Napoleonic Wars

• The Napoleonic Wars were military conflicts that pitted France, governed by Napoleon Bonaparte, against other European powers.
• They began when Napoleon took power in France in 1799 and ended in 1815, when the French Empire ruled by Napoleon (1804-1815) fell.
• France's main rivals were Austria, Prussia, Russia and Great Britain, against whom important battles such as those of Trafalgar, Austerlitz, Jena and Waterloo were fought.
• Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo in 1815 led to the restoration of the monarchy in France and ended the Napoleonic Wars.

Background to the Napoleonic Wars

When France embraced republican ideals during the French Revolution and overthrew its monarchy in 1792, other nations of Europe formed a First Coalition to try to crush the revolutionary movement before it spread to their territories.

This began the French revolutionary wars. The First Coalition (1792-1797), made up of Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, the Russian Empire, the United Provinces of the Netherlands and several Italian States, was defeated by the French revolutionary army . Napoleon Bonaparte was responsible for the French victories in Austria and Italy.

To this defeated coalition a Second Coalition continued (1798-1802) composed of Great Britain, the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Austria, Portugal and the Kingdom of Naples. At first, these nations had better luck, given the state of disorder and financial difficulties in which France found itself under the rule of the Directory. Added to the departure of Bonaparte, who was at the head of a military campaign in Egypt.

This scenario of initial French defeats justified Napoleon's return to Europe, in order to assume leadership of the troops. When he arrived in Paris, Napoleon carried out the coup d'état of Brumaire 18 (November 9 according to the current Gregorian calendar) that annulled the Directory and He established him as consul of France, with almost unlimited powers

The Russian army withdrew from the coalition after the defeat by the French in Zurich. In addition, Napoleonic troops achieved decisive victories against the Austrians in the battles of Marengo (June 14, 1800) and Hohenlinden (December 3, 1800), which forced Austria to withdraw from Italy and sign the armistice with France.

The Second Coalition collapsed in 1802 with the signing of the Peace of Amiens between Great Britain and France. This treaty lasted only a short time and in 1803 it was violated by both sides, leading Britain to declare war on France. Thus the conflict resumed and what some identify as the Napoleonic Wars proper began.

Causes of the Napoleonic Wars

The causes of the Napoleonic Wars were initially the commotion it generated in Europe the French Revolution and the effect that the deposition of the king of France had on the monarchies of neighboring countries . To prevent the revolutionary impulse from spreading throughout Europe, the monarchical regimes decided to wage war on the new French republican government.

However, the situation became more complicated. once Napoleon Bonaparte concentrated political power of France, since this leader had his own desire for greatness and put his efforts into trying to conquer all of Europe.

Therefore, although initially the conflict was due to political reasons derived from the French Revolution and the intention of the European monarchies to prevent its spread, soon became a fight to stop the expansion of the French Empire under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Consequences of the Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars had important consequences in Europe and other parts of the world. Among them, the following stood out:

• The formation and fall of the French Empire . Napoleon managed to build an empire that encompassed much of European territory and crowned himself emperor with the name Napoleon I. However, he was defeated in a series of battles in 1813 and 1814, so he abdicated and went into exile in the Elba Island. He returned to France in 1815 and briefly regained power, until he was definitively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and the empire was replaced by monarchical restoration. From then on, France ceased to be the European power it had been.
• The expansion of republican sentiment . Despite Napoleon's defeat, the winning European kings found it difficult to restore absolutism, due to the influence that the republican ideas of the French Revolution had on their populations. For this reason, they were in many cases forced to adopt some of the regulations that the French occupation had imposed.
• The emergence of nationalism . After the Napoleonic Wars, the European map was reconfigured over almost a hundred years. This occurred no longer in accordance with the limits imposed by aristocracies but rather based on national criteria defended by movements of nationalist ideology, such as language, culture and ethnic or national origin.
• The rise of Britain . After the fall of Napoleonic France, Great Britain became the dominant power in Europe. It extended its hegemony to almost the entire planet and took over French colonies, including those that had been established by the Netherlands but had been invaded by France.
• Spanish American independence . The French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and the capture of King Ferdinand VII of Spain generated a power vacuum in the Spanish colonies in America that led to revolutionary processes and the beginning of their own wars of independence. Although the French withdrew from Spain between 1813 and 1814, the independence struggles continued and by 1825 the Spanish territories in America had become a set of independent republics, inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution and American independence, with the exception of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Coalitions of the Napoleonic Wars

The great protagonist of the Napoleonic Wars was Napoleon Bonaparte's France, faced against a series of alliances of European countries, which were:

