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87-565: The Prussian Navy was created in 1701 from the former Brandenburg Navy upon the dissolution of Brandenburg-Prussia , the personal union of Brandenburg and Prussia under the House of Hohenzollern , after the elevation of Frederick I from Duke of Prussia to King in Prussia . The Prussian Navy fought in several wars but was active mainly as a merchant navy throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, as Prussia's military consistently concentrated on

174-499: A blue-water navy . The Elector designated navigation and commerce as the most significant undertakings of his state, and strove energetically to acquire overseas colonies and become involved in the Atlantic slave trade ; as such, a powerful navy was needed to defend these interests. However, his grandson Frederick William I held little interest in colonial affairs or maintaining a powerful navy, preferring to expend state revenues on

261-756: A military dictatorship . There are numerous opinions on the date to use as the formal beginning of the Napoleonic Wars; 18 May 1803 is often used, when Britain and France ended the only short period of peace between 1792 and 1814. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition , which was the first of the Coalition Wars against the First French Republic after Napoleon's accession as leader of France. Britain ended

348-458: A collective war effort. Tactically, the French Army had redefined the role of artillery , while Napoleon emphasised mobility to offset numerical disadvantages, and aerial surveillance was used for the first time in warfare. The highly successful Spanish guerrillas demonstrated the capability of a people driven by fervent nationalism against an occupying force. Due to the longevity of

435-498: A dramatic miscalculation. There was one serious attempt to negotiate peace with France during the war, made by Charles James Fox in 1806. The British wanted to retain their overseas conquests and have Hanover restored to George III in exchange for accepting French conquests on the continent. The French were willing to cede Malta, Cape Colony, Tobago , and French Indian posts to Britain but wanted to obtain Sicily in exchange for

522-662: A foundation named the Preußische Seehandlung (roughly translated as Prussian Maritime Enterprise ). After the end of the Napoleonic Wars , Prussia slowly began to build its own small fleet for coastal defense. Again, more value was placed on the development of a merchant fleet than on a navy. In this connection, the Prussian Maritime Enterprise played a significant role. Its ships were armed to protect against pirates and flew

609-653: A global scale for over a decade. The British government paid out a large amount of money to other European states so that they could pay armies in the field against France. These payments are colloquially known as the Golden Cavalry of St George . The British Army provided long-term support to the Spanish rebellion in the Peninsular War of 1808–1814, assisted by Spanish guerrilla ('little war') tactics. Anglo-Portuguese forces under Arthur Wellesley supported

696-545: A new alliance began, the War of the Sixth Coalition . The coalition defeated Napoleon at Leipzig , precipitating his fall from power and eventual abdication on 6 April 1814. The victors exiled Napoleon to Elba and restored the Bourbon monarchy . Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815, gathering enough support to overthrow the monarchy of Louis XVIII , triggering a seventh, and final, coalition against him . Napoleon

783-604: A new income tax. The cost of the war amounted to £831 million. In contrast, the French financial system was inadequate and Napoleon's forces had to rely in part on requisitions from conquered lands. From London in 1813 to 1815, Nathan Mayer Rothschild was crucial in almost single-handedly financing the British war effort, organising the shipment of bullion to the Duke of Wellington's armies across Europe, as well as arranging

870-578: A retention of Malta for at least ten years, the permanent acquisition of the island of Lampedusa from the Kingdom of Sicily, and the evacuation of Holland. They also offered to recognise French gains in Italy if they evacuated Switzerland and compensated the King of Sardinia for his territorial losses. France offered to place Malta in the hands of Russia to satisfy British concerns, pull out of Holland when Malta

957-751: A standing army of 220,000 at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, of whom less than 50% were available for campaigning. The rest were necessary for garrisoning Ireland and the colonies and providing security for Britain. France's strength peaked at around 2,500,000 full-time and part-time soldiers including several hundred thousand National Guardsmen whom Napoleon could draft into the military if necessary. Both nations enlisted large numbers of sedentary militia who were unsuited for campaigning and were mostly employed to release regular forces for active duty. The Royal Navy disrupted France's extra-continental trade by seizing and threatening French shipping and colonial possessions , but could do nothing about France's trade with

