Napoleonic wars (1803-15). The Napoleonic wars were a series of conflicts, all involving France, that dominated European history at the start of the 19th century, and cast a long shadow over most of its remainder. The Treaty of Lunéville and the Peace of Amiens sought to conserve the balance of power which had emerged in Europe in the course of the French Revolutionary wars. While not entirely satisfactory for all concerned, it was not unbearable either: Britain was war-weary and evincing signs of a willingness to barter with France; Austria, though keen to reassert herself in Italy and Germany, was also exhausted and prepared to compromise in return for peace with security; Russia, with an invulnerable sphere of influence in eastern Europe, was also a guarantor of the Lunéville settlement and thus enjoyed a prominent role in the West; while France, enlarged and reinvigorated, had regained her former standing.

It is possible then that these treaties might have formed the basis of a more durable peace, had the powers been willing to honour them in both spirit and letter. However, tension between, initially, Russia and Britain had ineluctable ramifications for other international relationships. Soon, France and Britain were again at loggerheads, culminating in the latter declaring war in May 1803.

As France's first Consul, Napoleon had made the most of the respite granted by the short-lived Peace of Amiens. In order to revitalize his country and consolidate his own position, he had begun implementing a range of economic, administrative, and military reforms. Besides increasing France's overall robustness and prosperity, these were intended to permit the state to mobilize its resources with unprecedented efficiency. Military strength, for instance, was largely dependent upon the availability of manpower and money, which in turn called for efficacious conscription and taxation systems, all of which had to be administered by a suitably competent bureaucracy. This called for talent to be blended with vocational and professional training. Accordingly, Napoleon's meritocracy channelled the gifted and diligent into an educational system which was geared to serving the needs of the regime. Though never completely eradicated, the nepotism and reliance on cronies which was a feature of so many European courts, armies, and governmental machines during this period came to be recognized as a potentially fatal flaw.

Indeed, in waging war against Napoleon, his opponents learned the hard way that they too would have to imitate at least some of his methods if they were to have any hope of success. This suggested the need for reforms which went beyond modifications to their armed forces; change in the latter would necessitate the transformation of the very societies they were seeking to shield from the dangerous ideas unleashed by the French Revolution. This was an alarming paradox for some of France's adversaries. Nevertheless, they were compelled to adopt Napoleon's methods to some degree or face annihilation.

Some of the most striking changes occurred in the size and organization of armies. Whereas at the start of the Napoleonic wars European armies were unitary forces which were assembled on an ad hoc basis using infantry battalions, cannon, and cavalry squadrons as basic building blocks, as early as 1800 Napoleon had devised a permanent structure for the French army consisting of corps d'armée which subdivided into divisions and brigades. Divisions were self-contained, comprising a mixture of artillery, infantry, cavalry, engineers, and logistic troops. The notion of semi-autonomous combined-arms units was not new, but Napoleon, refining the theories of others in the light of his own practical experience, developed the concept to an unprecedented degree. Skilfully co-ordinating skirmishers, heavy infantry, cavalry, and guns—the latter two in particular being employed en masse in an unprecedented fashion—he derived the maximum synergy from these complementary arms. The enhanced flexibility of his forces at the tactical level also yielded benefits on the strategic plane. Each of his corps formed a small army in its own right. Capable of independent manoeuvre along several axes, and expected to live off the land, Napoleon's forces shook off the constraints of 18th-century warfare, with its emphasis on positions, magazines, and protracted campaigns. Ever larger, yet endowed with an unprecedented capacity for strategic mobility, they manoeuvred rapidly over what were often vast tracts of Europe, cornering their opponents and compelling them to fight or surrender. Indeed, in contrast to almost all 18th-century commanders, for Napoleon the goal of strategy was to destroy the enemy's means to resist through battle, not attrition.

