THE WORLD ATLAS

Empire · 1805–1814

First French Empire (Napoleonic)

Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of the French in May 1804 and crowned that December. Victories over Austria, Prussia and Russia (1805–1807) let him annex territory directly to France and ring it with satellite kingdoms and confederations run by his relatives and allies, a system at its height around 1810–1812.

The disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812 and defeat at Leipzig in 1813 broke it, and he abdicated in April 1814; his return in the Hundred Days ended at Waterloo in 1815.

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Years
1805–1814

Timeline of First French Empire (Napoleonic)

  1. Victory over Austria and Russia at Austerlitz; Treaty of Pressburg

    Napoleon Bonaparte, who had crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804, faced a Third Coalition of Britain, Austria and Russia. After trapping an Austrian army at Ulm, he met the combined Russian and Austrian armies near Austerlitz in Moravia on 2 December 1805, with Emperors Alexander I and Francis II present, so that it was called the Battle of the Three Emperors. Napoleon lured the allies into attacking his weakened right and then broke their centre, winning a crushing victory. By the Peace of Pressburg on 26 December, Austria gave up Venetia, Istria and Dalmatia to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy and Tyrol to Bavaria, and paid 40 million francs.

  2. Confederation of the Rhine formed; Prussia crushed at Jena–Auerstedt

    After Austerlitz, Napoleon reorganised western Germany. On 12 July 1806, 16 German states signed the treaty creating the Confederation of the Rhine, a league of French allies with Napoleon as its 'Protector', and on 6 August Francis II dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, which had existed since the Middle Ages. Alarmed, Prussia went to war, but on 14 October 1806 Napoleon at Jena and Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout at Auerstedt destroyed the two Prussian armies on the same day. The French soon entered Berlin, and Napoleon now dominated all of Germany.

  3. Treaties of Tilsit; Duchy of Warsaw and Kingdom of Westphalia created

    Napoleon pursued the Prussians and their Russian allies east, and in June 1807 he defeated the Russian army at Friedland. On 7 July he met Tsar Alexander I on a raft in the Neman River at Tilsit and made peace, and on 9 July a second treaty was imposed on Prussia, which lost about half of its territory. From these lands Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw, ruled by his ally the King of Saxony, and the Kingdom of Westphalia, under his brother Jérôme. Russia agreed to join his blockade of British trade. Napoleon's power in Europe was at its height.

  4. French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula; Joseph made King of Spain

    To enforce his blockade of Britain, Napoleon sent troops through Spain to occupy Portugal in 1807, and in 1808 he turned on his Spanish ally. He forced King Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII to give up the throne and made his brother Joseph King of Spain. On 2 May 1808 the people of Madrid rose against the French, starting the Peninsular War, in which Spanish armies and guerrillas, with British and Portuguese forces later led by Wellington, fought the French for six years. The war tied down large French armies and cost an estimated million or more military and civilian lives.

  5. Treaty of Schönbrunn after victory over Austria; Warsaw enlarged

    While Napoleon was busy in Spain, Austria went to war again in 1809, hoping to reverse its losses of 1805. Napoleon took Vienna and defeated the Austrians decisively at Wagram on 5–6 July. By the Treaty of Schönbrunn, signed on 14 October 1809, Austria ceded Salzburg to Bavaria, lost its access to the Adriatic when its coastal lands became the French-ruled Illyrian Provinces, and gave West Galicia to the Duchy of Warsaw, which grew much larger. Austria, weakened but still a great power, made peace with France, and in 1810 Napoleon married the Austrian emperor's daughter, Marie Louise.

  6. Kingdom of Holland annexed directly to France

    In 1806 Napoleon had made his brother Louis King of Holland. Louis tried to protect Dutch interests and did not strictly enforce the Continental System, Napoleon's ban on trade with Britain, so smuggling continued. Losing patience, Napoleon sent troops, and French forces took Amsterdam in early July 1810; Louis abdicated on 1 July in favour of his son, and on 9 July 1810 the kingdom was annexed directly to the French Empire. The Netherlands were now ruled directly from Paris, and by 1812 the French Empire had grown to 130 departments with more than 44 million people.

  7. Grande Armée invades Russia in June; catastrophic retreat

    Russia had stopped enforcing Napoleon's blockade of Britain, and Napoleon decided to force it back into line. On 24 June 1812 the Grande Armée, a multinational force of more than 600,000 men, crossed the Neman River into Russia. The Russians retreated, fought a bloody battle at Borodino, and abandoned Moscow, which Napoleon entered on 14 September to find it deserted and set ablaze on the orders of its governor. Alexander I refused to negotiate, and in October the French began a disastrous retreat through the Russian winter, harried by Cossacks. Most of the army was lost, and the campaign cost around a million military and civilian lives.

  8. Defeat at Leipzig; Confederation of the Rhine dissolved

    After the disaster in Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden joined Russia and Britain in the Sixth Coalition. Napoleon rebuilt his army and won early battles in Germany, but on 16–19 October 1813 the coalition armies trapped him at Leipzig in the 'Battle of the Nations', the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, involving about 560,000 soldiers. Saxon and other German troops changed sides during the fighting, and Napoleon was defeated and retreated across the Rhine. The Confederation of the Rhine dissolved, and France lost control of all its territory east of the Rhine.

  9. Paris capitulates; Napoleon abdicates at Fontainebleau

    In early 1814 the coalition armies invaded France itself. Napoleon won several battles but could not stop their advance on the capital. On 30 March 1814 Russian, Austrian, Prussian and other allied troops attacked Paris, and after a day of fighting Marshals Marmont and Mortier agreed to a ceasefire; the French evacuated the city on 31 March, and the allies entered it. Napoleon abdicated at Fontainebleau, and by the treaty agreed there on 11 April he was sent into exile on Elba. His rule as Emperor of the French was over, and the Bourbon King Louis XVIII took the throne.

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