What two reasons did the napoleonic wars differ from other wars?

Answer 1

These wars had many characteristics that made it unique for that time and period. It involved a very charismatic leader in Napoleon who was dominating the world's political and military scene. The size of armies were at a peak. The style and colors of the military uniforms made it a romantic period to study. The military strategy had advanced such that large armies could move quickly and at long distances. Military tactics had evolved with the use of combined arms: meaning a good general used infantry, artillery and cavalry in combination to over-power his enemy. "Flying aritllery" first appeared that allowed artillery to be used at close range on the battlefield. Individually, each of these were not that important but these characteristics all came together at the same time to make this period a unique time in history.

Answer 2

Because Napoleon was able to develop a new type of army exploiting the experiences made by the revolutionary armies on the battlefield during the previous years and praising the military skill showed by low rank officers and non commissioned officers (NCO), promoting them to higher ranks and even appointing them generals and giving them titles of nobility. Also the simple private could hope that, thanks to his valour, spirit of enterprise and cleverness he could aim to the highest ranks.

The majority of Napoleon's field-Marshals came up from the files and lower ranks of the former, poor equipped and worse commanded, but spirited revolutionary armies.

The aforesaid experiences and the Napoleon's innovations led the "new army"

to acquire a great superiority towards those of the other powers, which opposed him.

In a nutshell this basic superiority was based upon:

The Napoleonic Armies had to operate without being hindered by the obsolete system of supplying convoys, but they had to live off the land, acquiring a superior speed of movements upon their adversaries, who remained tied to obsolete tactical and logistical way of fighting.

The French infantry formations adopted more flexible systems of deployment and fighting, like the column, the units of "tirailleurs" (a kind of marksmen), who approached in scattered order exploiting the terrain the enemies standing deployed in line, harassing them with an annoying fire, before an attack.

The cavalry was reorganized and whilst the "heavy units" maintained their traditional duties of impact, breakthrough and contrast, the "light units" carried on the duties related to long range exploration and screening but also developing the same actions of the "tiralleurs" harassing the enemy army by means of swarms of "voltigeurs" (vaulters), rapidly approaching its line, firing and retreating.

The artillery was deployed on the field with more accuracy than in the past and, thanks to the adoption of the "Army and/or Corps Reserves", its employ on the battlefield was often pivotal in determining the outcome of a battle.

The various coalitions which fought against Napoleon attempted to adopt the same systems of the French armies (with exception for the quick promotions) but they were able to reach this goal only in the late years of Napoleonic era.

But from the strategic point of view (not to count the genius of Napoleon) the French armies and their commanders maintained until the end a marked higher efficiency compared to the armies of the various coalitions.

Only Wellington was able to effectively match them on the battlefield, because he adopted a new tactic for his infantry units, which the French were unable to fully deal with.

The Napoleonic wars represented, therefore, an evolution of the art of war but also an awful increase of losses and destruction in comparison with the previous conflicts.