Napoleon exploited this early form of blitzkrieg as far as his immense skill and the technology of his time would permit. However, with the range of the largest field gun being no more than 1, 094 yards (1, 000 metres), armies had to be brought into close contact with one another for an engagement to occur. Napoleon was an unsurpassed exponent of manoeuvre warfare. Nevertheless, fought over relatively vast theatres and comprising forced marches punctuated only by pitched battles, his campaigns called for the mobilization of armies of unheard-of dimensions. For every casualty on the battlefield, several soldiers were killed or invalided by disease, exhaustion, or malnutrition. Likewise, thousands of horses perished in the course of the various campaigns. Indeed, as Napoleon's adversaries mobilized more and more of their own resources in order to confront him on more equal terms, the war was to take on an increasingly total nature.

To begin with, the geostrategic situation imposed considerable limits on the scope and complexion of the conflict. Having declared war on France, Britain was quite unable to deal her a decisive blow. While, as an island, Britain was difficult to invade, it was equally hard for her forces to influence affairs on the continent. Although the Royal Navy quickly bottled the French fleet up in its ports and harried the enemy's merchantmen, there was a persistent fear that a hostile armada might jeopardize the British Isles or key trade outlets. The blockade was strategically indispensable, but it stretched naval resources to the limit.

Britain's army was committed to defending the motherland, colonial possessions, and pivotal bases, notably in the Mediterranean, leaving comparatively few soldiers for expeditions on the European mainland. Moreover, in order to move troops overseas, Britain needed ships. Entrusted with the defence of the home waters and the foreign trade on which Britain's prosperity and, ultimately, her ability to pay for the war depended, the Royal Navy already faced too many demands on its resources and tonnage was in short supply. Even the triumph of Trafalgar in 1805 was to fail to dispel Britain's basic strategic problems; her naval supremacy was a necessary condition for France's defeat, but it was not a sufficient one. Indeed, although Britain, relying on the flexibility of naval power, was to execute a number of raids on the littoral of the European continent during the course of the struggle with Napoleon and was even to sustain a sizeable army on the Iberian peninsula after 1807, it was evident that she herself could never muster sufficient military might on land to counter France. Only the great powers of central and eastern Europe might do that.

They, on the other hand, lacked the wherewithal to do this, at least initially. They were still as interested in competing with one another as they were in containing French power, and they lacked both the money and the incentive to commit themselves to another war. By the end of 1804 Russia and Austria had been sufficiently alienated by French actions in Germany and Italy to enter into a coalition with Britain. She, as the world's only industrialized country and most prosperous power, was far better placed to provide her partners with specie and equipment, which she did on a lavish scale, than with troops, but she did undertake to commit most of her army to expeditions against Hanover and Naples.

So it was that the Third Coalition was born. Napoleon, who had been proclaimed emperor in December 1804, assembled an army along the Channel coast in preparation for an invasion of England. He hoped to gain at least local naval supremacy for the duration of the crossing, but it soon became clear that the Royal Navy would continue to bar his flotilla's path. Aware of the preparations that Austria and Russia were making for war, he resolved to strike at them and, thus, indirectly at Britain; he too realized that, without continental allies, ‘Perfidious Albion’ would be almost impotent.

The Napoleonic wars: the Waterloo campaign, 1815.
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Accordingly, amidst conditions of great secrecy, he wheeled his forces, now dubbed the Grande Armée, towards the Rhine. Advancing at tremendous speed, they pounced before the Russians could reach the theatre. Encircling an unsuspecting Austrian army at Ulm, they compelled it to surrender before marching on Vienna. The Russian vanguards recoiled before them. Retiring to Austerlitz, they were joined by reinforcements from Russia and a contingent of Austrians, bringing their strength up to some 89, 000 men. After eight weeks of ceaseless operations which had taken them nearly 621 miles (1, 000 km) from their homeland, the French, badly outnumbered, tired, and apparently dispirited, seemed at the end of their tether. However, when the Allies fell on them on 2 December 1805, Napoleon launched a brilliant riposte which swept his adversaries from the field with crippling losses.

