Episode 506: Austerlitz

is where we actually be in the Napoleonic Wars. This today is going to be the story of those first furious years conflict, of the storms in Europe, the clashes at See, the armies on the March, and of course everything revolves around a single young emperor, Napoleon, who is going to stake his destiny and honestly the future of Europe and to a degree, the Western world, on one

single throw of the dice. Austerlitz. So, the Treaty of Ames, signed in eighteen oh two, had promised peace between Britain and France after nearly ten years of revolutionary struggle, but peace with a guy like Napoleon was never meant to last. Britain had agreed to withdraw its forces from the Mediterranean, and France had promised to restrain its ambitions. However, within

mere months, Napoleon's actions betrayed his true intentions. He reorganized the states of Italy, he played placed his relatives on various thrones. He tightened his grip over Holland and Switzerland, nations that Britain regarded as essential to Europe's balance of power.

When Napoleon annexed Piedmont and occupied Dutch ports. The British government at that time, led by Prime Minister Henry Addington, soon replaced by the hawkish William Pitt the Younger decided enough's enough, and so on May sixteenth, eighteen oh three, Great Britain once again declared war on France. Napoleon responded furiously. He saw Britain as quote a nation of shopkeepers end quote, but also the lynchpin of every single coalition that had

ever been arrayed against him. He wasn't totally wrong about that. If France was to dominate Europe, he believed Britain had to be defeated, or at the very least humbled, and so began One of Napoleon's most audacious plans an invasion of England itself. For the next two years, the coast of northern France became the staging ground of an enormous enterprise. Napoleon assembled the Army of England, over one hundred thousand men at blown on the Channel coast. He drilled them incessantly,

not just as soldiers but as sailors. They practiced loading onto flat bottom barges, disembarking, firing in ranks, and charging across sand to do a kind of D Day style invasion, but a little over one hundred years before that was really realistic. Napoleon himself wrote among the tents daily inspecting, motivating, and imagining what could be. The invasion plan was really simple on paper, as most plans are, but almost impossible

in practice. To cross the Channel, Napoleon would need control of the sea at least long enough for his transports to slip past the Royal Navy, and that meant he had to neutralize Britain's fleet. To do this, he turned to two admirals, Latouche Trevet, commanding at Toulon and later Villeneux,

who would both take up the challenge. Their mission really was just to try to lure the British fleet away from the Channel, maybe to the Caribbean, and then race back, unite the French and Spanish squadrons, and sees a fleeting window for invasion. Napoleon believed that if his army ever got a foot on English soil, quote in three weeks,

I shall be master of London. But standing in his way was the Royal Navy and the man who truly was it's beating heart, Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson had become a national hero after the Battle of the Nile in seventeen ninety eight, where he had shattered Napoleon's fleet in Egypt. Now in eighteen oh three, he'd returned to the Mediterranean, commanding the British Blockade. The British strategy was relentless to choke France's ports, destroy its trade, and prevent its fleet

from ever joining forces. The blockade was exhausting months at sea, storms, scurvy and monotony, but it strangled French ambitions. Napoleon's invasion army drilled and waited, but without control of the Channel, they could not move, and months slowly turned into years. Meanwhile, across Europe, Napoleon sought to isolate Britain diplomatically. He pressured Spain into alliance, bellied smaller states, and in eighteen oh four crowned himself Emperor of the French, a gesture that

shocked monarchs all across the continent. In Vienna and Saint Petersburg and London, Napoleon's enemies began to stir once more. In eighteen oh five, a new Grand Alliance formed, the Third Coalition, uniting Britain, Austria, Russia, and Sweden against France. Their plan was sweeping. While Britain struck at French colonies in trade, Austria and Russia would advance into Germany and Italy,

liberating the territories Napoleon had overrun. But before Napoleon could meet them on land, he had to deal with a unified struggle at seas. His fleets, French and Spanish, were finally in motion. Napoleon's orders to Admiral Villen Nuevo were ambitious, even grandiose. Sail from Toulon a veiled Nelson's blockade, acrossed the Atlantic, unite with other French squadrons in the Caribbean, and then race back to the Channel to clear the way for an invasion. Villain Neuvu, a cautious man, did

as he was told, at least partially. He slipped past Nelson in the spring of eighteen oh five cross to the West Indies, lingered uncertainly and then turned back. Nelson pursued but couldn't catch him. When villain U reached European waters again, he joined with Spanish ships at Caddith, but instead of heading north toward the Channel, he hesitated. Reports that a British fleet waited for him in the Bay of Biscay, and his own lack of confidence made him

