French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: A Visual History

From April 1792, when revolutionary France declared war on Austria, until Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo in June 1815, Europe was at war for all but about fourteen months. Seven coalitions of European powers, usually paid for by Britain, tried to contain first the Revolution and then Napoleon. France's mass conscription and Napoleon's genius produced victories from Italy to Poland, but the Peninsular War in Spain, the disaster in Russia and the combined weight of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Britain finally broke French power. Perhaps five million people died. The wars spread the ideas of the Revolution across Europe, triggered Latin American independence and left Britain the world's dominant power.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Estimated military deaths by country

Rough estimates for the whole period 1792-1815; figures vary widely by source.

Timeline of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

1. 1792
   War declared on Austria20 April; Valmy in September saves the Revolution.
2. 1793
   Louis XVI executedFirst Coalition forms; levee en masse in August.
3. 1796-1797
   Bonaparte's Italian campaignThe young general becomes famous.
4. 1798
   Egypt and the NileNelson destroys the French fleet at Aboukir Bay.
5. 1802
   Peace of AmiensA fourteen month truce with Britain.
6. 1805
   Trafalgar and AusterlitzBritain rules the sea, Napoleon the land.
7. 1806
   Jena-AuerstedtPrussia destroyed in a day.
8. 1807
   TilsitPeace with Russia; the Continental System.
9. 1808
   Peninsular War beginsSpain rises against Joseph Bonaparte.
10. 1809
    WagramAustria beaten again.
11. 1812
    Invasion of RussiaThe Grande Armee destroyed.
12. 1813
    LeipzigThe Battle of the Nations.
13. 1814
    Paris falls; abdicationExile to Elba.
14. 1815
    Waterloo18 June; the wars end.

The Revolutionary Wars, 1792-1802

The Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria in April 1792, expecting a short campaign to secure the Revolution. Instead Prussian and Austrian armies marched on Paris, the monarchy was overthrown, and the improbable French victory at Valmy in September saved the Republic. Louis XVI's execution in January 1793 brought Britain, Spain and the Netherlands into the First Coalition.

The levee en masse of August 1793 conscripted the entire nation and produced armies far larger than any Europe had seen. Under generals like Jourdan, Hoche and the young Bonaparte, France conquered Belgium, the Rhineland, Holland and northern Italy. The Second Coalition (1798-1802) was beaten in turn, and the Peace of Amiens with Britain in 1802 gave Europe its only real break in the whole period.

Napoleon triumphant, 1803-1809

War resumed in May 1803. Napoleon, Emperor from 1804, planned to invade England until Nelson destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805. Turning east he smashed Austria and Russia at Austerlitz (December 1805), Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt (October 1806) and Russia at Friedland (June 1807). The Treaties of Tilsit left him master of the continent.

The Continental System, an economic blockade of Britain, required Napoleon to control every European port. That led him into Portugal in 1807 and Spain in 1808, and to a fifth war with Austria in 1809, won bloodily at Wagram. Each victory expanded the empire and multiplied his enemies.

The Spanish ulcer and the Russian catastrophe

In Spain a popular uprising and guerrilla war, supported by a British army under Wellington in Portugal, absorbed some 300,000 French troops for six years. Wellington's victories at Salamanca (1812) and Vitoria (1813) drove the French back over the Pyrenees. The Peninsular War also cut Spain off from its American colonies, most of which broke away for good.

In June 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia with the largest army Europe had ever seen. The Russians retreated, fought at Borodino and abandoned Moscow, which burned. The retreat in October and November through snow, starvation and Cossack raids destroyed the Grande Armee. Prussia and then Austria changed sides in 1813.

Leipzig, Waterloo and Vienna

At Leipzig in October 1813 the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in a three day battle involving over half a million men. The Allies invaded France in 1814, took Paris on 31 March and forced his abdication on 6 April. He was exiled to Elba, and Louis XVIII was restored.

Napoleon escaped in March 1815, regained France without a shot and marched into Belgium to attack the Allies before they could combine. He beat the Prussians at Ligny on 16 June but failed to break Wellington at Waterloo on 18 June, and Blucher's arrival turned defeat into rout. He abdicated on 22 June and died on Saint Helena in 1821. The Congress of Vienna redrew the map and produced a peace among the great powers that broadly held until 1914.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Napoleonic (First French) Empire (1804 to 1815)
• Holy Roman Empire (800 to 1806)
• Russian Empire (1721 to 1917)
• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• Spanish Empire (1492 to 1976)
• Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867 to 1918)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mexican War of Independence (1810 to 1821)
• Colombian War of Independence (1810 to 1825)
• Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763)
• Wars of German Unification (1864 to 1871)
• Russo-Circassian War and Caucasian War (1763 to 1864)
• French conquest of Algeria (1830 to 1903)

10 surprising things about the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

1. The wars were so continuous that Britain and France were at peace for only about fourteen months (1802-1803) in twenty-three years.
2. The Rosetta Stone was found by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799 and taken by the British as a spoil of war in 1801; it has been in the British Museum since 1802.
3. Napoleon fought around 60 battles and lost only about seven, but the last two he lost were Leipzig and Waterloo.
4. The metric system was spread across Europe by French armies; so was the practice of driving on the right.
5. Sweden's Marshal Bernadotte, once a French general, commanded an army against France at Leipzig; his descendants still reign in Stockholm.
6. The wars gave English words like 'guerrilla' (from Spain), 'bistro' (supposedly from Russian soldiers in Paris shouting 'quickly') and 'Wellington boot'.
7. Wellington and Napoleon, both born in 1769, met only once, at Waterloo, and Napoleon never actually saw his opponent's face.
8. The Battle of Leipzig involved more men than any battle in history until World War I.
9. France's Egyptian expedition included 167 scholars whose 23 volume Description de l'Egypte started the field of Egyptology.
10. The Duke of Wellington later served as British Prime Minister and had a windows-smashing mob attack his London house, so he fitted iron shutters and got the nickname 'the Iron Duke'.

Sources

• Napoleonic Wars Encyclopaedia Britannica
• French Revolutionary Wars Wikipedia
• Napoleonic Wars Wikipedia
• Waterloo 200 National Army Museum
• Charles Esdaile, Napoleon's Wars: An International History (2007) Allen Lane
• T. C. W. Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars 1787-1802 (1996) Arnold

Back to all empires and wars