GURPS Age of Napoleon Playtest

Written by Nicholas Caldwell · Edited by Alec Fleschner

Very rarely, one man defines the time in which he lives. One such man was Napoleon
Bonaparte, and his ambition shaped the face of a continent. From humble beginnings in
Corsica to ignominious defeat in Russia and at Waterloo, Napoleon was the sun around
which Europe revolved.

Now GURPS brings the age of Napoleon to life. The book focuses on 18th and 19th-
century Europe, including the beginning of the end of colonialism. GURPS players will
find a wealth of roleplaying information about commoners, soldiers, nobles, spies,
privateers . . . and revolutionaries. Filled with the superb research which roleplayers
expect from a GURPS historical supplement, Age of Napoleon breathes life into bloody
battlefields . . . as well as the equally bloody political intrigue of Napoleon's Europe.

As always, Game Masters can combine GURPS Age of Napoleon with many of our
other worldbooks (such as Old West, Swashbucklers, Time Travel, or - for a really wild
game - Steampunk). There's no limit to the possibilities ...in the Age of Napoleon.

128 pages · Suggested retail price $22.95

Stock number 6539 · ISBN 1-55634-451-1

Introduction
History
Nations
People
Everyday Life
Military Life
Arts and Sciences
Characters
Campaigns
Bibliography
Advertising Copy
INTRODUCTION
Military, political and social conflicts within
and between nation-states in Europe and the colonies made the latter half of
the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century one of the most violent,
adventurous and exciting eras in world history.
The American War of
Independence, then known as the (First) American War, established a new form
of government, and began the liberation of the New World from the control of
the Old World. The later Second American War, now misnamed as the War of
1812, signaled the dawn of the United States' own imperial
ambitions.
The French Revolution saw the bourgeoisie challenge the
power and privileges of the aristocracy and the monarchy and overthrow both.
For over a century, rebels and revolutionaries in Europe and beyond would
draw inspiration for their own struggles from the French experience. The
Revolution also gave a young Napoleon Bonaparte the opportunity to
distinguish himself in battle, defend the French Republic, and eventually
become its dictator.
Soldier and statesman, Napoleon's dreams of
empires in Europe, in India and in the Americas engulfed the entire world in
war. In the crucible of conquest and rebellion, the peoples of Europe gained
and renewed their national identities. Elsewhere the boundaries of the
colonial empires shifted with every battle by land and sea.

About

The Book
GURPS Age of Napoleon is organized into eight
chapters. The History chapter describes the major events of the era.
Nations outlines the geography and general politics of the European
nations and their overseas colonies. People provides biographical
sketches of interesting and influential personages who might be encountered
in a campaign. Everyday Life details how members of the various social
classes from nobles to peasants lived, worked, and played in the 18th
century. Military Life covers how soldiers and sailors lived and
fought through the wars. Arts and Sciences presents the artistic and
philosophical movements, which shaped the intellectual climate of the
period, and the technological advances that were beginning to change
society. Characters contains notes on creating GURPS
characters for the Napoleonic age. Finally Campaigns discusses the
diverse types of campaigns possible and provides a number of suggested plots
for each.

About The Author

Nicholas HM Caldwell

Born
in Northern Ireland, Nicholas now lives and works in Cambridge, England. He
has been role-playing since he was twelve, and was immersed in
science-fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction at an equally early age. He
holds a B.A. (in Computer Science) and a Ph.D. (in Engineering) from the
University of Cambridge. Along with gaming and reading, his current major
hobby is editing and managing a gaming magazine (see
http://www.guildcompanion.com).
HISTORY
The State of the World
In 1769, the European
states and their overseas empires were still recovering from the convulsions
of the Seven Years War (known then in Britain as "The Great War for the
Empire"), which had raged from 1756 to 1763. The Treaty of Paris had ended
the conflict and redrawn the borders of the colonial empires.
Britain
retained most of its conquests. In America, the existing colonies of New
England, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland were augmented by the acquisition of
Canada from France and Florida from Spain. Holdings in the West Indies,
Belize, and British Guyana were preserved. The new territories in India
provided increased security for trade from both coasts of the
subcontinent.
The French empire was reduced to a handful of trading
posts in India and Africa, French Guyana in South America, and a number of
islands in the West Indies and the Indian Ocean. Louis XV gave the vast
Louisiana Territory to Charles III as compensation for the loss of Florida.
Cuba and the Philippines were restored to the Spanish crown. Their mainland
empire, consisting of the western seaboard of North America and all of
Central and South America (bar Belize, Brazil and the Guyanas), was
untouched by the settlement.
Although thwarted in India, the Dutch
retained Ceylon, Java, and other profitable island territories in the East
Indies. The Cape of Good Hope colony and Dutch Guyana continued to increase
the wealth of Amsterdam's merchants. Portugal had remained neutral in the
war and its empire in Brazil and trading posts in India, Africa, and China
were unaffected by the war and the peace.
Britain had certainly won
the Seven Years War. The Royal Navy had become adept at the strategic
application of its squadrons and in supporting amphibious offensives. The
army had learned valuable lessons in wilderness combat. However the best
generals had died in North America and ten thousand soldiers had succumbed
to disease in the prolonged Cuban campaign.
The weakness of the
British and the incursion of land-hungry American settlers in the wake of
the retreating French spurred the Indian revolt of Pontiac in 1763. Fresh
troops from England were required to suppress the rebellion, which lasted
until 1765. In return for peace, all of the land west of the Appalachian
Mountains was reserved for the Indian tribes. This prohibition on westward
expansion provoked the hostility of the American colonists and was a cause
of the American Revolution (see The American Quarrel, p.
00).
But Britain had not won the peace. In their haste to end the war,
the British abandoned their Prussian allies, leaving Frederick the Great to
resolve his own disputes. This desertion was long remembered by Prussia.
Moreover the British government feared that their newly increased empire was
too large to govern and would only produce continual envy from the other
colonial powers. So the British negotiators offered generous terms to their
erstwhile enemies in an attempt to address these fears.
The scheme
backfired. Rather than reducing the threat, the Treaty of Paris allowed the
French and Spanish to recover their possessions in the West Indies, Africa,
and the East Indies for future attacks on British colonies and shipping. The
most valuable and hard-won conquests such as Guadeloupe and Cuba were
returned to their former masters. The envy remained and Britain found itself
isolated from the politics of continental Europe for thirty years.
***
Insert map "Empires of the World" from rude-colonies1763.tif ***

Timeline
1769 -- Birth of Napoleon on
Corsica (August 15). Europe: French conquer Corsica.
1770
-- America: Boston Massacre (March)
1771 --
Europe: Accession of Gustavus III (Sweden)
1772 --
Europe: First Partition of Poland
1773 -- America:
Boston Tea Party.
1774 -- France: Death of Louis XV
and accession of Louis XVI. America: Creation of First Continental Congress
in America.
1775 -- America: War of Independence
begins
1776 -- America: Declaration of Independence
(July)
1777 -- America: British surrender at Saratoga
(October)
1778 -- France enters American War. England:
Gordon Riots in London.
1779 -- Spain enters American
War
1780 -- Holland enters American War. Austria: Death
of Maria Theresa and succession of Joseph II
1781 --
America: British surrender at Yorktown (October)
1782
-- England: Resignation of Lord North. America: Battle of the Saintes
(April)
1783 -- Peace of Paris between Britain,
America, and allies
1784 -- Holland: William V deposed.
England: Pitt becomes prime minister
1785 -- England:
Failure of Pitt's parliamentary reforms.
1786 --
Prussia: Death of Frederick the Great.
1787 -- France:
Assembly of Notables meets, rejects reforms, and is
dissolved.
1788 -- France: Paris parlement
 rejects reforms. Provincial unrest follows. Spain: Charles IV succeeds
Charles III.
1789 -- France: Estates-General meets and
becomes National Assembly. Bastille is stormed (July). The Great Fear grips
France.
1790 -- France: Constituent Assembly ratifies
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July). Austria: Leopold II becomes
Emperor.
1791 -- France: Louis XVI's flight to Varennes
fails. Legislative Assembly replaces Constituent
Assembly.
1792 -- France declares war against Austria
and Prussia. France: Abolition of the monarchy (September). Austria: Francis
II becomes Emperor. Europe: Second Partition of Poland. Battles of Valmy
(September) and Jemappes (November).
1793 -- France:
Trial and execution of Louis XVI (January). War with Britain. Arrest of
Girondin leadership. Trials and executions of Marie Antoinette, Brissotins,
Girondins, and Orléanists during the Terror. Europe: Battles of
Neerwinden and Louvain (March).
1794 -- France: Terror
continues against Dantonists (April). Fall of Robespierre in Thermidor coup
(July). Europe: Battles of Tourcoing (April) and Fleurus (June). Atlantic:
British victory of the Glorious First of June.
1795 --
France: Coups of Germinal (April) and Prairial (May) resisted. Convention
replaced by the Directory (October). Holland: United Provinces become
Batavian Republic (May). Europe: France makes peace with Prussia, Holland
and Spain ending First Coalition. Third Partition of Poland.

The Conquest of Corsica

While the major European powers

prepared for the Seven Years War, a rebellion in Corsica was ending. In
1755, Pasquale Paoli had driven the Genoese rulers out of central Corsica.

Paoli now governed as chief executive of an independent democratic

nation. For fourteen years, Paoli suppressed banditry and the vendetta,
built roads, founded schools, and established a navy. His desire for a
completely free Corsica was his undoing. Attacks on the coastal towns and
Capraia persuaded the Genoese that defeat was inevitable. They sold the
entire island to Louis XV of France in May 1768.
The Corsicans
held mass meetings and voted to resist the French. The first invaders landed
in August and ten thousand soldiers attempted to conquer Corsica. Paoli and
his guerillas forced the French to retreat. A second army of twenty-two
thousand troops arrived in the spring of 1769. The outnumbered Corsicans
were defeated and Paoli forced into exile in England. Corsica became a
French province.
Among Paoli's supporters had been the Buonaparte
family. Carlo Buonaparte, a prominent lawyer with Italian ancestry, had been
one of Paoli's trusted lieutenants and had organized resistance from the
mountains. Following Paoli's defeat, the Buonapartes were faced between
choosing exile or living under French rule. Practicality overcame idealism,
and the family remained in Corsica.
Thus on August 15, 1769, Napoleon
Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio as a French subject rather than as a free
Corsican in exile.

Timeline
(Continued)
1796 -- Europe: Napoleon's invasion of
Italy.
1797 -- Europe: Battle of Cape St Vincent
(February). Napoleon's reorganization of Italy and Treaty of Campo-Formio
with Austria (October). Holland: Battle of Camperdown (October).

1798 -- Europe: Switzerland becomes Helvetic Republic

(March). Napoleon invades Egypt (July). Battles of the Pyramids (July) and
the Nile (August). Ireland: Revolt of United Irishmen.
1799
-- Egypt: Napoleon thwarted at siege of Acre (May). Napoleon returns to
France (October) and assists in Brumaire coup against Directory (November).
Napoleon becomes First Consul.
1800 -- Europe: Battle
of Marengo (June) and Hohenlinden (December). Formation of League of Armed
Neutrality (December).
1801 -- Russia: Assassination
of Paul I and accession of Alexander (March). Denmark: Battle of Copenhagen
(April). Europe: League of Armed Neutrality collapses. War of the Oranges
between Spain and Portugal. Preliminary Peace of London
(October)
1802 -- Europe: Treaty of Amiens ratifies
peace between Britain and France (March). France: Concordat with the Papacy
confirmed. Napoleon becomes Life Consul. Negotiation of Louisiana
Purchase
1803 -- Europe: End of Peace of Amiens
(March). Preparations for invasion of England begin.
1804
-- France: Napoleon proclaimed Emperor (May) and crowned
(December)
1805 -- Europe: War of the Third Coalition.
Battles of Trafalgar (October) and Austerlitz
(December).
1806 -- Europe: Kingdom of Italy created.
Battles of Jena and Auerstädt (October).
1807 --
Europe: Battles of Eylau and Friedland. Treaty of Tilsit
(June).
1808 -- Europe: Invasion of Portugal and Spain.
Peninsular War begins.
1809 -- Europe: Second invasion
of Portugal. Battles of Wagram and Talavera (July)
1810
-- Europe: Third invasion of Portugal. South America: Rebellions
 against Spain begin.
1811 -- Europe: Battle of Fuentes
de Oñoro.
1812 -- America declares war on
Britain. Europe: Invasion of Russia. Battles of Salamanca (July) and
Borodino (September). Retreat from Moscow.
1813 --
Europe: German War of Liberation begins. Wellington invades France. Battle
of Leipzig (October).
1814 -- Europe: Abdication of
Napoleon and exile to Elba (April). Congress of Vienna begins. End of War of
1812 (December).
1815 -- America: Battle of New Orleans
(January). Europe: Napoleon returns. Battle of Waterloo (June). Second
abdication of Napoleon and exile to St Helena.
1816 --
Portugal: Accession of John VI.
1817 -- South America:
Chile becomes independent.
1818 -- France: Allied army
of occupation leaves.
1819 -- Europe: Carlsbad Decrees
repress reform in German Confederation. England: Peterloo
Massacre
1820 -- Europe: Revolts in Spain and Portugal.
England: Death of George III. Cato Street Conspiracy
foiled.
1821 -- Death of Napoleon on St Helena (May
5)

The American War of Independence

The

American Quarrel
America had been lightly taxed and governed owing to
Britain's preoccupation with European concerns. The Seven Years War showed
that increased governance was necessary to preserve the empire, and had
doubled the annual British treasury expenditure. Parliament believed that
the colonists should share the taxation burden for defending the enlarged
empire.
To the colonial elite, "no taxation without representation"
was a familiar slogan. The imperial expansion actually lessened foreign
threats to New England and hence their desire to pay for protection.
Moreover the prohibition on settlement in Native American territories
limited their profitable land speculation.
In 1765, the British prime
minister, George Grenville, imposed two new taxes: the Sugar Act on imported
molasses, and the Stamp Act, requiring legal documents, newspapers, etc., to
bear official stamps which had to be purchased. This affected every
American. However the hardest hit were the merchants, planters, lawyers, and
printers who used their influence to create opposition to the new Act in all
classes of colonial society. The activities of the "Sons of Liberty" (see p.
00) forced its repeal in 1766. Alternative customs duties were applied under
the Townshend Acts of 1767.
These were also withdrawn following the
Boston Massacre in March 1770. The East India Company was excused the
remaining tea duty to prevent its bankruptcy and allowed to sell directly to
America. Smuggler and colonial tea merchants combined to prevent the
imports. In 1773, a group disguised as Mohawks boarded a ship in Boston and
cast its tea cargo into the harbor.
This attack on property hardened
English attitudes. Boston harbor was closed and its elective legislature
replaced by an appointed council. The colonies united at the First
Continental Congress in 1774 to apply economic sanctions against Britain in
retaliation.

The Sons of
Liberty
Throughout New England from 1765 onward, secret
organizations styling themselves "Sons of Liberty" appeared. Their
membership included intellectuals, merchants, and artisans, united to foment
unrest and violence against the new laws. Stamp distributors were attacked,
tarred, and feathered; their homes were looted and burnt. Officials
responsible for the collection of duties under the Townshend Acts were
equally persecuted. Everywhere the "Sons" and like-minded adherents pursued
the political agenda found in the pamphlets and speeches of the radical
demagogues.
The Boston Massacre occurred after several days of
brawling between gangs of youths and the soldiers. On the night of the
massacre, a large crowd taunted a detachment of armed soldiers guarding the
Customs House, daring them to fire. An injured soldier did open fire and was
immediately supported by his comrades. Four people were killed. At the
soldiers' trial, the judge emphasized the presence in the mob of a man
dressed in a red cloak, similar to that worn by Samuel Adams, a vehement
opponent of British rule. Their American lawyers did not allow the soldiers
to suggest that the mob had been manipulated. However the soldiers were
acquitted of murder.
Adams used the massacre to ensure the
withdrawal of troops from Boston. Paul Revere, a noted silversmith and link
between the politicians and the artisans, advanced the cause further by
producing engravings of the massacre suitably
embellished.
Committees of Correspondence in Boston and elsewhere
were established to ensure easy communication between the various dissident
groups. The rebels began to prepare for armed resistance. Special militia,
known as "minutemen" owing to their willingness to bear arms immediately,
messengers to carry news from town to town, and workshops to manufacture
gunpowder were organized. Supplies of weapons and ammunition were cached for
future use. A host of spies observed the British military and their civilian
officials, and hidden sympathizers within loyalist circles gathered
intelligence for the rebels. Quietly, steadily, the rebellion was gathering
pace.
*** Insert map - "The American Colonies in 1775" - from
Either hibbert-america1775.tif Or jenkins-northamerica1775.tif

First

Blood
Hastily gathered militiamen at Lexington and Concord thwarted
the British troops from seizing a rebel arms cache (April 19, 1775).
Exaggerated tales of atrocities roused the people who besieged
Boston.
In May, six thousand troops under the generals William Howe,
Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne arrived in Boston. Meanwhile Fort
Ticonderoga fell to militia and backwoodsmen led by Benedict Arnold and
Ethan Allen. The rebels entrenched around Boston, forestalling British
occupation of strategic positions. Alarmed, Gage ordered an assault on the
stronghold of Breed's Hill (June 17), routing them in a Pyrrhic victory with
forty percent casualties. Shock at their losses dissuaded the generals from
further action, frustrating their hungry troops.
Two weeks later,
George Washington, the new American commander-in-chief, assumed leadership
of the besiegers. Dismayed by the poor quality of the colonial forces, he
spent the rest of the year replacing the temporary militia with newly raised
regular soldiers.
American units under Arnold and Montgomery pressed
northward into Canada. Montreal fell to Montgomery and Canada's governor,
Sir Guy Carleton, escaped to Quebec in a whaling boat. Arnold's men, having
survived a march from Maine, joined forces with Montgomery to assail Quebec.
The attack failed (December 31) and smallpox ravaged the besieging
Americans. A British squadron breached the ice blocking the Gulf of St
Lawrence and relieved the siege (April 1776). Another squadron arrived with
reinforcements under Burgoyne (May) and the Americans fled to Lake
Champlain.
Elsewhere the Americans were victorious. Patriots fought
and defeated Loyalists in North Carolina. A sea-borne invasion of Charleston
by Clinton foundered. The British were forced to evacuate Boston in March
1776 when cannon brought from Ticonderoga bombarded their positions.

