Topic summary
Napoleonic Wars
United Kingdom
Franceand client states
- Russia: 712,000 regulars, Cossacks and militia at peak strength (1812)
- Austria: 630,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1809)
United Kingdom: 380,000 regulars, sailors, and marines at peak strength (1813)
1,043,100 military personnel (total that served)- Prussia: 281,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1806)
- Spain: 255,000 regulars and guerillas at peak strength (1808)
Portugal: 50,000 regulars at peak strength (1809)- Sweden: 50,000 regulars at peak strength (1808)
- Netherlands: 36,500 regulars at peak strength (1815)
Other coalition members: 100,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813)
Total: 3,000,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813)- French Empire: 1,200,000 regulars, sailors, marines and militia at peak strength (1813)
- c. 3,000,000 military personnel (total that served)
- 200,000 Italians (served directly in the French Imperial Army)
- 216,000 Belgians (served directly in the French Imperial Army)
- 80,000 Germans (served directly in the French Imperial Army)
- 33,000 Swiss (served directly in the French Imperial Army)
Duchy of Warsaw: 180,000 (total that served in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw)
Italy: 200,000 (total that served in the army of the Kingdom of Italy)
- Austria, Prussia, and other German states:
500,000–600,000 dead - Russia:
450,000–500,000 dead - United Kingdom:
311,000 dead - Spain:
300,000 dead - Portugal:
50,000 dead
Total: 1,800,000+ military dead
French Empire:
- 306,000 French killed in combat
- 65,000 French allies killed in combat
- 600,000 French and allies dead from disease
120,000 dead (included in the "French allies" figures)
Total: 1,000,000+ military dead
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–15) were a global series of conflicts fought by a fluctuating array of European coalitions against the French First Republic (1803–04) under the First Consul followed by the First French Empire (1804–1815) under the Emperor of the French, Napoleon. The wars originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789–1799) and French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe. The wars are categorised as seven conflicts, five named after the coalitions that fought Napoleon, plus two named for their respective theatres: the War of the Third Coalition, War of the Fourth Coalition, War of the Fifth Coalition, War of the Sixth Coalition, War of the Seventh Coalition, the Peninsular War, and the French invasion of Russia.
The first stage of the wars broke out when Britain declared war on France on 18 May 1803. After minor campaigns, Britain allied with Austria, Russia, and minor powers, to form the Third Coalition in April 1805. Napoleon defeated the allied Russo-Austrian armies in the subsequent war which climaxed in French victories at Ulm and at Austerlitz, leading to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria being forced to make peace. Britain and Russia remained at war with France. Concerned about increasing French power, Prussia joined Britain and Russia in the Fourth Coalition, which resumed war in October 1806. Napoleon defeated the Prussians at Jena-Auerstedt and the Russians at Friedland, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent by July 1807, and again leaving Britain as France's sole major enemy. Britain was unable to dispute French dominance on the continent but obtained hegemony over the seas after victories including Trafalgar. Russia used the interim peace to resolve wars with the Ottomans, Swedes, and Iranians.
Hoping to isolate and weaken Britain economically through his Continental System, Napoleon launched an invasion of Portugal, the only remaining British ally in continental Europe. After occupying Lisbon in November 1807, and with the bulk of French troops present in Spain, Napoleon seized the opportunity to turn against his former ally, depose the reigning Spanish royal family, and declare his brother as Joseph I the King of Spain in 1808, to the disapproval of the Spanish populace. Spain joined Britain and Portugal, with the three powers engaging France in the Peninsular War. The diversion of French armies to the large new Anglo-Spanish front led to Austria reentering the conflict and forming the Fifth Coalition in April 1809, composed of Austria, Spain, and Britain. Austria won the Battle of Aspern-Essling but was defeated at Wagram, forcing the imposition of a harsh peace in October 1809. Britain, Spain, and Portugal remained at war with France.
Concurrently Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, violated the Continental System, prompting Napoleon to launch an invasion in June 1812. The resulting campaign was costly for both sides, but ultimately ended in disaster for France and the near-destruction of Napoleon's Grande Armée. French forces retreated from Russia by December 1812 and began reconstituting their lost strength. Encouraged by the defeat, Austria, Prussia, and several minor powers joined Russia, Britain, and Spain in a Sixth Coalition and began a campaign against France. The Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon at Leipzig in October 1813. The allies then invaded France on two fronts: the Russians, Austrians, and Prussians invaded France from the east, while the British, Spanish, and Portuguese invaded France from the west. Coalition troops captured Paris in March 1814, forced Napoleon to abdicate in April, exiled him to the island of Elba, and restored power to the Bourbons. Napoleon escaped exile in February 1815 and reassumed control of France for around one hundred days, igniting the eponymous conflict. The allies formed the Seventh Coalition, which defeated him at Waterloo in June 1815 and exiled him to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
The wars had profound consequences on history. New methods of warfare were introduced, including mass conscription and guerrilla warfare. Politically, the wars greatly influenced Europe through the advancements in civil law brought about by the Napoleonic Code, which was largely retained where it was adopted, and the spread of nationalism and liberalism. Independence movements emerged in Spanish America as a direct consequence of the wars, leading to the decline of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires. France's defeat led to the rise of Britain as the world's foremost naval and economic power, a status it would hold for the remainder of the century. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna redrew Europe's borders and brought a relative peace to the continent, with no major great power conflicts until the Crimean War in 1853.