turn back. Napoleon was furious his dream of invasion was slipping away. He wrote an exasperation, what a navy, what an admiral? All lost because of one man's cowardice. The dream of crossing to England was abandoned. The Army of England would instead become the Grand Army, a continental force eastward toward Austria and Russia. Still, the unfinished naval struggle quickly reached its climax off the coast of Spain, in

a place called Trafalgar. Admiral Nelson finally cornered villain News combined Franco Spanish fleet near Cape Trafalgar on the twenty first of October eighteen five, the British fleet, thirty three ships strong, sailed into battle in two columns, cutting directly through the enemy line, a bold and very unconventional tactic. As the ships closed, Nelson aboard his flagship the victory signaled his now immortal words England expects that every man

will do his duty. The victory crashed through the line between villain News Buquetirne and the massive Spanish sent to Misa Trinidad, unleashing broadsides after broadside had virtually point blank range, cannon smoke, fire splinters filled. The air men were ripped apart by iron shot, Masts fell, and decks bursts into flames. Nelson himself paced the quarterdeck calmly, wearing his admiral's coat, metals glittering. At one fifteen PM, of French sniper aboard

the redoubtable fired from the rigging. The bullet struck Nelson in the shoulder and lodged in his spine. He was carried below decks as the battle raged above. He murmured, they have done for me at last, But I have done my duty by evening, the Franco Spanish fleet was shattered. Nineteen enemy ships were captured or destroyed. Not a single British ship was lost. Nelson died at four thirty pm the same day, knowing that his victory had been complete.

Travolgar forever ended Napoleon's hopes of challenging British mastery at sea. The invasion of England was officially dead, but even as the guns fell silent off Spain, Napoleon's armies were already marching toward glory in the heart of Europe. In late August eighteen oh five, Napoleon shifted his focus east. The Grand Army, now nearly two hundred thousand men strong, poured out of the Bolong camps and began the long march across the Rhine into southern Germany. Their speed and organization

astonished Europe. Moving in self sufficient corps, each a miniature army of infantry, cavalry and artillery, they advanced with precision and discipline. Napoleon called it la Marche and Avant the March Forward. I would personally say Europe hadn't seen anything like it since the Leege of Rome Austria under General Karl Mack had moved first, occupying Bavaria and expecting Russian reinforcements,

but Napoleon struck well before the Russians could arrive. His strategy was classic, surround and destroy one enemy before the others could unite. The campaign that followed would be a master class in maneuvering and warfare. Max Austrian army, about seventy thousand strong, was positioned around the town of Ulm on the Upper Danube River. He believed that Napoleon would

attack head on from the west. Instead, Napoleon swung his army in a vast arc to the north, crossing the Rhine at multiple points and sweeping down behind the Austrians from the east. This maneuver, known as strategic envelopment, cut Max lines of communication and encircled his forces without a major battle. By mid October, the Austrians were totally trapped as the French corps tightened the ring. Small engagements flared

at Wurtemberg, Gutensenberg and Elkshen, each tightening the noose. Marshall Michael Nay stormed bridges under heavy fire. Joe Kim Murrat's cavalry cut off retreat routes. Mac realized way too late what was happening. On October the nineteenth, Surrounded and hopeless, he surrendered his entire army, nearly thirty thousand men, without a decisive battle. Napoleon wrote back to Empress Josephine that night, in fifteen days, we have finished a campaign. I have

destroyed the Austrian army by marches alone. The victory at Um was one of the most brilliant strategic feats in modern warfare. It opened the road to Vienna, shattered Austrian morale, and left the Russians dangerously Napoleon marched on relentlessly. By mid October, French forces entered Vienna, the Austrian capital. The city fell without resistance. The imperial family fled eastward toward

the advancing Russians. Napoleon crossed the Danube at the captured Taber Bridge, famously stopping an Austrian attempt to destroy it by bluffing his way past the guards. Soldiers, Would you destroy your bridge in the face of the Emperor of France, he cried, and the men hesitated just long enough for his troops to seize it. Vienna's fall was a stunning humiliation for Austria, but Napoleon knew the real test lay ahead.