The Declaration of Independence

Political debate was

transformed by Thomas Paine's Common Sense pamphlet, published in
January 1776. The Second Continental Congress now favored a complete break
with Britain, commissioning Thomas Jefferson to write a declaration of
independence. Congress approved this on July 4.
A fleet under Admiral
Howe with thirty thousand British and German soldiers sailed from Britain.
Combining with Clinton and Howe's armies, the British captured Long Island
(August 27). While Howe gathered his forces, Washington moved his men to
Manhattan, retreating further to Harlem when Manhattan fell on September 15.
The British were prevented from quartering their troops in New York as a
mysterious fire burned five hundred buildings to ashes.
During
October and November, the British stormed the remaining American forts.
Rhode Island fell without resistance to Clinton. Cornwallis pursued
Washington's army across New Jersey and over the Delaware River. Reduced by
desertion, the rebel rump withdrew to their winter base in Valley Forge.

Burgoyne and Carleton reached Lake Champlain and started building

flat-bottomed boats to counter the American flotilla being assembled at the
south. (Admiralty bureaucrats had thwarted suitable craft being constructed
in England and transported to Canada.) The two fleets engaged on October 11
with the rebels retreating to Ticonderoga. Fearing the winter, Carleton
returned to Canada.
The British high command sent dispatches to
England outlining plans and requesting reinforcements. Carleton was censured
for tardiness while Burgoyne and Clinton jockeyed to replace him.

Washington led a winter sortie against Trenton's garrison of Hessian

mercenaries. The town fell in street fighting on Christmas Day. Leaving
troops at Princeton, Cornwallis advanced on Trenton, but Washington eluded
him by a nocturnal retreat and attacked Princeton, before leaving for Valley
Forge with his morale-raising mission accomplished.

What If . . . A British America

A
British America would require a British victory in the war. There were
several opportunities in the early years when decisive blows could have
ended the rebellion. For example, Howe should have followed up initial
victories in New York bringing Washington to battle rather than cautiously
capturing each outpost. Had Carleton began his advance on Ticonderoga a
month earlier, the fort would have fallen in 1776, enabling him to attack
Washington from the rear in concert with Howe. An assault on Washington's
army at its winter quarters in 1777 would have wiped out the Continental
Army's regular troops, leaving only the militia to continue the struggle.
Washington himself came close to being killed by a British sharpshooter in
the Philadelphia campaign. Already idolized by the American public, his
death would have shaken popular support for the rebellion to its
core.
The solidity and permanence of renewed British government in
the thirteen colonies would depend on the harshness of any punitive measures
pursued after the failure of the rebellion. Domination of the patriot
majority by triumphalist loyalists would quickly lead to a sullen America
simmering in discontent. A second rebellion would be inevitable, but might
not occur until the Napoleonic Wars. A revolt incited and supported by
Napoleon's agents would fatally divide Britain's forces at the height of the
life and death struggle with France.
The Whig Opposition would
have tempered the restoration of control over New England with actions to
assuage the colonists' grievances. Even Lord North, in his final peace
overture to the Americans after Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, was
willing to recognize Congress, to repeal laws deemed offensive by the New
Englanders, and to give American representatives seats in the House of
Commons. By implementing such compromises, the majority of Americans might
have been reconciled to King and Parliament. Democratic representation of
America would have set a precedent for other British colonies and perhaps
advanced the cause of electoral reform in Britain itself. Strengthened by a
 united North American empire, Britain might have shortened the Napoleonic
Wars, slavery would have been abolished in America without a bloody civil
war, and the Dominion of North America would have taken a pre-eminent
position in the world when the Empire was transformed into a
Commonwealth.

The Surrender at Saratoga

Burgoyne
returned from England in early 1777, replacing Carleton as Canadian
commander. He was to advance from Canada, joining with Howe at the Hudson,
conquering Albany and then driving south. Unfortunately these instructions
were not copied to Howe.
In July, Howe decided to capture the American
capital Philadelphia. Rather than navigate the Delaware or the Hudson, and
so support Burgoyne, Howe sailed via Chesapeake Bay. Delayed by bad weather,
the vast fleet reached Maryland on August 25. Howe's army disembarked and
bested Washington's at Brandywine Creek (September 11), entering
Philadelphia two weeks later. Congress escaped to York and Washington
retired to winter in Valley Forge.
By June 30, Burgoyne's eight
thousand soldiers landed near Ticonderoga, and ingeniously dragged some
cannon up Sugarloaf Hill overlooking the fort. The defenders departed
immediately. Vainly hoping for Loyalist reinforcements, Burgoyne chose to
travel overland. Terrain and tree barricades slowed his detachments, while
rebel marksmen picked off stragglers. Two detachments were destroyed by
American infiltrators and Arnold's agents frightened off Burgoyne's Native
American allies.
Eventually Burgoyne reached the Hudson. Battle
ensued at Freeman's Farm (September 19) and at Bemis Heights (October 7).
Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga, pursued by an American army under Gates and
Arnold. Concealed by fog, Burgoyne prepared a cannonade upon the Americans
but, warned by British deserters, they remained beyond range. Cut off from
Clinton in New York, Burgoyne surrendered on October 17. The soldiers were
imprisoned near Boston where many defected.
In England, the Opposition
lambasted Lord North's government, with Charles Fox's oratory stunning the
ministers into silence. The government survived only due to the French
threat.

Enter the French

America had been receiving covert

assistance from France since 1776. Following Saratoga, the French began
assembling military forces for American service. War with Britain was not
declared until June 1778.
A final British peace mission foundered
owing to Congress's refusal to withdraw the Declaration of Independence. In
February 1778, Clinton replaced Howe as
commander-in-chief.
Washington's troops at Valley Forge endured a
harsh winter, while their generals schemed to replace Washington. Baron von
Steuben, a Prussian mercenary, drilled the men intensively and instructed
the officers in tactics. Howe, though encamped twenty miles away, ignored
this activity.
Fearing French intervention, Clinton withdrew from
Philadelphia to New York. Travelling overland to protect the Loyalist
families and supplies, the army was harried by the Americans with the
rearguard being severely mangled at Monmouth Court House (June
28).
The Toulon fleet under Comte d'Estaing reached New York too late
to prevent Clinton's redeployment. Admiral Howe had anchored a squadron in
the shallower harbor waters, safe from the heavier French ships. D'Estaing
realized the situation was hopeless and sailed to Rhode Island to cover the
landing of an American army under the Marquis de Lafayette. Howe's fleet
appeared off Newport (August 8) and the enemies circled for two days before
a gale enabled the smaller British vessels to attack. French damage was so
severe that d'Estaing left for Boston. The assault on Newport was
abandoned.
The northern war became a stalemate of British raids on
settlements and American counter-attacks on British-held outposts.

All the World Against Them

The struggle for
American independence was not confined to the North American continent.
Although the Continental Navy could only muster an ineffectual twenty-seven
ships, a tenth the size of Britain's fleet at the war's outset, American
privateers threatened merchant shipping around the British Isles, in the
Atlantic, and in the Caribbean. From 1777 to 1781, two hundred vessels were
captured every year by privateers, leading to loud demands for peace from
British merchants.
France's entry into the fray in 1778 was
followed by Spain in 1779 and Holland in 1780. All had previously secretly
supported the American rebellion; the Dutch, in particular, through gun
running. Their new status limited the number of British squadrons available
for overseas offensives. Indeed the Earl of Sandwich, then First Lord of the
Admiralty, was resolute that home waters must be protected and hampered
efforts to reinforce Admiral Howe against d'Estaing's Toulon
fleet.
The Channel Fleet under Admiral Keppel clashed with the
Brest Fleet under Comte d'Orvilliers in July 1778. This inconclusive battle
off Ushant enabled the French to increase their support to the
Americans.
By 1779, there was a very real danger of an invasion of
Britain. A fleet of sixty-six French and Spanish ships held command of the
English Channel. An army of fifty thousand soldiers was encamped on the
French coast waiting to embark on transport ships. Only a sudden storm and
sickness in the crews prevented Plymouth being taken. Changes in plans by
the French lifted the invasion menace. Meanwhile the Spanish besieged
Gibraltar, which was not to be relieved until 1781.
Sandwich's
harassment of Keppel led to a number of capable naval officers with Whig
sympathies refusing to serve while Sandwich remained First Lord. Despite the
political troubles and the many threats, the Royal Navy was still able to
support the southern campaigns in America and to retaliate against the other
 colonial powers, with Admiral Rodney capturing seven Spanish ships off Cape
St Vincent and the island of Saint Eustatius in the West Indies from Holland
in 1780. Rodney further restored British fortunes in the West Indies by
conclusively defeating and capturing de Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes
off Dominica on April 12, 1782.

The Southern

Campaigns
The British believed that seapower and loyalist support
would conquer the South. Georgia was occupied by the end of January 1779,
with Savannah and Augusta becoming British bases. Campaigning ceased during
the hot summer. Congress requested D'Estaing to support an American assault
on Savannah. His fleet sailed from the Caribbean and bombarded Savannah
ineffectively for four days from October 4. A hasty infantry attack was
repulsed decisively, and the squabbling allies dispersed.
Clinton
struck in South Carolina, leading 7,600 soldiers to Charleston, which
surrendered quickly in May 1780. Clinton garrisoned the town with four
thousand under Cornwallis, believing that his subordinate could adequately
defend Charleston. Clinton and the remainder returned to New
York.
However Cornwallis took the offensive, sending three detachments
inland. He also failed to suppress atrocities committed by loyalists and
patriots, attempting conciliation instead.
The Americans (under
Gates) tried to dislodge Cornwallis but his army was broken at Camden
(August 16). The slaughter of loyalists on King's Mountain (October 7) and
rampant fever demoralized the British through the winter.
Cornwallis
defeated Greene's army at Guildford Court House (March 15), sustaining heavy
casualties. Cornwallis entered Virginia while Greene marched to South
Carolina. The British proceeded to defeat Greene at Hobkirk's Hill in April,
at Ninety-Six in June, and at Eutaw Springs in September, but Greene
regrouped each time. Partisan activity forced the British to withdraw,
becoming besieged in Savannah and Charleston.
Cornwallis established
himself in Yorktown. Washington was in desperate straits with a mutinous
army and dwindling resources, so resolved on a final sally against
Cornwallis.

Yorktown to The Peace Of Paris

A French fleet
under Comte de Grasse took possession of Chesapeake Bay (August 31). Admiral
Graves' squadrons engaged the French indecisively on September 5. The French
retained control and Graves returned to New York. The British commanders now
dithered on how to rescue Cornwallis.
Meanwhile a Franco-American army
besieged Yorktown in mid-September, Washington himself arriving in early
October. Cornwallis was outnumbered four to one, as half his force were
invalids. Yorktown was heavily bombarded from October 9 onward. A nocturnal
evacuation by boat across the York River was foiled by a storm.
On
October 19, 1781, Clinton and Graves sailed from New York. The same day
Cornwallis surrendered. On learning this five days later, the fleet returned
to New York.
In England, Lord North resigned on March 20, 1782. Lord
Shelburne's new government entered negotiations with the Americans to agree
a preliminary peace in 1782, with the Peace of Paris being signed in 1783.
Britain recognized American independence, returned East and West Florida to
Spain, but retained Canada. The British quitted New York on November 25,
1783, and Washington entered in triumph, before retiring to his estate.

The American War was finished.

Divided
Loyalties
The American War of Independence was more than just a
rebellion against colonial rule. It divided the entire nation into patriotic
Whig rebels and Tory loyalists. The strife assumed the characteristics of a
very bloody civil war with each side committing atrocities against the
other. Cruelties were perpetrated against men, women, and children.
"Outliers" took advantage of the chaos to raid patriots and loyalists alike
for personal profit.
The number of Americans with loyalist
sympathies was somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the population.
Loyalists, like their patriot brethren, could be found throughout society
from laborers to shopkeepers to the professional classes. One-sixteenth of
America's manpower (or 400,000 men) served in either the Continental Army or
the militias; forty loyalist regiments were raised during the war, some of
which were assimilated into the regular British army afterward. Loyalist
officers were considered one rank inferior to their regular army
counterparts in the first half of the war, owing to their lack of formal
training.
In the government and even among the British high
command, there was a naive complacency concerning the numbers of loyalists
and their willingness to openly fight the rebellion. Intimidation by the
Sons of Liberty and other patriot organizations ensured the silence of many
loyalists. As the fortunes of war shifted, declared loyalists had to leave
with the redcoats or face reprisals.
At the peace negotiations,
the British inserted clauses in the Treaty of Paris concerning the payment
of debts to British citizens and an appeal to Congress for fair treatment of
loyalists remaining in America. These provisions were not honored. Up to a
hundred thousand "United Empire Loyalists" and their families, including
many who had served in the British forces, left America to resettle in
Canada, the West Indies, and England.
The loyalists who remained
were frequently harshly treated by the states, being deprived of rights and
property, and fined. However those who had been careful about declaring
their sympathies blended into the new Republic's society, accepted the new
status quo, and were fully reintegrated within a generation.
The French Revolution
Countdown to

Revolution
The ancien régime of France was beset with
troubles by 1786. Louis XVI, although absolute in theory, was in practice a
weak and vacillating monarch. The wealthy aristocracy, excluded from power
for decades, were intent on defending their privileges and eclipsing the
monarchy's authority. The prosperous bourgeoisie seethed with discontent at
being denied status and a share in national responsibility. The despised
peasantry and urban poor were overtaxed and often hungry owing to poor
harvests. Finally France was nearly bankrupt as a consequence of financing
wars from Louis XIV to the American Revolutionary War.
Finance
Minister Calonne presented an ambitious program of administrative and
economic reforms to Louis XVI in August 1786, and an Assembly of Notables
was summoned to discuss the proposals in February 1787. The Notables,
comprising nobles, prelates, state councilors and magistrates, condemned the
plans, as they threatened their privileges. Calonne was replaced by the
Archbishop Brienne, and the king made a number of concessions to the
privileged classes. The Notables rejected the revised plan and the Assembly
dissolved in May.
Brienne now presented the plan to the
parlement of Paris. These magistrates rejected it piecemeal, and the
king was forced to exile the parlement. However they were recalled in
September, and consented to temporary tax measures in return for a summons
of the Estates General. In May 1788, the king removed the fiscal powers and
limited the judicial powers of the parlements.
The magistrates
decried these reforms as an attack on provincial liberties and a maneuver to
delay the summons of the Estates General. The local aristocracy were also
dissatisfied by the inroads in their legal powers. Political agitators
stirred up a nationwide revolt in the provinces. Though the summer bloodshed
was minimal, an actual civil war seemed a real possibility, compelling
Brienne in July to announce the summoning of the Estates General for May 1,
1789.

