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Napoleonic Europe

1789 CE – 1815 CE

From the French Revolution to Waterloo — a quarter-century that redrew Europe, as revolutionary and Napoleonic armies marched from Lisbon to Moscow.

1316 events · 1268 people

Key events

1. War of the First Coalition1792 CE
   The War of the First Coalition was a set of wars between a coalition of several European powers and France fought between 1792 and 1797. The coalition was only loosely allied and fought without much coordination; each power wanted to annex a different part of France should they defeat the French, something that never occurred.
2. 10 August insurrection1792 CE
   The insurrection of 10 August 1792 was a defining event of the French Revolution, when armed revolutionaries in Paris, increasingly in conflict with the French monarchy, stormed the Tuileries Palace. The conflict led France to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic.
3. Battle of Valmy1792 CE
   The Battle of Valmy, also known as the Cannonade of Valmy, was the first major victory by the army of France during the Revolutionary Wars that followed the French Revolution. The battle took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march on Paris. Generals François Kellermann and Charles Dumouriez stopped the advance near the northern village of Valmy in Champagne-Ardenne.
4. War in the Vendée1793 CE
   The War in the Vendée was a counter-revolutionary insurrection that took place in the Vendée region of France from 1793 to 1796, during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the river Loire in western France. Initially, the revolt was similar to the 14th-century Jacquerie peasant uprising, but the Vendée quickly became counter-revolutionary and Royalist. The revolt was comparable to the Chouannerie, which took place concurrently (1794–1800) in the area north of the Loire.
5. Kościuszko Uprising1794 CE
   The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794, Second Polish War, Polish Campaign of 1794, and the Polish Revolution of 1794, was an uprising against the Russian and Prussian influence on the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Poland–Lithuania and the Prussian partition in 1794. It was an attempt to liberate the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from external influence after the Second Partition of Poland (1793) and the creation of the Targowica Confederation. Despite some local successes of the insurgency, it was ultimately suppressed by Russian general Alexander Suvorov, who was promoted to field marshal in the aftermath of the decisive Battle of Praga; the massacre that followed the battle was evidence of the ruthlessness of war.
6. coup of 18 Brumaire1799 CE
   The Coup of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of the French First Republic. In the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and would soon lead to the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French. This bloodless coup d'état overthrew the Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate. This occurred on 9 November 1799, which was 18 Brumaire, Year VIII, under the short-lived French Republican calendar system.
7. Battle of Marengo1800 CE
   The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. Near the end of the day, the French overcame General Michael von Melas's surprise attack, drove the Austrians out of Italy and consolidated Bonaparte's political position in Paris as First Consul of France in the wake of his coup d'état the previous November.
8. Treaty of Lunéville1801 CE
   The Treaty of Lunéville was signed in the Treaty House of Lunéville on 9 February 1801. The signatory parties were the French Republic and Emperor Francis II, who signed on his own behalf as ruler of the hereditary domains of the House of Austria and on behalf of the Holy Roman Empire. The signatories were Joseph Bonaparte and Count Ludwig von Cobenzl, the Austrian foreign minister. The treaty formally ended Austrian and Imperial participation in the War of the Second Coalition and the French Revolutionary Wars, as well as the Imperial Kingdom of Italy.
9. Battle of Copenhagen1801 CE
   The Battle of Copenhagen, also known as the First Battle of Copenhagen to distinguish it from the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, was a naval battle in which a British fleet fought and defeated a smaller force of the Dano-Norwegian Navy anchored near Copenhagen on 2 April 1801. The battle came about over British fears that the powerful Danish fleet would ally with France, and a breakdown in diplomatic communications on both sides.
10. War of the Third Coalition1805 CE
    The War of the Third Coalition was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I and its ally Spain opposed an alliance, the Third Coalition, which was made up of the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire, Naples, Sicily, and Sweden. Prussia remained neutral during the war.
11. Peace of Pressburg1805 CE
    The Peace of Pressburg was signed in Pressburg on 26 December 1805 between French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, as a consequence of the French victory over the Russians and Austrians at the Battle of Austerlitz. A truce was agreed on 4 December, and negotiations for the treaty began. The treaty was signed by Johann I Joseph, Prince of Liechtenstein, and the Hungarian Count Ignác Gyulay for the Austrian Empire and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand for France.
12. Battle of Austerlitz1805 CE
    The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire. Around 158,000 troops were involved, of which around 24,000 were killed or wounded.

Notable people

• Napoleon1769 CE – 1821 CE
• Genghis Khan1162 CE – 1227 CE
• Francisco Goya1746 CE – 1828 CE
• Diego Velázquez1599 CE – 1660 CE
• John Quincy Adams1767 CE – 1848 CE
• Catherine II of Russia1729 CE – 1796 CE
• Maximilien Robespierre1758 CE – 1794 CE
• Louis XVI of France1754 CE – 1793 CE
• Alexander I of Russia1777 CE – 1825 CE
• George III of Great Britain1738 CE – 1820 CE
• Carl von Clausewitz1780 CE – 1831 CE
• Nicholas I of Russia1796 CE – 1855 CE

Cultural works

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Events from Wikipedia/Wikidata (CC-BY-SA); base map © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); era boundaries are a hand-curated set in v1. Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].