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1044-805: The Reichsmarine (Reich Navy) and later the Kriegsmarine (War Navy), until at the end of World War II , it faced its own end. Brandenburg Navy The Brandenburg Navy was the navy of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in Germany from the 16th century to 1701, when it became part of the Prussian Navy . The navy was originally assembled as the Hohenzollern rulers of Brandenburg began to increase in importance and to desire

1131-679: The Austrian Empire out of the war , and formally dissolving the Holy Roman Empire. Within months, Prussia declared war, triggering a War of the Fourth Coalition . This war ended disastrously for Prussia, which had been defeated and occupied within 19 days of the beginning of the campaign. Napoleon subsequently defeated Russia at Friedland , creating powerful client states in Eastern Europe and ending

1218-922: The Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the North German states had allied under Prussian leadership as the North German Confederation . Out of the Prussian Navy grew the North German Federal Navy , which after the Franco-Prussian War changed its name again to become the Imperial Navy of the new German Empire. Even though Prussia consistently understood itself as a continental land power, its rise and fall were closely bound up with

1305-633: The Consulate and transforming the republic into a de facto dictatorship. He further reorganised the French military forces, establishing a large reserve army positioned to support campaigns on the Rhine or in Italy. Russia had already been knocked out of the war , and, under Napoleon's leadership, the French decisively defeated the Austrians in June 1800 , crippling Austrian capabilities in Italy. Austria

1392-705: The Directory , suffered from heavy levels of corruption and internal strife . The new republic also lacked funds, no longer enjoying the services of Lazare Carnot , the minister of war who had guided France to its victories during the early stages of the Revolution . Bonaparte, commander of the Armée d'Italie in the latter stages of the First Coalition, had launched a campaign in Egypt , intending to disrupt

1479-637: The Erster Napoleonischer Krieg ("First Napoleonic War"). In Dutch historiography, it is common to refer to the 7 major wars between 1792 and 1815 as the Coalition Wars ( coalitieoorlogen ), referring to the first two as the French Revolution Wars ( Franse Revolutieoorlogen ). Napoleon was, and remains, famous for his battlefield victories, and historians have spent enormous attention in analysing them. In 2008, Donald Sutherland wrote: The ideal Napoleonic battle

1566-617: The French Revolution (1789–1799) and from the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe . The wars are categorised as seven conflicts, five named after the coalitions that fought Napoleon, plus two named for their respective theatres: the War of the Third Coalition , War of the Fourth Coalition , War of the Fifth Coalition , War of

1653-615: The Prussian Army . In 1721, Frederick I sold the Brandenburger Gold Coast to the Dutch West India Company for 7,200 ducats and 12 African slaves, marking the end for any need by Prussia for a blue-water navy; the Prussian Navy subsequently dwindled in size. The Prussian kings of the 18th century had little interest in maintaining their own navy. Due to the state's continental position and

1740-509: The Prussian Army . The Prussian Navy was dissolved in 1867 when Prussia joined the North German Confederation , and its naval forces were absorbed into the North German Federal Navy . The Electorate of Brandenburg , the predecessor of the Kingdom of Prussia , possessed its own navy , which was founded in the 16th century. From 1657 onwards, under Elector Frederick William (the "Great Elector"), Brandenburg's naval forces were developed into

1827-596: The Seven Years' War , which historians term a " world war ". In response to the naval blockade of the French coasts enacted by the British government on 16 May 1806, Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree on November 21, 1806, which brought into effect the Continental System . This policy aimed to eliminate the threat from Britain by closing French-controlled territory to its trade. Britain maintained

