Battle of Halle
In the Battle of Halle on 17 October 1806 a French corps led by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte fought the Prussian Reserve under Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg. The French defeated their opponents, forcing the Prussians to retreat northeast toward Dessau after suffering heavy losses, the clash occurred in the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The city of Halle is located about 30 kilometers northwest of Leipzig on the Saale River, Emperor Napoleon I of France invaded the Electorate of Saxony and inflicted two disastrous defeats on the Prussian-Saxon armies on 14 October 1806. As the beaten armies fled, Marshal Bernadottes corps marched north, at the beginning of the encounter, two French divisions rushed the bridges over the Saale on the west side of the city. They overran a weak defending force and quickly occupied the city, in the day, Bernadottes troops stormed out of Halle and attacked Eugenes Reserve which was drawn up to the southeast of the city. The Prussians were driven from their positions and chased to the northeast, while this engagement was going on, Bernadottes third division surrounded and captured a Prussian regiment isolated on the west side of the city.
One of the few intact Prussian forces west of the Elbe River was now crippled, Napoleons decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805 profoundly affected the balance of power in Europe. After this event, Emperor Francis I of Austria sued for peace and Tsar Alexander I of Russia withdrew his army from Austrian territory. In February 1806, Napoleon pressured a cowed Prussia into handing over several territories to France and her allies in return for the state of Hanover, the agreement pushed Prussia into a break with Great Britain whose king was the Hanoverian elector. Napoleon began to remake the face of Europe and he created the Confederation of the Rhine on 25 July. Then he offered Hanover to Britain in exchange for peace, which infuriated Prussia, Prussia mobilized 171,000 troops, but its army had missed the changes that had overtaken warfare since the days when King Frederick II of Prussias army was the terror of Europe. As the Prussians advanced into territory belonging to the Electorate of Saxony, Brunswick took station at Erfurt in the center while Hohenlohe deployed near Rudolstadt in the east.
Eugene of Württembergs Reserve was well to the north at Magdeburg, on 8 October, Napoleon launched 180,000 troops across the Saxon frontier. His troops were massed in a batallion carré made up of three columns of two corps each, plus the Imperial Guard, the Cavalry Reserve, and a Bavarian contingent. The next day, Marshal Jean Lannes V Corps attacked the 8, the young prince was killed and his division took to its heels after the drubbing it received. Napoleon became convinced that his enemies lay near Erfurt, so he ordered his batallion carré to make a wheel on 12 October. The Prussian generals opted to fall back, Brunswick was to take the main army north from Weimar to Merseburg, while Hohenlohe protected the move by standing on the defensive near Jena. Rüchels orders were to hold Weimar until Saxe-Weimar returned with his division, on 14 October, the double Battle of Jena-Auerstedt occurred as Napoleon attacked Hohenlohe while Brunswick ran head-on into the III Corps of Marshal Louis Davout
Kingdom of Prussia
It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent.
The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade.
Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen
In the Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen on 5 and 6 June 1807, troops of the Russian Empire led by General Levin August, Count von Bennigsen attacked the First French Empire corps of Marshal Michel Ney. The Russians pressed back their opponents in an action that saw Ney fight a brilliant rear guard action with his heavily outnumbered forces, during the 6th, Ney successfully disengaged his troops and pulled back to the west side of the Pasłęka River. The action occurred during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars, dobre Miasto is on Route 51 about 20 kilometers southwest of Lidzbark Warmiński and 24 kilometers north of Olsztyn. The fighting occurred along Route 580 which runs southwest from Guttstadt to Kalisty on the Pasłęka, at the beginning of June, Bennigsen launched an offensive against the forces of Emperor Napoleon I in East Prussia. The Russian commander planned to trap Neys corps between several converging columns, although all three French marshals saw sharp fighting, the Russian plan failed to put significant numbers of French troops out of action.
Afraid of being cut off in his turn, Bennigsen ordered a retreat on the night of the 7th as Napoleon instructed his forces to counterattack the Russians, the decisive Battle of Friedland was fought a week on 14 June. After the bloody Battle of Eylau on 7 and 8 February 1807, his soldiers clamored for an end to the fighting. Instead of the shouts of Vive lEmpereur, cries of Vive la paix were heard in the bivouacs when the emperor passed by. On 17 February the French began their withdrawal westward into winter quarters, by the 23rd the French reached their cantonments, with Bernadottes I Corps on the left, Soults IV Corps in the center, and Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davouts III Corps on the right. Neys VI Corps occupied a position at Guttstadt, while the Imperial Guard. Napoleon stationed the V Corps in a position to cover Warsaw, Marshal Pierre Augereaus decimated VII Corps was broken up and its survivors were allotted to the other corps. LEstocqs attempt to pursue the French came to grief at Braniewo on 26 February, in this action, the Russian-Prussian force lost 100 killed and wounded, with 700 soldiers and six guns captured.
