Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars fought during Napoleon Bonaparte's rule of France. They were partly an extension of conflicts sparked by the French Revolution, and continued during the regime of the First French Empire. These wars revolutionized European army and artillery systems. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe; the fall was also rapid, beginning with the disastrous invasion of Russia, and Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat, resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France.

The First and Second Coalitions

:For a more detailed account, see the French Revolutionary Wars.

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The first attempt to crush the new French republic was made in 1792-1797 by the First Coalition, which consisted of:

Related Topics:
French republic - 1797 - First Coalition

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• Austria,
• Piedmont,
• Prussia,
• Spain and
• the United Kingdom.

It was defeated by the French efforts, which consisted of general conscription (levée en masse), military reform and total war. Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian campaign in 1796 and 1797 successfully knocked Piedmont out of the war. Piedmont had been one of the original members of the Coalition and had been a persistent threat to the French on the Italian front for four years by the time Bonaparte assumed command of the French Army of Italy. It took Bonaparte only a month to defeat Piedmont and push its Austrian allies back.

Related Topics:
Conscription - Levée en masse - Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian campaign - 1796

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The Papal forces were defeated by the French at Fort Urban, (forcing Pope Pius VI to sign a provisional peace treaty) and successive Austrian counteroffensives into Italy failed, leading to Bonaparte's entry into Friuli. The war was ended by Bonaparte when the Austrians were forced to accept his terms in the Treaty of Campo Formio. The United Kingdom remained the only power still at war with France by 1797.

Related Topics:
Papal forces - Pope Pius VI - Friuli - Treaty of Campo Formio

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The Second Coalition (1798-1801) consisted of Russia, the United Kingdom, Austria, The Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples and the Papal States.

Related Topics:
Second Coalition - 1798 - 1801 - Russia - Ottoman Empire - Portugal - Naples - Papal States

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The corrupt and divided French government, under the Executive Directory, was in turmoil, and the Republic was almost broken up and very short of funds (indeed in 1799, when Bonaparte assumed power, he found only 60,000 francs in the national treasury).

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Russian involvement was also a key change from the War of the First Coalition. Russian forces in Italy were commanded by the notoriously ruthless and militarily successful Alexander Suvorov.

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The French Republic was also stripped of Lazare Carnot—the war minister who had guided France to successive victories following massive reform during the first war. Furthermore, Bonaparte was involved in an Egyptian campaign with the objective of threatening British India. Stripped of two of its most important military commanders from the previous conflict, the Republic suffered successive defeats against revitalized enemies, brought back into the war by British financial support.

Related Topics:
Lazare Carnot - Egyptian

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Bonaparte returned to France in 1799, leaving the Egyptian campaign to his second-in-command, General Kléber, who was later assassinated. Napoleon seized control of the French government in 1799, toppling the Directory with the aid of ideologue Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès.

Related Topics:
Kléber - Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès

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The offensive of the Austrian forces on the Rhine and in Italy was a pressing threat to France, but all Russian troops were withdrawn from the front, following Tsarina Catherine II of Russia's death. Napoleon reorganised the French military and created a reserve army positioned to support the efforts either on the Rhine or in Italy. On all fronts, French advances caught Austrians off-guard. At the time, the French army had 300,000 troops fighting the Coalition's forces. In Italy, the situation was reversed by increased Austrian pressure, however, and Napoleon was forced to mobilise the Reserve Army. He clashed with the Austrians at Marengo (June 14, 1800) and would have lost had it not been for General Desaix's timely intervention to turn back the Austrian attacks and defeat them. 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 180,000 faced the Austrian army of 120,000 at Hohenlinden (December 3). The Austrians were defeated and temporarily left the conflict after the Treaty of Lunéville (February 1801).

Related Topics:
Catherine II - Marengo - June 14 - Desaix - Arc de Triomphe - Hohenlinden - December 3 - Treaty of Lunéville

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Napoleon's main problem was now the United Kingdom, which remained an important influence on the continental powers in encouraging resistance to France. Great Britain had brought the second coalition together through subsidies and Napoleon realised that without British defeat or a treaty with the UK there could not be a complete peace. The British army was small and presented little or no threat to France itself, but the Royal Navy was a continuing threat to French shipping and to the French colonies in the Caribbean. Additionally, British funds were sufficient to unite the Great Powers on the continent against France and, despite numerous defeats, the Austrian army remained a potent danger for Napoleonic France. Napoleon was, however, unable to invade Great Britain directly. In the British Admiral Jervis's famous phrase, "I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea". The French fleet was defeated by Admiral Horatio Nelson in the Battle of the Nile (August 1) at Aboukir (Abu Qir), and a French expedition to Ireland was also quickly contained.

Related Topics:
Royal Navy - Caribbean - Jervis - Horatio Nelson - Battle of the Nile - Aboukir

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The Treaty of Amiens (1802) resulted in peace between the UK and France, and marked the final collapse of the Second Coalition. However, the treaty was never likely to endure: neither side was satisfied by it and both sides dishonoured parts of it. Hostilities were renewed on May 18, 1803. The conflict changed over its course from a general desire to restore the French monarchy into an almost manichean struggle against Bonaparte.

Related Topics:
Treaty of Amiens - May 18 - 1803

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Bonaparte declared France an empire on May 28, 1804 and was crowned emperor at Notre-Dame on December 2.

Related Topics:
May 28 - 1804 - Notre-Dame - December 2

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