French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
From the storming of the Bastille to Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna and Napoleon’s death on Saint Helena: the revolution in France and a quarter-century of wars that redrew the map of Europe.
37 events · 7 regions · Western and Central Europe, Middle East and Egypt, Balkans and Anatolia, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Oceania, Eastern Europe
This thread follows the path from the crisis of the ancien régime in France to a quarter-century of almost continuous war. The storming of the Bastille in July 1789 began a revolution that within a few years swept away the privileges of the estates, abolished the monarchy, proclaimed a republic and sent the king to the scaffold. From 1792 revolutionary France fought coalitions of European monarchies, and these wars brought General Bonaparte to the fore: victor in Italy, leader of the Egyptian campaign and, after the coup of 18 Brumaire, First Consul.
Having proclaimed himself emperor in 1804, Napoleon crushed Austria, Prussia and Russia, reshaped Germany and Italy and handed the thrones of Spain, Naples, Holland and Westphalia to his relatives. Britain, whose command of the sea went unchallenged after Trafalgar, remained his implacable enemy: the Continental System, meant to ruin it, drew France into an exhausting war in the Iberian Peninsula and into the invasion of Russia in 1812.
The destruction of the Grande Armée in Russia opened the way to the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, the Allied entry into Paris and the emperor’s abdication. The Congress of Vienna established a new European order, which the Hundred Days and Waterloo interrupted only briefly, and Napoleon spent his last years as a prisoner on Saint Helena. The echoes of these wars reached Egypt and India, the Cape of Good Hope, Java and the Americas; such events are drawn into this thread from neighbouring threads.
Events
- Storming of the Bastille14 July 1789 · Western and Central Europe
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen26 August 1789 · Western and Central Europe
- Execution of Louis XVI21 January 1793 · Western and Central Europe
- Siege of Toulon29 August – 19 December 1793 · Western and Central Europe
- Italian campaign of 1796–179710 April 1796 – 17 October 1797 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of the Pyramids21 July 1798 · Middle East and Egypt
- Battle of the Nile1–3 August 1798 · Middle East and Egypt
- Siege and capture of Corfu24 October (4 November) 1798 – 20 February (3 March) 1799 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Suvorov’s Italian campaign3 (14) April 1799 – 31 August (11 September) 1799 · Western and Central Europe
- Suvorov’s Swiss campaign10 (21) September 1799 – 27 September (8 October) 1799 · Western and Central Europe
- Coup of 18 Brumaire9–10 November 1799 · Western and Central Europe
- French invasion of Egypt and Syria19 May 1798 – 2 September 1801 · Middle East and Egypt
- Battle of Marengo14 June 1800 · Western and Central Europe
- Napoleonic Code (French Civil Code)21 March 1804 · Western and Central Europe
- Coronation of Napoleon2 December 1804 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Trafalgar21 October 1805 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Austerlitz20 November (2 December) 1805 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Blaauwberg and the capture of the Cape Colony8–18 January 1806 · Africa
- Battle of Jena–Auerstedt14 October 1806 · Western and Central Europe
- Treaties of Tilsit25 June (7 July) 1807 · Western and Central Europe
- Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil29 November 1807 – 8 March 1808 · Latin America
- Battle of Wagram5–6 July 1809 · Western and Central Europe
- Continental System21 November 1806 – 11 April 1814 · Western and Central Europe
- Peninsular War2 May 1808 – 17 April 1814 · Western and Central Europe
- British conquest of Java4 August – 18 September 1811 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Battle of Borodino26 August (7 September) 1812 · Eastern Europe
- Fire of Moscow (1812)2 (14) September 1812 – 6 (18) September 1812 · Eastern Europe
- French invasion of Russia24 June – 14 December 1812 · Eastern Europe
- Battle of the Berezina14 (26) November 1812 – 17 (29) November 1812 · Eastern Europe
- Battle of Leipzig4 (16) October 1813 – 7 (19) October 1813 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Paris18 (30) March 1814 – 19 (31) March 1814 · Western and Central Europe
- Napoleon’s abdication and exile to Elba6 April – between 3 May and 4 May 1814 · Western and Central Europe
- Congress of ViennaSeptember 1814 – 9 June 1815 · Western and Central Europe
- Napoleon’s return from Elba26 February – 20 March 1815 · Western and Central Europe
- Hundred Days20 March – 8 July 1815 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Waterloo18 June 1815 · Western and Central Europe
- Death of Napoleon on Saint Helena5 May 1821 · Africa
Key participants
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): French Revolution
- Wikipedia (English): Napoleonic Wars
- Wikipedia (English): French Revolutionary Wars
- Wikipedia (Russian): Великая французская революция
- Wikipedia (Russian): Наполеоновские войны
- Wikipedia (Russian): Французские революционные войны
- Тарле Е. В. Наполеон. — М., 1936.
- Манфред А. З. Наполеон Бонапарт. — М.: Мысль, 1971.
- Chandler D. G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. — New York: Macmillan, 1966.
- Doyle W. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. — Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
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