War of the Third Coalition
The War of the Third Coalition was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I and its ally Spain opposed an alliance, the Third Coalition, which was made up of the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire, Naples, Sicily, and Sweden. Prussia remained neutral during the war.
Britain had already been at war with France following the breakdown of the Peace of Amiens and remained the only country still at war with France after the Treaty of Pressburg. From 1803 to 1805, Britain was under constant threat of a French invasion. The Royal Navy, however, assured its naval dominance at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805.
The Third Coalition came to full fruition in 1804–05 as Napoleon's actions in Italy and Germany spurred Austria and Russia into joining Britain against France. The war would be determined on the continent, and the major land operations that sealed the swift French victory involved the Ulm Campaign, a large wheeling manoeuvre by the Grande Armée lasting from late August to mid-October 1805 that captured an entire Austrian army, and the decisive French victory over a combined Austro-Russian force under Alexander I of Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz in early December. Austerlitz effectively brought the Third Coalition to an end, although later there was a small side campaign against Naples, which also resulted in a decisive French victory at the Battle of Campo Tenese.
On 26 December 1805, Austria and France signed the Treaty of Pressburg, which took Austria out of both the war and the Coalition, while it reinforced the earlier treaties of Campo Formio and of Lunéville between the two powers. The treaty confirmed the Austrian cession of lands in Italy to France and in Germany to Napoleon's German allies, imposed an indemnity of 40 million francs on the defeated Habsburgs, and allowed the defeated Russian troops free passage, with their arms and equipment, through hostile territories and back to their home soil. Victory at Austerlitz also prompted Napoleon to create the Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of German client states that pledged themselves to raise an army of 63,000 men. As a direct consequence of those events, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist when, in 1806, Francis II abdicated the Imperial throne, becoming Francis I, Emperor of Austria. Those achievements, however, did not establish a lasting peace on the continent. Austerlitz had driven neither Russia nor Britain, whose fleet protected Sicily from a French invasion, to cease fighting. Meanwhile, Prussian worries about the growing French influence in Central Europe sparked the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806.
Periodisation
Historians differ on when the War of the Third Coalition began and when it ended. From the British perspective, the war started when Britain declared war on France on 18 May 1803, but it was still on its own. It was not until December 1804 when Sweden entered into an alliance with the United Kingdom, not until 11 April 1805 when Russia joined the alliance, not until 16 July when Britain and Russia ratified their treaty of alliance, and only thereafter Austria and Naples–Sicily completed the fully-fledged coalition.Meanwhile, Bavaria sided with France on 25 August following the Treaty of Bogenhausen, and Württemberg joined Napoleon on 5 September. No major hostilities between France and any member of the coalition other than Britain occurred until the Ulm Campaign. This was in part because Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom was not called off until 27 August 1805, when he decided to use his invasion force camped at Boulogne against Austria instead.
Likewise, no major battles occurred after the Battle of Austerlitz and the signing of the Peace of Pressburg on 26 December 1805, which forced Austria to leave the Third Coalition and cease hostilities against France. Some historians conclude that Austria's departure "shattered the fragile Third Coalition" and "ended the War of the Third Coalition".
This narrative leaves out the subsequent French invasion of Naples, which the occupying Anglo-Russian troops hastily evacuated and the remaining Neapolitan forces relatively quickly surrendered. Other scholars argue the southern Italian campaign should be included into the War of the Second Coalition, and criticise ignoring the Mediterranean front by only focusing on land battles in Central Europe and the Trafalgar campaign.
Prelude
From Amiens to the Third Coalition
In March 1802, hostilities between France and the Allies came to an end. However it was clear to the leading European politicians, and especially to Napoleon, that the peace treaties of Lunéville and Amiens, which ended the Second War of Coalition, were not a lasting solution. Tensions between Napoleon-ruled France and the United Kingdom had been rising again since the second half of 1802. The fact that Napoleon played an active role in the Caribbean contributed to this. There were also indications that he was once again interested in Egypt and the Middle East. There were reports in French newspapers that 10,000 men would be enough to reconquer Egypt.In Italy, Napoleon increased his influence when he transformed the Cisalpine Republic into the Italian Republic and made himself president. He annexed Piedmont to France. Contrary to the peace treaty of Amiens, the French army was not withdrawn from the Netherlands; instead, the Batavian Republic was given a new constitution based on the French model. The Helvetic Republic was also closely dependent on France. Napoleon had given the country a new federalist constitution with the Act of Mediation. At the same time, the country had had to bind itself politically to France for fifty years.