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1914-903: The Seven Years' War . This embryonic fleet lost the battle of Frisches Haff in September 1759 to a Swedish naval force. The Prussians lost all ships and as a consequence the Swedes occupied Usedom and Wollin . However, the ships were replaced already in 1760, and the new flotilla served until the end of the war in 1763. Even so, the Prussian monarch wanted to take part in international maritime commerce and therefore founded several trading firms (with varying success). The Emden Company (officially, Royal Prussian Asiatic Company in Emden to Canton and China) operated four ships from 1751 to 1757. The Societé de Commerce maritime , founded in 1772, exists today as

2001-516: The Swiss Confederation . Austria joined the alliance after the annexation of Genoa and the proclamation of Napoleon as King of Italy on 17 March 1805. Sweden, which had already agreed to lease Swedish Pomerania as a military base for British troops against France, entered the coalition on 9 August. The Austrians began the war by invading Bavaria on 8 September 1805 with an army of about 70,000 under Karl Mack von Leiberich , and

2088-830: The Treaty of Amiens , declaring war on France in May 1803. Among the reasons were Napoleon's changes to the international system in Western Europe, especially in Switzerland , Germany, Italy , and the Netherlands . Historian Frederick Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleon's assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, even though King George III

2175-557: The prince-elector of Brandenburg, who was intensely involved in the navy's affairs, secured the navy a base at Greetsiel , but they shifted to Emden a year later. Frederick William died in 1688, and his descendants took no interest in the Brandenburg Navy. Frederick III and his grandson Frederick the Great recognized that they could never compete directly with the great maritime powers and concentrated instead on building

2262-561: The 1848-1852 war against Denmark did Prussia recognize the necessity of having at least a minimal naval force to protect maritime interests. But after only 15 years, Prussia handed over its young naval forces to the rising centralized German state, an act which would have been unthinkable for the Prussian Army. The Navy was handed over first to the North German Confederation and in 1871, as the Imperial Navy , to

2349-589: The Brandenburg Navy: Napoleonic Wars Other coalition members: 100,000 regulars and militia at peak strength (1813) [REDACTED] French Empire : The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of conflicts fought between the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte (1804–1815) and a fluctuating array of European coalitions . The wars originated in political forces arising from

2436-421: The British army, in accordance with the orders which had subsequently been countermanded. On 8 March they ordered military preparations to guard against possible French retaliation and justified them by falsely claiming that it was only in response to French preparations and that they were conducting serious negotiations with France. In a few days, it was known that Cape Colony had been surrendered in accordance with

2523-512: The British control of India . Pressed from all sides, the Republic suffered a string of successive defeats against revitalised enemies, who were supported by Britain's financial help. Bonaparte returned to France from Egypt on 23 August 1799, his campaign there having failed . He seized control of the French government on November 9, in a bloodless coup d'état , replacing the Directory with

2610-602: The British fleet away from the English Channel . A complex plan to distract the British by threatening their possessions in the West Indies failed when a Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve turned back after an indecisive action off Cape Finisterre on 22 July 1805. The Royal Navy blockaded Villeneuve in Cádiz until he left for Naples on 19 October; the British squadron caught and overwhelmingly defeated

2697-564: The British from evacuating it after three months as stipulated in the treaty. The Helvetic Republic was set up by France when it invaded Switzerland in 1798 . France had withdrawn its troops, but violent strife broke out against the government , which many Swiss saw as overly centralised. Bonaparte reoccupied the country in October 1802 and imposed a compromise settlement . This caused widespread outrage in Britain, which protested that this

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2784-662: The Continental System, led to Napoleon invading Russia in June 1812. The invasion was an unmitigated disaster for Napoleon; scorched earth tactics, desertion, French strategic failures and the onset of the Russian winter compelled Napoleon to retreat with massive losses . Napoleon suffered further setbacks: French power in the Iberian Peninsula was broken at the Battle of Vitoria the following summer, and