France under Louis XVI

Louis XVI
ascended the throne on May 10, 1774, at the age of nineteen, following the
death of his grandfather, Louis XV. Although he was not unpopular with the
people, his wife, Marie Antoinette, was disliked because of her Austrian
origin.
His grandfather had suppressed the parlements as a
threat to royal authority. In an ill-advised act, Louis XVI restored them in
1774, allowing the magistrates to hinder his ministers, while posing as the
champions of the people. Had they remained suspended, the ministries of the
1770s and 1780s might have succeeded in reforming French finances and
society, saving the monarchy.
Excluded from power since the
 previous century, the nobility were intent on breaking the Bourbon dynasty's
"absolute" power. Their privileges were many and varied, including exemption
from a number of taxes, ancient feudal rights, and virtually exclusive
access to diplomatic, army and church positions. Many aristocrats employed
lawyers to resurrect new feudal obligations, much to the distress of the
peasantry.
The French Roman Catholic Church was effectively a
state within a state. Immune from taxation, save such monies as it donated
to the government, it controlled education, censorship, hospitals and social
welfare. Its aristocratic bishops also helped govern the provinces. Despite
the poverty and humility of the lower clergy, the privileges of the prelates
helped encourage antipathy toward traditional religion in the
towns.
The prosperous urban middle class forming the French
bourgeoisie sought to acquire entry into the aristocracy, just as wealthy
magnates in the seventeenth had purchased their status as noblesse de
robe. Richer than many nobles, the bourgeois were scrupulous in
maintaining social distinctions among their own ranks. Their upward progress
was thwarted by aristocratic privilege and refusal to assimilate the
commoners by marriage.
For the urban poor, lack of money was the
principal grievance. Wages, while rising, were unable to match the increased
cost of living, and industrial unrest was becoming common. In the
countryside, only a quarter of the peasantry owned land outright. More than
half were métayers (sharecroppers) who shared their produce with
their landlords. The rest were landless laborers who worked for wages. All
paid many direct and indirect taxes plus a tithe to the church, and were
subject to onerous feudal duties.

The Bourgeois

Revolution
Politics now became fashionable, with meetings being held
in the salons and coffee-houses. The Masonic lodges discussed the writings
of the philosophes; the bourgeoisie joined the reopened political
clubs. The liberal leaders formed the secretive Committee of Thirty in
November 1788, which financed political pamphlets, corresponded with the
provincial middle class, and coached potential deputies. The pamphlets of
the Abbé Sieyès were influential in formulating the political
demands of the Third Estate and identifying the people with the
nation.
The forthcoming meeting of the Estates General compelled the
contending parties to define their aims in cahiers de doléances.
All three orders agreed to some degree of reform, however the nobility
wished to preserve their privileges, the clergy to retain their
independence, and the third estate sought the removal of feudal
dues.
The Estates General (see box p. 00) opened on May 5, 1789 with
Brienne's replacement Necker outlining the reforms to be discussed. The
division of the orders into separate meeting chambers induced a month of
procedural wrangling. Sieyès broke the deadlock by initiating a
verification of the elections on June 10 and instigated the reconstitution
of the Commons as the self-styled National Assembly on June 17. Two days
later, the clergy voted to join this body.
The king, who had been in
secluded mourning for his dead son, was persuaded to hold a royal session of
the Estates General. In preparation, the main assembly hall was closed. The
deputies misunderstood this as a preliminary to dissolution and assembled in
a nearby tennis court, where they swore an oath not to separate until a
constitution was established.
Louis XVI used the royal session of
June 23 to annul the decrees of June 17. He presented a program of financial
control, taxation and judicial reforms, and maintenance of privileges. After
he had quit the assembly, the Third Estate deputies refused to leave.
Strengthened by liberal nobles and clergy, they defied an attempt at
dissolution. On June 27, Louis XVI ordered joint meetings of the estates to
forestall incipient revolt in Paris.

The Estates
General were a representative assembly of the three "estates" or "orders" of
French society, namely the clergy, the nobility, and the Third Estate of the
commoners. Only called in emergencies to provide the Kings of France with
political or financial support, the last summons in 1614 had failed to reach
any conclusion owing to the inability of the orders to agree.
Two
issues dominated the preparations for the 1789 summons: the demand for
"double representation" of the third estate, and whether the method of
voting should be by order or by head. Voting by order would enable the
privileged orders to nullify any majority of the commons. Voting by head
would allow liberal clergy and nobility to support commons majorities.
Popular indignation ensured that the third estate could elect as many
representatives as the other two orders combined. The voting procedure was
not clarified in advance.
There was a system of elections for each
order. The nobility elected their delegates by direct and universal
suffrage. Of their 291 deputies, most were conservative provincial
landowners. Ninety were however liberals, including the Marquis de Lafayette
whose American exploits had given him a "naïve" enthusiasm for
republicanism, and the Duc d'Orléans, a cousin to Louis XVI, who was
suspected of having designs on the throne. Similarly the clergy elected
their three hundred representatives by direct suffrage. Only forty-two of
the clerical delegates were prelates; the vast majority were ordinary parish
priests.
The delegates for the third estate were determined by a
complex system of indirect elections. To be eligible, voters had to be at
least twenty-five years old and registered taxpayers. The consequence of the
indirect system was to eliminate most peasant delegates in the final stage.
The 610 deputies of the third estate were therefore dominated by
middle-class professionals. One quarter were lawyers, one seventh were
industrialists and bankers, and less than one tenth were prosperous farmers.
Some deputies were actually members of other orders, such as the Abbé
Sieyès and the Comte de Mirabeau.

*** Insert map of

"Paris in the French Revolution" - using Either hibbert-paris1790.tif Or
schama-paris.tif ***
The Popular Revolution

The dismissal of
Necker and troop movements outside Paris in early July convinced the
Parisians that invasion was imminent. On July 14, the municipal authorities
united with the electoral assembly to form the Paris Commune to rule the
city and created a citizen guard of twelve hundred.
The frantic
search for weapons led to an attack upon the Bastille, prison, arms depot
and citadel (July 14). The garrison commander, De Launay, was frightened
into opening fire on the besiegers, killing almost a hundred. The besiegers
were soon reinforced by three hundred incensed citizen guards. De Launay
threatened to explode the magazine, but unexpectedly surrendered. The mob
stormed the citadel and De Launay was killed.
The fall of the Bastille
transferred effective authority to the National Assembly, encouraged
revolution in the provinces, and freed France from press censorship leading
to an upsurge in radical journalism. It also marked the start of the
émigré exodus of conservative nobles. Louis XVI visited Paris
and sanctioned the tricolor's adoption as national flag.
The
provinces followed Paris by replacing the intendants with
decentralized municipal committees. The Great Fear, a form of mass hysteria,
swept across France from July 20 to August 6, as the provinces ascribed army
movements to the incursion of armed bandits and the émigré
exodus as a prelude to foreign invasion.
To restore order, the
Assembly authorized concessions to the peasants, staged a surrender of
feudal rights and fiscal immunities by liberal nobles, and drafted a
declaration of rights in August. Louis XVI refused to acquiesce to the new
decrees and ordered the Flanders regiment to march on Versailles.

Unemployment and a food crisis in Paris enabled agitators to

encourage the working class to believe that the king could solve these
crises, if he was in Paris. The welcoming banquet for the Flanders regiment
provided the necessary provocation. On October 5, six thousand Parisian
women (and some disguised male agents provocateurs in the pay of the
Duc d'Orléans) marched to Versailles, followed by the National Guard
led by an unwilling Lafayette. The precincts were invaded but the king was
able to calm a deputation of the women. Violence flared the next morning
when a mob invaded the palace, slaughtering the royal guard. The queen
barely escaped to the safety of her husband's presence. When Lafayette had
restored order, the royal family were taken to Paris as effective hostages
of the crowd.

Let Them Eat Cake

The
callous reply, "Let them eat cake!", on hearing that the people had no bread
to eat, was attributed by the political agitators to Marie Antoinette as
part of their ongoing campaign to discredit her reputation. For the urban
poor and the peasantry, the availability and price of bread was a matter of
life and death. Half the income of the poor was usually spent on bread.
 While full-scale famines had virtually disappeared during the eighteenth
century in France, bad harvests and food shortages still provoked local
peasants' revolts or jacqueries. The price of the four-pound loaf was
a useful indicator of potential unrest. Normally selling at eight or nine
sous, it soared to fourteen and a half sous in the week before the storming
of the Bastille. A fortnight later, its price had subsided to twelve
sous.
The rural unrest of the winter of 1788 was triggered by the
poor harvest. Lacking government control, bread was one and a half times
more expensive in the country than in the towns. By the spring, the
insurrections had developed into revolts against game laws and feudal
rights. Ch<\#137>teaux were invaded and the manorial rent rolls were
destroyed. Enclosed fields were restored to common land status. There was no
indiscriminate disorder with only a handful of nobles being killed in the
conflicts. To the court of Louis XVI, it appeared as if the peasantry had
made common cause with the urban working classes, suggesting that a
nation-wide rebellion was a real possibility.
The Great Fear of
July and August 1789 intensified the rural revolts. Rumors spread about
"brigands" working as counter-revolutionaries on behalf of the nobles, with
troop movements and large numbers of unemployed mendicants providing
"evidence." Frightened magistrates and clergy warned their neighbors with
minor incidents becoming magnified by distance. Skeptics were assumed to be
aristocratic sympathizers. The absence of provincial newspapers prevented
more objective reporting of the facts.

A New

Constitution
The Constituent Assembly now embarked on creating a
constitution. Guided by Sieyès, this made distinctions between
"active" and "passive" citizens, the former having political as well as
civil rights. Local government was remodeled with the provinces replaced by
departments subdivided into districts, cantons, and communes. The king was
given a suspensive veto on laws, but no power to dissolve the Assembly. The
new France would be a federation of autonomous departments with a weak
executive and strong legislature.
The reforms extended to the
Catholic Church with the nationalization of ecclesiastical property,
reduction in bishoprics and the popular election of prelates and priests.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was ratified in July 1790. The church
split on the issue. In March 1791, Pope Pius VI condemned the reforms,
simultaneously shattering Louis XVI's hopes that the Assembly would now
adopt a conciliatory policy to the monarchy.
Finally the king was
persuaded to flee for his safety and to allow armed intervention by Spain
and Austria. Axel de Fersen, a Swedish count, and Marquis de Bouillé,
planned and financed the escape from the heavily guarded Tuileries palace on
June 20. The queen's insistence that the family travel together prevented
the use of a fast coach. Failure to maintain the pre-arranged schedule
stopped the royals from meeting their military escort and a postmaster
recognized the king from his portrait on a banknote. The National Guard
recaptured the party at Varennes (June 21) and returned them to
Paris.
Louis XVI accepted the new Constitution on September 14. The
Constituent Assembly dissolved itself and was replaced in October by the
Legislative Assembly, elected by "active" property-owning citizens. While
the queen continued to intrigue with Austria and émigrés, envoys
were sent to Prussia and England in vain attempts to ensure their
neutrality. The Brissotin faction in the Assembly preached an ideological
war of peoples versus monarchs and was opposed by Robespierre's Jacobins.
The impetuous Francis II ascended the Austrian throne, while the Brissotin
administration essayed further secret diplomacy. War with Austria and
Prussia was declared on April 20, 1792.
The war began disastrously
with immediate French defeats. In France, the court was suspected of
supporting the Austrians. To prevent counter-revolution, the Assembly
decreed the disbanding of the royal guard and summoned twenty thousand
provincial National Guardsmen. Radical discontent was stirred in the
Parisian administrative sections by the king's vetoing of the summons and
dismissal of the Brissotin ministry. The king eventually conceded. The
fédéré soldiers arrived in the capital during July,
and under Jacobin influence, began demanding the king's dethronement.
***
Insert map of "Revolutionary France" using Either ford-revfrance.tif Or
schama-revfrance.tif ***

Girondins and
Jacobins
Revolutionary politics was dominated by personalities and
factions, mostly organized around political clubs.
The Jacobins
were the oldest political club, becoming identified with extreme violence
and egalitarianism. Drawing their support from Paris and the urban poor,
their deputies became known as Montagnards and "the Mountain," because they
occupied the higher benches of the assemblies.
The Feuillants
were moderate Jacobins, formed following Louis XVI's failed escape, with the
aim of upholding the monarchy and limiting the progress of the Revolution.
Although well represented in the Legislative Assembly, they disintegrated
with the deposing of the king in August 1792.
The Girondins,
initially known as Brissotins (after Jacques-Pierre Brissot) during the
Legislative Assembly, drew their support from the provinces. The Girondin
name was due to their later leaders coming from the department of the
Gironde. Moderate republicans, this Jacobin faction advocated stern measures
against émigrés and anti-revolutionary clergy, proposed war on
foreign powers to unite the people, and liberal economic policies. Their
provincial backing and efforts to limit Parisian political dominance left
them open to allegations of supporting "federalism" -- the
dismemberment of France into a federation.
The Cordeliers were
founded in 1790, ostensibly to prevent the abuse of power and defend the
"rights of man." Led by Danton, this club demanded the dethronement of Louis
XVI after his attempted flight. It was temporarily disbanded following the
 massacre (July 17, 1791) of the Champ-de-Mars presentation of their
petition. Danton and his allies left the Club in August 1792. The Cordeliers
became more radical under Jacques-René Hébert. The
Hébertist faction demanded direct democracy, favored harsh measures
against speculators and rebels, and organized the suppression of organized
Christianity. The Cordelier Club disappeared after Hébert's
execution.
In the assemblies, the middle ground was occupied by
the "Plain," independent deputies without links to the
factions.
Outside the Clubs were the Enragés, "Wild Men,"
who supported price and currency controls to assist the poor. Their leaders,
the former priest Jacques Roux and postal official Varlet, were arrested by
Robespierre, and their radical agenda was adopted by Hébert.

Death of A King

Counter-revolutionary fears led to a

mob invasion of the Tuileries and massacre of the Swiss Guards on August 10.
While Lafayette made overtures to Louis XVI for a military coup to save the
monarchy, the Revolutionary Paris Commune insisted on imprisoning the royals
in the Temple. Vigilance committees were organized to interrogate and arrest
suspected reactionaries. News of revolts in La Vendée and the
worsening war coupled with the fear of a "prison plot" where escaped
prisoners would lead a counter-revolution triggered a series of massacres in
the Paris prisons during the first week of September.
The National
Convention assembled on September 20, abolished the monarchy the next day,
and decreed that the first year of the Republic should be dated from
September 22. During January 1793, the delegates debated the future of Louis
XVI. The Girondins tried to spare him a judicial trial, and later execution,
but Robespierre and his allies were adamant that death was the only
punishment for treason. On January 21, Louis XVI was guillotined.

Days of Terror

Victory at Valmy and the occupation of Savoy

and Nice in the previous year emboldened Danton to advocate that France
should expand to its "natural frontiers." On January 31, the occupation of
Holland was ordered, and war declared against Britain the next day.
Perceived food hoarding and war profiteering precipitated insurrections by
the Enragés.
The desertion of General Dumouriez to Austria
after failing to induce his troops to restore Louis XVII implicated the
Girondins whose attempts to attack their opponents during April and May
backfired. The Girondin leaders were arrested June 2 by the Committee of
Public Safety.
A federalist revolt continued from May to July despite
a proposed new constitution and the sale of émigré lands to
impoverished peasants. The rebellions disintegrated owing to poor
leadership, tainted association with royalists, and the danger of Austrian
and Spanish invasion.
The Committee of Public Safety came under
Robespierre's leadership in late July, facing opposition from Enragés,
Dantonists, and Hébertists. The Enragés pressed for price
controls, while Danton urged the conversion of the committee into a
provisional government with the long-term aim of replacing Robespierre as
its head.
On August 27, Toulon surrendered itself and its fleet to the
British under Lord Hood. This and other news of the war created pressure to
incarcerate suspects and reorganize the Revolutionary Tribunal.
During
the autumn and winter of 1793, the Terror was threefold: a political terror
against counter-revolutionaries and federalists, an economic terror against
food monopolists and currency manipulators, and a religious terror against
organized Christianity. October and November occasioned the great state
trials of the queen, the Brissotins, the Girondins, and the
Orléanists. All were found guilty and guillotined.
Danton, who
had been convalescing in the country, returned in late November.
Strengthened by the young Napoleon Bonaparte's ousting of the British from
Toulon, he proposed a policy of clemency, attacking the atheist
Hébertists.
Recognizing Danton's intentions to assume power,
Robespierre determined to eliminate all his rivals. The foreign origins of
several leading Hébertists made them easy targets for allegations of
participation in a "foreign" plot. An abortive Hébertist insurrection
in March 1794 was foiled by the preemptive arrests of the faction, who were
summarily tried and executed on March 25.
Financial corruption of a
Dantonist clique provided an excuse to widen the indictment to encompass
Danton and his principal allies (March 30). The brief trials were abruptly
ended when Danton's eloquent defense became too troublesome for the judges
and the Jacobins. The Dantonists were guillotined on April 5.