Although Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in October had ended any French maritime threat to Britain for the time being, Austerlitz gutted the Third Coalition and the Austrians sued for peace. Napoleon proceeded to redraw the map of Germany. Rewarding various princes who had supported him against Austria with titles and land, he abolished the ancient Reich and replaced it with the Rheinbund. This was to vary in size over the coming years as new territories were assimilated and others were transferred between polities, but, in substituting around 30 sizeable states for the hundreds of entities which had constituted the Reich, it transformed the geopolitics of the region, laying the foundations of modern Germany.

This alarmed and offended Prussia, Austria's traditional rival in the region. Uncertain how to react in the face of developments, Prussia had remained neutral during the war of the Third Coalition. She had been on the verge of giving Napoleon an ultimatum when, quite unexpectedly, he had triumphed at Austerlitz. At this, the Prussian emissary had sought to change horses in midstream, but he failed to impress the emperor who was well aware of Berlin's machinations in recent months. Napoleon demanded that Prussia join him in an exclusive pact against Britain and surrender many of her possessions in southern and western Germany to France or her ally, Bavaria. In return, Prussia would receive Hanover.


The Napoleonic wars: Napoleon's disastrous 1812 campaign against Russia and the retreat from Moscow (bottom).
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With Austria defeated, Russia's armies withdrawing eastwards, and Britain increasingly suspicious, Prussia now found herself isolated and exposed to the full might of the French empire. After a bout of dubious diplomacy, which was largely an attempt to buy time in which to mobilize their forces, the Prussians issued Napoleon with an ultimatum in October 1806. He had been hoping that war might be avoided: a Russian envoy had accepted a draft peace treaty, Britain had appeared a little more conciliatory of late, and he doubted that Prussia would be so rash as to challenge France alone. Provoked by Berlin's demands he again unleashed the Grande Armée.

The ensuing campaign was a catastrophe for Prussia. Her army, thought to be the finest in Europe, was antiquated and proved no match for the French forces on the battlefield. Strategically, too, Napoleon dazzled and overwhelmed his opponents with a series of brisk, bold manoeuvres. Outmarched, the Prussians were also outfought in battles which occurred simultaneously at Jena and Auerstadt on 14 October. Thereafter, Napoleon's troops commenced what was to become one of the most thorough and rapid pursuits in military annals. Engulfed by the French tide as it surged towards Berlin, the remnants of the dejected Prussian forces surrendered en masse. So great was the demoralization that formidable fortresses capitulated to mere cavalry units. Whereas the supposedly rickety Habsburg empire had managed to survive years of war and defeat at France's hands, within four weeks of the start of Napoleon's campaign against her, Prussia had experienced almost total military and political collapse.

As King Frederick William III took refuge in Königsberg, the few remaining units of his army linked up with the Russians in Poland and launched a counter-offensive. On 8 February 1807, Napoleon brought them to battle at Eylau, but was held off in a gory confrontation that took place in atrocious weather. Licking his wounds, he reduced Danzig while awaiting the enemy's next move. In early June, the Allies again took the offensive, only to be repelled by Napoleon's counterstroke which culminated in the battle of Friedland. Roughly half of the Russian army was killed or wounded as Napoleon swept it into the river Alle.

This catastrophe prompted Tsar Alexander I to make peace, regardless of the consequences for his Prussian ally. Indeed, contemptuously excluded from the proceedings, Frederick William could only look on as his realm was dismembered by Napoleon and his erstwhile partner. The Treaty of Tilsit altered the map of Europe dramatically. Burdened with reparations and occupied, Prussia ceased to be a great power; her Polish provinces became Napoleon's grand duchy of Warsaw and all of her lands west of the Elbe were transferred to the new kingdom of Westphalia. The demise of the Fourth Coalition climaxed with Russia becoming France's ally, joining both Napoleon's anti-British maritime league and his Continental System.

Unable to bring his military power to bear against her, Napoleon had resolved to subdue his most implacable opponent, Britain, through economic strangulation. Late in 1806, he issued the Berlin Decrees, closing all European ports and coastlines under French control to British trade. Further decrees refined the Continental System as it was known and, over the next few years, it was extended to an ever larger area of Europe through alliance or conquest. However, it was apparent that such a blockade could only have much prospect of success if it, first, genuinely involved all the continent and, second, was applied long and consistently enough. Moreover, the British retaliated with orders-in-council which regulated neutral trade with the French empire and its vassal states. This placed the USA and the unaligned countries of Europe in an invidious position. They were effectively compelled to choose between being either the enemies or the allies of France or Britain; neutrality became meaningless. So it was that in 1807, as the British attacked Denmark, destroying her fleet and bombarding Copenhagen, Napoleon turned his attention to Lisbon.