French losses were not reported but were probably light, meanwhile, to the northeast of Warsaw, General of Division Anne Jean Marie René Savarys V Corps defeated Lieutenant General Ivan Essen at the Battle of Ostroleka on 16 February. The French lost 1,171 casualties including one general killed, Russian losses were 2,500 soldiers, seven guns, and two colors. At the end of March 1807, Marshal Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier withdrew many of his troops from the Siege of Stralsund with the intention of using them for the Siege of Kolberg and his Swedish opponent, General-Leutnant Hans Henric von Essen immediately pushed back the outnumbered besiegers. Quickly returning with the bulk of his soldiers, Mortier drove the Swedes north of the Peene River and this freed many of Mortiers troops for other duties and allowed Napoleon to concentrate on reducing Gdańsk. Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre invested the fortress of Danzig on 10 March 1807, after a prolonged defense in the Siege of Danzig, General of Infantry Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth surrendered on 24 May.
Of the 370 officers and 15,287 men of the garrison,3,000 were killed, French losses numbered about 6,000 killed, wounded, or died of sickness
War of the Fourth Coalition
The Fourth Coalition against Napoleons French Empire was defeated in a war spanning 1806–1807. Coalition partners included Prussia, Saxony, several members of the coalition had previously been fighting France as part of the Third Coalition, and there was no intervening period of general peace. On 9 October 1806, Prussia joined a coalition, fearing the rise in French power after the defeat of Austria. Prussia and Russia mobilized for a campaign, and Prussian troops massed in Saxony. Napoleon decisively defeated the Prussians in a campaign that culminated at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt on 14 October 1806. French forces under Napoleon occupied Prussia, pursued the remnants of the shattered Prussian Army and they advanced all the way to East Prussia and the Russian frontier, where they fought an inconclusive battle against the Russians at the Battle of Eylau on 7–8 February 1807. Napoleons advance on the Russian frontier was briefly checked during the spring as he revitalized his army, Russian forces were finally crushed by the French at the Battle of Friedland on 14 June 1807, and three days Russia asked for a truce.
By the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, France made peace with Russia, these acquisitions were incorporated into his brother Jérôme Bonapartes new Kingdom of Westphalia, and established the Duchy of Warsaw. The end of the war saw Napoleon master of almost all of western and central continental Europe, except for Spain, Austria, despite the end of the Fourth Coalition, Britain remained at war with France. Hostilities on land resumed in 1807 when a Franco-Spanish force invaded Britains ally Portugal, a further Fifth Coalition would be assembled when Austria re-joined the conflict in 1809. The Fourth Coalition of Prussia, Saxony, despite the death of William Pitt in January 1806, Britain and the new Whig administration remained committed to checking the growing power of France. Peace overtures between the two early in the new year proved ineffectual due to the still unresolved issues that had led to the breakdown of the Peace of Amiens. One point of contention was the fate of Hanover, a German electorate in personal union with the British monarchy that had been occupied by France since 1803, dispute over this state would eventually become a casus belli for both Britain and Prussia against France.
This issue dragged Sweden into the war, whose forces had deployed there as part of the effort to liberate Hanover during the war of the previous coalition. The path to war seemed inevitable after French forces ejected the Swedish troops in April 1806, there was an escalation in the ongoing economic warfare between the two powers. With Britain still retaining its dominance of the seas, Napoleon looked to break this dominance with his issuance of the Berlin Decree, Britain retaliated with its Orders in Council several months later. In the meantime, Russia spent most of 1806 still licking its wounds from the years campaign. Napoleon had hoped to establish peace with Russia and a peace treaty was signed in July 1806, but this was vetoed by Tsar Alexander I
Battle of Waren-Nossentin
Though forced to give ground, the Prussians successfully kept the French from inflicting serious loss or cutting off any units in this War of the Fourth Coalition action. Waren lies on the end of Lake Müritz, about 70 kilometres southeast of Rostock. Nossentin is a village on the Fleesen See about 15 kilometres due west of Waren. After the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt on 14 October 1806, Emperor Napoleon launched a pursuit of the defeated Prussians. At the end of October, the Franch managed to cut off and capture large numbers of Prussian soldiers near Prenzlau, gebhard Leberecht von Blüchers corps evaded capture by turning back to the west. Near Waren, Blücher linked up with another Prussian corps and the force withdrew to the west. As the Prussian rear guard pulled out of Waren, the first French cavalry attacked and this action started an all-day battle between Pletz and Yorcks troops and the French. Though Bernadotte attacked vigorously, the Prussians managed to get away intact after several clashes, in contrast to their dismal performance to date, the Prussians acquitted themselves well in this fight.