2871-589: The Fourth Coalition. Concurrently, the refusal of Portugal to commit to the Continental System, and Spain 's failure to maintain it, led to the Peninsular War and the outbreak of the War of the Fifth Coalition . The French occupied Spain and formed a Spanish client kingdom , ending the alliance between the two. Heavy British involvement in the Iberian Peninsula soon followed, while a British effort to capture Antwerp failed. Napoleon oversaw

2958-651: The French Revolution had been received with great alarm by the rulers of Europe's continental powers, further exacerbated by the execution of Louis XVI , and the overthrow of the French monarchy . In 1793, Austria , the Kingdom of Sardinia , the Kingdom of Naples , Prussia , the Kingdom of Spain , and the Kingdom of Great Britain formed the First Coalition to curtail the growing power of revolutionary France. Measures such as mass conscription , military reforms, and total war allowed France to defeat

3045-545: The French army marched out from Boulogne in late July 1805 to confront them. At Ulm (25 September – 20 October) Napoleon surrounded Mack's army, forcing its surrender without significant losses. With the main Austrian army north of the Alps defeated (another army under Archduke Charles fought against André Masséna 's French army in Italy ), Napoleon occupied Vienna on 13 November. Far from his supply lines, he faced

3132-517: The French government believed that cutting Britain off from the Continent would end its economic influence over Europe and isolate it. A key element in British success was its ability to mobilise the nation's industrial and financial resources, and apply them to defeating France. Though the UK had a population of approximately 16 million against France's 30 million, the French numerical advantage

3219-653: The Italian peninsula . The war in Iberia greatly weakened Spanish power, and the Spanish Empire began to unravel; Spain would lose nearly all of its American possessions by 1833 . The Portuguese Empire also shrank, with Brazil declaring independence in 1822. The wars revolutionised European warfare; the application of mass conscription and total war led to campaigns of unprecedented scale, as whole nations committed all their economic and industrial resources to

3306-419: The Netherlands remained neutral and Denmark became the enemy. Within a few days, the Danish Navy halted all German maritime trade in the North and Baltic Seas. The navy of Austria , Prussia's ally, lay in the Mediterranean and was able to intervene only later in the war. After the failure of the Revolutions of 1848, Adalbert was able to resume his plans for the establishment of a Prussian Navy. He began with

3393-418: The Prussian war ensign . This protective fleet existed until around 1850. One of the first to work for the development of a Prussian Navy was Prince Adalbert of Prussia . He had made a number of journeys abroad and recognized the value of a fleet to support commercial interests and to protect one's own navigation. During the Revolutionary era of 1848–1852 , at the behest of the Frankfurt National Assembly ,

3480-431: The Royal Navy, doubling the number of frigates , adding 50 per cent more large ships of the line , and increasing the number of sailors from 15,000 to 133,000 in eight years after the war began in 1793. France saw its navy shrink by more than half. The smuggling of finished products into the continent undermined French efforts to weaken the British economy by cutting off markets. Subsidies to Russia and Austria kept them in

3567-414: The Sixth Coalition , War of the Seventh Coalition , the Peninsular War , and the French invasion of Russia . The first stage of the war broke out when Britain declared war on France on 18 May 1803, alongside the Third Coalition. In December 1805, Napoleon defeated the allied Russo-Austrian army at Austerlitz , thus forcing Austria to make peace. Concerned about increasing French power, Prussia led

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3654-400: The Spanish, who campaigned successfully against the French armies, eventually driving them from Spain and allowing Britain to invade southern France. By 1815, the British Army played the central role in the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. Beyond minor naval actions against British imperial interests, the Napoleonic Wars were much less global in their scope than preceding conflicts such as

3741-439: The anti-French press. Malta was captured by Britain during the war and was subject to a complex arrangement in the 10th article of the Treaty of Amiens, where it was to be restored to the Knights of St. John with a Neapolitan garrison and placed under the guarantee of third powers. The weakening of the Knights of St. John by the confiscation of their assets in France and Spain along with delays in obtaining guarantees prevented