Bent on compelling Portugal to join the Continental System, Napoleon concluded the secret Treaty of Fontainbleau with Spain. This envisaged the partition of Portugal. However, within months of their troops occupying the kingdom, the Allied powers turned on one another. Seriously misjudging the popular mood in Spain, Napoleon, with a mixture of intrigue and brute force, sought to remove the Bourbons and replace them with one of his brothers. An insurrection flared up, which, supported by Spanish, Portuguese, and British regular troops, turned into a war that raged across Iberia until the French were finally driven out in late 1813.

The ‘Spanish Ulcer’, as Napoleon dubbed the Peninsular war, was to cost him dear, not least in terms of its wider ramifications. Believing him to be preoccupied by events in the peninsula, Austria joined a new coalition, the fifth, and suddenly launched an offensive into southern Germany in April 1809. Having learnt from her earlier defeats and having reformed her armed forces accordingly, she proved a more formidable opponent than in past conflicts. Napoleon saved the situation with his customary skill and resourcefulness, but he suffered his first serious repulse at Aspern-Essling and, although ultimately victorious at Wagram, the largest battle yet seen in the gunpowder age, he could not drub Austria into submission until as late as mid-October. In the interim, an abortive British landing at Walcheren highlighted both the vulnerability of his empire's littoral to amphibious attack and the limitations of Britain's military capabilities.

By 1812, her endeavours to control neutral trade with France had embroiled Britain in a distracting war with the USA. However, Russia and France also found themselves on a collision course over the Continental System and other divisive issues. Invading Russia at the head of a colossal army, Napoleon sought to encircle and annihilate the Russian forces within three weeks. But his quarry eluded him. Obliged to venture ever further east over scorched earth, he failed to clinch a decisive victory at Borodino and, after having captured Moscow, had it burned around his ears. The retreat that followed was a holocaust.

With the Grande Armée all but obliterated in Russia, first Prussia and then Austria turned on Napoleon, who, drawing on France's last reserves of manpower and other resources, clung to Germany throughout 1813, securing several major if indecisive victories at the head of his improvised and outnumbered army. Finally cornered and defeated at Leipzig, his remaining allies began abandoning him as the triumphant forces of the Sixth Coalition converged on France. For all his talents, he could not keep such overwhelming numbers at bay for long. Paris fell, his marshals virtually mutinied, and he abdicated in favour of his infant son on 6 April 1814. The child had no chance.

France had been at war almost incessantly for over twenty years. She had lost millions of men and her colonies, her overseas trade was strangled, and she was virtually bankrupt. Although she was treated far more leniently by the Allies than she had much right to expect, the restored Bourbons could scarcely cope with the problems they inherited. Popular disenchantment soon set in. Napoleon, seizing his chance, escaped from exile and overthrew the monarchy. His reckless gamble lasted but a Hundred Days, culminating in Waterloo and his second abdication. The French, their country defeated and occupied, also lost any hope of national reconciliation.

The Napoleonic wars were over, but their ramifications were to continue. In fact, having engulfed most of Europe, claiming millions of lives and touching yet more, having necessitated the mobilization of so much of the states' manpower and other resources, and having included the largest battles yet seen, the conflict was, until supplanted by that of 1914-18, widely known as the ‘Great War’. Many of its socio-economic, artistic, political, and diplomatic repercussions continued to be felt for decades, as did its influence on military thought and doctrine, while, to this day, armed forces retain the pyramid architecture that was first adopted during this harbinger of ‘total’ war.

