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• History of Christianization of Europe
• Soviet Union, Communist influence
• Map of European ethnic groups
• Map of Fascism in Europe (1922-75)
• History of Islamic conquest in Europe
• Religions & ethnic groups in Russia
• Detailed map of French colonization
• Detailed map of British colonization
• Napoleon's conquests & legacy
• Ethnic & religious map of pre-Nazi Poland

--MORE & NON-ENGLISH--

• Muhammad cartoon crisis in pictures
• Stalin's private summer home
• Ravenna: capital of Gothic empire
• Czar Nicholas II's Ukrainian palace
• European traditional costumes/dress
• Inside the Vatican, house of all wealth

--MORE & NON-ENGLISH--

• Islamic Mujahidin vs. Spain & El Cid
• Poland-Lithuania vs. Teutonic Order
• Nevskiy's Russia vs. German Crusaders
• Prussia vs. France (Nazi Propaganda)
• Qadafi: Europe will soon be Islamic
• Ivan the Terrible vs. Muslim Tatars
• Soviet Propaganda: Defeat of Germany 

--MORE & NON-ENGLISH--

• The Gypsies in history and today, Europe's public enemy
• History of Jihad in Chechnya
& Caucasus vs. Russians
• History of the Muslim Tatars in Russia
• Ethnic & religious history of Serbs, Croats, & Bosnians
• Breakaway states and independence movements in Europe
• The ancient Germanic Runic alphabet and Runestones
• Inside Bulgaria, 1st Slavic nation,
land of Thracian masters of gold
• 510-year struggle for Albanian homeland, and 552 for Kosovo
• 4,000-year-old white mummies of China, bringers of Buddhism 

--MORE & NON-ENGLISH--

Detailed Maps of the legacy of Napoleon's conquests and

the reshaping of the European continent
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)

Print this Article    •    About the Author    •    Bibliography/Sources

Despite their reputation for being weak-willed cowards prone to surrender, the French have enjoyed a major part in shaping the history of the world for the last 1000 years. The most remarkable example of French military and political dominance other than their colonization of the world is the many triumphs of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of the First French Empire. In less than a decade, Napoleon's French armies had conquered most of Western Europe, and had become so frightening that nearly every European power set aside its differences and allied with the hopes that a combined offensive would defeat the power-hungry "republican" absolute dictator. Indeed, it took 7 alliances -- or Coalitions -- to ultimately destroy Napoleon's hopes of a French-dominated continent. The legacy of Napoleon is obvious by the fact alone that when France annexed Spain during the Napoleonic Wars, it gave nearly all of Spain's Latin American colonies the opportunity to revolt and declare independence without almost any resistance. Portugal, although not conquered by Napoleon, was so weakened and distracted that Brazil also saw the writing on the wall.

These EHL maps show the legacy of Napoleon's French conquests. The first map shows the First French Empire at its height, and shows the vassal states and populations his conquests insighted with goals of future independence. It also shows which countries voluntarily chose to ally with France (versus being conquered and vassalized by Napoleon), and the many Coalitions who opposed French expansionism. The numbers (1st, 2nd...) over each country denotes in which Coalition(s) that country participated. View the legend to help understand the map. The second map shows the geopolitical legacy of the Napoleonic Wars in the Congress of Wien (Vienna) and how it restructed Europe forever (see below).

If an error has been made, please notify the EHL Staff.

The Napoleonic Wars lasted from roughly 1803-1814, when the revolution-torn nation of France stunned the continent with a nearly global campaign of conquest and seeming invincibility. The wars began between France and Great Britain, two bitter rivals immemorial, but quickly drew in the rest of the continent in 7 wars to follow. Even the Muslims of the Ottoman empire aided their hated Christian rivals in hopes of obliterating French hegemony. Napoleonic France only enjoyed the formal alliance of Denmark-Norway, a united kingdom that sought to protect its naval maritime interests from British supremacy that it now enjoyed. The rest of Napoleon's allies were his conquered subjects, although Napoleon had the brilliant strategy of agitating civil, ethnic, and cultural unrest to gain new allies and weaken his enemies. For example, Napoleon formed an alliance with the Poles -- then long under Russian and German rule since the 18th century Partition of Poland-Lithuania -- in order to exploit the disorganization of the enemy. French ideas borne of the French Revolution also spread throughout the continent, although seldom were liberal movements successful. The liberal American-style rhetoric that called for the establishments of republics with civil rights ("Code Civil") did not seem to clash with the reality that Napoleon was an absolutist dictator with absolutely no regulation of his authority. Napoleon eventually conquered most of western Germany, vassalizing its states into the so-called "Confederation on the Rhein" (or Rhine) that soon dissolved into new anti-French belligerents. The main rivals to Napoleon's dominance were Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Even Prussia and Austria for a time seemed on the brink of total annihilation.

The humiliating invasion of Russia in 1812 decimated Napoleon's troops, forever imbuing his men with attrition and morale loss, opening the way for the ultimate obliteration of Napoleon's troops at Leipzig and the subsequent Allied triumphs, after which Napoleon was banished to the island of Elba in 1814. Stunningly, Napoleon soon returned with a reborn army to regain authority over France and his subjects, but was quickly annihilated in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 by the combined might of Prussia and Britain. Napoleon was then banished to the island of St. Helena off the coast of West Africa. France's republican and Napoleonic institutions were abolished, and the Bourbon dynasty was restored to the French throne. Napoleon III, who seized the throne after a liberal revolution, attempted to emulate Bonaparte's triumphs, but became the humiliation of the French nation when he was crushed by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.

Click the below map for the full-size version! Click on the map again to zoom.

After the defeat of Napoleon at Leipzig and the subsequent battles, whilst he was exiled at Elba island, the continental powers of Europe met at the Congress of Wien (or Vienna) in 1814 to determine the fate of the entire continent from the ashes of Napoleon's global empire. This declaration ultimately gave modern Europe its face, and set in motion the eventual unification of Italy and the rebirth of the German nation. Sicily and Naples were merged, giving the foundation to the modern Italian state. It eventually merged with Piedmont-Sardinia, and quickly annexed the Papal States (around Rome) and the northern Italian city-states from German rule, and the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1870. Denmark, which lost the war (as it was allied with France), forfeited Norway to Sweden. The foundations were also laid for the rebirth of the ancient kingdom of Germany. The German Confederation was a loose-knit conglomeration of German states in close union with Prussia and Austria, cementing the birth of a modern pan-Germanic empire. Austria, with its incessent conflicts with Prussia, soon divorced from the union and survived as a massive empire including Hungary and what was later called Yugoslavia. The German Confederation was renamed the North German Confederation, and gradually evolved into the Empire of Germany under Otto von Bismark by 1871. After World War I, when Austria's empire dissolved, the desire to merge with Germany was blocked by the Allies, but was reversed during the Anschluß of 1938 under Adolf Hitler.

Click the below map for the full-size version! Click on the map again to zoom.

________________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

James Mayfield is the owner and Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I am working for a doctorate in history, with a specific emphasis on Islamic and European histories. I am well versed in all world cultures, ethnicities, religions, languages, politics, and historical evolution in relation to and against each other.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES USED:

The image used as the basis of this map is the Nations Online Project, and the copyright has been respected.