3828-421: The best army in Europe while maintaining good relations with naval powers such as Denmark and the Netherlands . The overseas colonies were eventually sold to the Dutch in 1721. In 1701, Frederick was crowned King in Prussia , marking a shift from Brandenburg to Prussia as the most important Hohenzollern realm. The Brandenburg Navy was consequently merged into the Prussian Navy that year. List of ships in

3915-433: The coalition, despite the concurrent civil war in France . Napoleon , then a general of the French Revolutionary Army , forced the Austrians to sign the Treaty of Campo Formio , leaving only Great Britain opposed to the fledgling French Republic. A Second Coalition was formed in 1798 by Great Britain, Austria, Naples, the Ottoman Empire , the Papal States , Portugal , Russia , and Sweden . The French Republic, under

4002-412: The coalitions arrayed against him. The so-called Continental System formed a League of Armed Neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France. The British responded by capturing the Danish fleet , breaking up the league, and later secured dominance over the seas , allowing it to freely continue its strategy. Napoleon won the War of the Third Coalition at Austerlitz , forcing

4089-448: The combined enemy fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October (the British commander, Lord Nelson , died in the battle). Napoleon never again had the opportunity to challenge the British at sea, nor to threaten an invasion. He again turned his attention to the enemies on the Continent. In April 1805, Britain and Russia signed a treaty with the aim of removing the French from the Batavian Republic (roughly present-day Netherlands) and

4176-418: The construction of warships and naval education and training. From the middle of the 1850s, one could find Prussian corvettes and frigates upon all the world's seas. Besides Prince Adalbert, other important figures of this early period were Prussian naval officers Karl Rudolf Brommy and Ludwig von Henk , who eventually became an admiral in the Imperial German Navy. At the same time, the first naval base

4263-442: The counter-orders, but it was too late. Bonaparte berated the British ambassador in front of 200 spectators over the military preparations. The Addington ministry realised they would face an inquiry over their false reasons for the military preparations, and during April unsuccessfully attempted to secure the support of William Pitt to shield them from damage. In the same month, the ministry issued an ultimatum to France, demanding

4350-561: The creation of the Fourth Coalition, which resumed war in October 1806. Napoleon soon defeated the Prussians at Jena-Auerstedt and the Russians at Friedland , bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. The treaty had failed to end the tension, and war broke out again in 1809, with the Austrian-led Fifth Coalition. At first, the Austrians won a significant victory at Aspern-Essling but were quickly defeated at Wagram . Hoping to isolate and weaken Britain economically through his Continental System , Napoleon launched an invasion of Portugal ,

4437-426: The date according to the Republican Calendar then in use; 18 May 1803, when Britain and France ended the one short period of peace between 1792 and 1814; or 2 December 1804, when Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor . British historians occasionally refer to the nearly continuous period of warfare from 1792 to 1815 as the Great French War, or as the final phase of the Anglo-French Second Hundred Years' War , spanning

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4524-497: The destiny of the Brandenburger-Prussian-German naval forces. It was the ambitious appearance of the Great Elector who prepared Brandenburg's elevation as the Kingdom of Prussia. At that time, sea power and colonies were among the essential attributes of a European power; such attributes also obviously belonged to smaller and middling powers such as Denmark and the Netherlands. For 150 years Prussia — unlike all other European powers — declined to develop its own navy. Not until

4611-453: The east , while the Peninsular War spilled over into southwestern France . Coalition troops captured Paris at the end of March 1814, forced Napoleon to abdicate in April, exiled him to the island of Elba , and restored power to the Bourbons . Napoleon escaped in February 1815 and reassumed control of France for around one Hundred Days . The allies formed the Seventh Coalition, which defeated him at Waterloo in June 1815, and exiled him to

4698-512: The economic consequences of reduced trade, routinely violated the Continental System, prompting Napoleon to launch a massive invasion of Russia in 1812. The resulting campaign ended in disaster for France and the near-destruction of Napoleon's Grande Armée . Encouraged by the defeat, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia formed the Sixth Coalition and began a new campaign against France, decisively defeating Napoleon at Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France from

