The period from 1799 to 1815 is often referred to as the“Napoleonic Wars”. These years and the two following decades became one of the most difficult episodes of the British history. That was the time when Great Britain had to fight a lot, and had to recover from fighting. The purpose of this survey is to give a brief description of British domestic and foreign policy, economic and social situation throughout the mentioned period and to provide essential information about the role that Great Britain played during so-called “Napoleonic Wars”.
1. Great Britain during the “Napoleonic Wars”
In the 1790's, the wars of the French Revolution merged into the Napoleonic Wars, as Napoleon Bonaparte took over the French revolutionary government. Great Britain, as the most of the European nations, was engaged into the set of conflicts. At first the war did not go well for Britain. The First Coalition with Prussia, Austria, and Russia against the French collapsed in 1796, and in 1797 Britain was beset by naval defeat and by naval mutiny. The Battle of the Nile in 1798, however, was one of the hours of the British Navy brightest glory.
Napoleon Bonaparte was climbing to power in France, by directing her successful arms against the world. He had beaten Germany and conquered Italy; he had threatened England, and his dream was of the conquest of the East. Like another Alexander, he hoped to subdue Asia, and overthrow the hated British power by depriving it of India. Hitherto, his dreams had become earnest by the force of his marvellous genius, and by the ardour which he breathed into the whole French nation. And when he set sail from Toulon, with 40,000 tried and victorious soldiers and a magnificent fleet, all were filled with vague expectations of almost fabulous glory. He swept away the Knights of St. John from their rock of Malta, and sailed for Alexandria in Egypt, in the end of June, 1798.
His intentions had not become known, and the English Mediterranean fleet was watching the course of this great armament. Sir Horatio Nelson was in pursuit, with the English vessels, and wrote to the First Lord of the Admiralty: "Be they bound to the Antipodes, your lordship may rely that I will not lose a moment in bringing them to action".
Nelson had, however, not ships enough to be detached to reconnoitre, and he actually overpassed the French, whom he guessed to be on the way to Egypt. He arrived at the port of Alexandria on the 28th of June, and saw its blue waters and flat coast lying still in their sunny torpor, as if no enemy were on the seas. He went back to Syracuse, but could learn no more there. He obtained provisions with some difficulty, and then, in great anxiety, sailed for Greece, where at last, on the 28th of July, he learnt that the French fleet had been seen from Candia, steering to the south-east, about four weeks since. In fact, it had actually passed by him in a thick haze, which concealed each feet from the other, and had arrived at Alexandria on the 1st of July three days after he had left it. Every sail was set for the south, and at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 1st of August a very different sight was seen in Aboukir Bay, so solitary a month ago. It was crowded with shipping. Great castle-like men-of-war rose with all their proud calm dignity out of the water, their dark portholes opening in the white bands on their sides, and the tricoloured flag floating as their ensign. There were thirteen ships of the line and one, towering high above the rest, with her three decks, was L'Orient, of 120 guns. The British had only fourteen little ships, not one carrying more than 74 guns, and one only 50.
Why Napoleon had kept the fleet there was never known. In his usual way of disavowing whatever turned out ill, he laid the blame upon his naval officers. But, though dead men could not tell tales, his papers made it plain that the ships had remained in the obedience to commands, though they had not been able to enter the harbour of Alexandria. Large rewards had been offered to any pilot who would take them in, but none could be found who would venture to steer into that port a vessel drawing more than twenty feet of water. They had, therefore, remained at anchor outside, in Aboukir Bay, drawn up in a curve along the deepest of the water, with no room to pass them at either end, so that the commanders reported that they could bid defiance to a force more than double their number. The French believed that Nelson had not ventured to attack them when they had passed by one another a month before, and when the English fleet was signalled, they still supposed that it was too late in the day for an attack to be made.
Nelson had, however, no sooner learnt that the French were in sight than he signalled from his ship, the Vanguard, that preparations for battle should be made, and in the meantime summoned up his captains to receive his orders during a hurried meal. He explained that, where there was room for a large French ship to swing, there was room for a small English one to anchor, and, therefore, he designed to bring his ships up to the outer part of the French line, and station them close below their adversaries.
In the fleet went, through the fierce storm of shot and shell from a French battery in an island in advance. Nelson's own ship, the Vanguard, was the first to anchor within half-pistolshot of a French ship, the Spartiate. The Vanguard had six colours flying, in case any should be shot away; and such was the fire that was directed on her, that in a few minutes every man at the six guns in her forepart was killed or wounded, and this happened three times. Nelson himself received a wound in the head, which was thought at first to be mortal, but which proved but slight. He would not allow the surgeon to leave the sailors to attend to him till it came to his turn.
