Fall Of Napoleon And The French Empire example essay topic

WAR FROM 18 TH CENTURY NAVAL CAPABILITIES TO THE WAR OF 1812 The English Navy has to obviously be strong to protect an island, and had already been tested against sea powers of Spain and the Netherlands. France, which was not susceptible to an attack from the water, began to build it's naval fleet and became a threat to the English merchant vessels. England began to realize the importance of having a strategy through an allied coalition in which their greatest contribution to the alliance would be though sea power and the four elements of the merchant marines, a struggling navy, strategic materials, and good offshore bases. The eager French divided naval forces into two fleets: Mediterranean and Atlantic.

In an effort to stop the French from maintaining trade routes, the English enacted the "Rule of 1756" which prohibited anyone from taking over the French trade routes in time of war, but would continue to subsidize the German raiders. The French tactic at sea was to try and get ahead of the superior English vessels and fire while moving forward to increase the range of each round; once the ship was disabled, the French would then flee or turn and destroy. The English preferred a straightforward approach, which sometimes meant to move within pistol range in order to increase the accuracy of their weapons. Both sides agreed that they needed to improve accuracy as well as the rate of fire. It was British tenacity as well as strong naval traditions that allowed the island country to survive and be the strongest empire that the western world had ever known. In America the two groups of populations from England and France were not religiously yoked together.

The French stood strong with Catholicism and the English were not going to be bound by the laws of the Catholic Church any longer. As far as fighting skills, the French had a leg up when it came to wilderness warfare. The French worked closely with the Indian population and learned a great deal about how to live off of the land while being employed by it as well, for example as a trapper. The English on the other hand took to the fields of the new world to become farmers, and many of them had to be taught how to shoot a weapon. Once the idea of revolution the streets, which had spawned from texts like Common Sense, the individual new states were forced to fight independently against England. The Continental Army was the result of all the colonies combining separate forces into one that worked to achieve the same objective, independence from England.

Although not every American went out to join the new army, the majority of the population was prepared to fight for their individual state. This type of American militia strategy was difficult for the British to combat, and eventually independence was granted. Education was on the frontier along with the new world and the military was beginning to understand the importance of having educated men as officers to lead the troops. The first military academies began to be established towards the end of the 1700's and by 1802 West Point was established in the United States. Back in Europe, the French Revolution was not the result of military increases in technology and education, but a sense of pride among the nation. Although improvements were being invented, such as interchangeable parts and extensive lines of communication, it was Napoleon that was able to rally the citizens and create an empire that almost swallowed all of Europe.

One of the major changes was in the training of men; recruits were no longer flogged for discipline, but instead were given a sense of pride and developed loyalty to influence the necessity to follow orders. Napoleon did not use any new technologies, but compiled many of the old theories of war fighting. Napoleon had gathered a fighting force to large to command all at once and had to be broken down into divisions, which were made up of regiments that consisted of at least three battalions. This would be the first fighting force that could fight individual battles or come together to fight all at once, which made the French maneuverability much easier. Napoleon's secret weapon was the surprise attack by the reserve, which was a lesson that was learned after one of his units arriving late to the battle of Marengo in 1800, was able to attack a battle weary Austrian army. Napoleon's formation was a compilation of three battalions in a column one right behind the other.

As a former artillery officer, Napoleon applied a tactic of picking a spot and centering all fire on that area to weaken the point for the infantry's assault. Another tactic was the use of cavalry as reconnaissance, but the greatest tactic was the use of his reserve as noted above, which remained highly effective until the Europeans learned from his strategy. Napoleon's biggest undoing was his lack of willingness to change with the time. Wellington's British line outplayed Napoleon's use of the column technique Waterloo.

With the invention of the musket, gunpowder propellants exposed the entire column not just the front lines. Wellington was able to cover and conceal the British army until the French were within musket range. Wellington believed that no army should be exposed to hostile fire until the enemy is close enough to fire upon with the musket. This left Napoleon's strategy of using the artillery engagement to weaken the enemy front lines useless. Wellington's philosophy of cover and concealment until the "moment of truth" is still a technique in use today. After the fall of Napoleon and the French Empire, the world enjoyed almost fifty years of freedom from war.

During the first half of the 1800's, following the War of 1812 to 1815, the great powers of the world were worn out from fighting the French for the past twenty years. Efforts were made, although unsuccessful, to stop future wars, but these conferences are the forerunners for the Geneva Convention and other international laws. There were successful rules or codes of conduct that were developed during this period. The rules of engagement reinstated the old code of chivalry that mandated that civilian populations should not be bombarded during a conflict. Another rule of the ocean disallowed neutral vessels from being seized at sea, unless carrying contraband. Other rules included outlawing the use of poisonous gases and anti-personal artillery.

These rules came with consequences of being tried as a "war criminal" that are still applicable today. The majority of the world, with the exception of Prussia and Russia, started to downsize armies. Britain cut their army dramatically by seventy-five percent, and kept training at a bare minimum. The disciplinary methods of training recruits went back to the eighteenth century standards of lashings and the officer ranks were paid minimal if at all. All monies were concentrated on rebuilding an economy and maintaining the greatest sea power of that time. SOURCE USED Brodie, Bernard and Fawn.

From Crossbow to H-Bomb. (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University, 1973). Chap 5-6 Keegan, John. Mask of Command. (New York, New York: Viking Penguin, 1988).

Chap 1-2 Preston, Richard A., Alex Roland, and Sydney F. Wise. MenIn Arms: A History of Warfare and its interrelationships With Western Society. (Belmont, California: Wadsworth / Thomson Learning, 2001). Chap 10-13.