The peace treaty stipulated that the United Kingdom was to return all conquered territories except Ceylon and Trinidad to their respective previous owners. Minorca to Spain and Malta to the Order of St. John. In return, France was to leave Egypt and Naples and guarantee the independence of Portugal and the Ionian Islands. In order to prevent Napoleon from advancing further into the Levant, it was necessary for the United Kingdom to keep Malta and a fleet in the Mediterranean. Russia's interest in Malta offered Napoleon an ideal opportunity for a war in which he hoped to play Britain and Russia off against each other. Napoleon indirectly threatened war on 13 March 1803 when he criticized Britain's refusal to fully implement the terms of the Treaty of Amiens to British ambassador Lord Whitworth. Whitworth returned to London and shortly afterwards, on May 18, the United Kingdom declared war on France.
Setting up the opposing forces
When Napoleon crowned himself Emperor on December 2, 1804, Austria and Prussia may have been alarmed, but the annexed Italian city-states of Genoa, Parma and Piacenza and his coronation as King of Italy left no doubt as to Napoleon's intentions. On January 21, 1805, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger presented a treaty of alliance with Russia and Austria. The demands of this treaty were the restoration of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the withdrawal of French troops from Italy, the dissolution of the Batavian Republic and the restoration of Switzerland's independence. In the event of Napoleon's refusal, England would support the coalition forces financially. After all difficulties had been resolved, the United Kingdom, Austria and Russia signed a treaty on August 9, 1805, forming the third coalition against Napoleon. Prussia remained neutral.On the other side, Napoleon built an alliance of various southern German members of the Holy Roman Empire. These included Württemberg, Bavaria and Baden, which benefited from the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of February 25, 1803. These enlarged states were in line with Napoleon's calculations. They were to weaken Austria, but were themselves too weak to pose a threat to France.
at Boulogne
Prior to the formation of the Third Coalition, Napoleon had assembled the Army of England, an invasion force meant to strike at England, from around six camps at Boulogne in Northern France. Although they never set foot on British soil, Napoleon's troops received careful and invaluable training for any possible military operation. Boredom among the troops occasionally set in, but Napoleon paid many visits and conducted lavish parades in order to boost the morale of the soldiers.The men at Boulogne formed the core for what Napoleon would later call La Grande Armée. At the start, this French army had about 200,000 men organized into seven corps, each capable of independent action or in concert with other corps. Corps were large combined arms field units typically containing 2–4 infantry divisions, a cavalry division, and about 36 to 40 cannon.
On top of these forces, Napoleon created a cavalry reserve of 22,000 organized into two cuirassier divisions, four mounted dragoon divisions, and two divisions of dismounted dragoons and light cavalry, all supported by 24 artillery pieces. By 1805, the Grande Armée had grown to a force of 350,000, was well equipped, adequately trained, and possessed a skilled officer class. In accordance with one point of view, this army formation was the best in Europe at that time.
Russian and Austrian armies
The Imperial Russian Army in 1805 had many characteristics of ancien régime military organization: there was no permanent formation above the regimental level, senior officers were largely recruited from aristocratic circles, and the Russian soldier, in line with 18th-century practice, was regularly beaten and punished to instill discipline. Furthermore, many lower-level officers were poorly trained and had difficulty getting their men to perform the sometimes complex manoeuvres required in a battle. Nevertheless, the Russians did have a fine artillery arm manned by soldiers who regularly fought hard to prevent their pieces from falling into enemy hands.Archduke Charles, brother of the Austrian Emperor, had started to reform the Austrian army in 1801 by taking away power from the Hofkriegsrat, the military-political council responsible for decision-making in the Austrian armed forces. Charles was Austria's best field commander, but he was unpopular with the imperial court and lost much influence when, against his advice, Austria decided to go to war with France. Karl Mack became the new main commander in Austria's army, instituting reforms on the infantry on the eve of war that called for a regiment to be composed of four battalions of four companies rather than the older three battalions of six companies. The sudden change came with no corresponding officer training, and as a result, these new units were not led as well as they could have been. Austrian cavalry forces were regarded as the best in Europe, but the detachment of many cavalry units to various infantry formations precluded the hitting power of their massed French counterparts.