Analysis of Napoleonic War Period - Term Paper Example

 Napoleonic War Origin of Napoleonic wars are said to have begun in 1802 with the Peace of Amiens treaty, signed between Britain and France, which did not prove of much help as they knew that wars would begin again since their competing ambitions were pending. By that time, the British ruled over the oceans through robust trade spreading over many regions of the world. France and Britain, both dreamed of becoming the super power of the world. Both were equally powerful during that time. France aimed at throwing Britain out of trade by conquering its spices, sugar, and cotton markets. The fierce competition started as a power struggle between the two nations. At that time, the size of Britain’s army was small, and had lost many battles in the European nations. The revolution pushed France into mayhem, the ruins of which, gave rise to the most powerful army led by Napoleon Buonaparte. Napoleon was born in 1769 in a poor family. The feudal government of France received a severe blow in 1789 from almost all other European nations. This lasted for almost two decades of warfare with all the other competing empires trying to impose their view of balanced power. Consequently, many wars were fought over many large areas and were thence referred to as the First World War. This era was divided into the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Empire. With the advent of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Revolution and the subsequent republic experienced tumbling of the French monarchy and its replacement by a series of intermittent violent civilian directions. At the peak of this period, known as “The Terror” the King and Queen were cruelly put to death. This stimulated the other European nations towards France, and vowed that the resulting nation would never enjoy the cooperation of other European leaders. This is when Napoleon Bonaparte seized the control of French government. With his unusual intelligence and charisma, Napoleon started climbing steps of success one after the other. Before moving as the French artillery officer, Napoleon struggled against French domination in Corscia, a place on the border of Europe. Napoleon was made the Lieutenant in 1792 at the age of 23. A year later, his genius personality led him to becoming the Brigadier-General. After two years, he was able to successfully fight the Austrian troops. Though situation was bad for the French, Napoleon was highly confident of his abilities for battle and was given the command of French armies. Napoleon Bonaparte became the first ambassador of French rebellion in 1799, he issued an ominous proclamation to the soldiers of France stating, ‘it is no longer a question of defending your frontiers, but of invading enemy states’ (Fremont-Barnes, G, Fisher, T & Cornwell, B; 10). Thus, the aim of France was to expand further, which was a impending threat to England. Between 1798 and 1800, Napoleon had attempted to take over the Ottoman Empire, capture Egypt and Austria. While his army was unsuccessful in Egypt, they claimed victory over the Alps in Austrian region. These series of battles in the European continent and the disturbed situations lead to signing of the Peace of Amiens treaty aimed to bring peace to England. The Peace of Amiens Treaty made Napoleon very popular among all the masses. With this, he put France’s domestic house in order, recognized laws of the land, the economy, and the education system. He also established freedom of religion and religious peace. The peace with England was a temporary thing because war broke out with even greater ferocity after a few years of consolidation. The trend established immediately after the treaty was French domination on the land and British domination at the sea. This time lasted only till 1805 which then followed by the epic victory of Trafalgar in October 1805 (Fremont-Barnes, G, Fisher, T & Cornwell, B; p.10). Napoleon’s administration in France had one drawback. With a reduction in potential revolts against Napoleon, the former ruling family of France, the Bourbons became more desperate and had attempted several times to restore the French monarchy. However, the First Counsul’s government dominated over the French monarchy. The Bourbons planned Napoleon’s assassination many times, but failed. Bonaparte’s anticipation of this plot made him well prepare for the situation, and was able to identify the people involved in this play. He executed the suspects in 1804 (Fremont-Barnes, G, Fisher, T & Cornwell, B; p.23). This is said to be the turning point of Bonaparte’s career. It further stimulated the English monarchs against Bonaparte. By this time, Bonaparte was being urged by his close associates to declare French Empire which he did and was named the French Emperor in May 1804. Burbeck’s study records that post this, Napoleon got involved in preparing for invasion from England. Every other nation in Europe was experiencing pressure from Great Britain, and many newly formed French army corps were stationed all along the English Channel. During this time, Austria and Russia declared war and invaded southern Germany. Napoleon’s invasion into Germany through his Grande Armee and occupation of Bavaria, defeat of Austrian