Victims of the Guillotine

Invented by the
physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the guillotine was introduced as the
Revolutionary means of execution so that the privilege of decapitation would
no longer be limited to the aristocracy, and that death would be as painless
as possible.
During Robespierre's Reign of Terror, three hundred
thousand suspects were arrested. Two thousand and six hundred people were
executed in Paris, and fourteen thousand were guillotined in the provinces.
Most of the victims were commoners; only 9% were nobility and 6% were
clergy. Defeated generals, failed politicians, counter-revolutionaries,
currency manipulators, food hoarders, and the well-to-do were all dispatched
in the "red Mass." Relatives and friends were condemned for showing
affection for previous victims.
In the provinces, even greater
cruelty was demonstrated by some répresentants en mission.
Joseph Fouché at Lyons had three hundred prisoners executed by cannon
fire. At Toulon, several hundred suspected royalists were shot after the
British evacuation. Three thousand died of disease in the prisons of Nantes,
with a further two thousand being drowned in the Loire.
 Denounced,
perhaps unjustly, the victim would be arrested in the middle of the night
and imprisoned to await a meeting of the Revolutionary Tribunal. A brief
hearing, later without defense lawyers or defense witnesses, would yield a
guilty verdict. In Paris, a batch of prisoners would be taken by cart to the
Place de la Révolution, where thousands regularly gathered to witness
the executions, drinking wine and laying bets on the order of death. Their
hair shorn, the victims would be thrown onto the plank, clamped in place at
the neck, and the blade released to sever their heads. The bodies would be
thrown into bloody tumbrils.
Not everyone delighted in the
spectacle. Many in Paris wearied of the endless processions of death; others
including those on the route to the scaffold were disgusted by
it.
Following Robespierre's downfall, the revolutionaries became
the victims of the White Terror. Members of the Revolutionary Tribunal were
guillotined. In the southern provinces, officials were lynched or murdered
by associates of their victims. Assassins, known as the Compagnie du
Soleil, conducted campaigns of retribution.

Revolutionary Days

Robespierre now ruled supreme.

However problems began to emerge with a rift in the Committee of Public
Safety over the free distribution of suspects' land to poor peasants.
Friction between the Committees of Public Safety and General Safety
increased due to intersection of powers and responsibilities. The public
festivals of the Cult of the Supreme Being in June alienated the Convention
deputies, some deeming it a repudiation of freedom of religion, and others a
rejection of freedom from religion. General Jourdan's victory over
Austria at Fleurus (June 26) and the subsequent reconquest of Belgium made
the ongoing Terror seem unnecessary to the frightened deputies.
On
July 26, Robespierre angered the National Convention with a speech filled
with accusations and threats. The next day (9 Thermidor), Robespierre and
his henchmen were arrested in the Convention. Robespierre was taken to the
H<\#153>tel de Ville; his colleagues were released by the Commune and joined
him. Hanriot, commander of the Parisian National Guard, was too drunk to
lead an effective resistance and his units dissipated during the night.
Forces loyal to the Convention were thus able to recapture Robespierre in
the morning. Condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal, he was executed that
afternoon.
The severity of the winter accentuated the resentment of
the disenfranchised sans-culottes who revolted on April 1, 1795 (12
Germinal) and May 20 (1 Prairial). Both insurrections were easily
suppressed. In June, a royalist incursion of Brittany was swiftly defeated.
However worsening conditions for the poor encouraged the royalists to
intrigue with Breton rebels and the disaffected. In early October, the
revolt erupted in Paris. The Convention appointed Paul Barras to defend the
Republic. In turn, he persuaded Napoleon Bonaparte to command the
Convention's forces. Rather than win by attrition, the rebels attempted to
storm the Tuileries in column and were routed by disciplined artillery.
The Convention dissolved and its successor, the Directory, became the
new government of France.

What if . . .
Ending the Revolution
It was possible for the Revolution to have
been avoided completely. Calonne's reforms would have reduced the feudal
characteristics of France, limited the powers of the provincial assemblies,
and provided permanent stable finances. The Bourbons would have become an
enlightened autocracy, giving France the opportunity to overtake Britain's
progress. Had Brienne forced the reforms through the Paris parlement
en bloc, a similar outcome would have resulted.
Once the
Estates-General met, Louis XVI could have transformed France into a limited
constitutional monarchy by seizing the initiative on May 5, 1789 with a
program of reforms and ensuring voting "by head." The Third Estate plus
liberal nobles and clergy would have backed him, and France's political
structures would have resembled Britain's.
Mirabeau's activities
from October 1789 to April 1791 were also aimed at achieving a
constitutional monarchy and a ministerial position for himself. If he had
been able to block the decree (November 7, 1789) preventing Assembly
deputies becoming ministers, his plans would likely have succeeded. Denied
high office, his intrigues would have assisted the royal cause, had Louis
and Marie-Antoinette heeded his advice. A limited stable monarchy would have
allowed France to rebuild its colonial empire, and forestalled the political
chaos which encouraged Napoleon's ambitions.
If the flight to
Varennes had succeeded, perhaps by separating the royal party, a ruthless
adherence to the schedule, or not being recognized, then a Bourbon
restoration would have been effected through Austrian and Prussian armies.
Maintaining the monarchy without political concessions would demand a police
state and transform France into a subservient ally of its imperial
neighbors. French colonies might become rewards for the protectors. At
worst, further rebellions might trigger long-term occupation and eventual
partition to erstwhile protectors. Perhaps a World War in the nineteenth
century might occur?
A Franco-British alliance in 1792 might have
occurred had Talleyrand ignored the Opposition and conducted his secret
diplomacy only with the government. The offer included giving Tobago to
Britain, new commercial treaties, and uniting to acquire South America from
Spain. While Austria, Prussia, and Russia might threaten the balance of
power, the conflict would uncover brilliant generals such as Napoleon.
Backed rather than stymied by British fleets, Napoleon's armies would be
invincible. France would dominate continental Europe and Britain would be
supreme overseas.
The death of Louis XVI's son, the uncrowned
Louis XVII, (June 8, 1795) from tuberculosis in captivity made his uncle,
the reactionary Comte de Provence, Louis XVIII. This ended the last hope for
a peaceful restoration of a constitutional monarch.
The Revolutionary Wars
Defending the

Republic
The Revolutionary Wars began with the French declaration of
war against Austria and Prussia on April 20, 1792. The revolutionary army
was initially unable to withstand the Allied forces under the Duke of
Brunswick. Heavy summer rain and poor collaboration between the allied units
slowed their advance into France. Brunswick's army encountered a French
force under General Dumouriez encamped at a hill at Valmy on September 20.
The French held their position under heavy artillery fire until Brunswick
disengaged and retreated.
Over the next six weeks, the French
capitalized on the Valmy victory, pursuing the Prussians into the Rhineland,
invading Belgium following Dumouriez's triumph over the Austrians at
Jemappes, and seizing Nice and Savoy from the Sardinians. The French
offensive slackened after Britain, Holland, and Spain joined the war in
spring 1793. Dumouriez's invasion of Holland faltered with his forces
retreating into Belgium. Defeated by the Austrians at Neerwinden (March 18)
and Louvain (March 21), Dumouriez signed an armistice with the Austrians and
tried to persuade his troops to march on Paris to overthrow the government,
but his troops deserted instead.
France was gripped by the federalist
revolt during the summer of 1793. Royalist envoys invited the British in the
shape of Vice-Admiral Hood's squadron to preserve Toulon for the uncrowned
Louis XVII. Supported by Spanish and Neapolitan reinforcements, Hood's fleet
entered Toulon on August 22, capturing a third of the French fleet. Hood
garrisoned Toulon but failed to occupy all the strategic headlands. By
August 31,Toulon was besieged by French Republicans led by the ineffective
General Carteaux. From mid-September onward, the French artillery was
commanded by Captain Napoleon Bonaparte. Several months of skirmishing
followed until General Dugommier assumed command. Advised by Bonaparte,
Dugommier led night attacks on December 17 capturing the headlands and
imperiling the British fleet. Hood immediately evacuated Toulon. The
destruction of the French fleet was bungled with eighteen ships-of-the-line
recaptured by Dugommier. Fifteen thousand inhabitants fled with the British
-- the rest were left to Republican justice.
Fortified by new
conscripts drafted in the levée en masse, French armies under
Pichegru routed British forces at Tourcoing in April 1794 while Jourdan
accepted heavy losses to defeat a smaller Austrian-Dutch army at Fleurus in
June and annex Belgium.
At sea, Admiral Earl Howe intercepted a French
fleet escorting a grain convoy from America. Admiral Villaret detached the
convoy and drew Howe north. On June 1, the two fleets engaged with Howe
capturing six French ships-of-the-line and destroying a seventh. However the
convoy escaped to Brest.
In 1795, the First Coalition against France
collapsed. Pichegru entered Amsterdam in January while Jourdan had swept
through the German city-states to the Rhine. Peace was signed in April with
Prussia and in May with Holland which became the French-dominated Batavian
Republic. The British-supported émigré landing at Quiberon Bay
in June was annihilated a month later. After Catalonian defeats, Spain made
peace in July.

Interlude: Holland
The
United Provinces (as Holland was named) had been governed since 1759 by
Stadtholder William V of the House of Orange. His aristocratic regime had
stirred resistance in many classes of society which had taken shape as the
Patriot movement. Although friendly to England, Dutch interference in the
American struggle for independence nevertheless precipitated the Fourth
Anglo-Dutch War (1780-84). Dutch defeats increased support for the Patriots
who took over the government and ousted William V who
fled.
Prussian intervention in 1789 returned William V to power.
Repression followed with many Patriots fleeing into foreign exile.
Encouraged by expected French support, the Patriots revenged themselves in
1795, deposing William V again, before the revolutionary armies could cross
into Holland.
The Batavian Republic replaced the United Provinces.
The potpourri of provinces with unequal wealth and political rights was
transformed into a unitary republic modeled on the French Directory. All
citizens were now equal in law with all religions being tolerated. The
effective French take-over induced the British to blockade Holland and seize
Dutch colonies in the Caribbean, the East Indies and Africa in the name of
William V (now in England). Shorn of its maritime trade and fishing and
heavily taxed by France, the Republic turned inward, concentrating on
farming.
In 1806, William V died, and his son, William VI,
encouraged the Dutch to cooperate with their conquerors. Meanwhile Napoleon
reconstructed the Batavian Republic as the Kingdom of Holland with his
brother Louis as king. Louis gained his subjects' respect by supporting
Dutch interests rather than obeying Napoleon's orders. Consequently Napoleon
removed Louis and incorporated Holland into the French Empire in 1810 to
increase the efficacy of the Continental System against
Britain.
As the French Empire began to disintegrate, Dutch leaders
resolved to restore the hereditary Stadtholder on their own terms as opposed
to any which might be dictated by the Allies. The retreat of the French in
1813 permitted a peaceful coup and William VI was invited to return as a
constitutional monarch. At the Congress of Vienna, the Allies added Belgium
and Luxembourg to his domains to create a single Kingdom of the
Netherlands.

The Italian Campaign

In 1796,
Austria and Britain remained at war with France. Against Britain, the
Directors encouraged commerce raiding and supported Irish rebels. Against
Austria, the Directors sent two armies under Jourdan and Moreau to attack
via Germany, and appointed General Bonaparte to command the Army of Italy.
The German offensive was thwarted by the Austrian Archduke Charles. The
French retreated home in October.
Meanwhile Bonaparte had achieved a
series of spectacular victories. In April, his forces had shattered the
Austrian and Piedmontese defense of the Maritime Alps. The threat to the
Piedmontese capital of Turin induced Piedmont's surrender. Bonaparte then
pursued the Austrians, breaking their rearguard at the bridge of Lodi on May
10, and capturing Milan five days later. The Directors then ordered
Bonaparte to subjugate northern Italy, rather than continue against Austria.
During October 1796, Lombardy was reorganized into French-dominated
satellite republics. A stream of art treasures and taxation revenues from
Italy helped to finance the Directory. After a prolonged siege with several
victories over numerically superior Austrian forces at Castigione (August),
Roverto (September), Arcole (November) and Rivoli (January), Bonaparte
captured Mantua in February 1797.
Plans to combine the French, Spanish
and Dutch fleets suffered a severe setback when Admiral Sir John Jervis
defeated the Spanish fleet in battle off Cape St. Vincent (February 14),
which then fled to Cadiz. The Dutch fleet remained penned in the Texel by
Admiral Duncan's blockade.
In February, Bonaparte invaded the Papal
States, acquiring Bologna, Romagna and other territories from a terrified
Pope Pius VI. Then he turned his army against Austria, advancing to within a
hundred miles of Vienna, before Emperor Francis II sued for peace on April
7. Between the preliminary truce and the Treaty of Campo-Formio in October,
Bonaparte independently occupied the independent state of Venetia and
rebuilt northern Italy into the Ligurian Republic (Genoa) and the Cisalpine
Republic (Lombardy, Bologna, and Romagna). In return for Venice, Austria
recognized the French annexation of Belgium and its expansion to the Rhine,
enabling Bonaparte to present the Directors with a fait
accompli.
Despite the naval mutinies at Spithead and the Nore
during 1797 over pay and conditions, the Royal Navy had maintained its watch
of the Texel. At French insistence, the Dutch fleet under Admiral De Winter
was ordered to break the blockade and neutralize Duncan's squadron. Instead,
it was the Dutch fleet which was destroyed by Duncan at the battle of
Camperdown (October 11).

Interlude:
Italy
Both Lombardy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
experienced programs of modest reform from 1769 until the advent of the
French Revolution. In Lombardy, the measures were orchestrated from Austria;
in the Two Sicilies, the impetus came from Ferdinand IV's ministers.
Opposition from the privileged classes eliminated any lasting
effects.
Peter Leopold (later Leopold II of Austria) masterminded
more extensive legal and land reforms in Tuscany. His accession to the
Austrian throne prevented implementation of his final goal: a constitutional
monarchy supported by representative assemblies. His policies were forcibly
opposed after his departure.
The other Italian states (Venice,
Genoa, Savoy, and the Papacy) simply ignored the
Enlightenment.
 For the ordinary Italian, the French Revolution (as
described in pamphlets and newspapers) was a struggle against monarchy.
Widespread Freemasonry and secret societies promoted radical politics.
Revolutionary plots were uncovered and squashed in Naples and Piedmont. With
Napoleon's invasion in 1796, the first republics were created in northern
Italy. Aristocrats governed the Ligurian Republic while moderate bureaucrats
controlled the Cisalpine Republic despite the opposition of anti-French
radicals. The Roman Republic founded in 1798 excluded both the pontiff and
Italian Jacobins from power in the erstwhile Papal States. The short-lived
Parthenopean Republic was carved in January 1799 from Ferdinand IV's
Neapolitan domains following the repulse of his two-year campaign to restore
the pope. Ferdinand fled to Sicily.
With the French distracted by
the armies of the Second Coalition, Cardinal Ruffo's peasant rebels
shattered the Parthenopean militias (and avenged themselves on disliked
aristocrats), restoring Naples to Ferdinand in June 1799. Tuscany was
similarly freed by clerically-led peasants, angered at French
taxes.
The return of Napoleon in 1801 witnessed the recreation of
the republics and the annexation of Italian territory to France. By 1806,
"President" Napoleon of the Italian Republic was King of Italy with his
stepson (Eugène de Beauharnais) as viceroy. Naples was reconquered,
being ruled by Joseph Bonaparte until 1808, and then by ex-marshal Joachim
Murat. Only Sicily and Sardinia remained outside the Napoleonic
dominions.
As the Empire fragmented during 1814, Austrian and
Neapolitan forces restored the old order in Italy. Beauharnais' resistance
earned him a Bavarian retirement; Murat overestimated Italian nationalism
and was executed in 1815 when a last-ditch attempt to recover his throne
failed.

The Egyptian Campaign

1798 opened with

the occupation of Rome and the establishment of the Roman Republic. Pope
Pius VI was imprisoned in France. French agents and arms instigated a
revolution in Switzerland and the Helvetic Republic was created in March.
Bonaparte, having decided that an invasion of England was impossible,
pressed the Directors to approve a military expedition to Egypt which would
open the way to British India. The Directors saw in Bonaparte's dreams of
oriental conquest the opportunity to prevent him organizing a coup
d'état. The fleet of warships and transports carrying thirty thousand
troops and numerous scientists and thinkers sailed from Toulon in
May.
The Knights of St. John surrendered Malta without resistance to
Bonaparte (June 10) who garrisoned the island and then sailed to Alexandria,
arriving and capturing it on July 2. The numerically superior Mameluke army
was routed by disciplined French troops at the Battle of the Pyramids (July
21). Bonaparte entered Cairo the next day.
Ordered to intercept the
French armada, Rear Admiral Nelson located de Bruey's fleet in Aboukir Bay
(August 1) after weeks of fruitless searching. Nelson noticed the French had
misjudged their anchorage, and so his squadron was able to attack them on
their landward as well as seaward sides. The result was the capture or
destruction of eleven out of the fifteen French ships.
Stranded,
Bonaparte governed Egypt and suppressed occasional revolts. A small
detachment under General Desaix chased Mameluke troops up and down the Nile
valley for the next year. In February 1799, Bonaparte led a larger force
into Greater Syria, easily defeating the Ottoman forces. A small British
squadron under Sir Sydney Smith reached Acre on the Red Sea in time to
capture a flotilla carrying Bonaparte's artillery before the general's eyes
on March 17. While French forces won numerous engagements with the Turks
during April, Acre, bolstered by British support, did not fall. The siege
was lifted on May 20 and the French returned to Cairo.
In Europe,
forces of the Second Coalition of Britain, Russia, Austria, the Ottoman
Empire, Naples and Portugal (created December 1798) were threatening France
on many fronts. Archduke Charles defeated Jourdan and Masséna in the
Rhineland, Suvorov's Russians drove the French out of northern Italy,
Neapolitan rule was reasserted in southern Italy, and a combined
British-Russian army invaded Holland.
The French recovery began with
Masséna's triumph over the Russians at Zurich (September 1799)
followed by his capture of Constance in Germany preventing Archduke Charles
from crossing the Rhine or assisting the British in Holland. The allies
withdrew by November and Tsar Paul I left the coalition in disgust.

