The Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars is an OverSimplified two-part series that covers the events of the Napoleonic Wars.

Part 1
In the early 18th century, the island of Corsica was part of the Republic of Genoa. Corsica declared independence, but France conquered it in 1768. A year later, Napoleon was born to Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte. Many Corsicans, including Napoleon, were anti-French. This hurt Napoleon's relationship with his father since he was pro-French.

On the other hand, he adored his mother. Even though she punished him severely, he respected that. Napoleon went to military school in France, where he was bullied due to having a Corsican accent and lacking in wealth. While alone, Napoleon spent his time learning about historical conquerors like Julius Caesar. When he graduated at the age of 16, he became the second Lieutenant of an artillery regiment. Napoleon wanted to rise through the ranks; however, the hierarchy system gave positions to people based on nobility instead of talent. When the French Revolution occurred, Napoleon exploited the revolution to rise through the ranks. He defended the revolution several times and got promoted several times. Eventually, Napoleon had an army. Unfortunately, Napoleon failed to marry an older wealthy lady to increase his social status. He eventually married Joséphine de Beauharnais, who happened to have many affairs with many men. After France overthrew its king, it declared war on Austria; soon, more European countries declared war on France, starting the War of the First Coalition. In 1796, Napoleon was sent to France's border with Italy, while France sent two other French generals to fight in the north. Napoleon galvanized his demoralized, underpaid army, who lacked equipment. While the generals in the north failed to defeat Coalition forces, Napoleon rapidly defeated Austria in Italy due to splitting his enemies into two and taking them out separately. Eventually, Austria signed a peace treaty and left the war. Now hailed as a hero by French citizens, Napoleon was sent to Egypt in 1798 to undermine British access to India. During Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, he had a team of scholars to gain more glory. After losing a battle against an Anglo-Ottoman force in Acre, Napoleon returned to France alone. Napoleon learned that his wife was having an affair with a man named Hippolyte Charles. Napoleon and a very influential politician called Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes overthrew the unpopular French government. They created the Consulate with three Consuls in charge of the nation. At 30 years old, Napoleon became the First Consul for life.

Before Napoleon came to power and was still in Egypt, France spread revolutionary ideals in other countries. Still, the European monarchies stopped them, starting the War of the Second Coalition. Napoleon defeated Austria in Italy again, and they sued for peace. Only Great Britain remained at war with France, blocking French ports and seizing several ships from neutral nations. This led to the creation of a league to embargo the British. In retaliation, Britain bombed Copenhagen, and the league was dissolved. Finally, with their economy badly damaged, Britain signed a peace treaty with France in 1802.

After signing a peace treaty with the British, Napoleon reformed the French economy, education, legal system, brought back the Catholic Church, ensured freedom of religion, and gave rights to everyone except women. After several failed assassinations on Napoleon, he held a vote for if he should become emperor. A large percentage of the ballots wanted Napoleon as emperor. On December 2, 1804, he declared himself the Emperor of the French. Meanwhile, the UK declared war on France due to both nations violating their peace agreement. Though Napoleon easily invaded any British land army, his navy was much weaker than the Royal Navy. Britain gained several allies in Europe to fight Napoleon; thus, the War of the Third Coalition began. However, Napoleon defeated Austria and Russia in Austerlitz easily. After giving up territory and handing over significant compensation, Emperor Francis II disbanded the one-thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Prussia declared war on France in 1806, starting the War of the Fourth Coalition. Napoleon ultimately came out victorious after beating Prussian and Russian forces.

Part 2
During peace negotiations, Napoleon and Alexander I became allies against the coalition, while Prussia suffered sufficiently. Only Great Britain remained a threat to Napoleon, so he created a system to block Britain from trade in the European continent. This blockade crippled the British economy, led them to bomb Copenhagen again, and increased their trade with other parts of the globe. However, Portugal, a traditional British ally, refused to take part in Napoleon's system. He retaliated by invading Portugal in late 1807. Napoleon then suspected some of his supporters, like Spain, of not entirely stopping trade with Britain. He then overthrew the Spanish Monarchy and crowned his brother, Joseph. This angered the Spanish population, and fighting in Spain between Napoleon's forces and guerrilla fighters began. Austria betrayed Napoleon and started the War of the Fifth Coalition. This time, Austria defeated Napoleon in Aspern-Essling, but Austria surrendered to him months later. As a result, Austria lost land, and Francis's young daughter, Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, married Napoleon and conceived a child.

After losing to Russia, Sweden overthrew their king and replaced him with one of Napoleon's marshals, Bernadotte. Due to mistrust growing between Russia and France, Napoleon invaded the former in 1812. Russian forces used a tacit called Scorched Earth to scorch their land to starve Napoleon's army. During the summer, he lost many of his men before Russian forces clashed with Napoleon's weakened army in the Battle of Borodino. He took over Moscow, but it was evacuated and went up in flames. Eventually, winter began, and Napoleon started retreating. When Napoleon finally escaped Russia, he had lost many soldiers. Several of his allies betrayed him, which started the War of the Sixth Coalition. Napoleon defeated Coalition forces several times in the former Holy Roman Empire but could not pursue his enemies due to a lack of cavalry. Austria finally got the two sides to sign a brief truce. After several arguments between Napoleon and Francis, Austria rejoined the Coalition, who decided to retreat if Napoleon advanced on their army. At the same time, the rest of the Coalition forces took care of his marshals. All of this eventually led to the Battle of Leipzig, which became a massive defeat for Napoleon. While Coalition forces drove Napoleon out of several European nations, he attempted an enormous defensive of France against the Coalition forces. He became successful in several battles due to having a tiny army, but Paris fell to the Coalition. Napoleon surrendered and was exiled to the island of Elba. The old Bourbon monarchy became the rulers of France, Napoleon's family gained titles, and Napoleon was to receive a state pension. However, Napoleon returned to France, returned to power, and several European countries declared war on Napoleon himself. Napoleon failed to defeat an Anglo-Prussian force in Belgium, losing at the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena and died on May 5, 1821.

Transcript
View the Napoleonic Wars transcript here: The Napoleonic Wars/Transcript

Errors

 * In Part 2, around timelapse 24:14-24:15 when Napoleon's old soilders refused to arrest him and when the troops cried out "Long Live the Emperor", the background remains the same.
 * In both parts France is shown without Alasce-Lorriane at 12:58 in part 1 and 21:15 in part 2.

Trivia

 * This was the first series uploaded in 2021.
 * This was the first two-part video to reach the 1-hour mark.


 * The Napoleonic Wars were the twenty-fifth and the twenty-sixth videos uploaded to the OverSimplified channel.