Bibliography

• Chandler, D., The Campaigns of Napoleon (London, 1966).
• Esdaile, C., The Wars of Napoleon (London, 1995).
• Gates, D., The Napoleonic Wars, 1803-1815 (London, 1997)

— David Gates

For more information on Napoleonic Wars, visit Britannica.com.

Napoleonic Wars, the wars which Napoleon conducted in Germany, began in 1805, four years after the termination of the Revolutionary Wars and after Napoleon I, proclaimed emperor in 1804, had consolidated his position at the Reichsdeputationshauptschluß (see Revolutionskriege). From 1803 Napoleon tried to implicate Prussia in the war between France and England; in 1805 he offered Hanover to Friedrich Wilhelm III, who refused to accept it. During the war of the Third Coalition (England, Austria, Russia, and Sweden) against France Napoleon directed his troops through Prussian Ansbach after defeating the Austrians at Ulm on 17 October 1805. Following this violation of Prussian territory, Friedrich Wilhelm prepared for action. He expressed to Russia his intention of supporting the Coalition (Treaty of Potsdam, 3 November 1805), and agreed to accept British subsidies in return for Prussian military assistance and to present his terms to Napoleon; these included French recognition of the independence of Germany as well as French concessions in Italy in favour of Austria. But Napoleon's victory over the Austrians at Austerlitz (2 December 1805) enabled him to impose his own terms on Austria in the Treaty of Preßburg, and on Prussia in the Treaty of Schönbrunn.

In the Treaty of Preßburg Napoleon forced Austria to cede Venetia to Italy, to cede Tyrol and Vorarlberg as well as other temporal and ecclesiastical principalities to the newly created kingdom of Bavaria, and to hand over some of its German territories to Württemberg, which he raised to a kingdom, and to Baden.

In his treatment of Prussia in the Treaty of Schönbrunn Napoleon was contemptuous, forcing Prussia to accept Hanover, and to close its northern ports to British ships and cargoes, thus attempting to force Prussia into war against Great Britain. Prussia had also to cede Ansbach to Bavaria.

Napoleon continued his reorganization of Germany by the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine (Treaty of Paris, 17 July 1806; see Rheinbund), which provided him with backing among the western and southern German states. While the Confederation supported Napoleon by its subordination to French foreign policy and military command, Napoleon dissolved the Imperial Diet at Regensburg (1 August 1806). By formally renouncing the title Holy Roman Emperor (having previously assumed the title Emperor Franz I of Austria) Franz II completed the dissolution of the old Empire (6 August 1806; see Deutsches Reich, Altes).

To boost its position, Prussia hoped for the creation of a confederation of the northern states with the Hohenzollern king as emperor. Instead, Napoleon used Prussian-occupied Hanover as a bait in his peace negotiations with Great Britain. This breach of the Treaty of Schönbrunn caused Friedrich Wilhelm to mobilize. When Napoleon provoked Prussia still further by ordering the execution of the Nuremberg bookseller Palm for having sold an anonymous pamphlet, Deutschland in seiner tiefsten Erniedrigung, Friedrich Wilhelm declared war on France (1 October 1806). Within three weeks Napoleon disposed of Prussia's military forces. The decisive battles were fought on 14 October 1806 at Jena and Auerstedt. Prussian fortresses surrendered one after another, among them Erfurt, Halle, Spandau, Prenzberg, Stettin, Lübeck, and Magdeburg. Only Kolberg held out until the end of hostilities (1807). On 25 October 1806 Napoleon entered Berlin and decreed the Continental Blockade (Kontinentalsperre) against England. Friedrich Wilhelm and Queen Luise fled to East Prussia.

After defeat at Friedland (14 January 1807) Russia withdrew from the war, and Tsar Alexander met Napoleon on a raft on the Niemen to fix the terms for the Treaty of Tilsit, which Prussia had to accept on 9 July 1807. Prussia ceded its territory west of the Elbe to the newly created kingdom of Westphalia, in which Napoleon installed his brother Jérôme as king. Prussian territories in Poland (see Poland, Partitions of) were turned into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which was given to the Duke of Saxony. Danzig was declared a Free City and remained under French occupation. At Alexander's persuasion Napoleon refrained from annihilating Prussia, but he reduced it to about half its size.