Interlude: Ireland
The American War required the
British to reduce their forces in Ireland. The Irish volunteer corps became
both a defense against French invasion and an outlet for the reforms
espoused by the orators Flood and Grattan. The British yielded, returning
legislative independence to the Irish Parliament.
The French
Revolution inspired Presbyterians and Catholics to indulge in radical
politics. Tone organized them into societies known as the United Irishmen.
Their goals were full Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform. Once
war with Revolutionary France started, these clubs were suppressed and went
underground. In 1793 the British government granted Irish Catholics the
right to vote to bolster their loyalty.
The United Irishmen
enlisted the support of Revolutionary France in 1794. A large expeditionary
fleet and fourteen thousand troops under General Hoche and Tone set out in
December 1796. Storms dispersed the fleet, sinking many ships, and no
attempt was made by the survivors to land at Bantry Bay.
Unrest
continued to rise throughout 1797. Despite some of its leaders being
arrested in early 1798, the United Irishmen rebellion erupted in May, mainly
in Wexford and eastern Ulster. The northern rebels were crushed at Antrim
and Ballinahinch. The Wexford rebels lasted longer. Having failed to capture
the towns of Arklow and New Ross, they were overwhelmed by General Lake at
Vinegar Hill (June 21).
Although Tone had been unable to persuade
Bonaparte to lead an expedition to Ireland, Generals Hardy and Humbert
 accepted the commission. A thousand soldiers under Humbert sailed first,
arriving in Killala Bay (August 23) rather than Donegal owing to contrary
winds. Humbert captured Killala and Ballina with ease, and then advanced on
Castlebar supported by several hundred Irish volunteers, routing a
four-thousand strong army under Lake (August 27). Spontaneous uprisings
among the Irish failed, and Humbert's force was captured by an army of
thirty thousand on September 7. Delayed until mid-September by weather and
logistics, Hardy's expedition was intercepted by the Royal Navy in
October.
In reaction to the rebellion, Pitt implemented the Act of
Union in 1801, eliminating the Irish Parliament and giving Ireland direct
representation at Westminster. However Pitt's goal of permitting Catholics
to become MPs was prevented by George III. Nevertheless Ireland was united
with Britain.

The Directory

Since October 1795,

France had been ruled by the Directory, a government possessing a weak
five-man executive (the Directors) and a bicameral legislature, divided into
the two hundred and fifty-strong Council of the Elders who accepted or
vetoed legislation and the Council of the Five Hundred who proposed
legislation. To ensure political continuity with the Convention, two thirds
of the original membership were selected from the Convention. Thereafter
partial elections were held annually beginning in April 1797 to replace
one-third of the deputies. Similarly one Director was annually chosen by lot
and replaced. The Directors were responsible for appointing commissioners to
oversee all levels of local government.
Criticism of the regime began
almost immediately, with vitriolic attacks from "Gracchus Babeuf," a
"professional" revolutionary promoting communist ideals. The Babeuf
conspiracy to overthrow the Directory was uncovered by the secret police in
May 1796, with Babeuf being imprisoned and executed a year later.

Assisted by British agents such as Wickham in Switzerland and French

constitutional monarchists, the 1797 election returned many moderate
deputies. A royalist plot came to nothing, but provided an excuse for the
Directors' coup of 18 Fructidor (September 4) to wrest their independence
from the Councils, and eliminate monarchist deputies.
The royalist
suppression encouraged a Jacobin revival. Despite Directorial interference
in the 1798 elections including creating competing electoral assemblies,
many Jacobin deputies were elected. However the Directors in concert with
the existing Council members selectively annulled unpalatable results in the
"coup" of 22 Floréal (May 11). Repression of royalists, refractory
clergy, and Jacobins continued.
The 1799 elections returned more
Jacobin deputies, and Sieyès became a Director. Through repression,
repudiation of two-thirds of the national debt (owed to prosperous
citizens), enforcement of the Revolutionary calendar, and mass conscription,
the regime had alienated every segment of society. By June, Sieyès had
replaced the other Directors with his supporters, and began to prepare a
coup to replace the unstable Directory with a more secure
government.

Interlude: Austria
Ensuring
Austria's recovery from the Seven Years War became Empress Maria Theresa's
principal concern. She introduced laws to limit serf exploitation by the
nobility, with the dual aims of minimizing revolts and ensuring their
ability to meet her taxes. Skilled workers from the periphery of and beyond
the Empire were encouraged to resettle in crown lands.
Potential
conflict with Prussia and Russia over expansion into the Ottoman Empire was
averted in 1772 through the expedient of dismembering Poland instead.
Although Maria Theresa found the First Partition of Poland distasteful,
pragmatism demanded it. An attempt to swap the Austrian Netherlands for
Bavaria did lead to war with Prussia in 1778, but Maria Theresa avoided
actual conflict by a direct intervention with Frederick II of
Prussia.
Her son, Joseph II, succeeded her in 1780. During the
1780s, he gradually abolished serfdom throughout the empire, dissolved some
monasteries, and extended religious toleration to non-Catholics. In 1789, he
proposed an egalitarian tax regime for all subjects, but these measures died
with him in 1790.
Joseph's brother, Leopold II, returned from
Tuscany to become Emperor. Leopold quickly ended another border war with the
Ottoman Empire and then turned his attention to domestic affairs. His
proposals included giving commoners representation in government as a
counter-balance to the nobility and would have strengthened the fractious
empire. He died prematurely in 1792 and was succeeded by his son, Francis
II.
Austria now considered Revolutionary France to threaten all
the monarchies of Europe. The inevitable war resulted in unexpected defeats
and significant territorial losses. The period of peace between 1801 and
1805 gave Archduke Charles (Francis II's brother) the opportunity to
reorganize the army. Nevertheless Austria was defeated again by Napoleon and
Francis II was compelled to renounce his title as Holy Roman Emperor,
becoming Francis I of Austria
From 1806 to 1809, Austrian
ministers attempted to create new armies by recruiting militia forces and
appealing to nationalist sympathies in imperial territories. Renewed war
brought further defeat. Count Metternich took charge of foreign policy,
aiming to achieve coexistence with France by the marriage of Princess
Marie-Louise to Napoleon.
Napoleon's intransigence compelled
Metternich to rejoin the Allies in 1813. Metternich was instrumental in
restoring Austria's power at the Congress of Vienna.

First Consul

Meanwhile Bonaparte had left Egypt and his

army on August 23, evading the British blockade, and arriving in Paris on
October 16. Sieyès required a successful general to ensure the
conspiracy's success. His original choice, General Joubert, had been
recently killed fighting the Austrians. Using Talleyrand as a go-between,
Sieyès secured Bonaparte's support.
On 18 Brumaire (November 9),
the plotters acted. The Council of Elders was summoned for an emergency 7
a.m. meeting, and informed of a supposed Jacobin plot. Emergency powers were
granted, Bonaparte made responsible for security, and both Councils
requested to meet the next day. The uncommitted Directors were forced to
resign. The Councilors realized the Jacobin danger was imaginary at their
meeting, and started protesting against the intrigue. An address to them by
Bonaparte inflamed the situation further. His brother, Lucien, first
distracted the deputies and then persuaded the Council's guards to support
Bonaparte in clearing the hall. Bonaparte, Sieyès, and the former
Director Ducos formed a Provisional Consulate to govern France.
The
Provisional Consuls set to work with financial and constitutional reforms.
Bonaparte disagreed with the elaborate system of checks and balances
proposed by Sieyès on consular powers and instigated his own structure
which he bullied the remaining deputies into acclaiming with himself as
First Consul. Legislation was proposed by the Consuls and the Council of
State, debated by the 100-man Tribunate, and either accepted or rejected by
the 300-strong Legislative Body. An appointed Senate "guarded" the
constitution and appointed the Tribunes and Legislators. The new regime
received popular support in a referendum in January 1800 (despite millions
of abstentions and vote-rigging.)
Local administrators, from the
prefects of the departments to the mayors of the commune, were also
appointed. All local matters were referred to the prefects; important
prefecture decisions were similarly sanctioned by the interior
ministry.

Interlude: Spain
The reign of
Charles III was distinguished by his appointment of a succession of
reforming ministers influenced by various strands of Enlightenment thought.
Although all were impeded by various traditional privileges, their efforts
improved colonial administration, increasing revenue and providing a captive
market for Spanish exports. The new colonial governors tripled revenues but
were notoriously ruthless and self-serving. Revolts against royal decrees
were common during the 1780s, though fear of the Native Americans limited
the rebellions.
Charles III was succeeded in 1788 by his son, the
weak Charles IV who was dominated by his wife. The reforming ministers were
discredited by policy failures with regard to Revolutionary France, and
replaced in 1792 by Manuel de Godoy, the queen's favorite and lover. War
with France in 1793 led to a French invasion and republican stirrings in
Catalonia and the north. Fearing revolution and distrusting Britain, Godoy
allied Spain to France in 1796. The resulting isolation from the colonies
due to British hostility nearly bankrupted Spain.
The War of the
Oranges -- the short joint invasion of Portugal with France in 1801
-- gained Spain the province of Olivenza but failed to raise Godoy's
 popularity. Spanish naval losses at Trafalgar (1805) increased discontent
with pro-French policies. However Napoleon's continued continental successes
dissuaded Godoy from leaving the alliance.
Godoy's plan to restore
his prestige by dismantling Portugal in concert with France backfired when
Napoleon made demands for Spanish territory and Prince Ferdinand's partisans
staged a coup against Charles IV in 1808. Napoleon imposed his brother
Joseph as King of Spain. Joseph's rule was supported by the
afrancesados who believed that French rule was irresistible and would
modernize Spain, but was opposed in the provinces. The provincial juntas
organized military resistance to the French who easily triumphed over the
regular soldiery. The liberation of Spain was accomplished from 1809 to 1813
by British forces under the Duke of Wellington and Spanish
guerrillas.
Although the juntas issued a constitution in 1812
providing for a limited monarchy and a representative parliament,
conservatives and the army ensured that Ferdinand VII returned to Spain as
an absolute monarch in 1814.

From Marengo to Treaty

of Amiens
With France secure, Bonaparte turned his attention to the
war. Masséna was now besieged in Genoa while an army of 100,000
Austrians controlled northern Italy. Bonaparte with an army of 65,000
quickly crossed the Great St. Bernard Pass during May and reoccupied Milan,
blocking the Austrian retreat. At the ensuing Battle of Marengo (June 14),
Bonaparte's army was almost overwhelmed owing to his poor deployment of
forces. Unexpectedly supported by Desaix's division, Bonaparte concentrated
his cavalry and artillery on the Austrian center which broke. The Austrians
accepted a temporary armistice.
Back in Paris, Bonaparte proclaimed
Marengo as a great victory to strengthen his credibility, initiated
negotiations with the Pope, and commenced the creation of the Civil Code
(later called the Code Napoleon). French armies under Moreau, Brune, Murat,
and Macdonald were poised to attack the Austrians following the armistice's
end. On December 3, Moreau decisively defeated the Austrians at Hohenlinden,
later compelling a second armistice. In mid-December, Tsar Paul, angered by
British occupation of Malta, instigated the League of Armed Neutrality with
Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia, excluding British trade from the
Baltic.
On 24 December, a bomb hidden on a cart exploded as
Bonaparte's carriage passed by en route to the opera. Bonaparte was unharmed
but sixty Parisians were killed or injured. In response to this and other
assassination plots, over a hundred Jacobin sympathizers were exiled to
colonies in early January 1801. Fouché, the police minister,
investigated further and discovered that the Opera Plot was the work of
chouan rebels from Brittany. A hundred suspected royalists were
imprisoned.
War with Austria was concluded with the Treaty of
Lunéville (February 1801) which required Austria to recognize the
terms of Campio-Formio under threat of invasion. Only Britain remained at
war with France.
Britain resolved to break the League of Armed
Neutrality, sending a fleet to Copenhagen under the cautious Admiral Hyde
Parker with Nelson as second-in-command. The Danes refused to submit, so
Nelson led his squadron through a shallow channel, bypassing the shore
batteries, to bombard the Danish fleet and the city, disregarding orders to
disengage (April 2). Denmark surrendered. The need to follow this success
with attacks on the Swedish and Russian fleets was avoided when the new Tsar
Alexander (succeeding his murdered father on March 23) sought agreement with
Britain.
In Egypt, a British army initially under Abercromby defeated
the French remnant under Menou at Alexandria (March 21). After his death,
his successors abetted by the Turks harried the French further until the end
of August. In September, the French force agreed to leave Egypt in return
for an unmolested journey to France.
The Addington ministry in Britain
which had succeeded Pitt in February was eager for peace. On October 1,
Britain and France concluded the Preliminary Peace of London, which became
the definitive Treaty of Amiens on March 27, 1802.

Interlude: England
British attitudes to the
American conflict were mixed. Protestant Dissenters and commercial interests
opposed it; King George III thought rebellion "sinful." By the late 1770s,
it had encouraged the formation of several groups pressing for varying
degrees of parliamentary reform. Some minor concessions were passed as the
Catholic Relief Act of 1778. The crazy Lord Gordon founded the Protestant
Association to coerce the Act's repeal, and incited the Gordon Riots (1780)
in London which lasted eight days and cost over three hundred lives. Reform
disappeared from the political agenda for a decade.
The end of the
American war was followed by several short-lived ministries until William
Pitt was successfully elected as prime minister in 1784. Undaunted by the
expanded National Debt, Pitt raised additional revenue through higher taxes.
By reducing import duties, he made legal trade more profitable than
smuggling. The quickening pace of the Industrial Revolution also assisted
Britain's recovery. He sought allies in Europe forming the Triple Alliance
with Prussia and Holland in 1788.
British views on the French
Revolution were divided. The Romantic poets supported it, Thomas Paine
advocated similar changes in Britain, and Edmund Burke denounced it.
Corresponding societies with reform and occasional French agendas appeared.
Public opinion became hostile with Louis XVI's execution and attacks on
Holland. Pitt suppressed the corresponding societies, all of which were
eliminated or underground by 1795.
The expansion of the navy, army
and home militias plus subsidies to continental allies ("Pitt's Gold")
strained the nation, requiring the introduction of income tax in 1798 and
large government loans. Home and colonial defense became the mainstay of
British strategy while Napoleon remained supreme on land.
Pitt
resigned over Catholic emancipation in Ireland and was replaced by Addington
who succumbed to commercial pressures for peace with France. After the
 failure of Amiens, Pitt returned briefly, dying in office in 1806. He was
succeeded in turn by Grenville (1806-7), Bentinck (1807-9), and Perceval
(1809-12).
Commercial demands for peace waned and waxed according
to the markets made available or denied by the shifting coalitions of allies
and foes. Political popularity rose or fell in proportion to military
success abroad. After Perceval's assassination, Lord Liverpool became prime
minister, strengthening Allied unity against Napoleon and promoting the
abolition of the slave trade.

The Peace of
Amiens
The Addington administration in Britain was war-weary and weak,
willing to experiment with peaceful coexistence with Consular France.
Bonaparte needed peace to re-open routes to overseas colonies, restore
trade, and rebuild the French navy. By exploiting the feeble British
government, Bonaparte achieved an advantageous settlement with Britain
returning most of its territorial gains. The Ottoman Empire recovered Egypt,
Holland the Cape of Good Hope, and France Martinique. Britain retained
Ceylon and Trinidad, but was to restore Malta to the Knights of St. John.
France agreed to depart Naples and the Papal States.
While English
visitors flocked to visit France, Bonaparte continued with his diplomacy
with the Vatican, supplementing the original Concordat (agreed in July 1801)
with a series of "Organic Articles" in April 1802. These additions had the
effect of drastically limiting papal authority in France, subordinating the
episcopate to the government, and regulating religious life in detail. The
revised agreement removed the revolutionary persecutions and encouraged the
ordinary clergy to seek guidance from Rome.
In addition to ensuring
the ratification of the peace treaties and the Concordat, Bonaparte had many
other reforms requiring parliamentary assent. In education, the republican
secondary schools proposed in 1795 by the Directory were to be supplanted by
the lycées which would train candidates for civil and military
careers. In law, the Civil Code was now complete. To honor meritorious
service, the Légion d'Honneur was created. Despite opposition,
Bonaparte forced through his program.
Bonaparte's supporters
manipulated the Senate into suggesting a ten-year extension of his
consulship as a reward. This became a life consulship and was duly affirmed
by parliament and a popular referendum in August.
Abroad, Bonaparte's
plans for a new French empire in North America were coming to fruition.
Charles IV of Spain ceded the Louisiana Territory back to France in return
for the wealthy Duchy of Parma and Etruria in Italy in October 1802. The
Americans were frightened by the possible loss of access by their western
settlers to the Mississippi River and New Orleans. President Jefferson
instructed his ministers to either prevent the retrocession or acquire
Louisiana from France. Only the American threat that a French Louisiana
would produce an American alliance with Britain persuaded Talleyrand to
discuss terms. War with Britain was looming, and Bonaparte believed it would
be impossible to protect the Territory and France needed money to finance
the expected war. Louisiana was sold to the United States for twenty-seven
million dollars.
French interventions in Italy, Switzerland and
Holland persuaded the British that Bonaparte intended to adhere (at most) to
the letter of the treaty. Britain delayed relinquishing Malta in
retaliation. War was declared on May 18, 1803.