Meantime his ships were doing their work gloriously. The Bellerophon was, indeed, overpowered by L'Orient, 200 of her crew killed, and all her masts and cables shot away, so that she drifted away as night came on. But the Swiftsure came up in her place, and the Alexander and Leander both poured in their shot. The French admiral received three wounds, but would not quit his post, and at length a fourth shot almost cut him in two. He desired not to be carried below, but that he might die on deck.
About nine o'clock the ship took fire, and blazed up with fearful brightness, lighting up the whole bay, and showing five French ships with their colours hauled down, the other's still fighting on. Nelson himself rose and came on deck when this fearful glow came shining from sea and sky into his cabin. He gave orders that the English boats should immediately be put off for L'Orient, to save as many lives as possible.
Then a thundering explosion shook down to the very hold every ship in the harbour, and burning fragments of L'Orient came falling far and wide, splashing heavily into the water, in the dead, awful stillness that followed the fearful sound. English boats were plying busily about, picking up those who had leapt overboard in time. Some were dragged in through the lower portholes of the English ships, and about seventy were saved altoghether. By sunrise the victory was complete. Nay, as Nelson said, "It was not a victory, but a conquest". Only four French ships escaped, and Napoleon and his army were cut off from home. The destruction of Napoleon's fleet left his troops in a position from which no victories were likely to extricate them.
With Napoleon out of the way William Pitt was able to form the Second Coalition with Russia and Austria. The Russian army drove the French out of North Italy, and the king of Naples effected a counterrevolution in the South with the support of Horatio Nelson's fleet. In the autumn of 1798 Napoleon left his army and returned to Paris. He overthrew the Directory and established himself as First Consul. The war with revolutionary France entered its second phase. At first the French armies were welcomed as liberators by both the middle and lower classes of the countries they occupied. Presently the people of the conquered countries found that their interests were always subordinated to those of France. The price of "liberation" was heavy taxes and the conscription of their sons to fill the gaps in the ranks of the French army. War was necessary for the continued internal stability of Napoleonic France, yet war could be carried on only by the progressive exploitation of the "liberated" territories. The result was that the very classes which had welcomed the French were gradually alienated. The French occupation created a burgeous nationalism that turned against its creators.
Napoleon had many years of victory before him in 1799. A short and brilliant campaign reconquered Italy, and the Second Coalition collapsed in the last days of 1800. In the years that followed, with Britain alone left in the war and no important land operations, Napoleon created the Code Napoleon and an efficient civil service. In 1802 Britain had to make peace with Napoleon at Amiens, The Treaty of Amiens was a mere truce. It left France in control of Holland and all the western bank of the Rhine. War broke out again the following year.
When the war was resumed, Napoleon had Spain and Holland as his allies, and was making plans to invade Britain if the French and Spanish fleets could be concentrated to cover the crossing. These plans never came true, as both fleets were destroyed in the glorious battle of Trafalgar.
The naval battle of Trafalgar, one of the most celebrated naval engagements in European history, was fought on October 21, 1805, by a British fleet and a combined French and Spanish fleet. The battle took place off Cape Trafalgar on the southern coast of Spain, where a British fleet of 27 ships under the command of Admiral Nelson had to fight against a slightly larger combined enemy fleet commanded by a French admiral.
The French admiral had the intention to slip out of Cadiz, which was under British blockade, to land troops in southern Italy, where the French were fighting. The fleet, however, was intercepted by Nelson on October 21.
The French and Spanish ships formed their ships into a single battle line, south to north. Nelson, however, surprised them by ordering his ships into two groups, each of which assaulted and cut through the French fleet at right angles, demolishing the battle line. This created confusion, giving the British fleet an advantage. The battle began shortly before noon and ended late in the afternoon. Some 20 French and Spanish ships had been destroyed or captured, while not a single British vessel was lost. The British suffered about 1500 casualties, among them Admiral Nelson, who was mortally wounded. The British naval victory under Horatio Nelson saved Britain from invasion. The great naval battle of 1805 is recorded in the name of Trafalgar Square in London. The square is dominated by the 145-ft. fluted granite column supporting a large statue of Nelson, with four lions at the base and four bronze reliefs cast from captured French cannon and illustrating the battles where they were taken.
The year 1805 witnessed the creation of the Third Coalition with Russia and Austria, which also collapsed in 1807. Napoleon then ruled a vast empire which included Northern Italy, the East coast of the Adriatic, all the territory west of the Rhine with Holland and a large area of North Germany from Cologne to Lubeck. Spain, Naples, Poland and all Central and Southern Germany formed his vassal states.