This disaster was followed by the Capitulation of Pasewalk on 29 October and the Capitulation of Stettin on 30 October. In the next few days, the French mopped up the Prussian forces in the area in a series of surrenders at Boldekow on 30 October, Anklam and Küstrin on 1 November, since 24 October, General-Leutnant Blücher had served as Prince Hohenlohes rear guard commander. The commander of the I Corps, Marshal Bernadotte picked up news of Hohenlohe on the 25th when he was at Brandenburg an der Havel, from Nauen, the I Corps moved northeast on the 26th, to reach Oranienburg on the 27th. Moving north, the French arrived at Furstenberg on the 28th before turning northeast to reach Boitzenburg on the 29th, on 30 October, Bernadotte received reports that Blücher turned back to Neustrelitz. Bernadotte sent Colonel Étienne Maurice Gérard with his 2nd Hussar Regiment to harass the Prussian retreat, besides capturing 400 soldiers and a number of wagons, Gérard secured the information that Blücher was headed for Waren.
That evening, Bernadottes troops made it to Burg Stargard,8 kilometres southeast of Neubrandenburg, at this time Marshal Nicolas Soults IV Corps was at Wusterhausen, just north of Neustadt an der Dosse. On 31 October, Blücher joined the column under General-Leutnant Johann Friedrich von Winning near Waren, winnings force, originally led by General Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, missed the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt on 14 October and had been trailing Blücher ever since. Winning wanted to reach Rostock to the north, and, to end, he ordered General-Major Karl Georg Friedrich von Wobeser to move ahead. However, Blücher called off the Rostock operation in favor of his own idea and he hoped to join with General Karl Ludwig von Lecoq in the former Electorate of Hanover or with General-Leutnant Franz Kasimir von Kleist at Magdeburg. To that end he sent officers to collect boats and supplies in the area, Blücher organized his army into two corps
Russia
Russia, officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II.
The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля.
In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
First French Empire
The First French Empire, Note 1 was the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte of France and the dominant power in much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. Its name was a misnomer, as France already had colonies overseas and was short lived compared to the Colonial Empire, a series of wars, known collectively as the Napoleonic Wars, extended French influence over much of Western Europe and into Poland. The plot included Bonapartes brother Lucien, serving as speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos, another Director, on 9 November 1799 and the following day, troops led by Bonaparte seized control. They dispersed the legislative councils, leaving a rump legislature to name Bonaparte, Sieyès, although Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, the Consulate, he was outmaneuvered by Bonaparte, who drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul. He thus became the most powerful person in France, a power that was increased by the Constitution of the Year X, the Battle of Marengo inaugurated the political idea that was to continue its development until Napoleons Moscow campaign.
Napoleon planned only to keep the Duchy of Milan for France, setting aside Austria, the Peace of Amiens, which cost him control of Egypt, was a temporary truce. He gradually extended his authority in Italy by annexing the Piedmont and by acquiring Genoa, Parma and Naples, he laid siege to the Roman state and initiated the Concordat of 1801 to control the material claims of the pope. Napoleon would have ruling elites from a fusion of the new bourgeoisie, on 12 May 1802, the French Tribunat voted unanimously, with exception of Carnot, in favour of the Life Consulship for the leader of France. This action was confirmed by the Corps Législatif, a general plebiscite followed thereafter resulting in 3,653,600 votes aye and 8,272 votes nay. On 2 August 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Consul for life, pro-revolutionary sentiment swept through Germany aided by the Recess of 1803, which brought Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden to Frances side. The memories of imperial Rome were for a time, after Julius Caesar and Charlemagne.