Interlude: The West Indies

The West Indies
quickly became embroiled in the global conflict of the Revolutionary Wars.
In 1793, Britain seized Tobago and achieved a tentative hold on Haiti, which
was already gripped by multi-sided racial warfare. Admiral Jervis and
General Grey captured the islands of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe
in a three-month campaign in early 1794.
The abolition of slavery
in Haiti increased resistance to the British presence, with ex-slaves such
as Toussaint L'Ouverture becoming military leaders. The Spanish ceded the
remainder of Hispaniola to France in 1795 and the British were driven
out.
During the summer of 1794, Victor Hugues (and his portable
guillotine) arrived in Guadeloupe, retaking it after six months of fighting.
Hugues freed the slaves and liberally executed Royalists and other
opposition. From 1795 to 1797, he encouraged privateers to prey on merchant
shipping, especially neutral American vessels. By instigating slave
uprisings, Hugues recaptured the islands of Grenada, St. Lucia, and St.
Vincent from the British as well as St. Eustatius and St. Martin from the
Dutch.
General Abercromby brought reinforcements from England in
1796, recovering St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent that year. British
expansion in the West Indies continued with the conquest of Trinidad,
Curaçao, and St. Eustatius among others at the expense of France's
allies until the Peace of Amiens. Although the battle casualties were
extremely low, annual outbreaks of yellow fever killed forty thousand
British troops in this period. The French were equally ravaged by
disease.
In 1798, the Directory removed Hugues from Guadeloupe to
prevent his activities causing outright war with the United States. Despite
this, the Americans conducted an undeclared war against French shipping for
four years.
Bonaparte decided to reassert French authority in the
islands in 1801 with the aim of restoring slavery. After a bloody and brutal
struggle, L'Ouverture (who had been Haiti's governor since 1798) was
imprisoned and transported to Europe. News of these events triggered
uprisings in Guadeloupe which were vigorously suppressed by the French. The
Haiti rebellion proved unstoppable and the French evacuated in 1803. After
their departure, racially motivated civil war continued in Haiti.

The Napoleonic Wars

The Emperor and
Trafalgar
British tourists caught in France at the renewal of
hostilities were imprisoned en masse. The Royal Navy seized French
shipping with the Channel Fleet under Vice-Admiral Cornwallis recommencing
their blockade of French ports.
Bonaparte initiated preparations to
invade England. Harbors were improved, flotillas of flat-bottomed armed
transports were constructed, and the Army of England was assembled and
trained at Boulogne. Over the next two years, Bonaparte developed multiple
plans, requiring fleets to break the blockades, rendezvous at various
locations, and shield the invasion force until it landed in England. France
and Spain secretly agreed a military alliance in October
1803.
Royalists led by Cadoubal tried to persuade the republican
General Moreau to overthrow Bonaparte, but the conspiracy was unmasked by
Fouché in February 1804. The plotters were exiled or executed.
Bonaparte became convinced that the Bourbon prince, the Duc d'Enghien,
intended to lead an invasion. He was kidnapped from neutral Strasbourg and
summarily executed to the horror of royal Europe.
Through political
maneuverings in the Senate, Bonaparte's agents were able to propose further
changes to the Life Consulate to ensure its permanency. On May 18, 1804,
Bonaparte was proclaimed Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. On the same day,
William Pitt replaced Addington as British prime minister.
The
British continued to strengthen their coastal defenses and raise militias
regiments. Cornwallis maintained his successful blockade, detaching a small
squadron to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet in September, which
provoked open war with Spain in December.
Napoleon's coronation took
place in the cathedral of Notre Dame on December 2, 1804. Anointed by Pope
Pius VII, Napoleon then crowned himself Emperor.
In March 1805,
Napoleon announced his intention to reconstitute the Italian Republic as a
monarchy with himself as king, precipitating the hostility of the
continental powers. Russia renewed its alliance with England in April, with
Austria and Sweden joining the Third Coalition by August. In response,
Napoleon ordered the Army of England to march east toward
Austria.
Meanwhile Admiral Villeneuve's fleet had escaped from Toulon,
joined with Admiral Gravina's squadron at Cadiz, and sailed to Martinique in
April. Pursued by Nelson, Villeneuve recrossed the Atlantic to the safety of
Cadiz, clashing with Calder off El Ferrol (July 22). In September, Nelson's
new Mediterranean Fleet replaced Calder's squadron blockading Cadiz. On
October 18, Villeneuve ordered the Combined Fleet to sail for Gibraltar.
Three days later, the two fleets fought at Trafalgar in a "pell-mell" battle
planned by Nelson. The British triumphed with nineteen French and Spanish
ships taken or destroyed. The Royal Navy mourned Nelson who was killed by a
sniper's bullet.

What if . . . French
Victory at Trafalgar
 Napoleon was largely responsible for defeat
at Trafalgar. If he had not provoked the British into ending the Peace of
Amiens, then a mere three years of peace would have given him numerical
naval superiority. Time for his sailors to gain sea experience after years
imprisoned in harbors by the British blockades. Time to scatter the
squadrons so that blockading their home ports did not nullify the French
Navy.
If Napoleon had made simpler invasion plans accounting for
weather, rather changing convoluted plans, then the window of opportunity
would have been longer, and his intent to draw off the Channel Fleet
remained secret. The French squadrons would have escaped earlier, the
Channel would have been unguarded, and Britain would have been conquered
before the Austro-Russian alliance threatened the Empire's
rear.
Villeneuve had survived the Battle of the Nile; he knew
Nelson would defeat him. Perhaps if Napoleon's initial choices, Admirals
Latouche-Tréville or de Bruix, had lived, or if Villeneuve had not
been shamed into leaving port before being replaced by Rosily, the fleet
would have been confident in facing Nelson.
Villeneuve predicted
Nelson's plan of attacking from windward, breaking the Franco-Spanish line
and concentrating his ships to annihilate whole squadrons. Villeneuve
intended to keep a squadron to windward of his battle line, able to
reinforce wherever Nelson's attack occurred and be itself reinforced from
the other squadrons. If his captains and crews had been skilful enough to
achieve this configuration, Trafalgar would not have meant French
annihilation. If Rear-Admiral Dumanoir had obeyed Villeneuve's orders to
engage the British, his ships might have prevented defeat.
If the
French had controlled the English Channel long enough for the army to cross,
then victory over the British home forces was certain. Irish uprisings would
have prevented the garrisons there from intervening. Britain's overseas
armies and fleets would be hard to concentrate for a war of liberation,
though easier for piecemeal destruction.
Ireland would have become
an independent republic under survivors of the United Irishmen. Napoleon had
sufficient English admirers to ensure a puppet regime in England, whilst
France acquired its colonies. Without English subsidies and defiance,
Austria and Russia would appease Napoleon from fear. The nineteenth century
would witness the Pax Napoleon in Europe and across the world.

From Austerlitz to Tilsit

Napoleon's enemies were

dispersed with the Archduke Charles in Italy, Archduke Ferdinand heading for
Bavaria, and Kutuzov's Russians lagging far behind. Napoleon advanced his
army through neutral Prussia and surrounded the Austrians under Ferdinand
and Mack at Ulm. Mack was compelled to capitulate on October 20. Kutuzov
began a scorched earth retreat. Prussia joined the coalition in retaliation
for the violation of its neutrality. Napoleon entered defenseless Vienna in
November.
Disturbed by potential national bankruptcy at home and
alarmed that his army was potentially over-extended, Napoleon resolved to
entice the Russians and Austrian remnants into a decisive battle near Brno
before their numbers became overwhelming. The two armies met at Austerlitz.
Using his knowledge of the terrain and exploiting the early morning fog to
cloak his maneuvers, Napoleon's tactical genius confounded the ill-led
Allies, resulting in a crushing victory (December 2). Emperor Francis and
Tsar Alexander fled.
Hasty treaties followed. Austria surrendered
Venetia, Dalmatia, and German territories. Prussia ceded west German lands
in return for British Hanover.
Napoleon spent the early half of 1806
reorganizing the former republics as kingdoms with his brothers as
sovereigns. Next he created the French-sponsored Confederation of the Rhine
from city-states and German provinces. This prompted the Prussians to issue
an ultimatum demanding a French withdrawal west of the Rhine in September.

Napoleon's answer was invasion. On October 14, Napoleon shattered the

Prussians at Jena while General Davout defeated a second army at
Auerstädt. Further victories followed with the French holding Berlin,
Magdeburg and Warsaw by the end of November. Frederick William III fled into
East Prussia.
In a pause in the conflict, Napoleon issued the Decree
of Berlin inaugurating the Continental System closing all European ports to
British commerce. The British retaliated in January 1807 with the
Orders-in-Council restricting neutral nations' trade with France and its
allies.
Napoleon prosecuted the war against Prussia and their Russian
allies with vigor in 1807. Although stalemated at Eylau in February, the
Grand Army regrouped and captured Gdansk in May. Eventually the Russian army
under Bennigsen was trapped and broken at Friedland (June 14). Bennigsen
persuaded the Tsar to make peace with Napoleon.
The two sovereigns met
on a raft in the Niemen River (June 25) with Napoleon captivating the
impressionable Tsar. Napoleon promised to support Alexander against the
Ottoman Empire, while Alexander agreed to declare war against Britain.
Prussia's Polish territories were ceded to Russia and the Grand Duchy of
Warsaw. Napoleon and Alexander parted as friends.

Interlude: The Baltic

Gustav III became Sweden's
king in 1771, increasing his power with a coup against the Swedish
parliament a year later. The Ottoman Empire's war with Russia provided an
opportunity to recover lost Finnish domains in 1788. Aristocratic officers
betrayed the plans and the war foundered. Gustav retaliated by calling a
Diet at which he assumed absolute power and the other estates stripped the
nobility of their privileges. A disgruntled nobleman murdered him in
1792.
His son, the pious Gustav IV, succeeded him. Hostile to the
French Revolution, he censored French literature and pursued financial
economies to avoid a Swedish rebellion. Sweden joined the Third Coalition in
1805, and remained hostile to France despite Russia's defection at Tilsit.
The next year, Sweden battled both Denmark and Russia, losing Finland to the
latter empire.
 In 1809, the generals and ministers deposed Gustav,
who went to Switzerland, and replaced him with the senile Charles XIII and a
new constitution. Initially Christian August, Danish commander of the
Norwegian forces, was proposed as heir. After his death, Swedish officers
sought a Napoleonic marshal as replacement. Napoleon offered Jean-Baptiste
Bernadotte, who renamed himself Charles John and became Sweden's de facto
ruler in 1810.
Bernadotte allied himself with Russia in 1812,
confirming the loss of Finland in return for permission to seize Norway from
Denmark. Swedish forces cautiously assisted the Allies at the Battle of
Leipzig and then advanced against Denmark, forcing it to surrender Norway
under the Treaty of Kiel.
Denmark-Norway was officially ruled by
the crazy Christian VII from 1766 to 1808. Christian's stepmother
effectively governed until 1784 when the sixteen-year old crown prince
Frederick asserted his authority. Denmark's period of peace and prosperity
continued to the century's end. The creation of the League of Armed
Neutrality incurred Britain's hostility. A British squadron under Nelson
bombarded Copenhagen and devastated the Danish fleet in
1801.
Nevertheless Denmark survived and prospered until the Tilsit
treaty. Occupation by either France or Russia looked likely. Instead the
British attacked, hijacking the Danish fleet to prevent its use by France.
Denmark joined the Napoleonic alliance, suffering war with Sweden and
enduring famine in Norway. Frederick VI failed to benefit from Sweden's
dynastic troubles and lost Norway through supporting Napoleon too
long.

The Peninsular War

Despite Napoleon's
threats, Portugal stubbornly resisted joining the Continental System. By the
Treaty of Fontainebleau (1807), Napoleon and Godoy agreed to partition
Portugal. General Junot's army marched through Spain and invaded Portugal.
The British evacuated the Portuguese royal family and navy ahead of Junot's
arrival. Napoleon reinforced Junot occupying northern Spain in the process.
Charles IV's attempt to flee was foiled by a coup d'état in favor of
his son. In the confusion, Napoleon intervened, imprisoned the entire
family, and placed his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne (1808). Madrid
rebelled and was only retaken in December; the juntas relocated to the
provinces and Cadiz.
Britain sent a small expeditionary force under
Arthur Wellesley into Portugal (August 1808) which quickly defeated the
French at Rolica and Vimeiro. Wellesley's overcautious superiors negotiated
the Convention of Cintra whereby Junot's army was repatriated. Wellington
quit in disgust; the generals were replaced by Sir John
Moore.
Napoleon personally led a second Iberian invasion (October
1808) shattering the unready armies of the juntas by November. The French
learned of Moore's position at Salamanca and closed in. Moore began the
winter retreat to Corunna, pursued by Soult and Ney, Napoleon having
returned to Paris. Though Moore died, the British force mostly
escaped.
Wellesley returned with a second army to Lisbon in April
1809, defeating Soult at Oporto by ferrying troops across the Douro. He
advanced on Victor's army, defeating them in a defensive battle at Talavera
(July). Wellesley, now Viscount Wellington, withdrew to Portugal, and began
the secret construction of the Lines of Torres Vedras, north of Lisbon.

Soult and Masséna led new French armies into the peninsula
during 1810. Wellington inflicted further defeats on them, but gradually
withdrew into Portugal and behind the Lines of Torres Vedras. Masséna
halted at the fortifications (October) and suffered greatly during the
winter, departing Portugal in March. Barely triumphing over Masséna at
Fuentes de Oñoro (May), Wellington had to retreat to Portugal to
preserve his troops.
During 1812, Wellington began his offensive,
besieging and storming the Spanish border fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo
(January) and Badajoz (April). Marmont retreated before Wellington,
maneuvering around Salamanca, where the armies engaged (July 22) and the
French withdrew. Wellington entered Madrid. A drawn-out siege of Burgos and
French consolidation near Madrid necessitated a final withdrawal to
Portugal.
Wellington advanced into Spain next year, outflanking the
French. As French rule collapsed, Joseph and Marshal Jourdan marched north,
but were intercepted at Vitoria (June 21) and routed. The discarded booty
distracted the allied soldiery and the French escaped across the Pyrenees.
Wellington began the invasion of France.
*** Insert map of "The Iberian
Peninsula" from chandler-peninsula.tif ***

Interlude: Portugal
Until King Joseph's death in
1777, his chief minister, the Marquis de Pombal governed Portugal. Although
Pombal promulgated various progressive measures and secured new royal
revenues, his methods created many enemies including the Jesuits and a
number of noble families. He was dismissed after Maria, Joseph's daughter,
inherited the throne. Maria's melancholy disposition intensified following
the death of her husband (1786) and eldest son (1788) and the events of the
French Revolution until she was no longer willing to rule. Prince John ruled
for Maria until the end of her reign in 1816.
Portugal joined the
First Coalition in 1793 against Revolutionary France, remaining a
belligerent even after Spain's defection (1795). During 1801, Spain briefly
invaded in the "War of the Oranges." Portugal forfeited the town of Olivenza
and paid the Spanish a war indemnity. From 1802 to 1807, Portugal was
pressurized to renounce its neutrality but refused.
The advance
of the French under Junot through Spain in October 1807 prompted the
wholesale evacuation of the Portuguese royal family in November. Escorted by
the Royal Navy, the court escaped to Brazil.
Junot's occupation
was short-lived. The British landed in August 1808 with Wellington
triumphing over the French at Rolica and Vimeiro. His superiors negotiated
the Convention of Cintra under which Junot's forces were repatriated. By
 January 1809, a second French invasion compelled a British evacuation.
Wellington led the second British army back to Portugal in April, forcing
the French to retreat into Spain. The third French invasion in 1810 suffered
further defeats and its advance was halted by the "Lines of Torres Vedras,"
extensive fortifications which had been quickly constructed around Lisbon.
The French, broken by the winter, evacuated Portugal in early 1811.