It was upon Russia and Spain that Napoleon was finally broken. Neither of these counties had a strong middle class that made the victory of the French easier in other European countries. For a time Napoleon and Alexander I combined to dominate Europe. There were plans to marry a Russian Grand-Princess to the French emperor to strengthen the political union, but Napoleon was not prepared to treat the Tzar of Russia as an equal and Alexander refused to be subordinate.
Failing all else Napoleon tried to strike at Britain by imposing a European ban on the British manufactured goods. Britain replied with a blockade. Both the ban and the blockade were not completely effective. But these caused a strain that broke the alliance between France and Russia and the other North European countries.
Important events took place in Portugal and Spain. Portugal had been for a century dominated by the British government, and that was the reason of the country's refusal to recognize Napoleon's "Continental System". A French army was sent there to prevent trade between Portugal and Britain. At the same time, Napoleon made an attempt to change his indirect control over Spain for a direct rule by making his brother Joseph the Spanish king. This provoked an instantaneous and universal revolt. The Spainsh led an active guerrilla war against the French, and Napoleon was forced to concentrate larger and larger forces in Spain.
In 1808 Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, was sent with a small army to defend Portugal and assist the Spanish insurrection. The French had about 300,000 men in the Peninsula but were seldom able to concentrate morethan about one-fifth against Wellington, the rest being engaged in small operations all over the country. Every attempt at a concentration left large areas open to the guerrillas, so that the regular and irregular wars set up an interaction before which the French were helpless. In 1811, when Napoleon had to draw away part of his forces for his Russian campaign, Wellington was able to take the offensive and step by step the French were driven out of the Peninsula.
An army of nearly half a million — Poles, Germans and Italians as well as Frenchmen — was massed by Napoleon in 1811 to invade Russia. The march of the Grand Army to Moscow in 1812 and its disastrous retreat set Europe once more ablaze.
Germany rose against the defeated emperor and at last the French found themselves opposed to nations in arms. Although the French emperor quickly collected a new army that was almost as large as the one he had lost in Russia, Napoleon was decisively beaten at Leipzig in October 1813.
In spite of this he rejected an offer of peace which would have given him the Rhine as a frontier and in April 1814 the allies entered Paris. The Bourbons were restored, and Napoleon was banished to the Island of Elba.
Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia then sent their representatives to the Congress of Vienna to discuss the important problems of European policy. The work of the Congress was interrupted in 1815 by Napoleon, who had escaped from the exile and, having returned to France, launched the Hundred Days' Campaign which ended with his defeat at Waterloo.
The main features of the settlement arrived at by the Congress of Vienna were the restoration of despotism and the triumph of what was called "the principle of legitimacy". Revolution was considered to be as much the enemy as France, and the victory of reaction was sealed by the Holy Alliance in which Austria, Russia and Prussia agreed to give each other mutual support against the horrors of revolutionary uprisings. The Holy Alliance was used to justify international action against risings in Italy, Germany and elsewhere. Yet neither Prussia nor Russia could restore Europe to its previous state, and the Holy Alliance did not survive the upheavals of 1830.
In France the restoration of the Bourbons did not mean the restoration of aristocratic privilege in the villages or the suppression of the Code Napoleon. In Germany, though Prussia extended her power over the Rhine-land, many of the social changes resulting from the French occupation went undisturbed. Small German states were drawn together into the German Confederation in which Austria and Prussia both participated and which inevitably became the theatre of a battle between them for the hegemony of Central Europe.
The victory over Napoleon laid the foundations for a great extension of the British Empire. Britain got a number of strategic key points: Malta, Mauritius, Ceylon, Heligoland and the Cape, then inhabited only by a few Dutch farmers and valued only as a stopping place on the way to India. Yet the first result of the peace was a severe political and economic crisis.
In Britain, the general rejoicings that followed the victory over Napoleon were not well founded. The British had assumed that the ending of war would open a vast market for their goods and had piled up stocks accordingly. Instead, there was an immediate fall in the demand for them. Europe was still too disturbed and too poor to take any great quantity of British manufactured goods.
One important market had been actually opened by the war, which had cut Spain off from South America and left its colonies virtually independent. This, however, had only led to crazy speculation and the flooding of the market with all kinds of goods for many of which no possible demand existed. There was also possibility to trade in the West Indies as well as in the Far East, but these markets could absorb only a limited quantity of the British goods.
As a result of it in 1815 exports and imports fell. There was a heavy slump in wholesale prices. Thus, iron fell from £20 to £8 a ton. Most of the blast-furnaces went out of production and thousands of workers lost their work.