Topic timeline · 1803 – 1815
Napoleonic Wars
35 events
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a global series of conflicts fought by a fluctuating array of European coalitions against the French First Republic (1803–1804) under the First Consul followed by the First French Empire (1804–1815) under the Emperor of the French, Napoleon. The wars originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789–1799) and French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) and produced a period of French domination over continental Europe.
Text from the Wikipedia article Napoleonic Wars, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Key people
Napoleon1769 – 1821French military leader, French Emperor 1804–1814 and again in 1815 (1769–1821)
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington1769 – 1852British Field Marshal, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1828–1830, 1834 (1769-1852)
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson1758 – 1805British admiral (1758–1805)
Alexander I of Russia1777 – 1825The tenth Emperor of Russia (1777–1825)
Everything that happened
- 1792 – 1797War of the First CoalitionWestern EuropeThe War of the First Coalition (French: Guerre de la première coalition) was a set of wars between a coalition of several European powers and France fought from 1792 to 1797. The coalition was only loosely allied and fought without much coordination; each power wanted to annex a different part of France should they defeat the French, something that never occurred.
- 1792 – 1815French Revolutionary and Napoleonic WarsEuropeThe French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (sometimes called the Great French War or the Wars of the Revolution and the Empire) were a series of conflicts between the French and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815.
- 1796Battle of LodiLodiThe Battle of Lodi was fought on Tuesday 10 May 1796 between French forces under General Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian rear guard commanded by Karl Philipp Sebottendorf at Lodi, Lombardy (then part of the Habsburg monarchy, now in Italy), being one of the key engagements of the Italian Campaign. The conflict took place as French forces pursued the retreating Austrian army across the Adda River.
- 1798Battle of the PyramidsImbabaThe Battle of the Pyramids (French: Bataille des Pyramides), also known as the Battle of Embabeh (bataille d'Embabech), was fought on 21 July 1798 during the French invasion of Egypt and Syria. Occurring near the village of Embabeh, Ottoman Egypt, the battle was named by Napoleon after the distant Great Pyramid of Giza.
- 1798 – 1801French invasion of Egypt and SyriaEgyptThe French invasion of Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was a military expedition to Ottoman-held Egypt and Syria led by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The campaign aimed to undermine British trade routes, expand French influence, and establish a scientific and administrative presence in Egypt.
- 1798 – 1802War of the Second CoalitionItalian PeninsulaThe War of the Second Coalition (French: Guerre de la Deuxième Coalition) (1798–1802) was the second war between revolutionary France and a coalition of European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples and various German monarchies. Prussia did not join the coalition, while Spain supported France.
- 1800Battle of MarengoItalyThe Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy.
- 1805Battle of AusterlitzSlavkov u BrnaThe Battle of Austerlitz was fought on Monday 2 December 1805, near Austerlitz (then in the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic), being the decisive engagement of the War of the Third Coalition. The Grande Armée under the command of Emperor Napoleon I defeated a combined Russo-Austrian army.
- 1805Battle of TrafalgarCape TrafalgarThe Battle of Trafalgar was a fleet action which took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French and Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom, the French and Spanish navies planned to take control of the English Channel and provide the French invasion army with safe passage to Britain.
- 1805 – 1806War of the Third CoalitionCentral EuropeThe War of the Third Coalition (French: Guerre de la Troisième Coalition) was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I and its ally Spain opposed an alliance, the Third Coalition, which was made up of the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire, Naples, Sicily, and Sweden.
- 1805Battle of UlmUlmThe Battle of Ulm on 16–20 October 1805 was a series of skirmishes, at the end of the Ulm campaign, which allowed Napoleon I to trap an entire Austrian army under the command of Karl Freiherr Mack von Leiberich with minimal losses and to force its surrender near Ulm in the Electorate of Bavaria.
- 1806Battle of Jena–AuerstedtJenaThe Battle of Jena–Auerstedt was fought on Tuesday 14 October 1806, near Jena and Auerstedt (then in the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar and Kingdom of Prussia, now in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), being the decisive engagement of the War of the Fourth Coalition. The Grande Armée under the command of Emperor Napoleon I defeated a combined Prussian and Saxon army.
- 1806 – 1807War of the Fourth CoalitionKingdom of SaxonyThe War of the Fourth Coalition (French: Guerre de la Quatrième Coalition) was a war spanning 1806–1807 that saw a multinational coalition fight against Napoleon's French Empire, subsequently being defeated. The main coalition partners were Prussia and Russia with Saxony, Sweden, and Great Britain also contributing.
- 1807Battle of CopenhagenCopenhagenThe Battle of Copenhagen (also known as the Bombardment of Copenhagen) occurred between 16 August and 7 September 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. British forces bombarded the Danish capital of Copenhagen in order to capture or destroy the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy. Following the Danish surrender, most of their navy was seized by the British and taken to England.
- 1807Battle of EylauKaliningradThe Battle of Eylau (also known as the Battle of Preussisch-Eylau) was a bloody and strategically inconclusive battle on 7 and 8 February [O.S. 26 and 27 Jan.] 1807 between Napoleon's Grande Armée and the Imperial Russian Army under the command of General Levin August von Bennigsen near the town of Preussisch Eylau in East Prussia.
- 1807Battle of FriedlandPravdinskThe Battle of Friedland (14 June 1807) was a major engagement of the Napoleonic Wars between the armies of the French Empire and the Russian Empire, led by Napoleon I and General Levin August von Bennigsen respectively. Napoleon and the French obtained a decisive victory that routed much of the Russian army, which retreated chaotically over the Alle river by the end of the fighting.
