Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were the greatest wars of the 19th century. The wars started as a preemptive war by Revolutionary France to forestall the attempt of the ancién regimes of Europe to suppress the French revolution, but soon became a war of conquest with the intention of "revolution export" by France. Although Napoleon was ultimately defeated, arguably his greatest legacy was the introduction of secularism, which forms the basis of governance in European countries to this day.
- See also: European history
Understand
| “ | Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily. | ” |
—Napoleon Bonaparte | ||
During Early modern times, France had gained a role as Europe's superpower. The French Revolution, beginning in 1789, led to fifteen years of short-lived, often brutal, governments. In the French Revolutionary Wars, the French Army defeated the other great powers; the United Kingdom, Prussia, Austria, and the Holy Roman Empire.
Soon the revolutionary government was taken over by a young charismatic general from Corsica of the name of Napoleone Buonaparte (now known as Napoleon I or Bonaparte) and he crowned himself emperor of the French in 1804. Despite his army conquering much of Europe, his navy lost the decisive Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and never managed to dislodge the British from their position as the world's dominant naval power. After almost three decades of next to constant warfare in ever-shifting alliance that brought most of the continent much needed political reform but also "Napoleonic" puppet governments, Napoleon attempted an ill-fated invasion of Russia in 1812 that led to his decisive defeat first near Leipzig and after escaping from exile on Elba near Waterloo in 1815. The war was also global in a sense, as both the War of 1812 in North America and the Haitian revolution can only be understood with the context of the French revolutions and the Napoleonic wars. The wars are sometimes known as "Coalition Wars" as the ever shifting alliances gave rise to a periodization along the lines of War of the First Coalition, War of the Second Coalition and so on.
Legacy
Napoleon's invasion of Spain led to the forced abdication of two Spanish monarchs and the installment of one of his brothers as king, which in turn galvanized a nascent movement for independence led by the likes of Simon Bolivar, José de San Martin and others ultimately resulting in all of mainland Latin America slipping away from Spanish control. The Portuguese royal family relocated to Brazil, causing that country to eventually declare independence from the mother country as the Empire of Brazil while ruled by a different branch of the same royal/imperial family. On his way through Europe, Napoleon smashed the Holy Roman Empire and ended the independence of the Republic of Venice, he ended centuries of feudal privilege and obligation and spread Jewish emancipation as well as Civil Law that treated everybody (mostly) equally. The Code Napoleon is still the basis for law in Louisiana and (via the German BGB) Japan as well as numerous other countries (see history of justice). Resistance against Napoleon soon made use of the "levee en masse" tactic of revolutionary France and galvanized for the first time a sense of nationalism. The Napoleonic Wars in a sense laid the groundwork for both the (bourgeois-nationalistic) revolutions of 1848 and the post World War I world with nation states emerging out of the ashes of multinational empires like the Russian Empire or Austria-Hungary.
The image and perception of Napoleon and his adversaries have undergone and continue to undergo reappraisals over the centuries. In Poland Napoleon is often regarded as a hero and even mentioned in the national anthem, whereas many in Tyrol idolize the anti-Napoleon fighter Andreas Hofer despite his often anti-science, anti-civil rights and downright reactionary stances. Napoleon sold the Louisiana purchase to the United States, giving them huge territories which would be turned over to slave labor setting the stage for the American Civil War; he elevated Saxony and Bavaria to kingdoms, giving the latter the territory of Franconia to the enduring chagrin of locals two hundred years later. The desire to emulate his uncle led Napoleon III of France into ill-advised military adventures in Italy (helping that country to become unified under Victor Emanuel II, the first "King of Italy" since Napoleon I), Mexico (giving us "Cinco de Mayo") and against Prussia, leading to the loss of Alsace which would be one of the main gripes driving France to hostility towards Germany and into World War I.
Sites
Austria
Belarus
- 🌍 Barysaw. Site of the Battle of Berezina during the French retreat from Russia. The French and their allies suffered massive casualties during the crossing of the river. Bérézina has entered French common parlance as a synonym for "disaster". The battle is sometimes reenacted during local festivals.
Belgium
Czech Republic
France
Napoleon himself is buried in Paris/7th arrondissement in the Dôme des Invalides. There is a great Army Museum (Musée de l'Armée) next door that was founded in 1795 and expanded by Napoleon, but the current building dates from 1905. The 🌍 Vendôme Column, centerpiece of Place Vendôme, raised to commemorate the victory at Austerlitz, 🌍 La Madeleine church, originally commissioned as the Temple de la Gloire de la Grande Armée ("Temple to the Glory of the Great Army"), and the 🌍 Arc de Triomphe are very significant monuments in this context, and should not be missed.
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Hôtel des Invalides, 6, boul des Invalides (
- 🌍 Napoleon's house, Ajaccio. Napoleon was famously born on Corsica (though the claim that he was born before France took control of the island is the same British propaganda that also caused the persistent rumor of him being unusually short). His birth house has been turned into a museum
Germany
- There is a rather bombastic 🌍 Monument of the Battle of Nations (Völkerschlachtdenkmal in German) in Leipzig. Standing 91 metres tall, it is the biggest monument in Europe. It was erected in time for the first centennial (1913). Despite the nationalistic spirit prevalent at that time (one year before the beginning of World War I), the monument does not glorify war, but laments the lives lost: The giant soldier statues have a sad and weary expression rather than a heroic one, and the water pond in front of the monument is called "lake of tears". Adepts will find numerous Masonic symbols as the architect was a Freemason.
- The Quadriga statue on top of the 🌍 Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, designed as a symbol of peace, was taken to Paris by Napoleon as war loot after conquering Prussia in 1806. It was returned to Berlin after Napoleon's defeat in 1814, which is the reason for its Berolinian nickname Retourkutsche (literally "return carriage" but figuratively meaning "retort"). The Iron Cross, decoration awarded of the German freedom fighters, and the Prussian Eagle were added to the Victoria figure, making the ensemble a monument to the victory over Napoleon.
- There is a Waterloo column in Hanover (which belonged to Britain during the wars and until the mid 19th century)
Great Britain
The British posed by far the largest obstacle to Napoleon's bid for world domination, and were responsible for handing him arguably his two most significant defeats. The Battle of Trafalgar (1805) and Battle of Waterloo (1815) continue to be a major source of British national pride, and the commanders of those battles, Admiral Horatio Nelson (who was killed in action at the battle) and Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington respectively are regarded as national heroes, and among the very few non-monarchs to have been granted a British state funeral.
Italy
Russia
Slovakia
One of the several peace treaties during the Napoleonic Wars was signed in Bratislava which is still commemorated at the site of its signing.
South Atlantic
Napoleon was famously banished to Saint Helena after Elba proved too close to mainland Europe. Rumors of his poisoning by the British are long-lived though probably unjustified.