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The origins of the Napoleonic Wars Napoleon has often been called a warmonger, but he did not start the great conflict that bears his name. Europe had been at war seven years before he took power in France in 1799, and at least some of the conflict's origins go back over a century.
Period of European and French history 1799–1815 named after Napoleon (I) Bonaparte, ruler of France as dictator from 1799, conqueror of most of Europe from 1803, and emperor of the French 1804–14 and 1814–15.
Historians disagree in evaluating the factors that brought about the Revolution. To some extent at least, it came not because France was backward, but because the country's economic and intellectual development was not matched by social and political change. In the fixed order of the ancien régime, most bourgeois were unable to exercise commensurate political and social influence. King Louis XIV, by consolidating absolute monarchy, had destroyed the roots of feudalism; yet outward feudal forms persisted and became increasingly burdensome.
With Napoleon presumably in permanent exile on the island of Elba, the powers of Europe convened in Vienna, where after 25 years of almost constant war stretching back to the French Revolution, the old order was ready to reassert its control over Europe and establish a stable, conservative international settlement. Austria's Francis I (formerly Holy Roman Emperor Francis II) hosted the unprecedented congress, attended by Alexander I of Russia, Frederick William III of Prussia, and many lesser rulers and monarchs. Of even greater significance was the galaxy of diplomats present, including Viscount Castlereagh, representing Great Britain; Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, Prussia; Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, Russia; Prince Klemens von Metternich, Austria; and the highly flexible Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, foreign minister under Napoleon and now in service to the restored Bourbon government.
Archduke of Austria; brother of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Despite his epilepsy, he was the ablest Austrian commander in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars; however, he was handicapped by unwise decisions imposed on him from Vienna.
Born in Nennslingen, Franconia, after fighting the Turks and the French republicans, he was created field marshal (1797).
Austrian field marshal and diplomat. In 1810 he was made ambassador to France, and he led the Austrian forces sent to aid Napoleon I in the Russian campaign of 1812.
The Iron Duke, was an Irish-born commander of the British army during the Napoleonic Wars and later prime minister of Great Britain (1828–30).
Horatio Nelson also known as Viscount Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe, was a British naval commander in the wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. He won crucial victories in such battles as those of the Nile (1798) and of Trafalgar (1805), where he was killed by enemy fire on the HMS Victory.
British general. He served with distinction in Egypt (1801–3) and participated (1806) in the capture of Cape Colony (later Cape Province, South Africa) from the Dutch.
Napoleon's spectacular career, which took him from the ranks of the impoverished nobility on the island of Corsica to ruler of territories that at their height stretched from the Elbe River to the Iberian Peninsula, had profound repercussions for the whole of Europe, including those states such as Britain which never came under direct Napoleonic rule.
Marshal of France, called “the bravest of the brave” by Napoleon I, Ney, a cooper's son from Saarlouis, rapidly rose to glory in the French Revolution.
French soldier and king of Naples (1808–15). He served in Italy and Egypt as a daring cavalry commander, and later he aided Napoleon in his coup d’état (1799) and married Napoleon’s sister Caroline Bonaparte.
French general in the Napoleonic Wars. Despite his noble origins, in 1790 he led his regiment in a pro-Revolutionary revolt, and he performed with merit in the Belgian campaign of 1792–93.
Bessieres, first made Bonaparte's acquaintance in Italy in 1796 and was rapidly promoted for his skill as a commander of cavalry.
Commander of Prussian forces in the Netherlands, the so-called Army of the Lower Rhine. According to historian Jac Weller (1967), Blücher ‘was not brainy. His greatest military virtues were steadfast courage, dash, fire and an intuitive grasp of how to handle an army in battle.
Chief of Staff of Marshal Blücher's Army of the Lower Rhine at Waterloo. Son of a Saxon officer, Gneisenau obtained a commission in the Prussian Army in 1786. He came to prominence for his successful defence of the Baltic port of Kolberg (present-day Kol/obrzeg in Poland), against Napoleon's forces in 1807.
King of Prussia (1797–1840). The son of Frederick William II, he pursued a policy of neutrality in the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, which accelerated the decline of Prussia’s prestige. Prussia joined the third coalition against France in 1806 and suffered crushing defeat at the Battles of Jena and Auerstedt.
Prussian field marshal. He had great success in the Seven Years War (1756–63) and was commander in chief (1792–94) of the Austro-Prussian armies in the French Revolutionary Wars.
Russian army commander that fought in the battles of Austerlitz and Borodino. He is considered one of Russia's finest generals.
Descended from the royal Bagratidae of Georgia, he entered the Russian army in 1783, and, after much active service, distinguished himself by holding up Murat in a rearguard action at Schöngrabern (1805).
Russian field marshal. Suvorov entered the army as a youth and rose rapidly through the ranks. He fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74, helped suppress the peasant rebellion led by Pugachev in 1775, and was created count for his victories in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–92, notably at Focsani, Rimnik, and at Izmayil in Bessarabia.
Artillery is the science of using mechanical advantages, most frequently using combustible propellant, to deliver a projectile with formidable violence against a target at considerable distance.
The first rifle to become standard issue in the British Army, developed by London gunmaker Ezekiel Baker, this could easily out-perform smooth-bore muskets by posing a very real threat at ranges as great as 200 yards.
Short sword attached to the muzzle of a firearm. The bayonet was placed inside the barrel of the muzzleloading muskets of the late 17th century. The sock or ring bayonet, invented in 1700, allowed a weapon to be fired without interruption, leading to the demise of the pike.
Long-range artillery piece, as distinguished from other big guns such as the howitzer or mortar. Early cannons, appearing in Europe in the 15th century, were smooth-bored and forged of iron, weighed 6,000–8,000 lbs (2,800–3,600 kg) and were loaded through the muzzle.
The sailing ship known as a frigate was a three-masted, fully rigged vessel, often carrying 30–40 guns in all. Smaller and faster than ships of the line, frigates served as scouts or as escorts protecting merchant convoys; they also cruised the seas as merchant raiders themselves.
A smoothbore firearm fired from the shoulder. The earliest form, known as a harquebus (or arquebus from Middle Dutch hakebusse, hook gun), evolved in the 15th century as the first hand-held form of the cannon—a development that depended on the matchlock as a means of igniting the charge.
A warship of the days of sailing navies which carried a sufficiently large gun armament to lie in the line of battle.