The Treaty of Pressburg, signed on 26 December 1805, did little other than create a more unified Germany to threaten France. On the other hand, Napoleons creation of the Kingdom of Italy, the occupation of Ancona, to create satellite states, Napoleon installed his relatives as rulers of many European states. The Bonapartes began to marry into old European monarchies, gaining sovereignty over many nations, in addition to the vassal titles, Napoleons closest relatives were granted the title of French Prince and formed the Imperial House of France. Met with opposition, Napoleon would not tolerate any neutral power, Prussia had been offered the territory of Hanover to stay out of the Third Coalition. With the diplomatic situation changing, Napoleon offered Great Britain the province as part of a peace proposal and this, combined with growing tensions in Germany over French hegemony, Prussia responded by forming an alliance with Russia and sending troops into Bavaria on 1 October 1806. In this War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon destroyed the armies of Frederick William at Jena-Auerstedt, the Eylau and the Friedland against the Russians finally ruined Frederick the Greats formerly mighty kingdom, obliging Russia and Prussia to make peace with France at Tilsit.
The Treaties of Tilsit ended the war between Russia and the French Empire and began an alliance between the two empires that held power of much of the rest of Europe, the two empires secretly agreed to aid each other in disputes
Battle of Eylau
Late in the battle, the Russians received a timely reinforcement from a Prussian division of von LEstocq. The town is now called Bagrationovsk and is a part of Kaliningrad Oblast, the engagement was fought during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Of all Napoleonic battles, this is considered to be the most uncertain, Napoleons armies previously smashed the army of the Austrian Empire in the Ulm Campaign and the combined Austrian and Russian armies at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. Austerlitz forced the Austrians to sue for peace and their Russian allies to withdraw from the conflict, on 14 October 1806, Napoleon crushed the armies of the Kingdom of Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. Eylau was the first serious check to the Grande Armée and the myth of Napoleons invincibility was badly shaken, the French would end up defeating the Russians in the year at the Battle of Friedland. In late January, Bennigsens Russian army went on the offensive in East Prussia, Napoleon reacted by mounting a counteroffensive to the north, hoping to prevent their retreat to the east.
After his cossacks captured a copy of Napoleons orders, Bennigsen rapidly withdrew to the northeast to avoid being cut off, the French pursued for several days and found the Russians drawn up for battle at Eylau. In a vicious evening clash, the French captured the village with heavy losses on both sides, the following day brought even more serious fighting. Early in the battle, an attack by Napoleon failed with catastrophic losses. To retrieve the situation, the emperor launched a cavalry charge against the Russians. This bought enough time for the French right wing to throw its weight into the contest, the Russian left wing was bent back at an acute angle and Bennigsens army was in danger of collapse. A Prussian corps belatedly arrived and saved the day by pushing back the French right wing, as darkness fell, a French corps tardily appeared on the French left flank. That night Bennigsen decided to retreat, leaving Napoleon in possession of a snowy battlefield covered with thousands of corpses, with the Prussian army routed at Jena-Auerstedt, Napoléon occupied the major cities of Germany and marched on east in pursuit of the remaining forces opposed to him.
These were largely Russians under the command of the frail 68-year-old Field Marshal Count Mikhail Kamensky, the old marshal was unwilling to risk battle, and continued to retreat, leaving the Grande Armée free to enter Poland almost unopposed. Nevertheless, as the French pressed aggressively eastward across the Vistula, the French seized a crossing over the Wkra on 23 December at the Battle of Czarnowo. Russian resistance soon stiffened and on 26 December the two clashed at the Battles of Pułtusk and Gołymin. After these fierce engagements Napoléons troops took up quarters in Poland to recuperate after a victorious. In January 1807, the new Russian army commander Levin August, having cleared Neys troops out of the way, the Russians rolled down on the isolated French I Corps under Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
Treaties of Tilsit
The Treaties of Tilsit were two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in the town of Tilsit in July 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon I of France, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman River, the second was signed with Prussia on 9 July. The treaties were made at the expense of the Prussian king, in Tilsit, he ceded about half of his pre-war territories. Tilsit freed French forces for the Peninsular War, central Europe became a battlefield again in 1809, when Austria and Great Britain engaged France in the War of the Fifth Coalition. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the Congress of Vienna would restore many Prussian territories, the treaty ended war between Imperial Russia and the French Empire and began an alliance between the two empires that rendered the rest of continental Europe almost powerless. The two countries agreed to aid each other in disputes. France pledged to aid Russia against Ottoman Turkey while Russia agreed to join the Continental System against the British Empire, Napoleon convinced Alexander to enter into the Anglo-Russian War and to instigate the Finnish War against Sweden to force Sweden to join the Continental System.
