The Napoleonic Wars

Download or read book The Napoleonic Wars written by Alexander Mikaberidze and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-13 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Charge! written by Digby Smith and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2007-01-15 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the leading voices on national-security issues in the US Congress demonstrates how words have been sharp and powerful weapons of victory in this compilation of great military speeches that helped turn the tide of history. Congressman Israel has included speeches that have motivated and mobilized, challenged and comforted. Some were blurted in the heat of combat, others carefully written in places far removed from the brutality of the battlefield, but all will inspire readers with the courage that moved people forward against all odds. This dramatic sweep of military history in the words of history's military leaders serves to reinforce the concept that the pen is mightier than the sword. Congressman Steve Israel represents New York's second district and is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and former member of the Armed Services Committee.

Download or read book Napoleon's Wars written by Charles Esdaile and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A glorious and conclusive chronicle of the wars waged by one of the most polarizing figures in military history Acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic as a new standard on the subject, this sweeping, boldly written history of the Napoleonic era reveals its central protagonist as a man driven by an insatiable desire for fame, and determined to push matters to extremes. More than a myth-busting portrait of Napoleon, however, it offers a panoramic view of the armed conflicts that spread so quickly out of revolutionary France to countries as remote as Sweden and Egypt. As it expertly moves through conflicts from Russia to Spain, Napoleon's Wars proves to be history writing equal to its subject—grand and ambitious—that will reframe the way this tumultuous era is understood.

Download or read book The Napoleonic Wars 1803-1815 written by David Gates and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-06-08 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Known collectively as the 'Great War', for over a decade the Napoleonic Wars engulfed not only a whole continent but also the overseas possessions of the leading European states. A war of unprecedented scale and intensity, it was in many ways a product of change that acted as a catalyst for upheaval and reform across much of Europe, with aspects of its legacy lingering to this very day. There is a mass of literature on Napoleon and his times, yet there are only a handful of scholarly works that seek to cover the Napoleonic Wars in their entirety, and fewer still that place the conflict in any broader framework. This study redresses the balance. Drawing on recent findings and applying a 'total' history approach, it explores the causes and effects of the conflict, and places it in the context of the evolution of modern warfare. It reappraises the most significant and controversial military ventures, including the war at sea and Napoleon's campaigns of 1805-9. The study gives an insight into the factors that shaped the war, setting the struggle in its wider economic, cultural, political and intellectual dimensions.

Download or read book Armies of the Napoleonic Wars written by Gregory Fremont-Barnes and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-02-07 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The armies of the Napoleonic Wars fought in a series of devastating campaigns that disturbed the peace of Europe for twelve years, yet the composition, organization and fighting efficiency of these forces receive too little attention. Each force tends to be examined in isolation or in the context of an individual battle or campaign or as the instrument of a famous commander. Rarely have these armies been studied together in a single volume as they are in this authoritative and fascinating reassessment edited by Gregory Fremont-Barnes.Leading experts on the Napoleonic Wars have been specially commissioned to produce chapters on each of the armed forces that took part in this momentous era in European history. The result is a vivid comparative portrait of ten of the most significant armies of the period, and of military service and warfare in the early nineteenth century. The book will be essential reading and reference for all students of the Napoleonic era.Covers the armies of Austria, Britain, the Confederation of the Rhine, the Duchy of Warsaw, France, the Kingdom of Italy, Portugal, Prussia, Russia and Spain.

Download or read book The Napoleonic Wars (Smithsonian History of Warfare) written by Gunther Rothenberg and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 2006-01-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vividly illustrated history of the Napoleonic Wars documents the wars' origins in the French Revolution, narrates Napoleon's victories at Austerlitz and Jena, and concludes with his defeats in the Iberian peninsula, Russia, and finally at Waterloo. Author Gunther E. Rothenberg describes how Napoleon transformed interstate warfare into a system of relentless conquest, creating a military superpower on a scale not seen since the Roman Empire. Though eventually defeated, Napoleon's model of conquest set a pattern that was to be revived by modern totalitarian states, and their opponents. A sweeping examination of the rise, triumph, and eventual downfall of Napoleon, a man whose military genius forever changed the face of war. Analysis of Napoleon's system of waging war, and the strategies that allowed him to create a singularly powerful army. A look at the profound influence of Napoleonic conquest on warfare of the modern era.

Download or read book Wars Against Napoleon written by General Michel Franceschi and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2008-02-04 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular and scholarly history presents a one-dimensional image of Napoleon as an inveterate instigator of war who repeatedly sought large-scale military conquests. General Franceschi and Ben Weider dismantle this false conclusion in The Wars Against Napoleon, a brilliantly written and researched study that turns our understanding of the French emperor on its head. Avoiding the simplistic clichés and rudimentary caricatures many historians use when discussing Napoleon, Franceschi and Weider argue persuasively that the caricature of the megalomaniac conqueror who bled Europe white to satisfy his delirious ambitions and insatiable love for war is groundless. By carefully scrutinizing the facts of the period and scrupulously avoiding the sometimes confusing cause and effect of major historical events, they paint a compelling portrait of a fundamentally pacifist Napoleon, one completely at odds with modern scholarly thought. This rigorous intellectual presentation is based upon three principal themes. The first explains how an unavoidable belligerent situation existed after the French Revolution of 1789. The new France inherited by Napoleon was faced with the implacable hatred of reactionary European monarchies determined to restore the ancient regime. All-out war was therefore inevitable unless France renounced the modern world to which it had just painfully given birth. The second theme emphasizes Napoleon’s determined efforts (“bordering on an obsession,” argue the authors) to avoid this inevitable conflict. The political strategy of the Consulate and the Empire was based on the intangible principle of preventing or avoiding these wars, not on conquering territory. Finally, the authors examine, conflict by conflict, the evidence that Napoleon never declared war. As he later explained at Saint Helena, it was he who was always attacked—not the other way around. His adversaries pressured and even forced the Emperor to employ his unequalled military genius. After each of his memorable victories Napoleon offered concessions, often extravagant ones, to the defeated enemy for the sole purpose of avoiding another war. Lavishly illustrated, persuasively argued, and carefully illustrated with original maps and battle diagrams, The Wars Against Napoleon presents a courageous and uniquely accurate historical idea that will surely arouse vigorous debate within the international historical community.