1792?1815 series of European conflicts
"Coalition Wars" redirects here. For the general concept of coalitions of co-belligerents, see
coalition war
.
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (including the Coalition Wars)
|
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Part of the aftermath of the
French Revolution
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Click an image to load the appropriate article.
Left to right, top to bottom:
Battles of
Toulon
,
Arcole
,
the Pyramids
,
Marengo
,
Trafalgar
,
Austerlitz
,
Berlin
,
Wagram
,
Leipzig
,
Paris
,
Waterloo
|
|
Belligerents
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French First Republic
(1792?1804)
First French Empire
(1804?1815)
French client states
|
Main European powers:
Great Britain
[a]
Holy Roman Empire
(pre-1806)
Austrian Empire
(from 1804)
Kingdom of Prussia
Russian Empire
|
Commanders and leaders
|
---|
Napoleon
(until 1815)
Jacques Pierre Brissot
(until 1793)
Maximilien Robespierre
(until 1794)
Paul Barras
(until 1799)
|
George III
William Pitt
#
Francis I
Frederick William II
#
Frederick William III
Paul I
#
Alexander I
|
Casualties and losses
|
---|
French:
1,000,000 dead, wounded, missing, captured, or deserted (1792?1801)
306,000 killed (1805?15)
|
Austrian:
514,700 killed, wounded, or captured (1792?97)
440,000 killed, wounded, or captured (1799?1801)
396,000 killed in action (1805?15)
Prussians:
154,000 killed in action
Russians:
299,000 killed in action
|
War of the Fourth Coalition:
700,000 deaths
War of the Fifth Coalition:
300,000 deaths
Peninsular War:
2,400,000 deaths
War of the Sixth Coalition:
450,000 deaths
War of the Seventh Coalition:
60,000 deaths
|
1000km
620miles
Waterloo
9
France
8
7
Austria
6
Prussia
5
Germany
4
Italy
3
Egypt
2
1
The
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
,
[5]
sometimes called the
Great French War
, were a series of conflicts between the French and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the
French Revolutionary Wars
against the newly declared
French Republic
and from 1803 onwards the
Napoleonic Wars
against First Consul and later Emperor
Napoleon Bonaparte
.
[6]
[7]
They include the
Coalition Wars
as a subset: seven wars waged by various
military alliances
of great
European
powers, known as Coalitions, against
Revolutionary France
? later the
First French Empire
? and its allies between 1792 and 1815:
Although the Coalition Wars are the most prominent subset of conflicts of this era, some French Revolutionary Wars such as the
French invasion of Switzerland
(1798), and some Napoleonic Wars such as the
French invasion of Russia
(June ? December 1812) and the
Peninsular War
(October 1807 ? April 1814), are not counted amongst the "Coalition Wars" proper.
Terminology
[
edit
]
Etymology of Coalition Wars
[
edit
]
One of the first usages of the term "Coalition Wars" can be found in the 1803
Tribunat
report, titled
Resultats des guerres, des negociations et des traites qui ont preced?e et suivi la coalition contre la France
("Results of the Wars, Negotiations and Treaties that preceded and followed the Coalition against France"). About the situation in April 1793, when General
Dumouriez
had just been
defeated at Neerwinden
and defected to
Austria
, causing despair in France, it states: "Les evenements de cette epoque sont les plus penibles a decrire de tous ceux qui ont signale
les guerres de la coalition
." ("The events of that time are the most painful to describe of all those that marked
the wars of the coalition
." [emphasis added]).
[8]
In January 1805, the
Salzburger Intelligenzblatt
was one of the first to number the Coalition Wars when it discussed "Das Staatsinteresse von Baiern bei dem dritten Koalitions-Kriege" ("The national interest of Bavaria in the Third Coalition War").
[9]
Although the Third Coalition had been formed by that time, war had not yet broken out;
[b]
the Austrian newspaper discussed why the neighbouring
Electorate of Bavaria
was likely to side with the French Empire rather than the Austrian-led Coalition. On 30 September 1805, a few days after the launch of the
Ulm campaign
, Emperor Napoleon addressed his troops in
Strasbourg
, starting his speech with the words: "Soldats, la guerre de la troisieme coalition est commencee." ("Soldiers, the war of the third coalition has begun.")
[10]
Compared to other terms
[
edit
]
The term is distinct from "
French Revolutionary Wars
", which covers any war involving Revolutionary France between 1792 and 1799, when Napoleon seized power with the
Coup of 18 Brumaire
(9 November 1799), which is usually considered the end of the French Revolution. Since the War of the Second Coalition (1798?1802) had already begun when Napoleon seized power, the war as a whole may
[7]
or may not be counted amongst the French Revolutionary Wars, which therefore may end in 1799, 1801 (
Treaty of Luneville
), or 1802 (
Treaty of Amiens
).
It also differs from "
Napoleonic Wars
", which is variously defined as covering any war involving France ruled by Napoleon between 1799 and 1815 (which includes the War of the Second Coalition, 1798?1802), or not commencing until the
War of the Third Coalition
(1803/05, depending on periodisation). In the latter case, historians do not term the War of the Second Coalition "Napoleonic", since Napoleon did not initiate it himself, but merely "inherited" it from the Revolutionary
French Directory
which he overthrew during the war.
Because it only pertains to wars involving any of the Coalition parties, not all wars counted amongst the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars are considered "Coalition Wars". For example, the
French invasion of Switzerland
(1798, between the First and Second Coalition), the
Stecklikrieg
(1802, between the Second and Third Coalition), the
Peninsular War
(1807?1814) and the
French invasion of Russia
(1812, between the Fifth and Sixth Coalition) were not assigned to the "Coalition Wars".
-
Phase
-
French victory
-
Anti-French victory
-
Indecisive/compromise
-
Coalition
History
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
February 2023
)
|
Coalition parties
[
edit
]
The main European powers who forged the various anti-French Coalitions were
Great Britain
,
Russia
,
Austria
, and
Prussia
, although except for Great Britain not all of them were involved in every Coalition. Smaller powers that occasionally joined the Coalitions include
Spain
,
Naples
,
Piedmont?Sardinia
, the
Dutch Republic
, the
Ottoman Empire
,
Portugal
,
Sweden
,
Denmark?Norway
, and various German and Italian states. The First until Fifth Coalitions fell apart when one or more parties were defeated by France and were forced to leave the alliance, and sometimes became French allies; the Sixth and Seventh were dissolved after Napoleon was defeated in 1814 and 1815 and a new balance of power was established between the parties at the
Congress of Vienna
.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Clodfelter, M. (2017).
Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015
(4th ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland.
ISBN
978-0786474707
.
- Hattendorf, John B. (1995). "4. The Struggle with France, 1690?1815". In Hill, J. R. (ed.).
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy
. New York:
Oxford University Press
. pp. 108?119.
ISBN
978-0192116758
.