During the war, many British officers and non-commissioned

officers transferred into the Portuguese army. This coupled with the absence
of the royal princes in the country's peril led to jealousy and discontent
which manifested after the war in a forcible recall of John VI (see
Interlude: Colonies in Revolt, p. 00).

The Ongoing War

at Sea
Trafalgar was the last great sea battle of the Napoleonic Wars
but it was not the end of naval warfare. The conflict continued in the West
Indies, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. French privateers continued to
exact a heavy toll on British shipping in all these arenas. Occasionally
French national frigates and even whole squadrons escaped from their
Atlantic ports to indulge in wide-ranging and successful commerce raiding
cruises.
Nevertheless the national fleet was less effective against
the Royal Navy. Admiral Duckworth eliminated Admiral de Leissègues'
squadron off Santo Domingo (1806), which had just completed reinforcing the
garrison. Three ships-of-the-line were captured, two destroyed, and two
frigates and a corvette escaped. The capture of Dutch Curaçao and
Danish St. Croix by the British and the closure of New Orleans by the
Americans to privateers (1807) limited the danger to
merchantmen.
Admiral Popham and General Baird, leading a relatively
small expedition of seven ships and seven thousand soldiers, captured the
weakly defended Dutch colony of the Cape of Good Hope in January 1806. The
easy success of the Battle of Blueberg inspired Popham to cross the South
Atlantic and attack the Spanish Viceroyalty of La Plata. Finding Montevideo
strongly held, Popham and General Beresford captured Buenos Aires in June. A
Creole insurgency recovered Buenos Aires by August and imprisoned the
British army. General Auchmuty's reinforcements enabled the seizure of
Montevideo in February 1807, but an attempt to retake Buenos Aires through
street-fighting ended in defeat (July). The British departed.
One of
Napoleon's aims after Tilsit was to attain naval supremacy over the British
by acquiring the fleets of Portugal, Denmark, and Sweden. Britain ordered a
preemptive strike with Admiral Gambier's squadron descending on Copenhagen,
bombarding the city and seizing all sixteen Danish ships-of-the-line and
numerous smaller vessels (September 1807).
French Guyana became the
next colonial target. A joint British and Portuguese expedition began the
assault in December 1808 which culminated in January with the fall of
Cayenne. Martinique was overwhelmed by Admiral Cochrane and General Beckwith
in February. A year later, they repeated their success in
Guadeloupe.
From 1803 to 1810, over a hundred British ships were
captured by French frigates and privateers based in Mauritius and
Réunion. The latter island was taken by a small British squadron from
India in July 1810. The British attack on Mauritius ended in disaster with
the Battle of Grand Port. Two frigates ran aground and were blown up; two
were captured. The French won several single-ship frigate actions before a
British fleet ended the Mauritian threat in November.

Interlude: India
When Warren Hastings became
governor of Bengal in 1772, Britain's Indian territories were still the
private fiefs of the Honourable East India Company. Although hamstrung by
opposition in his own councils and bound to a non-aggression policy,
Hastings increasingly had to intervene to preserve the peace and Company
control. A coalition led by Hyder Ali almost overwhelmed the Carnatic in
1780, but Hastings persuaded Hyder's allies to quit and Company troops
defeated him in 1781 and 1782.
Hastings' successor from 1786, Lord
Cornwallis, was forced to battle Hyder's son, Tipu Sultan, who sought
revenge for his father's defeats. After the end of the bloody and prolonged
Third Mysore War (1790-1792), half of Tipu's kingdom was annexed by
Cornwallis.
During his governorship (1798-1805), Richard Wellesley
(brother to the Duke of Wellington) was ordered to defend India against
French depredations. His method was to attack potential French allies first.
The first blow fell on Mysore where Tipu was known to be receiving French
envoys. The British stormed his capital (Seringapatam) in May 1799 and Tipu
died in the assault. The Mysore lands were granted to allied native
rulers.
Wellesley peacefully annexed a number of Carnatic
territories by buying off the new legal rulers with pensions. Force was used
to seize half of Avadh in northern India when the previous ruler objected to
this treatment of his heir.
Strife among the Maratha Confederacy
compelled the peshwa to appeal for British support. This took the form of
troops stationed at Pune making Baji Rao II dependent on his British allies.
The Sindhia and Bhonsle clans objected and initiated the Second Maratha War.
The British won four major battles over the clans at Assaye (1803) and
Argaon under Wellington and at Laswari and Delhi under Lake. The Holkar clan
organized a Maratha resurgence, besieging the British forces in Delhi.
Although the Holkars were finally defeated, this reverse provoked the recall
to England of Wellesley.
The next governor-general, Lord Minto,
consolidated British power and sought alliances with the Afghans, Persia,
and the Punjab against potential French attacks after Napoleon's Tilsit
treaty with Russia.

*** Insert map of "Europe in 1810" using

rothenburg-europe1810.tif ***

The Retreat from

Moscow
Napoleon's return to Paris in January 1809 halted the
treacherous plotting of Fouché and Talleyrand, but did not forestall
an Austrian declaration of war. April saw Napoleon engage the Austrians
inconclusively in Bavaria, entering Vienna in mid-May. A pontoon bridge
enabled his troops to cross the Danube only to be checked by Archduke
Charles at Aspern-Essling (May). Rather than pressing the attack, Charles
regrouped at Wagram. Napoleon summoned reinforcements and pounced on Charles
(July 5-6), winning with heavy casualties. The Austrians made peace, paid a
huge indemnity, and surrendered much territory.
Desperate to found a
dynasty and rebuffed by the Tsar's sisters, Napoleon sought out
Marie-Louise, daughter of Francis II, as a new wife. Assisted by the
Austrian Ambassador Metternich, his suit was successful, Empress Josephine
was divorced, and Napoleon married Marie-Louise in March 1810. Distracted by
his new consort and his son Napoleon II (born 1811), the Emperor
concentrated on pleasure and internal affairs, leaving the Peninsular War to
his marshals.
Alexander's war against Britain following Tilsit had
been singularly ineffective and inactive; his flouting of the Continental
System was by 1811 blatant. Against advice, Napoleon began preparing his
Grand Army of over six hundred thousand troops from November. The vast army
crossed the frontier in June 1812, taking Vilna and Vitebsk, while the
Russians retreated to Smolensk. Napoleon refused the opportunity to make
peace with Alexander, pressing on, despite extreme cavalry horse losses
reducing the quality of reconnaissance. The Russians retreated further.
Napoleon's depleted army of over one hundred thousand eventually caught them
at Borodino (September 7). Napoleon's tactics were lackluster, refusing to
commit the Imperial Guard to finish off the Russians. Thus Borodino was
inconclusive and the Russian army withdrew to safety. Napoleon entered
unguarded Moscow on September 14.
While Napoleon waited on Alexander
sending envoys to make peace, Moscow was razed by Russian agents. The Tsar
waited while the Grand Army began to suffer from lack of shelter and
supplies. On October 18, Napoleon decided to evacuate Moscow. Harried by
Cossack cavalry who almost captured Napoleon, the Grand Army was prevented
by Kutuzov's Russians from retreating via the fertile Kaluga region. Instead
Napoleon had to return via the Smolensk route, while the Russians captured
supply depots at Vitebsk and Minsk. Kutuzov's attempt to crush the French at
the still unfrozen Beresina river was foiled by their engineers constructing
pontoon bridges. The remnant hastened westward in the harsh November and
December weather. Napoleon himself fled for Paris incognito on December
5.

Interlude: Russia
Catherine II,
having succeeded her murdered husband in 1762, presided over the expansion
of Russia. New lands by the Black Sea, in the Crimea, and the steppes were
acquired in the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1774 and 1787-1792.

As a diversion from involvement in the Ottoman Empire's seething

Balkan provinces, Catherine assented to the First Partition of Poland
 (1772-1773) gaining Belorussia from the arrangement. A later political
renaissance in Poland alarmed Russia, Austria and Prussia sufficiently to
agree to the Second and Third Partitions in 1792 and
1795.
Catherine reorganized the empire into provinces according to
strategic military requirements with governors appointed to each district
and narrow franchises supplying elected administrators. Attempts to persuade
the nobility to modernize agricultural and other production on their estates
worsened the conditions of the serfs leading to revolts such as Pugachov's
peasant and Cossack rebellion which captured a number of cities during
1773-4 before being finally suppressed.
Catherine died in 1796 and
was succeeded by her son Paul I, who replaced the enlightened autocratic
rule of his mother with a militaristic regime. The administrative structures
created by Catherine were ignored in favor of direct governance by himself
and his coterie of supporters. He angered the provincial nobility by
regulating the conditions of their serfs. Then he provoked the court through
his attempts to protect Russian society from the influences of the French
Revolution, which he detested, by restricting foreign travel and outlawing
all cultural imports from abroad. A joint conspiracy of the court and the
military murdered him in March 1801.
His son, Alexander I, made
peace immediately with France, Britain and Austria. The War of the Third
Coalition witnessed Russian defeat at Austerlitz and the Napoleonic advance
through the Russian-ruled territories of former Poland to the borders of
Russia. Persuaded to treat with Napoleon, the impressionable Alexander
initially agreed to a number of joint ventures at Tilsit, but reneged once
away from Napoleon's charisma.
Between Tilsit and Napoleon's
invasion in 1812, Alexander contented himself with acquiring Finland and
reforming the empire's internal administration. The repulse of the invasion
and Russian involvement in Napoleon's defeat led Alexander to promote ideas
of a "Holy Alliance" to defend international peace from 1815 onward.

Downfall of the Emperor

Napoleon's return forced

opponents of his regime underground, but it was clear to France that the
Emperor was no longer invincible. While Napoleon ordered the raising of a
third of million new troops, the Russian army moved west and former foes and
neutrals started rearming. Sweden and Prussia declared war on France.
Austria proclaimed neutrality.
Napoleon commenced the
counter-offensive, winning modest hard-fought victories over the squabbling
allies in Germany in April and May 1813. British subsidies encouraged a
dozen minor states to declare against the French. Austria itself declared
war in August. The Allies agreed to the Trachtenberg Plan where all Allied
armies would refuse direct battle with Napoleon, withdrawing instead to
allow the others to attack Napoleon's flanks.
Although Napoleon
captured Dresden, his marshals suffered reversals elsewhere, and he was
unable to advance in force on Berlin (September). Abandoning Dresden on
October 7, he tried to withdraw to Leipzig but was cornered by Allied troops
outside the city. The fighting lasted from October 16 to 19 with Allied
reinforcements arriving each day. Napoleon retreated, yielding Germany east
of the Rhine to the Allies, whose exhaustion prevented an immediate invasion
of France. Meanwhile Wellington crossed the Pyrenees, defeating Soult at the
river Nivelle and Bayonne. Holland rose against the French, expelling the
imperial administration. Napoleon's treaty restoring Ferdinand VII was
contemptuously ignored by the Spanish juntas.
Metternich, desiring to
prevent Russian dominance in Europe, offered Napoleon peace based on
France's "natural" frontiers (the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Rhine).
Napoleon refused. As the Allies crossed the Rhine in 1813, Napoleon raised a
new army of conscripts and won a series of swift victories over the divided
Allied units as they converged on Paris. Again he was offered peace, this
time based on the 1792 borders; again he refused.
The Allied monarchs
(Alexander, Francis, and Frederick William) with Castlereagh acting for
Britain agreed that the war should be prosecuted until Napoleon's overthrow.
In a last victory, Napoleon swept the Allies out of Rheims in March.

Learning that Paris was undefended and unfortified, combined

Prussians and Russian forces dashed for the capital. Napoleon's generals
demanded that the Emperor defend Paris rather than attack the Allied rear.
Marmont surrendered Paris on March 31 after a day of bombardment, while
Napoleon returned to Fontainebleau.
A rump Senate manipulated by
Talleyrand called for the restoration of Louis XVIII. On April 4, Napoleon
attempted to abdicate in favor of his son; two days later he abdicated
unconditionally. Under the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Napoleon accepted exile
as Emperor of Elba.

Interlude:
Prussia
The victories of Frederick the Great in the War of the
Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War raised Prussia to a "Great
Power" in Europe, while participation in the First Partition of Poland added
West Prussia to his dominions. Domestically, Frederick improved education,
promoted learning and extended religious toleration to all his subjects.
However Frederick's triumphs blinded Prussia to the need for further
progress to its detriment in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic
Wars.
Although his nephew, Frederick William II (1786-1797),
expanded Prussia at the expense of Poland in the later partitions, he was
forced to accept France's annexation of German lands west of the Rhine
during the War of the First Coalition. His son, Frederick William III,
succeeded him in 1797 and pursued a policy of neutrality toward France. His
anger at Napoleon's violation of that neutrality during 1805 brought Prussia
into the Third Coalition, too late to help but in time to be overwhelmed by
the French at Jena and Auerstädt.
Prussia was dismembered
at Tilst in 1807, losing most of its Polish acquisitions and the lands west
of the Elbe, accepting French occupation, limiting its regular army to
forty-two thousand troops, and paying a high war indemnity. Only Napoleon's
 desire to seem magnanimous to Alexander prevented the settlement from being
much worse.
Temporarily eliminated as a continental power, Karl
Stein, the chief minister, introduced reforms in every sphere of Prussian
life to renew the citizenry's allegiance to the kingdom. Serfdom was
abolished, local and national administration restructured, and the military
reconstructed as professional cadres supported by large reserves of trained
"citizen-soldiers."
Napoleon compelled Stein's removal in 1808,
but his successors including the chancellor Karl von Hardenburg proceeded
undeterred with the reforms, tapping into the nationalism aroused in the
German lands in reaction to Napoleonic control.
Coerced into
supporting Napoleon's Russian campaign, Napoleon's retreat from Moscow
emboldened Prussian patriots against France and persuaded the hesitant
Frederick William to heed the advice of his generals. Prussia joined the new
alliance, sending eighty thousand soldiers to fight in the German War of
Liberation. In return, Prussia received new lands in Saxony, the Rhineland,
and Pomerania at the Congress of Vienna.

The War of
1812
President Madison threatened both Britain and France with war if
they failed to end their harassment of American ships bound to the other
country. Napoleon, lacking sea power, acquiesced. Britain continued to
enforce its Orders in Council and impressing of American sailors. Tension
mounted further after the battle of Tippecanoe (1811) between Western
settlers and Shawnee Native Americans armed by British Canada. Southerners
and Westerners added the conquest of Canada to the aims of free trade and
sailors' rights. New England opposed the conflict.
On May 11 1812, the
British prime minister Spencer Perceval was murdered by a lunatic. The
disruption prevented the revocation of the Orders in Council occurring in
time for the news to reach America before Madison's declaration of war on
June 18.

The Defense of Canada

Three attempts to invade

Canada during 1812 failed miserably. The British retaliated capturing Fort
Dearborn and Detroit. Generals Dearborn and Scott seized York (later
Toronto) and Fort George respectively from the British.
At sea,
American frigates won several single-ship actions against British frigates
and privateers hunted British merchantmen even in the English Channel. The
British blockaded the American coast.
Both sides strove for control of
the Great Lakes. A British naval victory by Commodore Yeo on Lake Ontario in
May 1813 was lost when General Prevost signaled an early recall. The
American Captain Perry's victory on Lake Erie in September allowed the
Americans to recapture Detroit and defeat a joint British-Indian army at the
Thames in October. A British invasion via Lake Champlain was defeated by an
American nautical victory and the precipitate retreat of Prevost.
The
end of European conflict in 1814 allowed the British to open new fronts in
Maine, the Chesapeake and the Gulf coast. General Ross landed at Benedict,
defeated an American army at Bladensburg, and then entered an undefended
Washington on August 24. (Madison barely escaped). Washington was then
burned in revenge for the firing of Toronto.

The Battle of New

Orleans
America and Britain made peace at Ghent on December 24, 1814.
However the news did not reach America in time to prevent the Battle of New
Orleans. A fleet under Admiral Cochrane had landed a British army in
Louisiana during early December. The British advance on New Orleans was
resisted by American militia while General Jackson fortified the city. On
January 8, 1815, General Pakenham ordered a frontal assault on the American
defenses. Thirty minutes and three thousand casualties later, the British
withdrew. The Americans felt they had won a second war of
independence.

