Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
chief part of a unified Germany) who were committed to restoring France's monarchy, Napoleon returned
to France and engineered a coup that made him virtual ruler in 1799. In 1804, he was proclaimed emper-
or of France, with the blessing of the pope. But his ambitions went beyond France itself to a continental
Europe dominated by France. He planned an invasion of England, but his overreaching scheme led to years
of fighting, known as the Napoleonic Wars, that raged across the continent from 1804 to 1815.
The naval battle fought on October 21, 1805, off Cape Trafalgar on the southwest coast of Spain near
the Strait of Gibraltar was the decisive naval engagement of the wars. After England's Admiral Nelson,
who died in the battle, defeated Napoleon's French navy, British sea supremacy was established—and
maintained for the next century.
Frustrated by this defeat in his scheme to attack England, his most implacable foe, Napoleon turned his
sights and his army to the continent. Marching from France into Central Europe, Napoleon confronted the
allied armies of Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Emperor Francis I of Austria. The major battle came near
the village of Austerlitz, near present-day Brno, a city in southern Czechoslovakia.
The fighting there in December 1805 has been called Napoleon's most tactically perfect battle. Al-
though the allied army Napoleon faced was much larger, it suffered problems of communication—its lead-
ers and troops spoke different languages. To make matters worse, the young tsar Alexander I took com-
mand of the troops from his experienced field marshal, Kutuzov. Napoleon drew the larger army away
from its position on a strategic height, captured those same heights, and easily annihilated much of the
army that had been sent to crush him. A day after the battle, the Austrians and Russians came to terms with
Napoleon. During the next two years, Napoleon mastered most of continental Europe, installing family
members on most of the thrones.
But he suffered his first setback on land in the Peninsular War fought for control of Spain and Portugal.
The fighting there began in 1808 and dragged on for six years. And in 1812, facing defeat in Spain and
Portugal, Napoleon made a disastrous decision to invade Russia. With half a million men, Napoleon left
France to march on Moscow. Along the route, he had to leave behind troops to secure his gains. By the
time he reached Russia, his army was smaller and a long way from home and secure supplies.
At Borodino, a village 70 miles (110 km) west of Moscow, he was met by the Russian Army under the
command of Field Marshal Kutuzov, whose sound advice had been ignored by the tsar seven years earlier
at Austerlitz. In a battle immortalized in Tolstoy's
War and Peace
, Napoleon broke through and cleared the
way to Moscow. Although he occupied the Russian capital, he did so at great cost. The onset of the severe
Russian winter took an enormous toll on his army. Napoleon was forced to leave Moscow and return to
France, with Kutuzov in a punishing, vengeful pursuit. By the time they reached Paris, Napoleon's army of
half a million was reduced to thirty thousand by the cold and the brutal fighting in Russia. In 1814, France
was attacked by a new alliance of Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain. Unable to repel this invasion,
Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was sent to the isle of Elba, off the coast of Italy, for the first of two
exiles.
But even as the allies set about to restore the French monarchy, Napoleon escaped and returned to
France. Welcomed like a returning messiah, he marched on Paris, gathering supporters along the way. Al-
though Napoleon promised peace, his enemies abroad immediately declared war. Past his prime and in
poor health, Napoleon gathered an army of 125,000 battle-tested veterans and set off for Belgium and an
encounter with the British general Lord Wellington (Arthur Wellesley, 1769-1852).
On June 18, 1815, the armies met near Waterloo, a Belgian village south of Brussels. Fighting across
acres of farm fields in a torrential rain that turned the land into a gory, muddy quagmire, Napoleon's last
army was soundly defeated. Four days later, he abdicated again. Exiled a second time, he was sent to St.
Helena, a desolate volcanic island in the South Atlantic, where the former emperor of France and master
of Europe died in isolation.
