Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic wars against the coalitions by kaliningradgeneral-dcjcwge.jpeg

The Napoleonic Wars (1792/1799/1803–1815) were a series of major conflicts pitting the First  Napoleonic-icon.png French Empireball against an array of European powers formed into various coalitions. They revolutionized European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly owing to the application of modern mass conscription and the Industrial Revolution. The wars are traditionally seen as a continuation of the Revolutionary Wars, which broke out in 1792 during the French Revolution. Initially, France-icon.png     Franceball was very successful, but ended up biting off more than she could chew, eventually leading to her defeat in 1815.

French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars (1789/1792-1803)

Prior to 1789,  France-icon.png Franceball was an absolute monarchy under the rule of the Ancièn Regime, weakened by years of decadence, embezzlement, corruption, and financing foreign wars, such as the Seven Years War (1754-1763) and the American War for Independence (1775-1783). In 1789, the French Revolution saw  France-icon.png Franceball become a constitutional monarchy, like her brother UKball, but she abolished her monarchy in 1792, leading to the War of the First Coalition, when Austrian Empire-icon.png Austriaball, Kingdom of Prussia-icon.png Prussiaball, and HRE-icon.png Holy Roman Empireball tried to make France-icon.png Franceball an absolute monarchy again. She defeated the First Coalition at the Battle of Valmy in 1792, and established the new French Republic, with new months and days and a metric system, along with a new decimalised currency.

However, in January 1793, France-icon.png Franceball destroyed her monarchist parts, which caused the other European monarchist countryballs declare war on France-icon.png Franceball (The Second Coalition). She pushed back, and Spain-icon.png Spainball and Kingdom of Prussia-icon.png Prussiaball made peace early. Meanwhile, France-icon.png Franceball was raging internally in a series of upheavals known as the Terror (1793-94). Counter-revolutionary movements in her Vendee regions also caused trouble, but  France-icon.png Franceball sorted those problems out before defeating the Second Coalition in 1795-1802. After the Terror, Franceball established a Directory to help sort things out domestically.

Between 1795 and 1799, Franceball achieved various military successes against the Coalition, such as defeating Austrian Empire-icon.png Austriaball at the battle of the bridge near Milan in 1796, capturing  [[Papal Statesball| Papal States-icon.png Papal Statesball]]'s Rome that year, defeating and annexing most of Piedmontball's clay and establishing the clay of Austrian Empire-icon.png Austriaball's son Austrian Netherlands-icon.pngNetherlandsball (and that of United Kingdom of the Netherlandsball) as a puppet state, renaming him Batavian Republicball. UK-icon.png UKball raised a strong navy to help defeat and contain his sister, who tried to invade  Egypt-icon.png Egyptball's clay in 1798 to disrupt UKball's trade routes with his adoptive Indian Princely stateballs.  UK-icon.png UKball destroyed [[Franceball| France-icon.pngFranceball]]'s navy at the Battle of Aboukir Bay (the Battle of the Nile) in 1798, causing [[Franceball| France-icon.pngFranceball]] to be stuck in Egypt. She tried going up Syria, but was stopped by  Ottoman-icon.png Ottoman Empireball there as well. In 1799 she returned to her home clay, to have a coup d'etat and establish a consulship over the Directory in the Coup d'Brumaire.

The War of the Second Coalition continued in 1799, with the absolute defeat of [[Austriaball| Austrian Empire-icon.pngAustriaball]] at the Battle of Marengo in 1800, and the surrender of the HRE-icon.png Holy Roman Empireball in 1801, and the Peace Treaty of Amiens was signed in 1802 with [[UKball| UK-icon.png UKball]]. However, both siblings knew peace wasn't going to last very long, and continued building up large armies and navies. In 1799, [[Russiaball| Russian-Empire-icon.png Russiaball]] had established the Armed League of Northern Neutrality, and  UK-icon.png UKball had to send a fleet to convince it's members to trade with him, defeating Denmark-icon.png Denmark-Norwayball at the Battle of Copenhagen. The same year the League broke up. In 1803  France-icon.png Franceball, anticipating an invasion of New France-icon.pngFranceball's clay by  UK-icon.png UKball or Spain-icon.png Spainball, sold him to her nephew [[USAball| USA-icon.png USAball]] for 15 million dollars, or 3 cents per acre. This also helped fund her war effort, as in 1803 [[UKball| UK-icon.pngUKball]] chased Franceball's navy to the West Indies to no avail. France-icon.png Franceball had liberated her slaves in the colonial plantations in 1791, and  UK-icon.png UKball would follow in 1807.  Haiti-icon.png Haitiball became independent in 1804, and Austriaball became Austrian Empire-icon.png Austrian Empireball that same year. By now,  UK-icon.png UKball had stopped worrying about France-icon.png Franceball invading his clay, and started to plan her defeat.

Wars of the Third, Fourth and Fifth Coalitions (1803-1812)

Franceball by 1804 was the dominant power in Western Europe, have becoming the First French Empireball, and established a protectorate over the Swiss cantonballs known as the Helvetic Republicball, where she intervened in 1802 to stop a nationalistic uprising there. In 1805, however she was defeated by UKball at the Battle of Trafalgar, despite shooting UKball in his Nelsonian parts and allying with Spainball. The War of the Fourth Coalition saw Franceball push against Prussiaball and the German stateballs in 1805/6 at the battles of Jena and Austerlitz, resulting in the dissolution of Holy Roman Empireball, and the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, formed by the German Stateballs loyal to Franceball. Duchy of Westphaliaball and Duchy of Warsawball were born here, and in 1809 Austrian Empireball signed a peace with Franceball, that saw lots of his territory being taken away from him, and Franceball acquiring more clay in Italy and Illyria, in the Treaty of Schönbrunn, after defeating Franceball at the battle of Aspern-Essling, but failing to advance at the battle of Wagram.