By 1808 Europe was ruled by the French emperor and his family. In the autumn of that year Napoleon held a congress at Erfurt, making sure of Alexander's support, staging splendid festivities, and receiving homage and admiration from many Germans, including Goethe and Wieland. From here he moved to liberated Spain. This first sign of revolt against Napoleon, resulting in the deposition of his brother Joseph as king of Spain, was followed by a peasant revolt in Tyrol (January 1809) and by another Austrian declaration of war (9 April 1809), obliging Napoleon to return from Spain. In Germany French troops suppressed the revolts of Baron von Dörnbert (1768-1850) in Hesse, of the Prussian major Ferdinand von Schill in Stralsund, and the young Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig (see Braunschweig) which followed the national appeal of Archduke Karl of Austria.

On 13 May 1809 Napoleon moved into Vienna, but Austrian resistance continued, and in the two-day battle of Aspern (20-1 May) Napoleon suffered his first defeat. Owing to the lack of co-ordination between the Austrian commanders, he fully recovered his position and, by winning the battle of Wagram (6 July 1809), forced the Emperor Franz to accept the armistice of Znaim (12 July 1809). In Tyrol Andreas Hofer maintained his position for a few weeks after the Austrians had accepted the Treaty of Vienna (signed at Schönbrunn, 14 October 1809).

The severity of the terms imposed upon Austria by the Treaty of Vienna is comparable with that of the Treaty of Tilsit imposed upon Prussia. Russia and the Grand Duchy shared Galicia, and the Austrian possessions on the Adriatic were annexed by France as the Illyrian Provinces; Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and Salzburg were among Austrian possessions passing into the hands of Bavaria.

Napoleon, having divorced his wife Josephine, married the Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise (1 April 1810), a step which was followed by a peace lasting for two years. But, far from consolidating his power, tensions arose from the effects of the Continental Blockade and from an increasingly strained relationship between Napoleon and the Russian Tsar, which in turn imposed a new dilemma on Prussia, already threatened by Napoleon with the loss of Silesia if it did not pay its war indemnities. Without offering any concessions, Napoleon concluded in 1812 (24 February) a treaty with Prussia, obliging it to support his campaign against Russia, and stipulating free military passage for his armies and the provision of 40, 000 troops. In a treaty concluded with Austria, Napoleon secured 30, 000 troops. His Russian campaign lasted six months and involved 600, 000 troops of which 200, 000 were German. By December 1812 he was on his way back to Paris, his occupation of the deserted and burning city of Moscow having ended in a crippling retreat. The crossing of the Beresina (November 1812) alone imposed immense losses and suffering upon the Grand Army. For Prussia these months marked the turning-point towards a recovery which culminated in the Wars of Liberation (Befreiungskriege).

The first initiative for the Wars of Liberation came from Freiherr vom Stein and General Yorck, who in the Convention of Tauroggen (30 December 1812) promised the Tsar the neutrality of his troops. Friedrich Wilhelm III, while apologizing to Napoleon, yielded to pressure at home and concluded at Breslau the Treaty of Kalisch (28 February 1813), by which Russia undertook to assist Prussia in the recovery of its position before the Treaty of Tilsit in return for its Polish territories.

The Wars of Liberation developed into a European war on a scale hitherto unknown. On 17 March 1813 Prussia declared war on France. Extensive reforms, inaugurated since 1807 and permeating all spheres of life, military, civil, economic, and intellectual, preceded this declaration of war. Among those associated with the changes in Prussia were Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Clausewitz, K. A. von Hardenberg (after Stein), Fichte, Schleiermacher, W. von Humboldt, E. M. Arndt, A. von Lützow, and F. L. Jahn. Appeals to rouse all Germans for the war against Napoleon failed. The Confederation of the Rhine supported Napoleon's army, along with contingents from Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and Poland.

