the French army of 130,000 faced the Austrian army of 120,000 at Hohenlinden (December 3).
The defeat of Austria left the United Kingdom as Napoleon's main problem. London had brought the Second Coalition together through subsidies, and Napoleon realised that without British defeat or a treaty with the UK he could not achieve a complete peace. The British army remained small and presented little or no danger to France itself, but the Royal Navy offered a continuing threat to French shipping and to the French colonies in the Caribbean. Additionally, the British had sufficient funds to unite the Great Powers on the Continent against France and, despite numerous defeats, the Austrian army remained a potent danger for Napoleonic France. Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile (August 1 1798) at Aboukir (Abu Qir), and the British also quickly contained a French expedition sent to Ireland in conjunction with the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
The Peace of Amiens and the resumption of war between France and Britain
The Treaty of Amiens (25 March 1802) resulted in peace between the UK and France, and marked the final collapse of the Second Coalition. Military actions soon clouded the peace: the French intervened in the Swiss civil strife (Stecklikrieg) and occupied several coastal cities in Italy, while the United Kingdom occupied Malta.
Third Coalition 1805
Napoleon planned an invasion of the British Isles, and massed 180,000 troops at Boulogne. This battle cost Admiral Nelson his life at the hands of a French sharp-shooter, but Napoleon would never again have the opportunity to challenge the British at sea. Napoleon had sent nine different plans to Villeneuve and the indecisive French commander hesitated continually. By this time, however, Napoleon had already all but abandoned plans to invade the British Isles, and turned his attention to enemies on the Continent once again. The French army left Boulogne and moved towards Austria.
The series of naval and colonial conflicts, including a large number of minor naval actions (such as the Action of 1805) that characterised the months leading up to Napoleon's decision to abort the invasion of Great Britain, gave perhaps a clear sign of the new nature of war.
In April 1805 the United Kingdom and Russia signed a treaty with the aim of removing the French from Holland and Switzerland. Austria joined the alliance after the annexation of Genoa and the proclamation of Napoleon as King of Italy on 17 March 1805.
The Austrians began the war by invading Bavaria with an army of about 70,000 under Karl Mack von Leiberich, and the French army marched out from Boulogne in late July, 1805 to confront them. At Ulm (September 25 - October 20) Napoleon managed to surround Mack's army in a brilliant envelopment, forcing its surrender without significant losses. With the main Austrian army north of the Alps defeated (another army under Archduke Charles maneuvered inconclusively against André Masséna's French army in Italy), Napoleon occupied Vienna.
On December 2 Napoleon crushed the joint Austro-Russian army in Moravia at Austerlitz (usually considered his greatest victory). 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.
Fourth Coalition 1806–1807
The Fourth Coalition (1806–1807) of Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and the United Kingdom against France formed within months of the collapse of the previous coalition. In July 1806 Napoleon formed the Confederation of the Rhine out of the many tiny German states which constituted the Rhineland and most other parts of western Germany.
In August 1806 the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm III made the decision to go to war independently of any other great power, save the distant Russia. In September Napoleon unleashed all French forces east of the Rhine. Napoleon himself defeated a Prussian army at Jena (October 14, 1806), and Davout defeated another at Auerstädt on the same day. Some 160,000 French soldiers (increasing in number as the campaign went on) went against Prussia and moved with such speed that Napoleon was able to destroy as an effective military force the entire quarter of a million strong Prussian army — which sustained 25,000 casualties, lost a further 150,000 prisoners and 4,000 artillery pieces, and over 100,000 muskets stockpiled in Berlin. In the former battle Napoleon only fought a detachment of the Prussian force. The latter battle involved a single French corps defeating the bulk of the Prussian army. Napoleon entered into Berlin on 27 October 1806 and visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, there instructing his marshals to remove their hats, saying, "If he was alive we wouldn't be here today." In total Napoleon had taken only 19 days from beginning his attack on Prussia until knocking it out of the war with the capture of Berlin and the destruction of its principal armies at Jena and Auerstadt.
