The French Revolution and The Napoleonic Wars

1. The French Revolution and The Napoleonic Wars • After the Franco-American victory of 1783 over Britain, the diplomatic position of France had appeared strong. Attention • However, the heavy cost of the War of American Independance totalled more than France’s three previous wars together!

2. Moreover, the French government failed also to reform national finances and it reflected the heavy burden of state’s debts on the French taxpayers. • The growing political discontent, economic distress and social malaise discredited the French monarchy. • From 1787 onward, the internal crisis in France worsened and on July, 14, 1789, inhabitants of Paris started a rebellion against the king of France and invaded the infamous prison of Bastille, seen as the symbol of absolutism in Paris.

3. In December 1792, Louis XVI was put on trial for conspiring against the liberty of the people ad the security of the state. On January 21, 1793, he was beheaded by guillotine. • By 1792, the European monarchies were alert to the danger of both French ideas and the dynamism of the new régime.

4. The radicalisation of French politics into republicanism worried the Eastern European monarchies, first Prussia and Austria later Russia. • Prussia and Austria attepted to invade France in 1792 but failed at the Battle of Valmy, the first victory of the new French republic. • Through the élan of its armies, the new régime in France started to threaten the Rheinland, the Low Countries and northern Italy. • Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain together with the neighbouring states of France formed the First Coalition (1793-1795) against France.

5. This enormous coalition in front of the young French republic, led to the levée en masse and to the mobilization of all seizable human and material resources in France in order to fight France’s enemies. • With an army of 650.000 troops already in 1793 reformed in matters of organization, staff planning, artillery and battle tactics; fired by enthousiasm of the French Revolution; led by young, brilliant and talented commanders such as Napoléon Bonaparte, France defeated its foes and occupied the neighbouring territories.

6. Attention There was no overall agreement among the members of the First Coalition concerning the aims and the strategy and the first years after the French Revolution were overshadowed by the partition of Poland by Russia, Austria and Prussia. • Prussia sued for peace with France in 1795 ending the First Coalition; the United Provinces were overrun by the French army and Spain joined France in its traditional anti-British alignment. • The northern Italian kingdom, Sardinia-Piedmont was crushed in 1796 by the young French general Bonaparte.

7. Austria was also defeated in northern Italy and forced into the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797 leaving Britain alone in front of France. • Britain fought mainly a naval warfare during the First Coalition’s struggle against France through colonial operations, maritime blockade of the French coasts ad naval raids to French soil. • This type of warfare did not discourage France but led the expansion of British colonies at the expense of France’ new allies: Spain and the United Provinces. Britain had colonial gains in the East and West Indies as well as in the Cape of Good Hope.

8. France, victorious in the continental warfare, wanted to end the British mastery at seas. “Let us on concentrating our efforts on building up our fleet and on destroying England. Once that is done Europe is at our feet.” Napoleon Bonaparte, 1797 • In order to take advantage of Britain’s weakness in the Mediterranean, Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 placing France in a position to control the route to India. - Naval battle of Aboukir, victory of the British fleet led by Admiral Nelson in 1798 leaving Napoleon trapped in Egypt with its army.

9. Austria, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and Naples joined Britain forming the Second Coalition (1798-1800). • Without achieving any major success, Russia withdrew from the coalition. • Napoleon was back from Egypt, led the French army and defeated the Austrians, respectively at Marengo and Hochstadt in 1800. Austria sued for peace. • The Ottoman Empire made peace with its old ally France, Naples was defeated and Portugal invaded by Spain.

10. Attention Britain was once again alone in front of France! • The inconclusive nature of the Anglo-French campaigning (France, master on land, Britain at seas) caused the Peace of Amiens in 1802. • However, the peace did not last between Britain and France. Britain, anxious about France’s large-scale warship-building programme reopened the hostilities in 1803.

