Europe, 1803–1815
Napoleonic Wars Map: 1803–1815
For twelve years one army marched from the Channel to Moscow and back, and the political map of Europe was redrawn around it. The Napoleonic Wars are the last great campaign era before photography and the first with reliable printed maps, which is why they remain the standard subject for military cartography — and why the sequence of coalitions is so hard to follow without one.
Why this war is not in the catalogue
This atlas is built on the Correlates of War dataset, which begins in 1816. That is not an arbitrary cut: 1816 is the year after Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna, the point at which the modern inter-state system the dataset codes is usually taken to begin. The Napoleonic Wars end one year before the record starts.
The consequence is visible on the map. The earliest record in the catalogue is the Allied bombardment of Algiers in August 1816, and the first inter-state war it codes is the French intervention in Spain in 1823 — which is, in substance, an aftershock of the Napoleonic settlement. The war itself is not there, and the atlas should not pretend otherwise. This page is editorial context, not data.
Sources
Correlates of War — war datasets and codebooks ↗Sarkees, M. R. & Wayman, F. W. (2010), Resort to War: 1816–2007. CQ Press
Timeline of the Napoleonic Wars
The wars are best followed as a sequence of coalitions, each formed after the previous one was beaten, and each drawing in more of Europe.
- May 1803War resumes between Britain and France
The Peace of Amiens of 1802 lasts fourteen months. Napoleon assembles an invasion army at Boulogne.
- 20 October 1805Capitulation at Ulm
An Austrian army of some 27,000 surrenders after being outmanoeuvred rather than beaten in battle.
- 21 October 1805Battle of Trafalgar
Nelson destroys the combined Franco-Spanish fleet off Cadiz and is killed. Britain’s command of the sea is not seriously challenged again.
- 2 December 1805Battle of Austerlitz
Napoleon defeats the Russian and Austrian emperors in a single day. Austria makes peace at Pressburg three weeks later.
- 14 October 1806Jena and Auerstedt
Two battles on one day destroy the Prussian army; Berlin is occupied within a fortnight.
- 21 November 1806The Berlin Decree
The Continental System attempts to close European ports to British trade. Enforcing it drags France into Spain, Portugal and eventually Russia.
- 14 June 1807Battle of Friedland
Russia is defeated in East Prussia and comes to terms at Tilsit in July. Napoleon is at his political height.
- May 1808Spain rises
The Peninsular War begins. It will occupy between 200,000 and 300,000 French troops for six years and never be won.
- 5–6 July 1809Battle of Wagram
Austria’s renewed war ends in defeat, but only after Napoleon’s first personal reverse at Aspern-Essling in May.
- 24 June 1812The Grande Armée crosses the Niemen
Roughly 600,000 men invade Russia — the largest army yet assembled in Europe.
- 7 September 1812Battle of Borodino
The bloodiest single day of the wars, with combined casualties of some 70,000. The Russian army withdraws intact.
- 14 September – 19 October 1812Moscow, and the decision to leave it
The city is entered and largely burns. With no Russian surrender and winter approaching, the retreat begins on 19 October.
- 26–29 November 1812The crossing of the Berezina
The rearguard action that saves the remnant of the army and destroys most of what is left of it.
- 21 June 1813Battle of Vitoria
Wellington breaks French control of Spain; the Peninsular army crosses the Pyrenees into France by October.
- 16–19 October 1813Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of the Nations, with more than half a million men engaged — the largest battle fought in Europe before 1914. France loses Germany.
- 31 March – 6 April 1814Paris falls and Napoleon abdicates
He is exiled to Elba; the Bourbons are restored; the Congress of Vienna convenes to redraw Europe.
- 1 March 1815Napoleon lands in France
The Hundred Days. The powers at Vienna declare him an outlaw and mobilise.
- 18 June 1815Battle of Waterloo
Wellington’s Anglo-Allied army holds until the Prussians arrive in force. Napoleon abdicates again on 22 June and is exiled to Saint Helena.
Sources
Esposito, V. J. & Elting, J. R. (1964), A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. PraegerChandler, D. G. (1966), The Campaigns of Napoleon. MacmillanZamoyski, A. (2004), 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow. HarperCollinsTucker, S. C. (ed.) (2010), A Global Chronology of Conflict. ABC-CLIO
The two wars Napoleon could not end
Every coalition that met the French army in the field in a decisive battle was beaten, and beaten quickly. The two campaigns that broke France were the ones that refused to offer a decisive battle.
In Spain and Portugal, a British expeditionary force, a Portuguese army trained alongside it and a Spanish insurgency fought a six-year war of sieges, marches and ambushes across broken terrain, tying down hundreds of thousands of French troops and bleeding them continuously. Napoleon called it his ulcer, and he never commanded there in person after 1809.
In Russia the refusal was strategic. The Russian armies traded space for time, fought once at Borodino without breaking, and left Napoleon holding a burnt city 2,000 kilometres from his depots with winter coming. The map of 1812 is the clearest illustration in military history that an unbeaten opponent and a long supply line are worse than a defeat.
Sources
Chandler, D. G. (1966), The Campaigns of Napoleon. MacmillanZamoyski, A. (2004), 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow. HarperCollinsEsposito, V. J. & Elting, J. R. (1964), A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. Praeger
How many died?
Napoleonic-era casualty figures are reconstructions from muster rolls, hospital returns and population estimates, and they are much softer than nineteenth-century battle accounts suggest. Disease killed far more soldiers than combat, and civilian deaths from famine, typhus and requisitioning are largely unquantified.
| Estimate | Figure | Note |
|---|---|---|
| French military dead, 1803–1815 | ≈900,000 – 1.4 million | Includes allied and conscripted contingents from across the empire |
| Russian military dead | ≈300,000 – 500,000 | Concentrated in 1812–14 |
| Austrian and Prussian military dead | ≈350,000 combined | Across several separate wars |
| British military dead | ≈300,000 all causes | The great majority from disease, much of it outside Europe |
| All deaths, revolutionary and Napoleonic wars | 3.5 – 6 million | The wide range reflects whether, and how, civilian deaths are counted |
Treat every row as an order of magnitude rather than a count. No belligerent of this period kept records that would support a tighter figure.
Sources
Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarlandEsposito, V. J. & Elting, J. R. (1964), A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. PraegerWhite, M. (2011), Atrocitology: Humanity’s 100 Deadliest Achievements. Canongate
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