army and capturing of Vienna in 1805 declared hallmark of French army (Fremont-Barnes, G, Fisher, T & Cornwell, B; p.98). In the Atlantic, French and Spanish Navies were caught by British Fleet after their attempt to secure the English Channel for Napoleon. The resulting naval battle of Cape Trafalgar was one of the greatest in history for its time and resulted in the destruction of both the French and Spanish fleets, but at the cost of British Admiral Nelson's life on 21 October 1805 (Fremont-Barnes, G, Fisher, T & Cornwell, B; p 187). This caused Prussia, along with Great Britain, to declare war against France in 1806. Unaware of the French strategies, Prussia lost to France at twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt. After this, Britain and Russia still posed threat to France resulting in a bloody battle at Eylau (Fremont-Barnes, G, Fisher, T & Cornwell, B; p173). This resulted in the Treaty of Tilsit which placed both Russia and Prussia out of the conflict for several years. Through this, Napoleon had earned Alexander to his side, and bartered Finland, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire to most part of Europe. Alexander also agreed to join the boycott against British trade. This was followed by the French planning to invade Spain and Portugal in 1807. After successfully accomplishing occupation of Spain in 1807, French army entered the Portugal and occupied Lisbon. In the beginning of 1808, France successfully occupied more parts of Spain, including Madrid. This resulted in the replacement of the Spanish King by Napoleon’s brother Joseph. This event exploded into a revolt and the French army was forced to surrender (p 101). This also resulted in a barbarous war with Spain. French troops continued to torture and assault Spanish people for their needs. This was, in a way, the beginning of decline of the Napoleon. Even in Portugal, the French army faced troubles with the invasion of British Army under General Arthur Wellesley. The French Army was challenged in Portugal and defeated during this time. On the other side, Austria had resumed hostilities with France and was preparing to recapture Bavaria under Archduke Charles. The temporary French disorder did not help the Austrian army much and Napoleon was able to counter the various Austrian attacks by newly raised force of French recruits. In the next few weeks, the French army was able to recapture Vienna for the second time, and also tackled Austrians one more time at the battle of Wagram in 1809 (p 134-135). Out of fear, Denmark joined France. British feared addition of Denmark’s navy to the French navy and it invaded Copenhagen, captured the Danish task force and took many Danish ships to England. This deceitful and dishonest behavior agitated Napoleon. These events posed great threat to the home ground of Napoleon, which he was well aware of. For this, he had let the Austrians by agreeing to relatively forgiving the peace terms. The next two years were known for the infighting competition between England and France over Spain. Parallel to this, Russia was preparing to counter France for the second time. As researched by Martyn Lyons (p 197), for most of the time, by means of bribery, offers of territory, and temporary alliances, the French ensured that Prussia remained neutral until 1805, and that Russia was an ally from 1807 to 1812. Only Austria on the continent and Britain in the sea were for different reason persistent opponents of France. Napoleon conquered because he kept his enemies divided. The Spanish happenings created pressure in Latin America. Britain was able to establish more business in Latin American regions, which again caused the French to revolt. On the other side war between France and England continued without battles. The British were trying to cut France's maritime trade and Napoleon was still trying to block British trade from the continent - called the Continental System. But Britain's exports had reached an all-time high in 1809. Despite Alexander’s ally with Napoleon, illegal trade with Britain continued in some parts of Russia. Napoleon now started seizing many territories in Netherlands, Republic of Valais, Kingdom of Westphalia, the Grand Duchy of Berg, and the Duchy of Oldenburg. These only resulted in more foes for Napoleon. Inability to trade with Britain affected the Russian economy to a great extent. Alexander issued a verdict taking Russia out of the Continental System. Napoleon did not approve of Alexander’s expansion against the Ottoman’s to Constantinople as he feared threat to his own empire. All moves of Napoleon were disliked by Alexander, and many other rulers around him. Another reason for Napoleon to prevent Russia from defy the boycott against the British was that he feared others would follow the same. He also had planned to defeat Russia and started his invasions by end of 1811. This invasion was with a huge troop number of 600,000 including Austrians, and Prussians. Apart from the soldiers, Napoleon allowed their friends and caretakers along to the war. Their journey towards Russia was extremely difficult for the soldiers due to hunger, dysentery, diphtheria and typhoid diseases which killed large number of troops even before the war began. Horses died of starvation. In