Napoleonic wars

The Napoleonic Wars (French: Guerres napoléoniennes) were a series of successive conflicts fought between the First French Empire (led by Napoleon Bonaparte) and several other coalitions of the other European powers. The wars cemented the French hegemony over continental Europe and completely changed the political panorama of Europe as a whole.

## Wars of the First and Second Coalition

The first coalition war happened from 1792 to 1795 and it encoompassed several different countries in a loose alliance against France. France in itself performed pretty well. In this war, and it helped cement Napoleon’s reputation as a great strategist. The Second Coalition war ended with the Treaty of Amiens and possibly the biggest amount of peace out of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleon came out of this war with his republic’s territorial integrity confirmed and soon enough he declared himself emperor. This and another breaches of the peace of Amiens led to the start of the Napoleonic Wars or the War of the Third Coalition.

## Third Coalition and Fourth Coalition

The third coalition war ended with Napoleon defeating the Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz and occupying Naples. Eager to secure his conquests, he gave them to his family. Afterwards, a joint attack from Sweden Russia and Prussia gave way to the fourth coalition. Prussia decided to take Napoleon on its own and subsequently was defeated very humilliatingly. As Napoleon entered Berlin in late 1806, he felt confident in himself and decided to declare the Continental System to keep the British from engaging in commerce with Europe.

This soon soured the British Economy, as the government was unable to find commercial allies save her colonies (which kept the economy from sunking but did little to help revitalize) and the merchants were unable to break off French blockade. The colonies eventually started to seem like a possibly viable commercial alternative, but the British public was much more skeptical of it at the moment. This added to the fact that in the winter of 1806-07 Napoleon came very close to losing it all at the Battle of Eylau when Murat’s charge almost failed to arrive on time. This plus a hit from the enemy line that came close to hitting him put everything in a new perspective for the emperor.

Regardless, he won the war and it soon translated into a meeting at Tilsit with Alexander in order to discuss the peace agreement. Under this treaty, both the Russian and French became allies and Prussia lost more than half of her domains. However, tensions soon threatened a war with Austria, and it seemed like Russia could turn backon her word at any minute, which would threaten the French position. As such, Napoleon decided to host a congress at Erfurt keen on mantaining a new peace in Europe.

## Congress of Erfurt

### Russia and Austria

Both Russia and Austria were supposedly allied with Napoleon, but both of them were starting to seem like they would turn the other way at any minute now. Austria was still licking her wounds from the war of the third Coalition and thought it within their rights to try and take back their lost dominions in Dalmatia and Tyrol. Furthermore, they were being financed by a British Empire keen on making sure Napoleon didn’t run out of foes.

As per Russia, it was a different story. At Tilsit, both emperors had made friends and initially it would seem that Russia could become the ally that the French Empire so desperately needed. However, the truth was that the anti-French sentiment in the Court was ever-growing to an un-bearable pace. Also, the creation of a Polish puppet state out of Prussian’s partition in Tilsit was seen as a little bit of an offensive mock from the French authorities.

Non the less, Russia was officially at war with both Sweden and the UK and so far had occupied Finland. The Swedish army was behaving poorly but the navy had made an enormous breakthrough on September 6 when they liberated Åbo (Turku). This made Alexander uneasy, for even though the Swedish were proving not to be a match to the far superior Russian army, the war was dragging longer than expected, and the longer it dragged on the more the possibility of the Swedish receiving re-inforcements from the British.

### Sweden and Denmark-Norway

Sweden’s king Gustav IV Adolf quite literally saw Napoleon as the anti-Christ and all of his supporters as heretics. As such, even though they were losing the war, at first he refused to attend Erfurt, however, once the negotiations and the British were to be involved, he reluctantly agreed to send a diplomat. He would be gone by March 1809 in a coup d’etat not long after.

Denmark-Norway wanted to keep her independence and trade with both parties the British and the French. However, as it took a neutral approach, the British decided to bomb Copenhagen and destroyed most of the Danish-Norwegian fleet.

