The French Revolution sent shockwaves through Europe, as the continent's monarchs tried to stamp out the tide of republicanism. France was surrounded by enemies but fought them off, largely through the achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Republic's youngest general. Within a decade he had become Consul, First Consul, and finally Emperor, creating a new dynasty and a new order in Europe. From 1803 until 1809 he seemed unbeatable, vanquishing his foes one after another, but his invasion of Russia in 1812 proved disastrous and he faced a growing coalition of enemy powers. His defeat at the Battle of Waterloo marked the close of the Napoleonic era, but not the end of the Napoleonic legend. This book charts Napoleon's rise and fall and analyses the weaponry and rival armies that were to transform 19th Century Europe.

A collection of over 100 maps that provide a fascinating insight into the organization of some of the greatest military campaigns in history, including the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo. The accompanying narrative charts the history, and detailed captions explain the significance of each map.

Known collectively as the 'Great War', for over a decade the Napoleonic Wars engulfed not only a whole continent but also the overseas possessions of the leading European states. A war of unprecedented scale and intensity, it was in many ways a product of change that acted as a catalyst for upheaval and reform across much of Europe, with aspects of its legacy lingering to this very day. There is a mass of literature on Napoleon and his times, yet there are only a handful of scholarly works that seek to cover the Napoleonic Wars in their entirety, and fewer still that place the conflict in any broader framework. This study redresses the balance. Drawing on recent findings and applying a 'total' history approach, it explores the causes and effects of the conflict, and places it in the context of the evolution of modern warfare. It reappraises the most significant and controversial military ventures, including the war at sea and Napoleon's campaigns of 1805-9. The study gives an insight into the factors that shaped the war, setting the struggle in its wider economic, cultural, political and intellectual dimensions.

Central Europe remains a region of ongoing change and continuing significance in the contemporary world. This third, fully revised edition of the Historical Atlas of Central Europe takes into consideration recent changes in the region. The 120 full-colour maps, each accompanied by an explanatory text, provide a concise visual survey of political, economic, demographic, cultural, and religious developments from the fall of the Roman Empire in the early fifth century to the present. No less than 19 countries are the subject of this atlas. In terms of today's borders, those countries include Lithuania, Poland, and Belarus in the north; the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovakia in the Danubian Basin; and Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, and Greece in the Balkans. Much attention is also given to areas immediately adjacent to the central European core: historic Prussia, Venetia, western Anatolia, and Ukraine west of the Dnieper River. Embedded in the text are 48 updated administrative and statistical tables. The value of the Historical Atlas of Central Europe as an authoritative reference tool is further enhanced by an extensive bibliography and a gazetteer of place names - in up to 29 language variants - that appear on the maps and in the text. The Historical Atlas of Central Europe is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, journalists, and general readers who wish to have a fuller understanding of this critical area, with its many peoples, languages, and continued political upheaval.

Between 1793 and 1815 two decades of unrelenting naval warfare raised the sailing man of war to the zenith of its effectiveness as a weapon of war. Every significant sea power was involved in this conflict, and at some point virtually all of them were arrayed against Great Britain. A large number of enemy warships were captured in battle and the Admiralty ordered accurate drafts to be made of many of these prizes. Consequently, ships from the navies of France, Spain, the United States, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, as well as from Britain, were illustrated by an unprecedented variety of paintings, drawings, models or plans.

This is the first comprehensive modern atlas of the Peninsular War, the series of campaigns in Spain and Portugal between Napoleonic France and British forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington. Here a distinguished military historian examines and explains the sequence of battles and the course of the war through expertly drawn cartography in color. A general introduction, together with a historical summary setting the campaigns in context, is followed by 53 detailed maps and plans, each with a complementary text providing a succinct description of the action depicted. The great battles of Vimeiro, Talavera, Busaco, Albuera, Salamanca, Vitoria, and the Pyrenees are all graphically described, together with the main sieges and many minor combats. This is an indispensable companion to both serious students and military enthusiasts interested in the Napoleonic wars.

Austerlitz, Wagram, Borodino, Trafalgar, Leipzig, Waterloo: these are the places most closely associated with the era of the Napoleonic Wars. But how did this period of nearly continuous conflict affect the world beyond Europe? The immensity of the fighting waged by France against England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, and the immediate consequences of the tremors that spread throughout the world. In this ambitious and far-ranging work, Alexander Mikaberidze argues that the Napoleonic Wars can only be fully understood in an international perspective. France struggled for dominance not only on the plains of Europe but also in the Americas, West and South Africa, Ottoman Empire, Iran, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Taking specific regions in turn, Mikaberidze discusses major political-military events around the world and situates geopolitical decision-making within its long- and short-term contexts. From the British expeditions to Argentina and South Africa to the Franco-Russian maneuvering in the Ottoman Empire, the effects of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars would shape international affairs well into the next century. In Egypt, the wars led to the rise of Mehmed Ali and the emergence of a powerful state; in North America, the period transformed and enlarged the newly established United States; and in South America, the Spanish colonial empire witnessed the start of national-liberation movements that ultimately ended imperial control. Skillfully narrated and deeply researched, here at last is the global history of the period, one that expands our view of the Napoleonic Wars and their role in laying the foundations of the modern world.