Editing Napoleonic Wars (section)

==Background==
{{See also|French Revolutionary Wars}}
[[File: Valmy Battle painting.jpg|thumb|French victory over the Prussians at the [[Battle of Valmy]] in 1792]]
The outbreak of the [[French Revolution]] had been received with great alarm by the rulers of Europe's continental powers, further exacerbated by the [[execution of Louis XVI]], and the [[French First Republic|overthrow of the French monarchy]]. In 1793, [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]], the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]], the [[Kingdom of Naples]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], the [[History of Spain (1700-1808)|Kingdom of Spain]], and the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] formed the [[War of the First Coalition|First Coalition]] to curtail the growing power of revolutionary France. Measures such as [[Levée en masse|mass conscription]], military reforms, and total war allowed France to defeat the coalition, despite the [[War in the Vendée|concurrent civil war in France]]. [[Napoleon]], then a general of the [[French Revolutionary Army]], forced the Austrians to sign the [[Treaty of Campo Formio]], leaving only Great Britain opposed to the fledgling French Republic.

A [[War of the Second Coalition|Second Coalition]] was formed in 1798 by [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]], [[Austrian Empire|Austria]], [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]], the [[Ottoman Empire]], the [[Papal States]], [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], and [[Gustavian era|Sweden]]. The [[French First Republic|French Republic]], under the [[French Directory|Directory]], suffered from heavy levels of corruption and [[Chouannerie|internal strife]]. The new republic also lacked funds, no longer enjoying the services of [[Lazare Carnot]], the [[Minister of War (France)|minister of war]] who had guided France to its victories during the early stages of the [[French Revolutionary Wars|Revolution]]. [[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]], commander of the {{lang|fr|[[Army of Italy (France)|Armée d'Italie]]}} in the latter stages of the First Coalition, had [[French invasion of Egypt and Syria|launched a campaign in Egypt]], intending to disrupt the British control of [[Company rule in India|India]]. Pressed from all sides, the Republic suffered a string of successive defeats against revitalised enemies, who were supported by Britain's financial help.

[[File: Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli.jpg|thumb|Bonaparte defeating the Austrians at the [[Battle of Rivoli]] in 1797]]
Bonaparte returned to France from Egypt on 23 August 1799, his [[Battle of the Nile|campaign there having failed]]. He seized control of the French government on November 9, in [[Coup of 18 Brumaire|a bloodless coup d'état]], replacing the Directory with the [[French Consulate|Consulate]] and transforming the republic into a ''de facto'' dictatorship.{{sfn|Jones|1994|pp=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00jone_0/page/193 193–194]}} He further reorganised the French military forces, establishing a large reserve army positioned to support campaigns on the [[Rhine]] or in Italy. [[Second Battle of Zurich|Russia had already been knocked out of the war]], and, under Napoleon's leadership, the French [[Battle of Marengo|decisively defeated the Austrians in June 1800]], crippling Austrian capabilities in Italy. Austria was [[Battle of Hohenlinden|definitively defeated that December]], by [[Jean Victor Marie Moreau|Moreau]]'s forces in [[Electorate of Bavaria|Bavaria]]. The Austrian defeat was sealed by the [[Treaty of Lunéville]] early the following year, further compelling the British to sign the [[Treaty of Amiens]] with France, establishing a tenuous peace.

===Start date and nomenclature===
No consensus exists as to when the [[French Revolutionary Wars]] ended and the Napoleonic Wars began. Possible dates include 9 November 1799, when Bonaparte [[Coup of 18 Brumaire|seized power on 18 Brumaire]], the date according to the [[French Republican Calendar|Republican Calendar]] then in use;{{sfn|McLynn|1998|p=215}} 18 May 1803, when Britain and France ended the one short period of peace between 1792 and 1814; or 2 December 1804, when [[Coronation of Napoleon|Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spencer C. Tucker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VljA5QEI9_wC&pg=PA499 |title=The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-85109-957-3 |page=499 |access-date=18 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930162308/https://books.google.com/books?id=VljA5QEI9_wC&pg=PA499 |archive-date=30 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