### United Kingdom

The United Kingdom had just started to feel the effects on the Continental System. And even though trade with the colonies could have been just as lucrative, the Prime Minister Baron Grenville was at least concerned, specially because of the international isolation Britain was going through. He didn’t know that the Russians were thinking twice about their alliance with France and as such had motive to fear a complete and utmost isolation both geo and politically.

### France

Napoleon was on top of the world at this point, having defeated Prussia (which was now half her size and extremely weakened) and planning on future conquest. However he was weary about his position, for he feared that the empire could easily collapse if all the other powers allied themselves against him. Before he had been lucky but the others had started to become accustomed with his ways and as such every new coalition proved harder and more difficult than the previous one.

initially though the purpose of the Erfurt Congress was just to confirm his alliance with Russia. Non the less, Charles Maurice the Talleyrand, one of his trustees and foreign advisors, realised that France was going to go to ruin if Napoleon wasn’t stoped. Instead of advising the Russian emperor to go against Napoleon, Talleyrand realised another way for France to keep her victories and secure a new order in Europe. As such, all of the major countries both allied with and against Napoleon were invited to discuss a peace treaty that could last. This was unheard of at the time, and it took a lot of convinving on all parts, but eventually both Napoleon and Grenville agreed to it. As the major powrs at the time, the other countries followed suit.

### The Congress

The congress met at Kurmainzische Statthalterei and the representatives discussed long and hard about a prospective end to the European conflict. Firstly, Napoleon wanted to diminish the ever-lasting threat of a Prussian-Austria-Russian alliance. As such, he devised a way to keep all of them antagonized against one another. He decided to give Silesia Province to Austria in exchange for Southern lands in Poland (Northern Galitzia). This in turn would make a bigger buffer state in France’s sphere of influence in case of a confict with any or three of the big powers. The ceding of Silesia in turn would antagonise Prussia against Austria and make for a distrust and conflict of interests that Napoleon could expoit in order to keep them from allying against one another. Also the loss of this heavily industrialised territory would weaken Prussia which in turn would make her more manageable.

As per the UK, the negotiations were definitely going to be tough. Both countries wanted all of their demands taken care of and for the other to bow down to them. However, Liverpool and Talleyrand managed to work out an arrangement. In order for Napoleon to give up (at least temporally) on his interests in India, the British agreed to sacrifice some of the Dutch colonies. In exchange, the Kingdom of the Netherlands would be secured as under the British sphere of influence under the House of Orange Nassau. The British however wouldn’t be allowed to have an army standing there but the Netherlands would be allowed to have their own army. As a way to counter-balance the new influence of the UK in the North Sea, the Kingdom of Hannover would be handed over to Westphalia but not allowed to be unified under France proper. The Continental System would be lifted and the smaller countries of the Northern Sea (like Oldenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin etc) as well as Denmark and Sweden would be allowed to trade with the British.

Sweden and Russia would agree to a ceasefire in which both countries would divide Finland. Te Russians managed to get Helsingfors but failed to secure Åbo, and as such the Swedish were unwilling to give Finland proper to them. The Russians then claimed the Finnish lakeland as a compensation, which led to the area being divided among the two. Not to antagonize Sweden too much, Napoleon willingly returned the conquisted areas of the Swedish Pomerania, which left Sweden debilitated but non the less a regional power.

As per the colonies, it was agreed that the lucrative Spice Islands and the Dutch East Indies, as well as the Dutch Indian colonies save Ceylan. As well, the other colonies were restored to it by Britain, notably various trading posts in Senegal, the *Île Bourbon* (renamed Bonaparte) in the Indian Ocean, and France's tiny Indian possessions; however, Britain finally annexed Saint Lucia and the Seychelles. Tobago was to be returned to the British as a compensation for allowing the French to retain their Indian possessions.

