First European War (Qu'il Tous)

The First European War was a conflict fought between two alliances, one lead by the French Empire and the other by the United Kingdom, fought from 1803-1812. It is a continuation of the French Revolutionary Wars, which lasted from 1792 to 1802, and started the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte, who would later become French Emperor throught a 1799 coup d'état. The war has been divded into three main theatres, the European Theatre, North Atlantic Theater, and the North American Theatre. In European there were three main fronts over the course of the war, the Eastern Front, the Iberian Front, and, later in the war, the British Front, which climaxed with the 1812 Invasion of Russia. The North Atlantic Front fought between the French and British Navies, which climaxed at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. The North American Front was fought between the United States of America against the United Kingdom, and climaxed at the Battle of Quebec City.

1803-1806: War in Austria and the Rhineland
The War in Austria and the Rhineland began in 1803 when Britain broke the Treaty of Amien and declared war on France, although no moves were actually made until 1805. In this year, Napoleon, already Emperor of France, declared himself Emperor of Italy, giving him and his army a clear path to Austria, an ally of Britain which had also declared war on France, along with Russia. In August 1805, Napoleon lead 210,000 French soldiers into what became known as the Ulm Campaign, and allied to him were 25,000 Bavarian soldiers. A 72,000-man Austrian army, lead by General Mack von Liebereich, prepared to match Napoleon, blow-for-blow. After the Austrians went on the offensive in Bavaria in October 1805, but faced defeat just 3 days after their campaign had started at the Battle of Wertingen. Smaller campaigns continued over the next couple weeks, resulting in two small battles at Haslach-Jungingen and Elchingen. Then on October 16, Napoleon lea 150,000 soldiers to fight General Mack's forces at Ulm, and after 3 days of fighting, the 72,000-man army was surrendered and Mack himself taken prisoner. The French army tried to followed the remaining Austrians back to Vienna. Meanwhile, across late October to early November, the Russian Army, under Mikhail Kutuzov, tried to delay the French advance into Austria as much as possible, mainly through destroying bridges. After an inconlusive battle at Durenstein between French and Russian forces, the Russian pulled back deeper into Russia. A week after Durenstein, Russian forces met French forces at Hollabrunn, resulting in a strategic victory for Russia. The two sides knew a climactic battle would soon come between the two sides, but neither of them could predict how the next battle would turn out. On December 2, 72,000 French soldiers, lead by Napoleon, met Austrian and Russian forces at Austerlitz, and fighting began at 8:00 AM. The Russian, however, arrived late due to a misunderstanding in timing, and the French pulled a complete rout of the Coalition right after a failed Austrian attack. Another attack on the Coalition center pushed the Austrians back, and one final push forced the battle to end. The Ulm Campign was a major victory for the French Army as Austria was forced to give up much land in Central Europe that France remade into the Confederation of the Rhine, the next year, Francis II abdicated the Holy Roman thrown and the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist. But the growing French power in Central Europe troubled Prussia, who would lead the next Coalition to war against France in 1806.

1806-1807: War in Prussia and Poland
In October 1806, Prussia, seeing France's growing influence in Central Europe as a threat to its power, declared war on France, who then proceeded to send an army into Prussia, lead by Napoleon, to fight the war. The first engagement came on October 9, at the Battle of Schleiz, when an entire Prussian division was destroyed, and then another on the following day at the Battle of Saafeld, where Prince Louis Ferdinand was killed. Then on October 14, at the dual-battle of Jena-Auerstedt, 120,000 French soldiers defeated 100,000 Prussians and killed the Duke of Brunswick. The final battle occured on October 17, when a French victory at Halle forced the last Prussian reserves across the Elbe River, and ten days later, Napoleon entered Berlin, effectively ending the Prussian Campaign, resulting in a French-occupied Prussia.

The next length of the campaign to further distress Russia was Napoleon's invasion of Poland, which he finished after only a two week campaign in early 1807, and captured Warsaw without firing a shot on June 8. The next day, Napoleon declared the the Duchy of Warsaw, with Frederich Augustus, King of Saxony, as its head, and Warsaw as its capital. Then Napoleon turned north towards the Russian and to capture the temporary Prussian capital of Königsberg. After a draw at the Battle of Eylau on February 7-8, and then routed them at Friedland on June 14, after which Alexander sued for peace with Napoleon, which became the Treaty of Tilsit, signed on July 7, 1807. Another short concurrent campaign against the Swedes from April-August 1807 lead Swedish Pomerania being occupied by France, but the Swedes were allowed to bring all of their munitions of war back to Sweden. With Prussia and Russia subdued yet again, and Prussia under French occupation, France remained dominant on the continental Europe, and in Central Europe.