Franceball also established a trade network with the other continental European balls known as the Continental System, in a bid to destroy UKball's economic growth by embargoing UKball's goods. However, smuggling made this ineffective. Meanwhile, in 1807 UKball intervened in Denmark-Norwayball's affairs, under the pretense that Denmark-Norwayball was collaborating with Franceball. After the interveention, Denmark-Norway allied with Franceball, and UKball fought a war with Russiaball allying with Swedenball for the Grand Duchy of Finlandball, seceded to Russiaball in 1809 along with Aland Islandsball.

In 1808, Franceball and her ally Spainball started a campaign to invade Portugalball's clay, because he was aligned with UKball. However, Franceball betrayed Spainball, and invaded his clay instead, taking Madrid, but Spainball fought with guerilla tactics against Franceball, frustrating her for a few years in the Penninsular War (1808-1812). By 1811, Franceball had become the dominant power on the European continent by far, with only UKball to oppose her. However, by 1812 Russiaball had started to refuse to comply with the Continental system, and in 1812, Franceball and her new ally/puppet state Grand Duchy of Warsawball (Polandball, temporarily liberated from Prussiaball and renamed) invaded Russiaball's clay with the Grand Armeé.

FranceVSRussia.png
However, Russiaball also used guerilla tactics, and coupled with the size of his massive clay and his accustomed to fighting in winter, made him a formidable enemy, and by the time Franceball reached Moscow, Russiaball had abandoned and burned the city to the ground, keeping in line with his scorched earth defensives. Russiaball then attacked Franceball with his Cossacks at Borodino, after blocking her retreat route at Malyaroslavets, and raiding her supply dumps at Smolensk. Although the Battle of Borodino was a victory for Franceball, it left her starving, freezing and desperately weakened. By the time she reached Warsaw again, she was much weaker than she had been before she invaded Russiaball's clay, and the other powers of Europe saw their chance to defeat Franceball once and for all. The War of 1812 between British North Americaball and USAball also happened somewhere around here, but it is mostly irrelevant to the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, apart from UKball searching and confiscating USAball's ships because of the war in Europe.

Defeat of the First French Empire (1812-1815)

After Franceball's defeat at the hands of Russiaball, she hurried home and raised a large army, but when the War of the Sixth Coaltion broke out in 1813, despite initial success at the battle of Dresden, she was defeated at the battle of Leipzig, after she rejected the Frankfort Declaration, by the combined forces of Austrian Empireball, Prussiaball, Russiaball, and the German Stateballs. Meanwhile, she lost the Penninsular War to Spainball, who, and along with UKball, Two Siciliesball, and Portugalball, joined the Sixth Coalition against Franceball. Denmark-Norwayball was defeated and forced to secede Heligolandball and Norwayball to UKball and Swedenball respectively. With the Armies of the Sixth Coalition rapidly advancing on Paris, Franceball panicked, and signed the peace treaty of Fountainbleau in 1814, leaving her Bonapartist parts on the island of Elba, now Empire of Elbaball.

The First Treaty of Paris, signed by Franceball during the First Bourbon Restoration of 1814, saw Franceball become a constitutional monarchy once again. But her Bonapartist parts escaped from Elba, and in 1815 she raised another large army in Paris to fight the amassing armies of the Seventh Coalition. She decided to head for Brussels first, defeating Prussiaball at the battle of Les Quatre Bras, but she was ultimately defeated by the combined forces of UKball, Dutch Republicball, and Prussiaball at the Battle of Waterloo, on the 18th of June 1815.

Aftermath

Franceball tried to escape after the battle was lost, but was captured by UKball, and this time she had her Bonapartist parts taken to St Helenaball's clay, where they died in 1821. The Second Treaty of Paris saw Franceball become a constitutional monarchy for the second time, and she also had to pay for the costs of the Allied armies of the Seventh Coalition. The Congress of Vienna was temporarily set up to redraw the borders of Europe, forming the German Confederation, and reducing Franceball's clay to it's 1792 borders. The Concert of Europe was also set up to improve European affairs, a predecessor to EUball, but it fell apart in the mid-nineteenth century.

Franceball was weakened after the wars, but they catapulted UKball to become the world's sole superpower in the Pax Brittanica throughout the nineteenth century, until World War I. Franceball's Bonapartist instincts would come again in 1852, when she would become the Second Empire for a couple of decades. Prussiaball began attempts to unify the other German Stateballs into Imperial Germanyball, and finally the wars saw immigration to USAball's clay, helping him manifest destiny in the coming years and become a superpower. The ideals of the original French Revolution were brought back to life in the various revolutions of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and liberty and equality became sought after by many countryballs thereafter, even now, 200 years after the Battle of Waterloo. Meanwhile France's only ally Naplesball got defeated at the Battle of Tolentino (2-3 May 1815), which is similar to the Battle of Waterloo, by an outnumbered Austrian army.

Belligerents

First Coalition (1792-97)

Second Coalition (1798-1802)

Third Coalition (1803-05/6)

Fourth Coalition (1806-09)

Fifth Coalition (1809-1812)

Sixth Coalition (1813-1814)

Seventh Coalition (1815)

Napoleonic domains (fought against most of the above coalitions)

Various German petty states

The numerous German States include, but are not limited to, the following. Some allied with Franceball at some point or another, but most fought in the coalitions. They passed into HRE-icon.png HREball, Sierra Leone-icon.png Rhine Confederationball and Germany-icon.png German Confederationball.

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