spite of all the odds, Napoleon did not want to show his weakness or accept defeat, he continued his march towards Smolensk and then towards Moscow in order to face the tsar directly. In this battle, huge numbers of Russian and Napoleon troops were killed believed to be the worst battles of history. In site of long waiting at Moscow, Napoleon’s threats did not move Alexander and Napoleon had to return without facing the tsar. During this time, his men were totally worn out, and had almost lost their morale. Fearing Russian encirclement of Paris, he decided to return with only 30,000 of his troops. With this failure against the Russians in 1812, zealous nationalism swept across Germany, Austria, Italy, and other French-occupied lands. In 1813, the Russians and Prussians formed alliance and together declared war against Napoleon, which they again lost. Napoleon still continued his tactics with other nations. However, by the end of 1813, four nations Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden together attacked Napoleon’s region and outnumbered Napoleon. By this time, he had lost 400,000 of his men and this drove Napoleon back to France on 2 November 1813. These forces began penetrating France which was welcomed by the Royalists and Napoleon’s authority was doomed (Fremont-Barnes, G, Fisher, T & Cornwell, B; 287). This sort of pronounced the end of Napoleonic wars in Europe. He was sent as an emperor in an exile to the island of Elba, near Italy. During this time, he himself realized his mistakes which caused his utter failure. He had judged human nature too highly. As he had no challenges there, he decided to move back to France. After putting up residence in France, he sent troops into Belgium. The allies, comprised of British, Dutch, Belgian, Prussian coalition defeated Napoleon and imprisoned him. He stayed there until his death in 1821. Napoleon’s declaration stating “The Revolution is made fast on the principles on which it began; the Revolution is finished,” soon after his coming into power shows that he was indicating something momentous about the role of his new regime compared to the earlier regime. Another quote by Napoleon stating, “We have finished the romance of the Revolution, we must now begin its history, only seeking for what is real and practicable in the application of its principles, and not what is speculative and hypothetical” also depicts what he envisaged for the French people. Napoleon’s philosophy was similar to that of the Jacobins in what would constitute a stable nation. He fought for an energetic centralized state, a strong executive, and a full transformation for peach that the French longed for many decades. By the end of Napoleonic wars, he was satisfied that the basic goals of the Revolution had been met and they required consolidation and institutionalization (Holmberg, T).. Research on Napoleon’s rule depicts that Napoleon was the first to use the permanent corps structure that were miniature armies with their own cavalry and artillery complements attached to two or three infantry divisions. This structure is being used even today, which depicts the success of this structure, a result of Napoleon’s intellect. Napoleon’s leadership abilities were imminent and were transferred to his army. The permanent corps structure facilitated for better connect between the commanders and their subordinates. The efficiency of the Light Cavalry attached to the corps was much enhanced through exercise that brought higher degree of cooperation (Fremont-Barnes, G, Fisher, T & Cornwell, B; 28). All these events and wars under Napoleon Bonaparte show that he did not belong to the group of ideologues; and that he saw facts through the plain glass, that he came to face the facts, worked towards them aggressively. He was focused on creation of a methodical government based upon popular consent, and conceived in the interests not of any particular faction, but of entire France. His overconfidence on his abilities and misinterpretation of allies ultimately led him to failure. Works cited Fremont-Barnes, Gregory, Fisher, Todd and Cornwell, Bernard. The Napoleonic Wars: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. Published by Osprey Publishing, 2004. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=j45Rg2VBbRAC&pg=PA7&dq=beginning+of+napoleonic+wars#PPA10,M1 Lyons, Martyn. Napoleon Bonaparte and the legacy of the French Revolution. Published by Palgrave Macmillan, 1994. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=QTdAbbNhHaEC&pg=PA298&dq=We+have+finished+the+romance+of+the+Revolution,+we+must+now+begin+its+history,+only+seeking#PPA197,M1 Sipe, Thomas. Beethoven, Eroica symphony. Published by Cambridge University Press, 1998. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=vJg1OHYoBUEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Beethoven,+Eroica+symphony#PPA8,M1 Articles Burbeck, James. The French Revolt and Empire. A Napoleonic Wars Summary. The War Times Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wtj.com/articles/napsum1/ Holmberg, Tom. Napoleon And The French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte, Internet Guide. Illinois, USA. 1998. Retrieved from http://www.napoleonbonaparte.nl/html/body_nap_and_revolution.html Read More