War of the Third Coalition
War of the Third Coalition in 1805 is referred to one of the wars in during Napoleonic Era in Europe.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), emperor of the French, proclaimed himself king of Italy in 1805 after annexation of Genova, causing a Third Coalition to be formed against him by Britain, Austria, Russia, and Sweden.
1805
The allied armies organized in Germany and Italy, with Karl Mack von Lieberich mounting an invasion of Bavaria while waiting for the Russian army under Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov to reinforce him. The Bavarian army, allied to Napoleon, was forced to retreat northward, abandoning Munich. Napoleon's army was at Boulogne, waiting for conditions to be right for an invasion of England.
Napoleon left Boulogne in August, marching his army rapidly to the Rhine. Crossing the Rhine in late September, he marched around Mack's right, surrounding the Austrian army at Ulm. Pushing back Austrian attenpts to regroup, he cut off Ulm from Austria, forcing Mack to capitulate in October. Kutuzov, on the Austrian-Bavarian border, was forced to retreat into Vienna, and then north into Moravia to meet reinforcements, abandoning Vienna on November 13. Napoleon marched north to meet the allied armies, finding them at a defensive position at Austerlitz. In the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon lured the Austrians into an assault by a feigned retreat, then stormed the heights they had left, surrounding and destroying all but the right wing under Bagration.
The Austrian army in Italy under Archduke Charles was forced to retreat without a battle by the French victories in Germany, and allied landings in northern Germany and Naples were abortive. Austria was eliminated from the coalition and evicted from Italy by the Treaty of Pressburg.
Meanwhile, British admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the combined fleets of France and Spain at Trafalgar, removing permanently the threat of a French invasion of Britain.
1806
In 1806, Prussia joined the coalition fearing the rise in French power after the defeat of Austria. (Technically, this modified coalition is the Fourth Coalition rather than the Third). Prussia and Russia mobilized for a fresh campaign, and Prussian troops massed in Saxony.
Napoleon counterattacked, and defeated the Prussians decisively at Jena and Auerstadt in October 1806. French forces under Napoleon occupied Prussia, capturing Berlin on October 25 and moving all the way to East Prussia and the Russian frontier, where they fought an inconclusive battle against the Russians at Eylau in February 1807; Napoleon's advance on the Russian frontier was briefly checked. Russian forces were crushed by Napoleon's army at Friedland on June 14, 1807, and three days later Russia asked for a truce. By the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, France made peace with Russia and forced Prussia to give up half of its territory to France, Jerome Bonaparte's Kingdom of Westphalia, and the new Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon was virtually in control of western and central Europe.
See also
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