As for the officially Franco-Spanish occupated and disputed Kingdom of Portugal was the new discussed element. The Braganças officially renounced their claims to the Portuguese throne in exchange for keeping their crown colony of Brazil as well as their other colonies (specially in Africa, India and Macau). As for the Portuguese region, it would be divided into the regions of Northern Lusitania and Portugal. Northern Lusitania had been promised at Fontainebleau to the Etrurian Queen and her children, relatives of the King of Spain. However, the queen had supported her father at the Tumult of Aranjuez, and had thus lost a great deal of support from the Spanish monarch, her brother.

Thus, in exchange for the entirety of Portugaln (which would be given to Napoleon’s brother-in-law, Joachim Murat), French troops would leave Spain. This was also done so partially in order to appease Spain, who claimed the entirety of Portugal as a compensation for the loss of Mexico. However, the British also wanted to secure a safe harbour in the Atlantic, something the Murat were not so garanteed to do. The idea for Murat to become King of Portugal was due to the fact that the sister of Napoleon, Caroline, Murat’s wife, hhad been pressuring him for a crown for some time now and the Marshall was compensated.

At the Mutiny of Aranjuez, the King Charles IV and his valido, Manuel de Godoy, had been made to abdicate in favour of the former’s eldest son, Ferdinand, who thus became monarch Ferdinand VII. Charles, resentful and being influenced by a Queen consort Maria Luisa and an ex-valid Godoy who feared for their safety due to their animosity with Ferdinand, decided to secretly fleed from Madrid to Mexico, capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Soon enough, political turmoil followed in the Spanish Colonies. However, the king Charles IV decided to declare the independence of the Kingdoms of Mexico and New Galicia, as well as elevated the Captaincy General of Cuba and Guatemala to Kingdoms and declared himself “Emperador por la Gracia de Dios de la Nueva España” (Emperor by the Grace of God of the New Spain). Shortly afterwards Ferdinand threatened to declare war on his own father but at the Congress both France and UK decided to support Charles IV as an independent monarch with the idea of de-estabilizing the South American colonies with the hopes of influencing them themselves.

Finally, some lingering aspects of the war were tackled. For instance, the Bourbon-Two Sicilies who had been exiled into their Sicilian holding for the past 3 years and the Savoy, exiled into Sardinia, were both recognized as sovereigns of their own islands, respectively, while their continental holdings were given to France or made into French puppet states.

### Results of the Congress

The congress was the first attempt at European co-operation for a lasting peace in Europe, and it actually managed to do that for some time. From 1809 onwards, the wars that had plagued the European continent ended and some peace and re-building were starting to take place. However, the ever-ambitious Napoleon couldn’t be kept from warrying for much longer

## Postbellum 1809-1813

After the Congrress ended, surprisingly most countries kept their promises and tried not to provoke each other into conflict. The British were still recovering economically and soon enough the trade with other countries helped. However, a most interesting thing hapenned for both British and French started to commerce with one another, which in turn led to both sides losing interests in pursuing one another belically instead of economically.

Then Austria suddenly became Napoleon’s surprisingly closest “ally” among the Great Nations. For instance, the emperor chose Francis’ firstborn daughter as his new empress in 1810, and later she gave birth to his only legitimate son, Napoleon II. Then the giving of Silesia worked just as the emperor expected and caused a rift between the germanic powers, which led to Austria allyigning herself closer to France in fear of a Prussian-Russian alliance.

However, in late 1810, the unexpected happened when Napoleon’s rival turned ally Alexander I died in his sleep. Rumours soon spread that he had been assassinated by Napoleon as he the emperor was suspected of turning into a pro-British force and Napoleon was very suspicious of the British still. Non the less, the emperor wa succeeded by his younger brother Constatin Nikolayevitch. He didn’t really want the crown but his younger brothers Nicholas and Michael were still too young to ascend and as such he decided to accept it as a temporary measure. However, at the birth in 1812 of his son Alexander II, he started to become more enamoured with the idea of remaining on the throne.

However, what did indeed take everyone by surprise was in 1813, when following a series of stomach complaints, the emperor himself succumbed to what was later desried as a stomach ulcer who had bursted. He left the throne to his 3 year old son Napoleon II.