- 1808 – 1814Peninsular WarIberian PeninsulaThe Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. It overlapped with the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) and the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).
- 1808Dos de Mayo UprisingMadridThe Dos de Mayo or Second of May Uprising took place in Madrid, Spain, on 2–3 May 1808. The rebellion, mainly by civilians, with some isolated military action by junior officers, was against the occupation of the city by French troops, and was violently repressed by the French Imperial forces, with hundreds of public executions.
- 1809War of the Fifth CoalitionCentral EuropeThe War of the Fifth Coalition was a European conflict in 1809 that was part of the Napoleonic Wars and the Coalition Wars. The main conflict took place in Central Europe between the Austrian Empire of Francis I and Napoleon's French Empire. The French were supported by their client states—the Kingdom of Italy, the Confederation of the Rhine and the Duchy of Warsaw.
- 1809Battle of Aspern–EsslingLobauIn the Battle of Aspern–Essling (21–22 May 1809), Napoleon crossed the Danube near Vienna, but the French and their allies were attacked and forced back across the river by the Austrians under Archduke Charles.
- 1809Battle of WagramDeutsch-WagramThe Battle of Wagram ([ˈvaɡram]; 5–6 July 1809) was a military engagement of the Napoleonic Wars that ended in a costly but decisive victory for Emperor Napoleon's French and allied army against the Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen. The battle led to the breakup of the Fifth Coalition, the Austrian and British-led alliance against France.
- 1812Battle of BorodinoBorodinoThe Battle of Borodino or the Battle of the Moskva took place on the outskirts of Moscow near the village of Borodino on 7 September 1812, during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The Grande Armée fought against the Imperial Russian Army.
- 1812French invasion of RussiaRussian EmpireThe French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812, was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of forcing the Russian Empire to comply with the continental blockade of the United Kingdom.
- 1812Battle of BerezinaBerezinaThe Battle of (the) Berezina (or Beresina) took place from 26 to 29 November 1812, between Napoleon's Grande Armée and the Imperial Russian Army under Field Marshal Wittgenstein and Admiral Chichagov. Napoleon was retreating toward Poland in chaos after the aborted occupation of Moscow and trying to cross the Berezina River at Borisov.
- 1812Battle of SalamancaArapilesThe Battle of Salamanca (in French and Spanish known as the Battle of the Arapiles) took place on 22 July 1812. An Anglo-Portuguese army under the Earl of Wellington (future Duke of Wellington) defeated Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces at Arapiles, south of Salamanca, Spain, during the Peninsular War. A Spanish division was also present but took no part in the battle.
- 1812Battle of SmolenskSmolenskThe Battle of Smolensk was the first major battle of the French invasion of Russia. It took place on 16–18 August 1812 and involved about 45,000 men of the Grande Armée under Emperor Napoleon I against about 30,000 Russian troops under General Barclay de Tolly. Napoleon occupied Smolensk by driving out Prince Pyotr Bagration's Second Army. The French artillery bombardment burned the city to the ground.
- 1812Fire of MoscowMoscowDuring the French occupation of Moscow, a fire persisted from 14 to 18 September 1812 and destroyed the city. The Russian troops and most of the remaining civilians had abandoned the city on 14 September 1812 just ahead of French Emperor Napoleon's troops entering the city after the Battle of Borodino.
- 1813Battle of LeipzigLeipzigThe Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813 at Leipzig, Saxony. The Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia, led by Tsar Alexander I, Karl von Schwarzenberg, Gebhard von Blücher and Swedish Crown Prince Charles John, decisively defeated the Grande Armée of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
- 1813 – 1814War of the Sixth CoalitionCentral EuropeThe War of the Sixth Coalition (French: Guerre de la Sixième Coalition; December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation (German: Befreiungskriege) saw a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Sardinia, and a number of German states defeat the First French Empire and force Napoleon into exile on Elba.
- 1813Battle of BautzenBautzenIn the Battle of Bautzen (20–21 May 1813), a combined Prusso-Russian army, retreating after their defeat at Lützen and massively outnumbered, was pushed back by Napoleon but escaped destruction. Some sources claim that Marshal Michel Ney failed to block their retreat. The Prussians were led by General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, and the Russians by General Peter Wittgenstein.
- 1813Battle of VitoriaVitoria-GasteizAt the Battle of Vitoria (21 June 1813), a British, Portuguese and Spanish army under the Marquess of Wellington broke the French army under King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain, eventually leading to victory in the Peninsular War.
- 1814 – 1815Congress of ViennaViennaThe Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Participants were representatives of all European powers (other than the Ottoman Empire) and other stakeholders.
- 1814Swedish–Norwegian WarKingdom of NorwayThe Swedish–Norwegian War was a war fought between Sweden and Norway in the summer of 1814. According to the Treaty of Kiel, Norway would enter a union with Sweden under Charles XIII of Sweden. The war resulted in Norway being forced into the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, but with its own constitution and parliament.
- 1815Hundred DaysFirst French EmpireThe Hundred Days, commonly referred to as The War Of The Seventh Coalition or Napoleon’s Hundred days (French: les Cent-Jours IPA: [le sɑ̃ ʒuʁ]) marked the period between Napoleon's return from ten months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 110 days).
- 1815Battle of LignyLignyThe Battle of Ligny, in which French troops of the Armée du Nord under the command of Napoleon I defeated part of a Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher, was fought on 16 June 1815 near Ligny in what is now Belgium.