Conquest of Napoleon

This is a map of the french empire in 1789:

And this is a map of the conquests of Napoleon in 1810:

As you can see he expanded the french territory 3 times more

Wellington's Dispatches

These British Army dispatches give a fascinating insight into the nature of operations in the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns during the Napoleonic Wars. They also reveal a thoughtful yet stern Arthur Wellesley, whose many concerns as commander-in-chief included the needs of his officers, the feeding of his men and endless negotiations with British, Spanish and Portuguese leaders. The ravages of politics however, did not leave these dispatches unmarked. In at least one instance – the Battle of Albuera – Wellington ordered his officers to re-write their combat reports in order to present more optimistic impressions than those really existing in the field. He sometimes attached detailed correction notes for leaders back in England. The final result were two series of dispatches: those crafted for public and political consumption, and those written to inform his superiors of actual events.




The Peninsular campaigns of 1808 through 1814 were a grueling series of struggles which strained the resources of all the major participants. The resulting battles were not the easy victories that are often imagined today, and on various occasions all of the major combatants suffered defeats and lost opportunities. Certainly it was only after he arrived in Spain that Wellington came to appreciate the full value of the many captured French documents regularly passed on to headquarters by the Spanish. Much like later eras when good intelligence made a difference, the details of British Intelligence successes and the people responsible for them were only vaguely alluded to in the text of these dispatches.



A number of contemporaries criticized Wellington for treating his men's lives as "no more than mice in an air pump," but he was also known to have agonized over losses suffered at numerous battles, so the former accusation is unlikely. It should be remembered that there commonly was a need to capture enemy fortresses by storm before regional French forces could mobilize. This sometimes forced Wellington to make bloody bids for success before his numerically superior enemies combined their full strength against him. His apparent habit of giving preferential treatment to high-born officers might have contributed to the varying opinions of his motives. Ultimately most people understood that regardless of these other issues, Wellington was a vital link in the string of successes enjoyed by the multinational Allied armies that served in Spain and Belgium between 1808 and 1815.

THE FRENCH REVOLT AND EMPIRE

The French revolt and Empire


In 1789, growing discontent with France's feudal government suddenly exploded into an open revolt which drew the attention of all the nations of Europe. The ensuing violence and international involvement triggered more than two decades of nearly continuous warfare as various competing empires sought to reimpose their own views of balanced power. So many related military campaigns were fought over such large areas by so many different factions, that this era has wryly been called the first true world war.


The era itself can be split into two periods; The French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Empire. The Revolution and ensuing republic saw the toppling of the old French monarchy and its replacement by a series of sporadically violent civilian administrations. At the peak of the violent period, known as "The Terror," the former king and queen were cruelly put to death. This act galvanized the other nations of Europe against France, and guaranteed that no matter what improvements might be made later, the resulting nation would never enjoy the cooperation of Europe's other leaders.


The events which followed were typical in the history of revolutions; an army general seized control of the government. This general however, named Napoleon Bonaparte, was of unusual intelligence and charisma, and he had seized control of what today would be called a superpower. The presence of this charismatic military genius as the head of France vastly complicated Europe's political landscape and broadened the atmosphere of confrontation which was destined to continue until one of the two sides was defeated. Napoleon himself was not of a disposition to resist playing the same power games as those around him, and so not until 1815 did the wars end with the battle of Waterloo and the return of a monarch to Paris.

Napoleon's Summary

Name and title:

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon 1st of France.
Originally Napoleone Buonaparte, also unofficially known as The Little Corporal (Le Petit Caporal) and The Corsican.

Dates:

Born: 15th August 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica
Married (Josephine): 9th March 1796 in Paris, France
Married (Marie-Louise): 2nd April 1810 in Paris, France
Died: 5th May 1821 on St. Helena
First Consul of France: 1799 - 1804
Emperor of France: 1804 - 1814, 1815