In Berlin, Napoleon issued a series of decrees which, on November 21, 1806 brought into effect the Continental System. the UK maintained a standing army of just 220,000 at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, whereas France's strength peaked at over 1,500,000 in addition to the armies of numerous allies and several hundred thousand national guards that Napoleon could draft into the military if necessary. The Royal Navy however was instrumental in disrupting France's extra-continental trade - both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by seizing French colonial possessions - but could do nothing about France's trade with the major continental economies and posed no threat to French territory in Europe.
The next stage of the war involved the French driving Russian forces out of Poland and creating a new Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon then turned north to confront the remainder of the Russian army and to attempt to capture the temporary Prussian capital at Königsberg. Napoleon then routed the Russian army at Friedland (June 14). Following this defeat, Alexander had to make peace with Napoleon at Tilsit (July 7, 1807).
At the Congress of Erfurt (September–October 1808) Napoleon and Alexander agreed that Russia should force Sweden to join the Continental System, which led to the Finnish War of 1808–1809 and to the division of Sweden into two parts separated by the Gulf of Bothnia.
Fifth Coalition 1809
The Fifth Coalition (1809) of the United Kingdom and Austria against France formed as the United Kingdom engaged in the Peninsular War against France. Owing much to the existence of the English Channel and to the fact that the UK's army had never completely engaged the French, the British placed emphasis on naval rather than on terrestrial military strength. During the time of the Fifth Coalition, the Navy won a succession of victories in the French colonies and another major naval victory at the Battle of Copenhagen (September 2, 1807). 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. These rapid-attack operations were a sort of exo-territorial guerrilla strikes: they were aimed mostly at destroying blockaded French naval and mercantile shipping, and disrupting French supplies, communications, and military units stationed near the coasts.
The struggle also continued in the sphere of economic warfare — the French Continental System vs. the British fought the United States in the War of 1812 (1812-1814), and the French engaged in the Peninsular War (1808-1814). The Iberian conflict began when Portugal continued trade with the United Kingdom despite French restrictions.
Austria, previously an ally of the French, took the opportunity to attempt to restore its imperial territories in Germany as held prior to Austerlitz. Napoleon had left Davout with only 170,000 troops to defend France's entire eastern frontier. (In the 1790s, 800,000 troops had carried out the same task, but holding a much shorter front.)
Napoleon had enjoyed easy success in Spain, retaking Madrid, defeating the Spanish and consequently forcing a withdrawal of the heavily out-numbered British army from the Iberian Peninsula (Battle of Corunna, 16 January 1809). Austria's attack prevented Napoleon from successfully wrapping up operations against British forces by necessitating his departure for Austria, and he never returned to the Peninsula theatre. In his absence and in the absence of his best marshals (Davout remained in the east throughout the war) the French situation deteriorated, especially when the prodigious British general, Sir Arthur Wellesley, arrived to command the British forces.
The Austrians drove into the Duchy of Warsaw, but suffered defeat at the Battle of Radzyn April 19, 1809.
Napoleon assumed personal command in the east and bolstered the army there for his counter-attack on Austria. After a well-run campaign that, after a few small battles, forced the Austrians to withdraw from Bavaria, Napoleon advanced into Austria. His hurried attempted to cross the Danube resulted in the massive Battle of Aspern-Essling (22 May 1809) — Napoleon's first significant tactical defeat. Failure by the Austrian commander, Archduke Karl, to follow up on his indecisive victory meant that Napoleon could prepare for a renewed attempt to seize Vienna, and in early July he did so. (During this battle Napoleon stripped Marshal Bernadotte of his title and ridiculed him in front of other senior officers. Later he would actively participate in wars against his former Emperor.)
The War of the Fifth Coalition ended with the Treaty of Schönbrunn (October 14, 1809).
In 1810 the French Empire reached its greatest extent. Napoleon married Marie-Louise, an Austrian Archduchess, in order to ensure a more stable alliance with Austria and to provide the Emperor with an heir, something his first wife, Josephine, had failed to do. As well as the French empire, Napoleon controlled the Swiss Confederation, the Confederation of the Rhine, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Italy. See also Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the War of 1812 between the British Empire and the United States of America.