More specifically, the agreed to evacuate Wallachia and Moldavia. The Ionian Islands and Cattaro, which had captured by Russian admirals Ushakov. In recompense, Napoleon guaranteed the sovereignty of the Duchy of Oldenburg, talleyrand had advised Napoleon to pursue milder terms, the treaties marked an important stage in his estrangement from the emperor. The cities debts, especially those of Berlin often billetted on, were not assumed by the Prussian government.15 per cent. 98%, many observers in Prussia and Russia viewed the treaty as unequal and as a national humiliation. The Russian soldiers refused to follow Napoleons commands, as the Lisbon Incident demonstrated to all Europe, Napoleons plans to marry the tsars sister were stymied by Russian royalty. Cooperation between Russia and France eventually broke down in 1810 when the tsar began to allow ships to land in Russian ports. In 1812, Napoleon crossed the Neman river and invaded Russia, the Prussian state was diminished by nearly half under the terms of the treaty of Tilsit from 5,700 Prussian square miles to 2,800.
Instead of 9.75 million inhabitants, no more than 4.5 million remained within the new boundaries of Prussia, almost all that Prussia had gained by the partitions of Poland was taken from it. Saxony, a confederate of Prussia, was the recipient of the provinces, and Russia
Napoleonic Wars
The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe.
Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power.
However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France
Battle of Prenzlau
In this action from the War of the Fourth Coalition, Hohenlohe surrendered his entire force to Murat after some fighting and a parley. Prenzlau is located about 90 kilometers north of Berlin in Brandenburg, Germany at the intersection of routes B109 and B198. After their catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt on 14 October, the Prussians crossed the Elbe near Magdeburg and marched northeast, trying to reach safety behind the Oder River. Part of Napoleons army thrust east to seize Berlin, while the rest followed the retreating Prussians, from Berlin, Murat moved north with his cavalry, trying to head off Hohenlohe. After several clashes on 26 and 27 October, Murat arrived at Prenzlau on the heels of Hohenlohes corps, fighting occurred in which several Prussian units were captured or cut to pieces. Murat bluffed the demoralized Hohenlohe into surrendering his entire corps by claiming that the Prussians were surrounded by overwhelming forces, in fact, apart from a brigade of infantry, only Murats cavalry were in the vicinity.
In the days afterward, the French cowed several more Prussian forces and fortresses into surrendering, finding its way to the northeast blocked, a second corps of retreating Prussians under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher veered northwest toward Lübeck. On 8 October 1806, Napoleons 180, 000-strong army invaded the Electorate of Saxony through the Franconian Forest. His troops were massed in a batallion carré made up of three columns of two corps each, plus the Imperial Guard, the Cavalry Reserve, and a Bavarian contingent. Brunswick held a position at Erfurt in the center, Hohenlohe took station near Rudolstadt in the east, with General-Major Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien at Hof. Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württembergs Reserve lay far to the north at Magdeburg, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadottes I Corps and Murats cavalry defeated Tauentziens division at the Battle of Schleiz. The next day, Marshal Jean Lannes V Corps mauled the 8, 300-man division of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia at the Battle of Saalfeld, on 12 October, Napoleon wheeled his batallion carré to the left to engage his enemies in combat.
In the face of this menace, Brunswick elected to march the army north from Weimar to Merseburg. Rüchel was at Weimar, waiting for Saxe-Weimar to return with his division, the Prussian armies were beaten and driven from both battlefields. Brunswicks army lost 13,000 casualties and 115 artillery pieces, while the casualties of Hohenlohe, in Capitulation of Erfurt on 16 October, over 10,000 Prussians laid down their arms in the first of a series of shameful surrenders. The 12, 000-man corps of Saxe-Weimar and Winning missed Jena-Auerstedt and remained intact, shot through both eyes at Auerstadt, Brunswick died on 10 November at Altona near Hamburg. Dangerously wounded at Jena, Rüchel escaped to Poland and recovered and these columns were energetically pursued by Marshal Nicolas Soults IV Corps with General of Division Louis Michel Antoine Sahucs dragoons attached. On 17 October, Bernadotte inflicted heavy losses on Eugene of Württembergs Reserve at the Battle of Halle, by 20 October and the survivors of the Reserve reached Magdeburg
French Empire
Russian Empire
Kingdom of Prussia