The Russian army under generals Kutsov and Boxden. I'm not sure that I'm getting those right, was closing in behind them. Loomed the figure of Alexander the First of Russia, determined to avenge the loss at and defend his Austrian ally, would come down on the frozen plains of Moravia at a small village called Austerlitz. By early December eighteen oh five, the two armies were maneuvering for position near Bruneau in

modern day Czech Republic. Napoleon's force numbered about seventy three thousand. The allies, Russians and Austrians combined over eighty five thousand. Napoleon knew he was outnumbered, but he also knew how to make the enemy play his game. He feigned weakness, deliberately thinning his right flank to lure the Austrians into attacking it. If they believe I am retreating, he told

his marshals, they are lost. On December the first, the day before the battle, Napoleon surveyed the field from the prots and heights, a gently rising ridge that dominated the landscape. Then he withdrew his men from it, a calculated deception. That night, his soldiers camped in frost and missed. Fires flickered across the valley. Napoleon rode amongst them, speaking softly, promising victory. His words spread through the ranks. Remember, soldiers,

your emperor watches over you. Then came one of the most famous moments in the Napoleonic legend, the dawn of December the second, eighteen oh five, the anniversary of his coronation, As the morning mist was lifted, sunlight breaking through the sun of Austerlitz, as his veterans would forever call it. At dawn, the Allied army began its attack, just as Napoleon had hoped. Believing his right flank weak, they sent their main force, over forty thousand men against the French

positions near the villages of Telns and Skolinst. The French right, commanded by martial Devout, was hard pressed but held firm. His third Corps had marched more than seventy miles in two days to join the battle. They fought desperately against superior numbers, buying time for Napoleon's trap to close. On eight thirty in the morning, as the Allied center thinned to reinforce the assault, Napoleon turned to Marshal Sout, commanding

the fourth Corps. How long will you need to reach the heights, he asked, Less than twenty minutes, Sire Salt replied. Napoleon waited a moment longer, then raised his hand. One sharp blow, and the war is over. Advance Salt's divisions surged forward through the mist, up the slopes of the Prots and Heights. The battle's balance shifted in an instant. French columns smashed into the weakened Allied center, driving them back in confusion. Napoleon himself rode with the advance, directing

artillery fire and urging on his men. By midday, the Prots and Heights, the key to the battlefield, were in French hands. From that vantage point, French guns now poured fire down on the Allied in planks below. On the southern end, near the frozen ponds of Sachin, chaos erupted as the Allied left tried to retreat. French artillery raked the ice. Contemporary accounts claimed that hundreds drowned as the surface shattered under cannon fire, though later historians suggest that

the number was a lot smaller. Still, the image of men, horses and wagons crashing through the ice became part of the Napoleonic legend. By afternoon, the battle was decided. The Allied army was shattered thirty six thousand casualties to the French nine thousand. The emperors of Austria and Russia fled the field. Napoleon rode amongst his troops as they cheered, shouting, vived Emperor. That night, from the captured Frats and Heights,

Napoleon dictated his report to Paris soldiers. I am satisfied with you on this day. You have justified all my expectations. You have crowned yourselves with immortal glory. The victory at Austerlitz ended the Third Coalition in one stroke. Austria sued for peace immediately. The resulting Treaty of Presburg forced heavy territorial concessions. Austria seated lands in Italy and Germany, recognizing Napoleon's control over the new Kingdom of Italy, and paid

him a massive indemnity. Russia retreated eastward, humiliated but not broken, written isolated once again continued the war at sea, but now alone. In just two months, Napoleon had destroyed one army, captured a capital, and annihilated a coalition on the field of battle. The map of Europe was now his to a redraw. By the end of eighteen oh five, Napoleon stood at the height of his power, from the Atlantic

to the Carpathians. His empire dominated the continent. The Grand Army, once posed on the Channel coast, was now the most formidable military force in the world. Soldiers veterans of the Battles of Bologne, whom and now Austerlitz, believed that they were invincible. In Paris, the bells of Notre Dame rang out in celebration. The French Senate declared that peace is restored to Europe, though few, if anyone, believed it would last.

From London, William Pitt looked down upon the news of Austerlitz. Grimly. He said to have been remarked, roll up that map of Europe. It will not be wanted these ten years. But even Pitt underestimated Napoleon's ambition. The peace of eighteen o five would soon give way to new wars against Prussia. Against Russia again and eventually against the world. Still in that moment, beneath the bright winter sun in Moravia, for that moment, at least, Napoleon Bonaparte stood supreme, you know, almost co