4785-408: The fundamental reorganization of German and Italian territories into larger states, and the introduction of radically new methods of conducting warfare. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna redrew Europe's borders and brought a relative peace to the continent, lasting until the Revolutions of 1848 and the Crimean War in 1853. Napoleon seized power in 1799, establishing

4872-494: The great fleets of Britain , France , the Dutch Republic , Spain , Sweden , Denmark , and Russia ; with their few ships, the Prussians would always remain behind those great maritime nations. He believed that naval battles would only rarely decide a conflict and preferred having the best army in Europe rather than the worst fleet among the naval powers. Prussia nevertheless built up a small naval force of 13 makeshift warships (mixing of Galleys , Galiots and Gunboat ) during

4959-406: The international system unstable, and forcing Britain to the sidelines. Numerous scholars have argued that Napoleon's aggressive posture made him enemies and cost him potential allies. As late as 1808, the continental powers affirmed most of his gains and titles, but the continuing conflict with Britain led him to start the Peninsular War and the invasion of Russia , which many scholars see as

5046-416: The island of Saint Helena , where he died six years later in 1821. The wars had profound consequences on global history, including the spread of nationalism and liberalism , advancements in civil law , the rise of Britain as the world's foremost naval and economic power , the appearance of independence movements in Spanish America and the subsequent decline of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires ,

5133-402: The lack of easily defensible natural borders, Prussia had to concentrate its military preparations on the army . Besides this, the kingdom was able to rely on its many friendly connections with the neighboring naval powers of Denmark and the Netherlands. Frederick II ("the Great") took the view that Prussia should never seek to develop its own war fleet. The kingdom could never hope to equal

5220-408: The major continental economies, and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity greatly outstripped Britain's. Britain had the greatest industrial capacity in Europe, and its mastery of the seas allowed it to build up considerable economic strength through trade. This ensured that France could never consolidate its control over Europe in peace. Many in

5307-418: The new German Empire. The naval preference of the last Prussian king, German Emperor Wilhelm II , prepared the end of the Prussian monarchy. The German naval buildup of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was one of the causes of World War I ; and it was the mutinying sailors of the High Seas Fleet who forced the abdication of the Emperor during the German Revolution of 1918–1919 . The Navy continued as

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5394-501: The only remaining British ally in continental Europe. After occupying Lisbon in November 1807, and with the bulk of French troops present in Spain, Napoleon seized the opportunity to turn against his former ally, depose the reigning Spanish royal family , and declare his brother King of Spain in 1808 as José I . The Spanish and Portuguese thus revolted, with British support, and expelled the French from Iberia in 1814 after six years of fighting . Concurrently, Russia , unwilling to bear

5481-521: The orders to not restore Cape Colony. At the same time, Russia finally joined the guarantee regarding Malta. Concerned that there would be hostilities when Bonaparte found out that Cape Colony had been retained , the British began to procrastinate on the evacuation of Malta. In January 1803, a government paper in France published a report from a commercial agent which noted the ease with which Egypt could be conquered. The British seized on this to demand satisfaction and security before evacuating Malta, which

5568-400: The payment of British financial subsidies to their continental allies. Britain gathered allies to form the Third Coalition against The French Empire after Napoleon was self-proclaimed as emperor. In response, Napoleon seriously considered an invasion of Great Britain , massing 180,000 troops at Boulogne . Before he could invade, he needed to achieve naval superiority—or at least to pull

5655-431: The period 1689 to 1815. Historian Mike Rapport (2013) suggested using the term "French Wars" to unambiguously describe the entire period from 1792 to 1815. In France, the Napoleonic Wars are generally integrated with the French Revolutionary Wars: Les guerres de la Révolution et de l'Empire . German historiography may count the War of the Second Coalition (1798/9–1801/2), during which Napoleon had seized power, as

