The Napoleonic WarsAnd

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Overview

Historical background Major battles Definition Ripple effects ie unintended consequences

Napoleonic Wars and French Revolutionary Wars

1794 onwards Multiple coalitions arrayed against French

armies Lazare Carnot and Napoleon Bonaparte On return from Egypt, late 1799 Napoleon

seized power War went on till his comprehensive defeat at

Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815

Battle of the Nile

France wanted colonies in the Levant Supplement income and gain territory Napoleon departed in late 1790s with this

objective British fleet of the Mediterranean, under Lord

Nelson, blockaded Alexandria and destroyed the French fleet

Army plus a large number of scholars stranded in Egypt

Battle of Copenhagen

Lord Nelson led a group of 14 ships of the line Objective: Attack and scare Denmark Prevent them from signing a treaty Used his blindness as an excuse to press on

with attack when his over-cautious commander ordered cessation of fire

Knocked Russia out of immediate war

Battle of Trafalgar Napoleon planned invasion

of England – Armee d'Angleterre

Instructed Admiral Villeneuve to lead the English on a wild-goose chase before doubling back

Nelson cornered Villeneuve at Cape Trafalgar

22 English ships versus 33 Spanish and French ships

Crushing victory for Nelson; French naval ambitions buried forever

Battle of Trafalgar

HMS Victory

Law of Unintended Consequences

Any intervention in a complex system may or may not have the intended result, but will inevitably create unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes

Mainly used as caution against a hubristic approach to life

Unintended Consequences

Decoding of hieroglyphics Spain's demise as a colonial power Independence for Latin America France's demise as a continental power Idea of a united Europe ie modern EU zone

Rosetta Stone

Stranded French scholars studied Rosetta stone

Sylvestre de Sacy pioneered the translation of the Demotic script

Followed by Thomas Young and J-F Champollion, the true breakers of the code of hieroglyphics

South American independence Venezuela: 1811-21 Argentina: 1816 Bolivia: 1822 Chile: 1810-11 Ecuador: 1809-22 Colombia: 1819 Brazil: 1822 Paraguay: 1811 Peru: 1821 Uruguay: 1825

Thank you!

Suggested Reading:1. Aubrey Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian2.Admiral Bolitho series by Alexander Kent

3.Hornblower series by C.S.Forester