British historians occasionally refer to the nearly continuous period of warfare from 1792 to 1815 as the Great French War, or as the final phase of the Anglo-French [[Second Hundred Years' War]], spanning the period 1689 to 1815.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Buffinton |first=Arthur H. |title=The Second Hundred Years' War, 1689–1815 |year=1929}} See also: {{cite journal|last=Crouzet|first=Francois|title=The Second Hundred Years War: Some Reflections|journal=French History|volume=10|year=1996|issue=4|pages=432–450|doi=10.1093/fh/10.4.432|postscript=,|issn=0269-1191 }} and {{cite journal|last=Scott|first=H. M.|title=Review: The Second 'Hundred Years War' 1689–1815|journal=The Historical Journal|volume=35|year=1992|pages=443–469|doi=10.1017/S0018246X00025887|s2cid=162306794 }}</ref> Historian Mike Rapport (2013) suggested using the term "French Wars" to unambiguously describe the entire period from 1792 to 1815.{{sfn|Rapport|2013|p=4}}

In France, the Napoleonic Wars are generally integrated with the French Revolutionary Wars: ''{{lang|fr|Les guerres de la Révolution et de l'Empire}}''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=France – Les guerres de la Révolution et de l'Empire |url=http://www.herodote.net/histoire/synthese.php?ID=560 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723230200/http://www.herodote.net/histoire/synthese.php?ID=560 |archive-date=23 July 2012 |access-date=12 July 2013 |website=Herodote.net}}</ref>

German historiography may count the War of the Second Coalition (1798/9–1801/2), during which Napoleon had seized power, as the ''Erster Napoleonischer Krieg'' ("First Napoleonic War").<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rabich |first=Adalbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmA1lqBCMlwC&q=erster+napoleonischer+krieg&pg=PA37 |title=Die Regionalgeschichte von Dülmen und Umgebung, Teil 2 |date=2011 |publisher=GRIN Verlag |isbn=978-3-640-80584-6 |location=Norderstedt |page=37 |language=de |access-date=29 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715013903/https://books.google.com/books?id=TmA1lqBCMlwC&q=erster+napoleonischer+krieg&pg=PA37 |archive-date=15 July 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In Dutch historiography, it is common to refer to the 7 major wars between 1792 and 1815 as the [[Coalition Wars]] (''coalitieoorlogen''), referring to the first two as the French Revolution Wars (''Franse Revolutieoorlogen'').<ref name="Encarta coalitieoorlogen">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1993–2002 |title=coalitieoorlogen |encyclopedia=Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins |publisher=Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum |language=nl}}</ref>

===Napoleon's tactics===
[[Napoleon]] was, and remains, famous for his battlefield victories, and historians have spent enormous attention in analysing them.{{sfn|Chandler|1966}}{{page needed|date=May 2021}} In 2008, Donald Sutherland wrote:

<blockquote>The ideal Napoleonic battle was to manipulate the enemy into an unfavourable position through manoeuvre and deception, force him to commit his main forces and reserve to the main battle and then undertake an enveloping attack with uncommitted or reserve troops on the flank or rear. Such a surprise attack would either produce a devastating effect on morale or force him to weaken his main battle line. Either way, the enemy's own impulsiveness began the process by which even a smaller French army could defeat the enemy's forces one by one.{{sfn|Sutherland |2008 |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DuwHSN9QTroC&pg=PA356 356]}}</blockquote>

After 1807, Napoleon's creation of a highly mobile, well-armed artillery force gave artillery usage an increased tactical importance. Napoleon, rather than relying on infantry to wear away the enemy's defences, could now use massed artillery as a spearhead to pound a break in the enemy's line. Once that was achieved he sent in infantry and cavalry.{{sfn|McConachy |2001 |pp=617–640|ps=:&nbsp;McConachy rejects the alternative theory that growing reliance on artillery by the French army beginning in 1807 was an outgrowth of the declining quality of the French infantry and, later, France's inferiority in cavalry numbers}}{{page range too broad|date=May 2021}}