5742-409: The prestige and security of having a suitable naval defence force. During the 17th century, the navy was of great use in numerous battles in the Baltic Sea , and it also served the interests of Brandenburg's colonies in Africa (specifically the Brandenburger Gold Coast ) and the Caribbean. The navy also protected Brandenburg's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade , as the Brandenburger Gold Coast

5829-466: The prince was given the responsibility of reestablishing an Imperial Fleet ( Reichsflotte ) -- a mission which the revolutionary parliament had undertaken in the face of the war with Denmark. The German Confederation possessed practically no fleet of its own, but relied upon the allied powers of Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Denmark. During the First War of Schleswig of 1848–1851, the failure of this strategy became clear because Great Britain and

5916-456: The process by which even a smaller French army could defeat the enemy's forces one by one. After 1807, Napoleon's creation of a highly mobile, well-armed artillery force gave artillery usage an increased tactical importance. Napoleon, rather than relying on infantry to wear away the enemy's defences, could now use massed artillery as a spearhead to pound a break in the enemy's line. Once that was achieved he sent in infantry and cavalry. Britain

6003-514: The restoration of Hanover, a condition which the British refused. Unlike its many coalition partners, Britain remained at war during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. Protected by naval supremacy (in the words of Admiral Jervis to the House of Lords "I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea"), Britain did not have to spend the entire war defending itself and could thus focus on supporting its embattled allies, maintaining low-intensity land warfare on

6090-439: The right choice for Britain because, in the long run, Napoleon's intentions were hostile to the British national interest. Napoleon was not ready for war, and so this was the best time for Britain to stop them. Britain seized upon the Malta issue, refusing to follow the terms of the Treaty of Amiens and evacuate the island. The deeper British grievance was their perception that Napoleon was taking personal control of Europe, making

6177-512: The situation in Iberia, defeating the Spanish , and expelling the British from the Peninsula. Austria, eager to recover territory lost during the War of the Third Coalition, invaded France's client states in Eastern Europe in April 1809. Napoleon defeated the Fifth Coalition at Wagram . Plans to invade British North America pushed the United States to declare war on Britain in the War of 1812 , but it did not become an ally of France. Grievances over control of Poland , and Russia's withdrawal from

6264-655: The uneasy truce created by the Treaty of Amiens when it had declared war on France in May 1803. The British were increasingly angered by Napoleon's reordering of the international system in Western Europe, especially in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Kagan argues that Britain was especially alarmed by Napoleon's assertion of control over Switzerland. The British felt insulted when Napoleon said it deserved no voice in European affairs (even though King George

6351-523: The war, the Kingdom of Prussia rose to become a great power , while Great Britain, with its unequalled Royal Navy and growing Empire , became the world's dominant superpower , beginning the Pax Britannica . The Holy Roman Empire had been dissolved, and the philosophy of nationalism that emerged early in the war contributed greatly to the later unification of the German states , and those of

6438-514: The war. The British budget in 1814 reached £98 million, including £10 million for the Royal Navy, £40 million for the army, £10 million for the allies, and £38 million as interest on the national debt, which had soared to £679 million, more than double the GDP. This debt was supported by hundreds of thousands of investors and taxpayers, despite the higher taxes on land and

6525-420: The wars, the extent of Napoleon's conquests, and the popularity of the ideals of the French Revolution , the period had a deep impact on European social culture. Many subsequent revolutions, such as that of Russia , looked to the French as a source of inspiration, while its core founding tenets greatly expanded the arena of human rights and shaped modern political philosophies in use today. The outbreak of

6612-510: Was definitively defeated that December , by Moreau 's forces in Bavaria . The Austrian defeat was sealed by the Treaty of Lunéville early the following year, further compelling the British to sign the Treaty of Amiens with France, establishing a tenuous peace. No consensus exists as to when the French Revolutionary Wars ended and the Napoleonic Wars began. Possible dates include 9 November 1799, when Bonaparte seized power on 18 Brumaire ,