11. In 1804, a failed assasination attempt in France gave Napoleon an excuse to end the French republic and declare himself emperor. He invited the pope to Notre Dame to witness his coronation, but Napoleon I placed the crown on his own head. He had no intention of allowing anyone to think that his authority depended on the Catholic church. • Between his coronation as emperor (1804) and his defeat at Waterloo (1815), Napoleon conquered most of Europe. His campaigns astonished the world, changed the map of Europe, and unleashed the powerful forces of nationalism.

12. Attention Napoleon’s weapon was a French nation that had been mobilized militarily by the revolution. He could muster as many as 650.000 soldiers at a time, risk as many as 100.000 in a single battle, endure heavy losses, and return to fight again. Even coalitions failed in front of the French armies led by Bonaparte until Napoleon made mistakes that led to his own defeat.

13. Spain joined France in 1804 in its war against Britain. • And Britain proposed Austria and Russia to form a Third Coalition paying 1.750.000 pounds for every 100.000 soldiers put into the field against France. - Naval battle of Trafalgar (1805), British victory over the combined Franco-Spanish navy. - Battle of Ulm (1805), Napoleon’s stunning victory over the Austrian army. - Battle of Austerlitz (1805), French victory over a combined Austro-Russian army.

14. Defeated Austria sued for peace for the third time. • Prussia joined the anti-French coalition but was crushed by the French army at the battle of Jena and Auerstädt in 1806. The emperor of France had become the master of Germany. • Russia continued to fight against Napoleon’s armies but was also badly hurt at the Battle of Friedland in 1807. • Austria renewed hostilities against France in 1809, however defeated one more time at the Battle of Wagram the same year.

15. The Peace Treaty of Tilsit (1807) - Prussia became a virtual satellite of France. - Russia agreed to ban trade with Britain and promised to side with France in a next conflict. • France, now master of the Western Europe, imposed on its allies and satellites the “Continental System” trying to substitute the trade with Britain.

16. The French Empire, Its Satellites and Its Allies in 1811

17. The Treaty of Tilsit isolated Britain as the only major power still opposed to the Napoleonic France. Unable to compete with the British navy, Napoleon resorted to economic warfare. By cutting off Europe’s trade with Britain, he planned to cripple the British economy. Attention Napoleon’s Continental System hurt the European’s economies more than the British, because Britain had access to growing markets in North and South America and the eastern Mediterranean.

18. It was a commercial warfare against Britain preventing the latter to export its industrial and colonial goods to the European continent. • However, the “Continental System” failed and the British export economy first survived, then grew through the great rise in trade with Asia, Africa and Latin America. • In 1810, Russia left the Continental System and Napoleon marched upon Moscow in 1812 with his Grand Army of 600.000 men.

19. Napoleonic Europe

20. Although it temporarily invaded Moscow, the French Grand Army’s casualties in the Russian campaign were terrifying: around 270.000 soldiers killed, 200.000 captured by the Russian army and around 1.000 canons and 200.000 horses lost. • During the retreat of Napoleon from Russia, Britain started an offensive upon France in Spain and Prussia and Austria joined Russia against France on the eastern front. • Less than 200.000 French troops were overwhelmed by 365.000 men of the anti-French alliance at the Battle of Leipzig (known also as the “Battle of Nations”) in 1813.

21. After the French defeat at Leipzig, the British army led by Duke Wellington “the Iron Duke” moved into France from Spain. • In spite of the tactical successes of Napoleon in defending the French soil early in 1814, France had consumed its energy and human resources and under his marshals’ pressure, Napoleon abdicated the same year and was sent to exile to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean. • However, he suddenly returned to France from exile in March 1814 and assembled a new army.

22. The final battle of the Napoleonic Wars was fought at Waterloo, near Brussels, in June 1815 between the French army, led for a last time by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Anglo-Prussian forces led respectively by Duke Wellington and Marshal Blücher. The hastily assembled French forces were defeated by a more numerous and more experienced allied army.