The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History

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Austerlitz, Wagram, Borodino, Trafalgar, Leipzig, Waterloo: these are the places most closely associated with the era of the Napoleonic Wars. But how did this period of nearly continuous conflict affect the world beyond Europe? The immensity of the fighting waged by France against England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, and the immediate consequences of the tremors that spread throughout the world. In this ambitious and far-ranging work, Alexander Mikaberidze argues that the Napoleonic Wars can only be fully understood in an international perspective. France struggled for dominance not only on the plains of Europe but also in the Americas, West and South Africa, Ottoman Empire, Iran, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Taking specific regions in turn, Mikaberidze discusses major political-military events around the world and situates geopolitical decision-making within its long- and short-term contexts. From the British expeditions to Argentina and South Africa to the Franco-Russian maneuvering in the Ottoman Empire, the effects of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars would shape international affairs well into the next century. In Egypt, the wars led to the rise of Mehmed Ali and the emergence of a powerful state; in North America, the period transformed and enlarged the newly established United States; and in South America, the Spanish colonial empire witnessed the start of national-liberation movements that ultimately ended imperial control. Skillfully narrated and deeply researched, here at last is the global history of the period, one that expands our view of the Napoleonic Wars and their role in laying the foundations of the modern world. Cover The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History Copyright Dedicatioin Epigraphy Contents List of Maps Preface Acknowledgments Plates Chapter 1: The Revolutionary Prelude Chapter 2: The Eighteenth-Century International Order Chapter 3: The War of the First Coalition, 1792–1797 Chapter 4: The Making of La Grande Nation, 1797–1802 Chapter 5: The Second Coalition War and the Origins of the “Great Game” Chapter 6: The Rites of Peace, 1801–1802 Chapter 7: The Road to War, 1802–1803 Chapter 8: The Rupture, 1803 Chapter 9: The Elephant Against the Whale: France and Britain at War, 1803–1804 Chapter 10: The Emperor’s Conquest, 1805–1807 Chapter 11: “War Through Other Means”: Europe and the Continental System Chapter 12: The Struggle for Portugal and Spain, 1807–1812 Chapter 13: The Grand Empire, 1807–1812 Chapter 14: The Emperor’s Last Triumph Chapter 15: The Northern Question, 1807–1811 Chapter 16: “An Empire Besieged”: The Ottomans and the Napoleonic Wars Chapter 17: The Qajar Connection: Iran and the European Powers, 1804–1814 Chapter 18: Britain’s Expeditionary Warfare, 1805–1810 Chapter 19: Britain’s Eastern Empire, 1800–1815 Chapter 20: The Western Question? Struggle for the Americas, 1808–1815 Chapter 21: The Turning Point, 1812 Chapter 22: The Fall of the French Empire Chapter 23: The War and Peace, 1814–1815 Chapter 24: The Aftermath of the Great War Notes Prelim Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Select Bibliography Abbreviations Archives Periodicals Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index