The French revolutionary environment had a major impact on Old World political culture. Armed with misery, arms and supported by Enlightenment ideas, the French overturned their monarchical authority in order to undertake an extensive transformation in the country. Despite the differences in interest between the various social strata in France, the episode directly affected the hegemony of the other monarchies spread across Europe.
Concerned with containing the extension of the French revolutionary ideal to other National States, the European monarchies organized troops interested in establishing the return of the royal line to the throne of France. Of course, French revolutionaries would eventually take up arms to offer resistance to absolutist foreigners. It was then, precisely in this context of war, that the legendary General Napoleon Bonaparte appeared as a central figure in the French victories.
Napoleon's first trump cards occur in Italy, between 1796 and 1797, when he led the process of invasion of that country's territory. At just twenty-eight years old, he achieved a series of victories against Austrian forces. From these victories the French government managed to form a series of allied republics in northern Italy.
Soon after, he sought to retaliate against the great enemy of England in a season of battles that took place in Egypt, between the years of 1798 and 1801. The main objective of the enterprise was to take English domains in Egypt in order to reinforce its naval troops. Going directly to the city of Alexandria, Napoleon's soldiers had little trouble standing out against the Ottomans. However, the British blockade in the Mediterranean prevented the conquest of Egypt from being consolidated.
At the end of the 18th century, Napoleon took advantage of French political instabilities and his military prestige to then seize power in his country. Recruiting thousands of men from the common population, he managed to turn the struggle against the European monarchies into a serious cause of a national nature. Soon after the political victory, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to northern Italy to broaden his conquests there and make way for the entire peninsula to be conquered later.
The year 1806 exposed to Napoleon the limitations and great trump that he possessed in front of the French arms. At sea, he suffered two major defeats to veteran British warships. On land, his soldiers defeated a large coalition of royalist troops from several countries in Europe. As a result, France gained control over the territories of present-day Germany.
Knowing the difficulties of defeating the British at sea, Napoleon Bonaparte created the Continental Blockade as an economic sanction capable of weakening the power of its greatest enemies. The nations that failed to comply with the agreement would be definitively invaded by the already feared French army. In this new moment, the French took over the entire Iberian Peninsula, some of the Polish territories and the submission of Norway and Denmark.
After so many victories, Napoleon's great military mistake happened when he bet on an invasion of Russian territory. Without counting the violence of that country's winter, the audacious military ended up seeing the downfall of thousands of its soldiers. In this context of disorganization, the enemies organized themselves in order to undertake the coup de grace to Napoleon. At the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, the little general was forced to surrender his arms.
By Rainer Sousa
Master in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/as-conquistas-napoleao.htm
