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Napoleonic Wars

1803-1815

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How did an unknown artillery officer from Corsica end up crowning himself Emperor of the French and ruling most of Europe, and how did it all fall apart? In this hour-long episode of The Wars Of History Podcast, Mike tells the full story of the Napoleonic Wars, the roughly twenty years of conflict that grew out of the French Revolution and ended at Waterloo in 1815. It's a conversational deep dive that goes well beyond the video, with more stories, more people and their own words, and it keeps every side in view: French soldiers and Spanish guerrillas, Russian peasants and Haitian revolutionaries, emperors and the ordinary families who paid the price.

We start with the French Revolution, the levée en masse and young Napoleon Bonaparte: his Corsican childhood, the siege of Toulon, Joséphine, the Italian campaign and the expedition to Egypt, including the Battle of the Pyramids, the Rosetta Stone, Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile and the coup that made Napoleon First Consul.

Next comes Napoleon the ruler: the Napoleonic Code, the Concordat, the Legion of Honor and his police state, the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint Louverture, the restoration of slavery, the Louisiana Purchase, the execution of the Duke of Enghien, the coronation at Notre Dame and Beethoven's Eroica. Then Trafalgar, Nelson's "England expects" signal and his death aboard HMS Victory.

Then the empire at its height: the corps system and the marshals Ney, Murat and Davout, Ulm, Austerlitz (the Battle of the Three Emperors), Pitt's "roll up that map", the end of the Holy Roman Empire, Jena and Auerstedt, Eylau, Friedland, the raft at Tilsit, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Continental System.

After that, the long unravelling: the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal, the Dos de Mayo uprising and Goya's The Third of May, the birth of guerrilla warfare, Sir John Moore at Corunna, Wellington and the Lines of Torres Vedras, the "Spanish ulcer", independence movements in Latin America, Aspern-Essling, Wagram, Andreas Hofer and the marriage to Marie Louise.

Finally, the fall: the 1812 invasion of Russia, Borodino, the burning of Moscow, the retreat and the Berezina crossing, the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, abdication and exile on Elba, the Hundred Days, Waterloo, Wellington's "nearest run thing", and Napoleon's last years on Saint Helena. Casualty figures are given as ranges, because estimates vary. We close with the Congress of Vienna, Clausewitz and a longer look at what these wars still teach us.

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