6699-478: Was a convenient stepping stone to Egypt. France disclaimed any desire to seize Egypt and asked what sort of satisfaction was required, but the British were unable to give a response. There was still no thought of going to war; Prime Minister Henry Addington publicly affirmed that Britain was in a state of peace. In early March 1803, the Addington ministry received word that Cape Colony had been reoccupied by

6786-454: Was a violation of the Treaty of Lunéville. Although continental powers were unprepared to act, the British decided to send an agent to help the Swiss obtain supplies, and also ordered their military not to return Cape Colony to Holland as they had committed to do in the Treaty of Amiens. Swiss resistance collapsed before anything could be accomplished, and, after a month, Britain countermanded

6873-588: Was an elector of the Holy Roman Empire ) and sought to restrict the London newspapers that were vilifying him. Britain had a sense of loss of control, as well as loss of markets, and was worried by Napoleon's possible threat to its overseas colonies . McLynn argues that Britain went to war in 1803 out of a "mixture of economic motives and national neuroses—an irrational anxiety about Napoleon's motives and intentions." McLynn concludes that it proved to be

6960-440: Was an elector of the Holy Roman Empire . For its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British hastily enforced a naval blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britain's Continental allies to break

7047-723: Was established on the North Sea . In the Jade Treaty ( Jade-Vertrag ) of 1853, the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg ceded to Prussia the so-called Jade District. Here, in the following years, arose the great naval port which received the name Wilhelmshaven in 1869. By that time, the Prussian Navy had already ceased to exist. In 1864 Prussian seamen, with some help from Austria, fought numerically superior Danish Navy again in Jasmund and Heligoland , but without much success. After

7134-577: Was evacuated, and form a convention to give satisfaction to Britain on other issues. The British falsely denied that Russia had made an offer, and their ambassador left Paris. Desperate to avoid a war, Bonaparte sent a secret offer where he agreed to let Britain retain Malta if France could occupy the Otranto peninsula in Naples. All efforts were futile, and Britain declared war on 18 May 1803. Britain ended

7221-522: Was irritated by several French actions following the Treaty of Amiens . Bonaparte annexed Piedmont and Elba , made himself President of the Italian Republic , a state in northern Italy that France had set up, and failed to evacuate Holland , as it had agreed to do in the treaty. France then continued to interfere with British trade despite peace having been made and complained about Britain harbouring certain individuals and not cracking down on

7308-503: Was offset by British subsidies that paid for many of the Austrian and Russian soldiers, peaking at about 450,000 men in 1813. Under the Anglo–Russian agreement of 1803, Britain paid a subsidy of £1.5 million for every 100,000 Russian soldiers in the field. British national output continued to be strong, and the well-organised business sector channeled products into what the military needed. Britain used its economic power to expand

7395-464: Was then decisively defeated at Waterloo , and he abdicated again on 22 June. On 15 July, he surrendered to the British at Rochefort , and was permanently exiled to remote Saint Helena . The Treaty of Paris , signed on 20 November 1815, formally ended the war. The Bourbon monarchy was once again restored, and the victors began the Congress of Vienna to restore peace to Europe. As a direct result of

7482-422: Was to manipulate the enemy into an unfavourable position through manoeuvre and deception, force him to commit his main forces and reserve to the main battle and then undertake an enveloping attack with uncommitted or reserve troops on the flank or rear. Such a surprise attack would either produce a devastating effect on morale or force him to weaken his main battle line. Either way, the enemy's own impulsiveness began

7569-548: Was used to transport between 17,000 and 30,000 enslaved Africans to the Americas between 1682 and 1721. By the year 1680, the Brandenburg Navy had almost thirty active warships . These ships were used primarily to secure control over hostile trade routes and maritime trading, as blockades and to provide naval defence, and to also provide reinforcement on various military operations , which would frequently involve engagements with unfriendly warships. In 1682, Frederick William ,

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