1807-1809: War on the Iberian
On October 27, 1807, Napoleon signed a treaty with the Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy, which split Portugal into three seperate states, one of which was a small rump Kingdom of Portugal. In Novermber, after Prince Regent John of Portugal refused to make Portugal part of Napoleon's Continental System, Napoleon sent an army through Spain to conquer Portugal. Although Portugal had originally made an agreement with Spain for their mutual defense, Spain made a secret pact with France to gain Portugal and its territories after the war. When France invaded Portugal in November, 2 Spanish divisions accompanied them into Portugal. Although the Portugeuse were prepared to defend their ports, the French capture of Lisbon on December 1, marked the end of the war in Portugal, and the Portugeuse Royal Family was captured on November 29 while trying to flee by boat and forced to surrender themselves and their country. But even though Portugal was out of the war, the fight for the Iberian peninsula was only beginning.

In February 1808, a large French army was sent into Spain, allegedly to help occupy Portugal. Napoleon ordered the commander of the army to "enter and protect" Spanish cities and fortresses, and use force for ones that were uncooperative. Although this was clearly an invasion of Spain, the Spanish Army, only 100,000 men, could do nothing to stop the French onslaught, who occupied Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville, very quickly. Ferdinand VII of Spain looked to France's main enemy, Great Britain, for help, and recieved it when 30,000 men of the British Army landed on Spain's northern coast, to assist the Spanish, a number that would soon grow. Over the course of 14 months, the British army, grown up to 150,000 troops by now, fought against Napoleon's Grande Armée and suffered defeat after defeat until the final blow to British forces came on March 14, 1809, when the British were forced to retreat back to Britain from San Sebastian, but were harassed all the way back by the French Navy. On April 4, 1809, the Treaty of Toledo was signed by Napoleon and Infante Carlos, Ferdinand VII brother, as Ferdinand had died after commanding a doomed garrison in Grenada. Spain and Portugal were officially dissestablished and remade into the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal, ruled by Joseph Bonaparte.

1809: War in Eastern Italy and Austria
By 1809, only Austria seemed capable of fighting a land campign against the French, who had defeated Prussia, Russia, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Napoleon's Grand Armée seemed undeafeatble. A reformed Austrian Army crossed the Inn River and invaded Bavaria on April 10. But bad weather had halted the Austrian movements, irregardless of the Bavarian retreat, and Napoleon marched his army from Spain to Germany in a very short time. The French Army planned to meet up with the Bavarian Army and the two march the two armies together to engage the Austrians. On the 16th, the Austrians pushed the Bavarians back to Landshut, and the next day Napoleon and his army arrived and crossed the Isar River that evening. And after arriving on the 17th from Paris he planned to engage the Austrians, who he believed had only a small force, only to arrive and see 80,000 Austrians prepared for battle. But at Abensberg, the Austrians unsuccessfully attacked the French at the lost of 10,000 men, after which Napoleon realized the full amount of Austrian forces he was facing. After another short series of battles, Napoleon captured Ebelsberg on May 3, and then Vienna ten days later. Over the next few months Napoleon fought the remaining Austrian forces, until the Battle of Wagram forced Arhcduke Charles to surrender to Napoleon, and the Armistice of Znaim ended the Austrian campaign. A Franco-Austrian alliance was established, and Napoleon married Marie Louise of Austria, after finalizing his divorce with Josephine, forever binding the two royal families.

While all of this was going on, Archduke John of Austria lead an army into Northern Italy, and fought against Napoleon's stepson Eugene, who quickly moved to counter him. After failing to defeat John at Sacile, and being forced back to Verona and the Adige River, but was soon repulsed back into Austria by a regroupped French Army under Eugene, and joined Napoleon at Wagram. After the battle, Eugene returned to Italy as the client kingdom's viceroy. Several other campaigns also took place in Poland and in Saxony, but these campaign were minor and also resulted in a French victory.