For this round of research, I researched the reason behind the Napoleonic wars. The reason why I decided to research this is, is because of the giant impact the Napoleonic wars had on Europe and the whole world. He wouldn’t have just been like “hmmm, I want to start a war because I just like to go around and mass-murder people.”
First of all, The Napoleonic Wars would not have occurred if the French Revolution had not arisen. The revolt’s violent social upheaval had far-reaching consequences that triggered other conflicts around the world that became known as the “Revolutionary Wars.” Neighbouring powers saw France’s revolution as a threat to established monarchies, and the new republic declared war on Austria and Prussia in anticipation of intervention. Napoleon’s rise through the French military was undoubtedly fueled by his increasingly powerful role in the Revolutionary Wars. (2)
Secondly, The growing unrest that prompted Britain to declare war on France in 1803 was entirely justified. Napoleon was already plotting an invasion of Britain, which he intended to fund with the 68 million Francs paid to France for the Louisiana Purchase.
Thirdly, most of the wars were justified by the allies declaring war on France, but they didn’t just randomly start a war against Napoleon, and one of the reasons is that he just stood out too much. Being only 30 years old, leading France, and overthrowing Monarchies, no one in Europe liked the idea of being overthrown. And two of the most disastrous battles were purely started by Napoleon out of his personal interest or hunger for power, the Battle of Waterloos and the Invasion of Russia.
The Napoleonic wars were fought between various countries in Europe, England, France, Austria, and Italy were some of the big European powers that fought in the war. After a brilliant success and a short visit to Egypt, he went back to France and crowned himself Emperor of France, then shortly afterwards, he started the Napoleonic wars. The whole reason behind the Napoleonic wars was to stabilize France’s place in Europe after the whole French Revolution and to overthrow monarchies, or that’s what it began with. (1) After the first 3 Coalitions, Europe was peaceful for a few years, or it seemed like it was peaceful, during those few years, neither France nor Great Britain actually was peaceful towards each other. The British Ships were bombing the French transportation between other countries, and heavily taxing the countries that had a partnership with France. On the other hand, the French weren’t innocent at all, they had helped Spain to fight against England, too. And throughout the “peaceful” years, none of the two countries followed the treaty and agreement that they made, and then the war began again, this time dragging more countries into the war, and causing more casualties. Soon after the first major defeat in Russia, both Napoleon and France were deeply wounded, and you would think “maybe this is a good time for the wars to stop and we can all get together to be a big family and improve our people’s lives instead of fighting every day.” But Napoleon didn’t want to end there, Napoleon was furious after the big defeat, but he had almost no one left in the army to fight for him, and the key strategy that he uses to win his wars relied on cavalries, and there were neither enough horses nor were there enough horseshoe for the horses, nor were there enough well-trained cavalries to fight for him. So he made every blacksmith in the country start to make horseshoes, and breed horses at insane speeds, and he even started to train 14-15 years old kids for them to go on the battlefield and fight for him. If the last few wars were for France, the last war was completely just for Napoleon’s pride and hunger for power. After losing his place in France and being deported onto an island, Napoleon didn’t plan to stay there at all, he soon started marching back into France, claiming more and more army as he goes, then starting the biggest and last defeat of his whole life, The Battle Of Waterloos.
- (1) https://www.britannica.com/summary/Napoleonic-Wars
- (2) https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-the-napoleonic-wars/
There is always something flashy about wars in the past. Arguably, boys have a higher affinity for stories involving wars. And I don’t know whether it has anything to do with hormones. Which explains why I found your post easy to read. Of all monumental battles in modern history, three of them deeply triggers my thinking. The Battle of Waterloo, The Battle of Adowa, and the Battle of Stalingrad. They all take me back to the past that has contributed significantly to the present we are in. I wonder how much our past paints into the future. I wonder how different the world would be should these wars never happened.
Cant wait to see what you come up with next!