The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History
By Alexander Mikaberidze
This is a chronicle of the Napoleonic Wars in their entirety. There’s a ton of information, but maybe it wasn’t the best place to start for someone like me. I read it because I saw reviews by historians saying that it was authoritative. But I probably would have benefit from a history more focused on Napoleon — his distinctive qualities and his decisionmaking. Mikerabidze, for example, doesn’t do much in terms of explaining Napoleon’s thought process in delaying too long to accept the peace terms in the Frankfurt Proposals, which would have left him on the throne and changed the course of history. There’s only a few pages on the invasion of Russia and very little on Napoleon’s motivations overall.
My notes:
— “The victory at Ulm was a remarkable success. In less than two months Napoleon had marched some 200,000 men from the Atlantic coast [where they had been assembled to invade England] into Bavaria and achieved his major objective of annihilating the enemy without even needing to fight a major battle. It was this success, achieved at the operational level rather than the tactical, That led his men to joke that Napoleon had found a new way to make war: with their legs rather than their arms.”
— For 100 years Russia was accustomed to armies being victorious. Austerlitz shattered such illusions. Joseph de Maistre wrote from St. Petersburg: “it seems the defeat in battle had paralyzed an entire empire.”
— The Battle of Trafalgar eliminated the threat of French invasion of Britain but did not prevent French from destroying the third and fourth coalitions and engineering a geopolitical shift in the near East, where the Ottoman empire and Iran aligned with France.
— After defeating Prussia in just four weeks in fall 1806, Napoleon held a victory parade in Berlin featuring prisoners from the Noble Guard who had sharpened their swords on the steps of the French embassy. After ending Prussia‘s claim to great power status, Napoleon visited the tomb of Frederick the Great and said, “if you were still alive, I would not be standing here.”
— After successes against Russia, Napoleon negotiated the Treaties of Tilsit with Emperor Alexander in June 1807 in a raft on the Niemen River. Emperor Frederick William III was left to watch from the riverbank as the future of Prussia was decided. The agreement split Europe into eastern and western spheres of influence. All German speaking lands were placed under some degree of French control. Napoleon greeted with universal acclaim on returning to Paris in July. “Not since the days of Charlemagne had a ruler exercised such vast power over the continent, deciding the fates of rulers and millions of their subjects. France’s triumph over ancien regime Europe was a crucial moment in what German historian Reinhart Koselleck called a Sattelzeit, an epochal threshold that marked the transition from the early modern age to modernity, a moment that facilitated the rise of nationalism, modernization, and state creation.”
— Talleyrand instructed Alexander on negotiating with Napoleon to block an alliance at the Congress of Erfurt in 1808. He counseled continentals to stand together against Napoleon, seeing a distinction between serving the emperor and France.
— In 1808, a British fleet spirited away a Spanish division in Denmark that was supposed to invade Sweden under Napoleon, sailing them to Santander where they immediately began fighting the French. Unevacuated Spanish troops were forced to fight for Napoleon in Russia and died.
— While the British Cabinet was drawing up plans for the takeover of South America in 1806, Prime Minister William Grenville got carried away and planned for sending troops from Buenos Aires, stopping in Cape of Good Hope, picking up sepoys in India, invading the Philippines, and then sailing on to invade Mexico from the west simultaneously as another expedition invaded from the east. Wellington pointed out it was impossible.
— By 1810, the British seafaring population was 2.7% of the total male population.
— When Napoleon decided to invade Russia, the Royal Navy was stretched to the limit. “Had Napoleon focused his efforts on the peninsular affairs and gained sufficient superiority at sea, the struggle for Europe might have had a different outcome for France. By building up his navy in well-protected harbors, he could have prepared for a day when his fleet would be ready to challenge the Royal Navy on the sea.”
— The Russian order of the evacuation of Moscow was unprecedented. It was burned down probably by accident as the French entered.
— Mikerabidze says winter was not to blame for the failed invasion. Records show it was relatively mild
— The meeting between Napoleon and Metternich in Dresden in 1813 marked a turning point in history. Metternigh demanded reversal of 20 years of France’s conquests. Napoleon rejects the terms, saying, “very well, we shall meet at Vienna.” Mikarabidze says Metternich probably was planning for rejection — he’d already told diplomats to sign a treaty to complete the formation of the Sixth Coalition.
— After losing the War of the Sixth Coalition with allies in the north of France and Britain advancing in south, Napoleon tries to commit suicide with poison. On route to Elba, he is jeered, and disguises self in a Russian uniform.
— The dismissal of soldiers and placing officers on half pay cost Louis XVIII support. A notable comparison with Napoleon’s strength among veterans.
— An interesting note regarding the Congress of Vienna: Britain sought the total abolition of the slave trade (it got condemnation). Jewish community in Germany wanted Jewish rights (which it got in some German states).
Joseph Lawler 