The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of conflicts fought between the First French Empire under Napoleon (1804–1815) and a fluctuating array of European coalitions. The wars originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789–1799) and from the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe. The wars are categorised as seven conflicts, five named after the coalitions that fought Napoleon, plus two named for their respective theatres; the War of the Third Coalition, War of the Fourth Coalition, War of the Fifth Coalition, War of the Sixth Coalition, War of the Seventh Coalition, the Peninsular War, and the French invasion of Russia.
Napoleonic Wars
French victory over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy in 1792
Bonaparte defeating the Austrians at the Battle of Rivoli in 1797
French victory over the Austrians and Russians at the Second Battle of Zürich
The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire after 1809 and also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from 18 May 1804 to 3 May 1814 and again briefly from 20 March 1815 to 7 July 1815, when Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena.
Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1806
The Battle of Austerlitz, 2nd December 1805, by François Gérard
The Arc de Triomphe, ordered by Napoleon in honour of the Grande Armée, is one of several landmarks whose construction was started in Paris during the First French Empire.
Napoleon reviewing the Imperial Guard before the Battle of Jena, 1806