Napoleonic Wars

I

Introduction

Napoleonic Wars, series of wars fought between France and a number of European nations from 1799 to 1815. In 1799 France came under the domination of Napoleon Bonaparte, who later became Napoleon I, emperor of France, in 1804. The Napoleonic Wars were a continuation of the wars of the French Revolution (1789-1799), in which the Habsburgs and other dynastic rulers of Europe combined in an effort to overthrow the revolutionary government of France and restore the rule of the French monarchy.

II

First Coalition

In the War of the First Coalition (1793-1797), France fought against an alliance consisting of Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. In 1796 Napoleon was entrusted by the government of France, the Directory, with conducting military operations against Austrian forces in northern Italy. In less than a year, Napoleon had led his troops to victory over the larger Austrian army. In 1798, he was made the leader of an expedition to conquer Egypt as a base for future attack against the British possession of India. The invasion was ultimately unsuccessful, and Napoleon returned to France. Although the two campaigns took place before Napoleon's government, the Consulate, was established, they are generally regarded as the opening phases of the Napoleonic Wars. The campaigns were the first in which Napoleon displayed on a large scale his genius as a commander; early battles of the War of the Second Coalition are also included in this category.

III

Second Coalition

Napoleon's success against Austria in his northern Italian campaign had put an end to the First Coalition. During his absence in Egypt, however, a new alliance known as the Second Coalition was formed on December 24, 1798. The alliance was composed of Russia, Great Britain, Austria, the kingdom of Naples (see Sicily: History), Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire. The principal fighting of the War of the Second Coalition, which broke out at the end of 1798, took place during the following year in northern Italy and in Switzerland. The Austrians and Russians, under the leadership chiefly of the noted Russian general Count Aleksandr Suvorov, were uniformly successful against the French in northern Italy. They defeated the French in the battles of Magnano (April 5, 1799), Cassano (April 27), the Trebbia (June 17-19), and Novi (August 15). The coalition also captured Milan; put an end to the Cisalpine Republic, which had been formed under French auspices in 1797; occupied Turin; and in general deprived the French of their previous victories in Italy. In Switzerland, matters went better for the French. After a defeat at Zürich (June 4-7) by Charles Louis John, archduke of Austria, French forces under General André Masséna defeated a Russian army under General Alexander Korsakov on September 26. The victorious Suvorov led his forces from northern Italy across the Alps to join those of Korsakov in Switzerland. He found Korsakov's forces already defeated and scattered; Suvorov was forced by the French to take refuge in the mountains of the canton of Grisons, where, during the early fall, his army was practically destroyed by cold and starvation. On October 22, alleging lack of cooperation by the Austrians, the Russians withdrew from the Second Coalition.

After Napoleon returned to France from Egypt in October 1799, he became leader of the Consulate and offered to make peace with the allies. The Coalition refused, and Napoleon planned a series of moves against Austria, and various German states in alliance with Austria, for the spring of 1800. Napoleon crossed the Alps into northern Italy with a newly raised army of 40,000 men and on June 14 defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Marengo. In the meantime French forces under General Jean Victor Moreau had crossed the Rhine into southern Germany and taken Munich. Moreau had also defeated the Austrians under Archduke John of Austria in the Battle of Hohenlinden in Bavaria on December 3, and had advanced to the city of Linz, Austria. These and other French successes caused Austria to capitulate. On February 9, 1801, by the Treaty of Lunéville, Austria and its German allies ceded the left bank of the Rhine River to France, recognized the Batavian, Helvetian, Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics, and made other concessions. The Treaty of Lunéville also marked the breakup of the Second Coalition. The only allied nation that continued fighting was Great Britain. British troops had unsuccessfully engaged the French on Dutch soil in 1799, but had made some territorial gains at the expense of France in Asia and elsewhere. On March 27, 1802, Britain made peace with France through the Treaty of Amiens.

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This peace, however, turned out to be a mere truce. In 1803 a dispute arose between the two nations because of the treaty provision that Britain return the island of Malta to its original possessors, the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem. The people of Malta preferred the British crown, and the British did not surrender the island, so war again broke out between Britain and France. An important consequence of this war was Napoleon's abandonment, because of the need to concentrate his resources in Europe, of his plan to establish a great French colonial empire in the region known as Louisiana in North America. Instead, he sold Louisiana to the United States. In 1805 Britain was joined in its new war by Austria, Russia, and Sweden, and Spain allied itself to France. The ensuing war is known as the War of the Third Coalition.

IV

Third Coalition

Napoleon quickly moved against the new alliance. Since 1798 he had exerted pressure on Britain by keeping an army concentrated at Boulogne on the English Channel, ostensibly preparing to invade England. During the dissensions leading to the outbreak of war in 1803, Napoleon had greatly increased the French forces at Boulogne. After the formation of the Third Coalition against France, he moved his troops from Boulogne to meet the Austrians, who, under Ferdinand III, grand duke of Tuscany (Toscana), and General Karl Mack von Leiberich, had invaded Bavaria. A number of German states, including Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden, allied themselves with France. Napoleon defeated the Austrians at Ulm, taking 23,000 prisoners, and then marched his troops along the Danube River and captured Vienna. Russian armies under General Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov and Alexander I, emperor of Russia, reinforced the Austrians, but Napoleon crushed the combined Austro-Russian forces in the Battle of Austerlitz, sometimes known as the Battle of the Three Emperors. Austria again capitulated, signing the Treaty of Pressburg on December 26, 1805. Among the terms of this treaty was the concession by Austria to France of territory in northern Italy and to Bavaria of territory in Austria itself; in addition, Austria recognized the duchies of Württemberg and Baden as kingdoms.