The Sixth Coalition (1812–1814) consisted of the United Kingdom and Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria and a number of German States.
In 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia. Russia proclaimed a Patriotic War, while Napoleon proclaimed a Second Polish war, but against the expectations of the Poles (who supplied almost 100,000 troops for the invasion-force) he avoided any concessions to Poland, having in mind further negotiations with Russia. This bloody confrontation ended in a tactical draw, but Napoleon eventually forced the Russians to back down, thus opening the road to Moscow. Alexander I refused to capitulate, and with no sign of clear victory in sight Napoleon had to withdraw from Moscow after the governor, Count Fyodor Vasilievich Rostopchin, allegedly ordered the city burnt to the ground. Napoleon then left his army and returned to Paris to prepare the defence of Poland from the advancing Russians. However they had the advantage of shorter supply lines and were able to replenish their armies with greater speed than the French.
Meanwhile, in the Peninsular War, at Vitoria (June 21, 1813), Arthur Wellesley's victory over Joseph Bonaparte finally broke the French power in Spain.
Seeing an opportunity in Napoleon's historic defeat, Prussia re-entered the war. Napoleon vowed that he would create a new army as large as that 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. Two principal Austrian armies took the field, adding an additional 300,000 troops to the Allied armies in Germany.
Napoleon succeeded in bringing the total imperial forces in the region up 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 Confederation of the Rhine furnished Napoleon with the bulk of the remainder of his forces, with Saxony and Bavaria as the principal contributors. In Spain an additional 150,000 to 200,000 French troops steadily retreated before Spanish and British forces numbering around 150,000. Thus in total around 900,000 French troops in all theatres faced somewhere around a million Allied troops (not including the strategic reserve under formation in Germany). It is reasonable to say that Napoleon could count on no more than 450,000 troops in Germany — which left him outnumbered about two to one.
Following the end of the armistice, Napoleon seemed to have regained the initiative at Dresden (August 1813), where he defeated a numerically-superior allied army and inflicted enormous casualties, while the French army sustained relatively few. At the Battle of Leipzig in Saxony (October 16 - 19, 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. Napoleon then fought a series of battles, including the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, in France itself, but the overwhelming numbers of the Allies steadily forced him back.
During this time Napoleon fought his Six Days Campaign, in which he won multiple battles against the enemy forces advancing towards Paris. At the Treaty of Chaumont (March 9 1814) the Allies agreed to preserve the Coalition until Napoleon's total defeat.
The Allies entered Paris on March 30, 1814 Napoleon determined to fight on, even now, incapable of fathoming his massive fall from power.
The victors exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba, and restored the French Bourbon monarchy in the person of Louis XVIII.
Gunboat War 1807–1814
(1807–1814)Denmark-Norway originally declared itself neutral in the Napoleonic Wars, but engaged in trade that profited from the war and established a navy.
The Seventh Coalition (1815) pitted the United Kingdom, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands and a number of German states against France. The period known as the Hundred Days began after Napoleon left Elba and landed at Cannes (March 1, 1815). Napoleon raised 280,000 men, whom he distributed amongst several armies. To add to the 90,000 troops in the 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. This force was intended to be overwhelming against the numerically inferior imperial French army which never came close to reaching Napoleon's goal of more than 2.5 million under arms.
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 Allied armies before they combined, in the hope of driving the British into the sea and the Prussians out of the war. Napoleon took the reserve of the Army of the North, and reunited his forces with those of Ney to pursue Wellington's army, but not before he ordered Marshal Grouchy to take the right wing of the Army of the North and stop the Prussians reorganising. The start of the Battle of Waterloo on the morning of June 18 1815 was delayed for several hours as Napoleon waited until the ground had dried from the previous night's rain. By late afternoon the French army had not succeeded in driving Wellington's Allied 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 Allied armies divided had failed and his army was driven from the field in confusion by a combined Allied general advance.
On arriving at Paris three days after Waterloo, Napoleon still clung to the hope of a concerted national resistance; The politicians forced Napoleon to abdicate again on June 22, 1815. On 15 July Napoleon surrendered himself to the British squadron at Rochefort.
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