• The Second Coalition (1798-1802) . It was made up of Great Britain, Russia, Austria, Portugal, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Naples. It replaced the First Coalition defeated by the French revolutionary army (1792-1797), and was defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte upon his return from Egypt.
• The Third Coalition (1805-1806) . Following the breakdown of the Peace of Amiens in 1803, Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France (1804) and King of Italy (1805) and attempted to invade Britain, but was defeated at the Battle of Trafalgar. By then a new alliance had emerged against them, composed of Great Britain, Russia, Austria, the Kingdom of Naples and Sweden, with the purpose of expelling the French from Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands and parts of Germany. This coalition was defeated by Napoleon, whose army was then unbeatable on land, as demonstrated in the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz (1805).
• The Fourth Coalition (1806-1807) . Months after the failure of the Third Coalition, a new alliance was formed against Napoleon, consisting of Russia, Prussia and Saxony. However, the remoteness of the Russian army facilitated the defeat of Prussia and Saxony by Napoleon's troops, who entered Berlin on October 27, 1806, after winning the battles of Jena and Auerstädt. In July 1807, Russia made peace with France, and Prussia accepted significant territorial losses.
• The Fifth Coalition (1809) . A new alliance against France involved Great Britain and Austria, and emerged as an attempt to take advantage of the moment when Spain, with the support of the British, was fighting its war of Independence against the French occupation that began in 1808. Napoleon won Spain without difficulty, he retook Madrid (which had been recovered by the Spanish) and expelled the British from the Iberian Peninsula. In this context, he was surprised by the Austrian attack at the beginning of 1809, but he obtained the definitive victory over Austria in the Battle of Wagram in July 1809. Later, he married the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, to have an heir and consolidate his relationship with the Austrians. In addition, he managed to make the French Empire reach its maximum extent in Europe by directly or indirectly dominating the territories of present-day Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and parts of Poland.
• The Sixth Coalition (1812-1814) . In 1812, the penultimate coalition against France was created, composed of Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Spain and part of Germany. This came after Napoleon's invasion of Russia, which began as a victory and ended in failure for the French troops. Napoleon's army had to abandon Moscow, besieged by hunger, cold and the constant war waged by the Russian people. After this defeat, Napoleon also lost Spain in 1813. The coalition against him entered Paris in 1814 and forced him to abdicate and go into exile on the island of Elba.
• The Seventh Coalition (1815) . The last alliance against France was established in 1815 and was made up of Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands and some German states. It arose to stop the return of Napoleon, who had landed in Cannes and defeated the recently restored French monarchy of Louis XVIII without having to fight. The end of the Napoleonic army came in June 1815, when it was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.

End of the Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars They ended in 1815, after the Battle of Waterloo in which the coalition led by the Duke of Wellington defeated the French army newly formed by Napoleon, who had just returned from his exile on the island of Elba.

Napoleon was deposed on June 22, 1815 and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, in the South Atlantic. Thus ended the French revolutionary and Napoleonic period.

Characters of the Napoleonic Wars

The main protagonists of the Napoleonic Wars were:

• Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) . He was one of the most prominent military strategists in history, who gained prominence as a republican general during the French Revolution, especially during the government of the Directory, which he overthrew in 1799. In 1802 he was established as consul for life and in 1804 he was crowned emperor of the French. He was also crowned king of Italy and went on to militarily conquer almost all of Europe. After his defeat and exile on the island of Saint Helena in 1815, he died in 1821. His remains were repatriated in 1840.
• Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) . He was an Irish soldier and statesman, best known by his title of Duke of Wellington. He was one of the greatest British generals during the Napoleonic Wars, where he stood out as an organizer of the resistance against the French occupation in Portugal and Spain, and as commander of the troops that defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. He was also Commander-in-Chief of the British Army and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on two occasions.
• Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) . Duke of Bronte and Viscount Nelson, he was vice-admiral of the British Royal Navy, responsible for important victories in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and architect of the British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, where the French Navy was destroyed by the British. However, Nelson lost his life aboard HMS Victory during this battle, due to the shot of a French marksman.
• Alexander I of Russia (1777-1825) . He was tsar of the Russian Empire between 1801 and 1825, and king of Poland between 1815 and 1825. He was the son of Tsar Paul I and grandson of Catherine the Great. He was a monarch with reformist intentions and concerned with legislation, but with an authoritarian character. Initially he proclaimed himself an admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte and French institutions, but his relationship with the French statesman changed. He was one of the leaders who made up the coalition that managed to defeat him.

References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Napoleonic Wars. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• Mikaberidze, A. (2022). The Napoleonic Wars. A global story. Wake up Ferro Editions.
• Oxford Reference (2012). Napoleonic Wars. Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/
• Wikipedia (sf). Napoleonic Wars. Wikipedia. https://fr.wikipedia.org/