The first battle, at Großgörschen (2 May 1813), was won by Napoleon, who recaptured Dresden (14 May) and won another battle at Bautzen (21 May). The allies withdrew towards Silesia, while Napoleon, trying to strengthen his forces, agreed in the truce of Pläswitz to a seven weeks' armistice. During this period Metternich, alarmed at the popular response to the Prussian king's appeal (see An mein Volk) and at the national wave of liberalism as well as at the influence of Russia, attempted a settlement by means of diplomacy. The new Austrian approach aimed at adjusting the European equilibrium, in which France would still be a significant force. By the Treaty of Reichenbach (27 June 1813) Austria agreed to join the alliance against France if Napoleon refused to withdraw to the left bank of the Rhine and restore the Illyrian Provinces to Austria. But at the Congress of Prague (summer 1813) Napoleon refused a settlement, and on 11 August Franz I declared war against France. Bavaria, too, joined the alliance (8 October), now consisting of Russia, Prussia, Austria, Great Britain, and Sweden. Schwarzenberg, Blücher, and the Swedish Crown Prince Bernadotte were the chief allied commanders.

The second phase of the war was marked by Napoleon's failure to advance upon Berlin in spite of successes, including one at Dresden (26-7 August 1813), which was his last victory on German soil. Allied victories were achieved by Blücher at Katzbach (27 August), by General von Kleist (1762-1823) at Nollendorf (29-30 August), and by General F. W. von Bülow (1755-1816) at Dennewitz (6 September). Napoleon's troops stationed near Hamburg tried to join him, but were held back in a number of battles, in one of which, fought at Gadebusch (26 August), Th. Körner was mortally wounded.

The decisive battle of the Wars of Liberation was fought at Leipzig; it became known as the Völkerschlacht (the Battle of the Nations), and terminated the Napoleonic empire in Germany.

There followed a period of negotiations by the Confederation of the Rhine. The Treaty of Töplitz (September 1813) guaranteed the independence of its member states, except Saxony, whose king had been taken prisoner. The Primate of the Confederation, K. Th. von Dalberg, fled to Switzerland, and Jérôme left Westphalia. The allies, although refraining from immediate pursuit, renewed their campaign after vainly offering Napoleon peace on terms broadly based on France's position in 1792. In the winter France was invaded, although negotiations with Napoleon were resumed (at Châtillon, February 1814). The decisive advance was accomplished in Blücher's victories at La Rothière (1 February) and Laon (9 March 1814). Meanwhile Wellington invaded the south of France. Paris surrendered on 30 March 1814, and Tsar Alexander and the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm entered the city the following day. Napoleon, deposed by the French Senate (1 April), signed an instrument of abdication at Fontainebleau on 6 April 1814, and went into exile at Elba. Louis XVIII was installed as king of France.

The First Treaty of Paris (30 May 1814) terminated the war. Alsace, the Palatinate (up to Landau), and the Saar district (including Saarlautern) remained French, and Austrian possessions in Italy and Bavaria were restored, but the future reorganization of Germany was referred to a congress to be held at Vienna (see Wiener Kongress).

On 6 March 1815 the Congress of Vienna was disrupted by the news of Napoleon's return from Elba. On 20 March he installed himself in Paris and prepared for a new campaign. To check it, the allies advanced through the Netherlands and the middle and upper Rhineland. On 16 June Napoleon repulsed Blücher at Ligny, and Wellington suffered a setback at Quatre-Bras. Napoleon himself now advanced on the road to Brussels, encountering at Waterloo (18 June 1815) Wellington's, and later also Blücher's, troops for the decisive battle which ended in complete victory for the allies and determined pursuit of the routed French.

On 7 July 1815 Paris was occupied by the Prussians under Blücher after Napoleon had already abdicated for the second time (22 June 1815). In the Second Treaty of Paris (20 November 1815) France was reduced to its position of 1790. Austria received Landau for Bavaria, and Prussia the Saar district. France was obliged to return many of the confiscated works of art. Napoleon, having surrendered to the British, was sent as a prisoner to St Helena. On the day the treaty was signed, the Great Powers formed the Quadruple Alliance. The Holy Alliance (see Heilige Allianz), too, was the product of this final phase of the Napoleonic Wars.

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