French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars
French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, a series of wars between 1792 and 1815 that ranged France against shifting alliances of other European powers and that produced a brief French hegemony over most of Europe. The revolutionary wars, which may for convenience be held to have been concluded by 1801, were originally undertaken to defend and then to spread the effects of the French Revolution. With Napoleon’s rise to absolute power, France’s aims in war reverted to simple aggrandizement of influence and territory.
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Reflective Questions
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Why was the French Republic virtually unbeatable on land throughout the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars until 1812?
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What were the consequences of the war on the British society and politics?
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How could Britaincome out on top in the conflict?
Monarchies at war with the French Republic
The overthrow of Louis XVI and the establishment of republican government placed France at odds with the primarily monarchical and dynastic governments of the rest of Europe. In the Declaration of Pillnitz (1791) Austria and Prussia issued a provocative general call to European rulers to assist the French king reestablishing himself in power. France declared war in April 1792. On September 20, 1792, French forces under Charles-François Dumouriez and François-Christophe Kellermann turned back an invading Prussian-Austrian force at Valmy, and by November the French had occupied all of Belgium. Early in 1793 Austria, Prussia, Spain, the United Provinces, and Great Britain formed the first of seven coalitions that would oppose France over the next 23 years. In response to reverses at the hands of the First Coalition, the Revolutionary government declared a levy en masse, by which all Frenchmen were placed at the disposal of the army. By that means unprecedentedly large armies were raised and put in the field during this period.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219456/French-revolutionary-and-Napoleonic-wars)
The rise of Napoleon
By early 1795 France had defeated the allies on every front and had pushed to Amsterdam, the Rhine, and the Pyrenees; more importantly, Prussia had been forced out of the coalition and had signed a separate peace that held until 1806. In May 1795 the United Provinces of the Netherlands became the French-influenced Batavian Republic. In northern Italy, a strongly positioned French army threatened Austrian-Sardinian positions, but its commander proved reluctant to move.
In March 1796 he was replaced by a more dynamic general, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoleon executed a brilliant campaign of maneuver against Austrian and Sardinian forces in Italy and in the resultant treaty of Campo Formio forced Austria to cede the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium and Luxembourg), which became the first territorial additions to the French Republic, and to recognize the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics established by French power in northern Italy.
Napoleon’s next campaign was a major failure. He sailed an army to Egypt in May 1798 with the idea of conquering the Ottoman Empire. The defeat of a French naval squadron by Admiral Horatio Nelson in the Battle of the Nile (August 1, 1798) left him without sufficient naval support, however, and, after failing to take Acre in 1799, Napoleon withdrew to France. His army continued to occupy Egypt until 1801.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219456/French-revolutionary-and-Napoleonic-wars)
The Napoleonic wars
In 1803, Britain declared war and formed the Third Coalition with Austria, Russia, and Sweden in 1804. Napoleon defeated the Austrians at Ulm, and the Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz (both 1805), but the British under Admiral Nelson won a decisive naval victory at Trafalgar (1805). Prussia joined the Fourth Coalition (1806) but was decisively defeated at Jena. Resistance to the French occupation of Portugal (1807) began the Peninsular War.
In 1808, French troops were sent to quell a Spanish rebellion, but were faced by the British army led by the Duke of Wellington. The Fifth Coalition collapsed with the defeat of Austria at Wagram (1809). In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia. Bitter winter forced his retreat from Moscow, and much of his army died of starvation, hypothermia or were killed by the pursuing Russian forces under Mikhail Kutusov. The Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon at Leipzig (October 1813). In March 1814, Allied forces entered Paris. While the Coalition was negotiating at the Congress of Vienna, Napoleon escaped from exile in Elba and overthrew Louis XVIII. War renewed during the Hundred Days of Napoleon's return to power and ended in his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (June 1815).
(Source: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Napoleonic_Wars.aspx)