Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involving France and various European coalitions from 1803 to 1815, primarily driven by the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte. Following the upheavals of the French Revolution, Napoleon emerged as a prominent military leader and was crowned emperor in 1804. His initial successes in battle, including victories against Austria in the War of the Second Coalition, established France as a dominant power in Europe. However, Napoleon's extensive military campaigns also led to significant challenges, such as his invasion of Russia in 1812, which resulted in disastrous losses for his army due to harsh weather and logistical failures.
The wars not only reshaped Europe but also had far-reaching effects on global relationships, including tensions between the United States and Great Britain. As Napoleon sought to undermine British economic power through trade restrictions, conflicts arose that contributed to the onset of the War of 1812. Ultimately, the Napoleonic Wars concluded with Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and his subsequent exile, marking a significant shift in the balance of power in Europe and beyond. The wars had lasting impacts on national boundaries, governance, and international relations, highlighting the complex interplay of military ambition and political change during this tumultuous period.
Napoleonic Wars
The French Revolution altered the Old World order in France and initiated a series of wars by the newly emboldened nation. The wars were intended to rid Europe of its monarchies as part of France’s plan to protect its new power and conquer new territories. By 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte—a Corsican artillery officer who rose through the ranks to become a revered general—was the dominating force driving France’s military advances against several European coalitions. Napoleon’s early success helped propel him to the seat of highest power in France, and he was crowned emperor in 1804. Under his leadership, France continued to flex its military might across Europe for more than a decade. Those latter battles engaged almost every country in Europe, as well as parts of Egypt, North America, and South America, and are collectively referred to as the Napoleonic Wars.
Background
The first official military campaign of the Napoleonic Wars was the War of the Second Coalition, which involved France battling an alliance primarily made up of Austria, Great Britain, Portugal, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and Naples. By winning a key battle at Marengo in Italy against the Austrians in 1800—followed by other French victories on the battlefields—France was able to quash the Second Coalition and secure its spot as the dominant power in Europe.
After a brief peace in Europe, fighting broke out again in 1805 as part of the War of the Third Coalition, involving Austria, Great Britain, Russia, and Sweden. By 1808, Napoleon’s armies had won critical battles against its enemies, putting France—and Napoleon—on solid ground as the most powerful force in Europe. Napoleon then made a series of missteps that cost him the crown and France the top spot among European powers.
Napoleon removed Spain’s King Charles IV from the throne and replaced him with his own brother, Joseph. The move sparked a five-year revolt led by Spanish forces with the assistance of British and Portuguese troops. The alliance ultimately drove the French out of Spain and launched an assault on French soil in the south.
With so many of his forces committed to fending off Spain and its allies, Napoleon set a new target northward and took aim at Russia in 1812. He invaded with some 500,000 troops and had some early wins. However, extremely harsh weather conditions took a toll on his army, causing huge loss of life, and forced him into a massive retreat from which he and France could not recover. Napoleon had to abdicate as emperor of France in 1814. He attempted to regain his power and reverse the ill outcome of the Russian war during the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. It was a notoriously bloody battle that destroyed the remaining elite guard of the French forces. For his efforts, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
Impact
Napoleon rose to power in 1799 after overthrowing the French revolutionary government. At that time, the United States and France were working to resolve their differences and put an end to the Quasi-War (or Franco-American War). In 1800, Napoleon regained the territory of Louisiana from Spain, but prospects of reviving France’s war with Great Britain made the holding strategically less desirable and it was sold to the United States in 1803 in what is known as the Louisiana Purchase.
That same year, Great Britain declared war on France; the fighting lasted for more than a decade. During the early period of warfare, Napoleon and other European leaders focused on each other. But by 1806 the battle had moved into the Atlantic. Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree forbidding trade with Great Britain, and Great Britain in 1807 implemented the Orders in Council, establishing a blockade of French-controlled Europe and authorizing the Royal Navy to seize ships violating the blockade.
By that time, naturalized US citizens who were of British birth were being pressed into service by the Royal Navy to support the war in Europe. US president Thomas Jefferson attempted to secure a treaty that would put an end to the practice, but he was unable to lock in any British concessions and ratification attempts were abandoned. Relations between the two nations grew increasingly unsteady. The situation was made worse in June 1807 when a British naval ship bombarded and forcibly boarded a US ship off the coast of Virginia under the guise of looking for British deserters. President Jefferson responded to the act of aggression by issuing an embargo on all foreign trade in an attempt to weaken Great Britain’s economy. Two years later, Jefferson replaced the embargo with the Non-Intercourse Act, which permitted trade to be conducted with countries other than Great Britain and France.
The next US president, James Madison, believed the act was ineffective against Europe’s top trading powers and in 1810 offered both France and Great Britain the option of ending their attacks on US merchant ships in exchange for US participation in their trade bloc. Napoleon jumped at the deal by offering concessions, and the United States became more closely aligned with France against Great Britain. As a result, US relations with Great Britain continued to decline. Tensions were heightened when a US Navy ship misidentified a British ship as a military vessel that had seized US sailors and fired on it. The incident only served to steel British resolve to enforce the Orders in Council and continue seizing ships in the Atlantic.
By 1812, President Madison determined there was no other course of action than to declare war with Great Britain. Congress signed off on the declaration on June 17, and Madison made it official with his signature on June 18. The war between the United States and Great Britain—known as the War of 1812—continued into 1815 and ended in a military stalemate at about the same time as the Napoleonic Wars ceased in Europe.
Bibliography
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Esdaile, Charles. Napoleon’s Wars: An International History, 1803–1815. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.
Fremont-Barnes, Gregory. Napoleon Bonaparte: Leadership, Strategy, Conflict. Oxford: Osprey, 2010. Print.
Fremont-Barnes, Gregory. The Napoleonic Wars: The Fall of the French Empire, 1813–1815. Oxford: Osprey, 2002. Print.
Gates, David. The Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815. New York: St. Martin’s, 1997. Print.
Kennedy, Catriona. The Palgrave Macmillan Narratives of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Military and Civilian Experience in Britain and Ireland. New York: Palgrave, 2013. Print.
Rapport, Michael. The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
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