Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1814, 1815) include all armed conflicts in which the French armies and civilians participated, within France or elsewhere, between the start of the war by the Third Coalition in May 1803 and Emperor Napoléon’s second abdication in June 1815. The energy and ideological inspiration released by the French Revolution (1789–1799), and later channeled into rampant nationalism and expansionism by Napoléon, threatened the established traditional Old Order of the European monarchies, thus producing a series of alliances in the hopes of containing and eventually overthrowing the French military, political, and economic menace.

The term Napoleonic Wars was coined after its major protagonist, Emperor Napoléon. It received further affirmation and recognition in 1864 when U.S. general Henry W. Halleck translated into English Life of Napoléon, ...