Napoleonic Wars (Louisiana Revolution)

The Napoleonic Wars, also called the European War, put Napoleon's France against a diverse range of foes and several coalitions with the specific purpose of destroying the empire. In a series of wars, the French knocked nations out of the coalitions one by one and knocked coalitions out entirely one by one. Out of around 30-45 total battles involving Napoleon, only two were lost.

Of all eight coalitions of the first European War, all were defeated by the French and their allies. In the words of Napoleon himself, Europe was at his feet, and by the end of the wars, France had claimed victory over almost every nation in Europe at least once.

Perhaps the most astounding achievement of the war was Napoleon's invasion of Britain; the first successful invasion of Britain in over 700 years. He won a series of battles of southeastern England and brilliantly out-maneuvered his enemy's armies and marched into London in 1808, knocking Britain out of the fourth coalition, forcing them to accept his terms, and leaving only Russia, Austria, and Prussia to defy his domination of Europe.

Upon defeating Austria in the War of the Fourth Coalition, Prussia scored a series of victories over Ney's forces in the Rhineland, killing him and allowing Prussia to gain momentum for the War of the Fifth Coalition, Britain to get back into the war, and Russia to assemble a much larger army. Nevertheless, Napoleon once again destroyed the armies of Prussia in the Batte of Siegen and Battle of Potsdam, turned south and defeated the advancing Austrians at the Battle of Nürnburg, and finally went on to march through Vienna and crown himself Emperor of Austria in 1811, permanently eliminating the Austrian threat.

Now, with only Prussia, Russia, and Britain remaining independent states, the sixth coalition was formed among those three and Sweden. Napoleon could not enter Britain again, since the French fleet was now far too weak to cross the channel. So, he focused the remaining Grande Armée on the continent, striking at the heart of Prussia and devastating its forces and those of Russia at the Battle of Berlin and crowning himself king of Prussia in 1813. Napoleon followed the Russian retreat into Russian territory; a move regarded as the biggest mistake of his military career. He invaded during the winter, and many of his men starved or died from illness, combined with repeated raids by the Russians, and Napoleon was forced to turn back and retreat with his dwindling army.

Napoleon's retreat was a worst case scenario for him, as the Swedish, Russians, and British were afforded the opportunity to liberate Prussia and Austria in the east, reversing two years worth of work by Napoleon. The fighting never stopped, however, and the Russians, Austrians, Swedish, Prussians, and some Italian kingdoms formed a seventh coalition and were determined to defeat France once and for all while it was still recovering. It is during this war that some of Napoleon's most genius military victories came, defeating a combined Austrian/PrussianSwedish army of 50,000 with a force of 10,000 at the Battle of Schwerin, and forcing their retreat to Berlin, where he again defeated the massive army and knocked Prussia out of the war once again. Finally, after a vicious defeat at Chemnitz, the seventh coalition surrendered and the eighth was formed among Russia, Austria, Sicily, Sardinia, and Britain in 1816.

During this last war, Napoleon suffered his second defeat in the entire war during a failed second invasion of Britain, where his forces were decimated at the Battle of Brighton. Upon returning to the continent, he had to raise a new army quickly to stop the eighth coalition. He raised about 40,000 for himself, found out about the current situation, a stalemate in central Europe, and set out to crush the eighth coalition. Along with MacDonald, he routed the Austrians at Augsburg, then sent MacDonald into Italy to root out any resistance. The next battle came at Karlsbad, and Napoleon brilliantly surrounded and captured a fighting force of 30,000, incororating it into his own. When his massive force reached Vienna, he defeated the Austrians and shouted "People of Vienna, your emperor has returned!" as he marched through the streets. He had two remaining enemies now: Russia and Britain. Both of which would be impossible to invade, but he felt that he had no choice. In 1817, he made a decision to enter Russia a second time, this time, at the very end of winter. Alexander's forces fought bravely and strategically, but Napoleon broke through Russian defenses at Grodno, marched to Minsk, in a very unforeseen move, and arrived at Moscow before winter. He sacked Moscow in a very decisively French battle, and moved north to Novgorod, where he smashed the tsar's forces against Lake Ilmen, and continued north to St. Petersburg, which he reached in earlh winter. Against all odds, he did defeat the Russians at St. Petersburg through trapping the tsar's forces against the Gulf of Finland and injuring him in the process, in a battle that shaped the fate of Europe for the next century.

Upon his return through Europe, Napoleon crowned himself King of Prussia in Berlin and forced the terms of the Treaty of Verdun upon his victims, including Great Britain who knew that they could not defeat France alone.