Interlude: The Infant

Republic
By 1786, the unity of the States forged in war was
disintegrating. The independent states seemed set to coalesce into several
republics with divergent interests which could only lead to an all-American
war. The Philadelphia Convention of 1787 proposed a national solution of a
confederation of states united as a single nation and governed by an
executive president and two legislative assemblies -- the Senate and
the House of Representatives. A year later, this "Virginia Plan" and its
constitution had been accepted by all the states.
George
Washington was the unanimous choice of the electoral college for the
nation's first president. His two terms in office saw regional and political
differences emerge over the national and international crises of the period.
His Treasury minister, Alexander Hamilton, created a "national debt" to pay
off the war loans and bind the nation to the federal authority. The southern
states opposed this creation, having cancelled their outstanding debts, and
were only mollified by moving the proposed new capital to a more southerly
location! The armed suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion against liquor
taxes augured a dictatorship to some. Democrat-Republicans supported France
after its revolution; Federalists supported Britain for the economy's sake.
The Jay Treaty of 1794 acknowledged British naval supremacy in return for
land concessions and trading privileges.
John Adams became
President in 1796. Despite French hostility at the Jay Treaty leading to
Hugues's encouragement of commerce raiding on American shipping, Adams
prevented outright war against France. Although Thomas Jefferson was elected
president on an anti-Federalist mandate in 1800, his two terms witnessed the
expansion of the United States by the opportunistic Louisiana Purchase in
1803 and the preservation of the nation against separatist movements in New
England and the West.
 Jefferson's attempts to maintain American
neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars were sorely tried by French and
British regulations on maritime trade. In retaliation, he imposed an embargo
in 1807 on all exports to both belligerents in the hope of restoring free
trade. The result was financial disaster in mercantile New England. James
Madison, who was elected president in 1808, repealed the law in 1809.

The Hundred Days

Escape from Elba

On April 20,
1814, Napoleon and six hundred members of the Old Guard departed France for
the Isle of Elba, arriving on May 4. On the previous day, Louis XVIII
entered Paris.
In France, the uncharismatic obese Louis XVIII quickly
disenchanted his subjects. The army was reduced in size with thousands of
officers immediately discharged. The remaining commands were given to
Royalist courtiers. The Legion d'Honneur was lavishly distributed to the
undeserving. The peasantry became anxious that the returning
émigrés would recover lands and feudal rights lost in the
Revolution.
Across Europe, the armies demobilized and the politicians
met in Vienna under the chairmanship of Metternich to determine Europe's
future. British attention turned to the American war.
On Elba,
Napoleon explored the island and drew up various plans for its improvement.
He was joined by his mother and sister Pauline, and temporarily by his
Polish mistress, Marie Waleska, and their illegitimate son, Alexandre.
Empress Josephine died in Paris in May. Marie-Louise was created Duchess of
Parma by her father and seduced by Count Neipperg on Metternich's orders.
Despite Napoleon's pleas, Marie-Louise and his son refused to visit
him.
Rumors reached Napoleon that there were plots to relocate him to
St. Helena or the Azores, and to withdraw his pension. Then a message from
Maret, his former foreign minister, indicated that an uprising against the
Bourbons was likely and that if Napoleon did not return, the Duc
d'Orléans would be its leader.
Colonel Campbell, British
Commissioner for Elba and Napoleon's jailer, sailed for Italy to visit his
mistress on February 16, 1815. Ten days later, Napoleon embarked on the brig
Inconstant, disguised as a British man-of-war. Napoleon with a
thousand Old Guard, Polish lancers, and volunteers sailed for France in a
flotilla of seven ships, evading Campbell in HMS Partridge and
deceiving the French brig Zéphyr as to their intentions. On
March 1, Napoleon and his force landed near Cannes.
Royal troops
rallied to his cause as Napoleon hastened to Paris. Sent to capture him,
Marshal Ney changed sides. Louis XVIII and his court decamped and fled for
Ghent on March 19. Napoleon entered Paris the next day and the Hundred Days
began.
On March 7, the "Great Powers" meeting in Vienna learned that
Napoleon was free and decreed a new coalition against him. The Allies placed
Wellington in supreme command. Wellington left to lead a motley host of
British, Dutch, Hanoverian and Brunswicker troops in Belgium, reaching
Brussels on April 4, being joined by a Prussian army under
Blücher.

Interlude: Colonies in
Revolt
Spain's reforms of its American colonies prior to the
Revolutionary Wars threatened the Creole elite. The later alliance with
France opened the colonies to Anglo-American trade and ideas. However the
overthrow of the Bourbons by Napoleon proved to be the final straw.
Initially juntas were organized to govern the various Spanish territories in
1808 but tensions between Creoles and Peninsular Spaniards encouraged and
transformed the desire for autonomy into independence
movements.
In Mexico, the popular revolt of 1810 led by Hidalgo, a
radical priest, almost became a race war before being partially suppressed
in 1811. The remnants were reorganized by Morelos, another priest, and the
insurgency continued until his death in 1815.
In 1810, Creoles in
Buenos Aires ousted the governor from the Viceroyalty of the Río de la
Plata, creating an unstable government of triumvirates and directorates
which eventually proclaimed independence in 1816. The former viceregal
provinces resisted their rule with the Estado Oriental (later Uruguay),
Paraguay, and Upper Peru (later Bolivia) all repulsing military expeditions.
Chilean independence was restored during 1817 after an invasion across the
Andes.
The Viceroyalty of New Grenada (later Venezuela) declared
independence in 1811. Treachery and an armistice restored Spanish rule in
1812, an invasion led by Bolivar in 1813 vanquished the counter-revolution,
only to be defeated by the irregular cowboy cavalry the year after. Bolivar
escaped to exile, regrouped his forces, and defeated the royalist army near
Bogota in 1819. Proclaimed dictator of Gran Colombia, Bolivar freed
Venezuela in 1821.
In Brazil, the transition to independence was
peaceful. The flight of the Portuguese monarchy from Lisbon to Rio de
Janeiro in 1808 immediately altered the actual status of Brazil. With
fifteen thousand officials, courtiers and hangers-on accompanying Prince
John, Rio became the center of a new administration. The legalization of
trade with all friendly nations increased Brazilian prosperity. The
elevation of Brazil to equal status with Portugal in 1815 merely recognized
an accomplished fact. Nevertheless the Cortes in Portugal became
highly antagonistic to the new Brazilian freedoms and restive at the
monarchy's absence. John VI was compelled to return to Lisbon to preserve
his rule in 1821; his son Pedro was forced to declare Brazil's independence
in 1822 to maintain Braganças rule.

Waterloo

The public enthusiasm for Napoleon quickly

evaporated as it became clear that he had nothing new to offer France. The
army remained supportive. Of his marshals, only Ney, Soult, Mortier, Suchet,
and Davout were willing to follow him. The others had defected, were ill, or
dead.
On June 12, Napoleon departed Paris to take command of the five
corps comprising the Armée du Nord. Soult became Chief of Staff,
Grouchy received the Reserve Cavalry, and Ney was given two corps.

Wellington remained unsure whether Napoleon was aiming for Brussels

via Charleroi or Mons, merely ordering his troops on June 15 to assemble.
Later messengers informed him that the main French thrust was at Charleroi.
The British concentrated at Nivelles and Quatre Bras.
On June 16,
Napoleon engaged Blücher's Prussians at Ligny, mauling his army badly,
without annihilating it. The British rearguard at Quatre Bras had delayed
Ney from reinforcing Napoleon in time. The Prussians retreated to Wavre; the
British withdrew to Mont St. Jean, near Waterloo.
The weather now
prevented Napoleon from pursuing the British as a thunderstorm turned the
land into a muddy quagmire on June 17.
Wellington deployed his troops
behind the crest of a ridge and garrisoned the farms of La Haye Sainte and
Ch<\#137>teau de Hougoumont to reinforce his line. Receiving a promise from
Blücher that he would march in support, Wellington awaited the assault
on June 18.
At eleven o'clock, the French attacked, trying
persistently and unsuccessfully to capture Hougoumont which was held by
Coldstream and Scots Guards. The barrage of artillery on both sides
continued all day. At one o'clock, d'Erlon attacked the British center to be
stopped by Picton's counter-offensive. The British cavalry shattered
d'Erlon's corps but were themselves broken after galloping in range of fresh
French cavalry. From four o'clock to six o'clock, Ney led desperate
unsupported cavalry charges against the British whose infantry squares and
artillery repulsed them. La Haye was then taken by Ney and the British line
seemed ready to break. Napoleon refused to reinforce Ney as the Prussians
arrived and were slowed by Lobau. Wellington strengthened his line with his
reserves. At seven o'clock, Napoleon hurled the Imperial Guard at the
British. The sustained infantry fire drove the Guard back. The Prussians now
entered the battlefield and Wellington ordered a full advance at half-seven.
The French fragments retreated and Napoleon fled to Paris.
On June 22,
Napoleon abdicated again and tried to escape France. On July 8, Louis XVIII
was restored ending the Hundred Days. Two days later, Napoleon surrendered
at Rochefort to the British, and was exiled to St. Helena.

What if . . . A Close Run Thing

In
Wellington's words, Waterloo was "the nearest run thing you ever saw in your
life."
If Ney had broken the British at Quatre Bras quickly, then
he could have reinforced Napoleon at Ligny, defeating the Prussians in
detail. If he had sent d'Erlon's corps to Ligny, rather than not using them
at Quatre Bras, the Prussians would have been eliminated and Grouchy's corps
 would not have been pursuing the Prussians. Napoleon's superior numbers
would have shattered Wellington's army at Waterloo.
If Napoleon
had taken control of tactics at the start of Waterloo, rather permitting Ney
to attack "in the old way" and be "driven off in the old way," then
Napoleon's brilliance at flanking maneuvers would have undone Wellington's
defensive tactics.
If the Ch<\#137>teau de Hougoumont had fallen
early or had been "masked," then Napoleon's reserves would have been intact
for later in the battle. Similarly if Ney had recognized the British
withdrawal over the ridge as Wellington's standard reverse slopes defense
against artillery rather than mistaking it as a general retreat, then Ney's
cavalry would have been saved annihilation.
If Grouchy had
listened to his subordinate's suggestion that he should follow the "sound of
the guns" to Waterloo, then his thirty-three thousand troops could have
stopped Blücher reinforcing Wellington, and avoided Napoleon's
indecision between reinforcing Lobau against the Prussians or sending the
Guard immediately to break the British line.
Wellington said of
Waterloo: "By God! I don't think it would have done if I had not been
there." Had Wellington accepted command of British forces in North America
(to avoid assassins in Paris and break the stalemate), his ingenuity might
have found a solution to achieve a victory in the War of 1812, but lesser
commanders would have been faced with Napoleon. A stray cannonball killing
Wellington rather than his aides would have demoralized the British and
ensured defeat of his merely competent replacements. Had Blücher been
killed at Ligny, the Prussians would not have hurried to Waterloo. The
Napoleonic legend would have died at Waterloo if Wellington had not
forbidden a British gunner from firing at Napoleon directly.
If
Napoleon had won Waterloo, his next task would be to defeat the second
British army returning from America, the Austrians and the Russians in three
further battles of annihilation before any of them reached Paris. Alexander
would have retreated. Metternich would have made peace. Britain would fight
until war weariness ended the struggle or Napoleon's unpopularity at home
produced a successful coup.

Aftermath
The New

World Order

The Treaties of Paris

After secret negotiations

prior to Napoleon's first abdication, Talleyrand persuaded the delegates of
the soon-to-be victorious Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia that a
Bourbon restoration was essential to the peace of Europe. By the first
Treaty of Paris (May 1814), France was granted the borders of 1792, but
compelled to cede Saint Lucia, Tobago, Malta, and Mauritius to Britain and
recognize the independence of the Low Countries, German, Swiss and Italian
states. The European states were required to send representatives to a peace
congress to be held in Vienna.
Following Napoleon's second abdication,
an amended Treaty of Paris (November 1815) stripped France of territories in
Flanders, Alsace and Savoy and required the payment of a seven hundred
million franc war indemnity. An army of occupation was to remain on French
soil for up to five years at French expense. (In 1818, Wellington was
instrumental in persuading the other powers to disband this army
early.)

The Congress of Vienna

The Congress itself met in

Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815. Every European state, both major
and minor, sent representatives, but it was the big four of Austria,
Britain, Prussia and Russia who dominated the proceedings. Talleyrand's
manipulations added Bourbon France to the big four. Thus the five Great
Powers redrew the map of Europe.
Russian and Prussian demands for
Polish and Saxon territory respectively almost ended the congress in
acrimony in December as neither Austria nor Britain could stomach them.
Talleyrand intervened on January 3, suggesting a "secret" defensive alliance
of Austria, Bourbon France and Britain to resist Russo-Prussian policies by
force. Prussia and Russia suddenly compromised and continental war was
averted.
Poland was dismantled again with Galicia restored to Austria
and Thorn granted to Prussia. The remainder of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw
became a separate kingdom within the Russian empire. Lombardy, Tirol, Venice
and Dalmatia were ceded to Austria. Prussia gained large chunks of Saxony,
Westphalia and the Rhineland.
In the German lands of the vanished Holy
Roman Empire, Baden, Bavaria, Hanover and Württemberg expanded. A
loose confederation under Austrian chairmanship was created to administer
the patchwork of German states.
Elsewhere, Norway was ceded to Sweden,
the Swiss confederation was restored, and a new United Kingdom of the
Netherlands formed, comprising Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. In Italy,
Genoa was added to Piedmont; Modena, Parma and Tuscany became Austrian
satellites. The Papal States were restored to the Pontiff. After Murat's
attempt at returning to the Napoleonic fold during the Hundred Days,
Ferdinand I of Sicily regained Naples.
The British surrendered many of
their colonial captures at Vienna to their original possessors, including
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, and parts of French Guyana to France,
and Java to Holland. However Britain retained ownership of Ceylon and the
Cape of Good Hope as well as the territories ceded under the first treaty of
Paris. The British Empire had doubled in size since 1792 and was ready for
its role as a superpower during the later nineteenth century.
On June
9, 1815, the "Final Act" of the Congress of Vienna was signed in advance of
Napoleon's defeat, instituting the new world order.
*** Insert map of
"Europe after the Congress of Vienna" from rothenburg-europe1815.tif
***
 Interlude: The Ottoman Empire
The
Ottoman Empire's incursion into the heart of Europe during the seventeenth
century was revenged by Austria, Russia, and Venice during the eighteenth
century in a series of intermittent wars. The Empire lost Hungary to
Austria, Black Sea territories to Russia, and experienced rebellious
stirrings among its non-Muslim European subjects.
Initial attempts
to restore imperial power began with Sultan Abdülhamid I who ruled
from 1774 to 1789. He ordered the construction of a modern navy to replace
the fleet annihilated by the Russians in 1770 during the 1768-74 war. His
successor, Selim III, continued Abdülhamid's policy of forming special
army units trained by Westerners, taking advantage of the European nations'
desires to form alliances with Constantinople. However Janissary opposition
limited the total number of soldiers who received modern
instruction.
Trouble simmered throughout the Ottoman dominions as
the powerful appropriated more of the sultan's authority. Meanwhile
traditional forces proved unable to defeat Napoleon's Egyptian invasion in
1798 and Selim was forced to rely on British and Russian assistance to expel
the French. Agitators from France, Austria, and Russia incited uprisings in
the Balkans, leading to the Serbian rebellion of Karageorge in 1804 against
their Janissary overlords. This quickly became a war of independence with
Serbia remaining largely autonomous until Russia hastily made peace with the
Empire in 1812 and Serbia was overwhelmed.
Selim III was
overthrown in a palace revolution in 1807 in reaction to his Francophile
policies. Initially imprisoned, he was strangled by the orders of his
successor Mustafa IV to forestall a restoration by the reformers (1808).
Mustafa's brother deposed him on the same day to become Sultan Mahmud
II.
Even as the provinces ignored the Sultan's decrees, Selim's
alliance with Napoleon provoked the Russian invasion of Moldavia and
Walachia in 1806 and the unsuccessful British assaults on the Dardanelles
and Egypt in 1807. Napoleon's repudiation of his Ottoman allies in favor of
cooperation with Russia left the Empire dangerously isolated.
The
changing coalitions against Napoleon restored peace with Britain in 1809 and
Russia in 1812, allowing the Sultan to concentrate on the internal problems
of the Empire.

Death of an Emperor

Although
Napoleon had appealed to the Prince Regent for refuge in England when he
surrendered to the Royal Navy, the Allies were intent on ensuring that the
deposed Emperor would be unable to threaten the peace of the world again.
Louis XVIII was unwilling and unable to execute Napoleon; the other Powers
desired Britain to secure him. The British feared the mischief that Napoleon
might achieve through his charisma on the Prince Regent and the compassion
he might arouse in the populace at large. It was resolved to exile him to
the remote British-held island of St. Helena, travelling as a prisoner on
board HMS Northumberland.
From his arrival on St. Helena to his
death, Napoleon lived in the colonial villa of Longwood in the company of
four friends, three of whom were former generals, who had agreed to
accompany him into exile. He spent his captivity looking out to sea,
reading, writing his memoirs, learning English, and holding formal evening
gatherings with his friends. Occasionally ships would call at St Helena and
the curious might gain an audience with the Emperor, if he so willed and
Napoleon's jailer consented.
Admiral Cockburn was Napoleon's first
jailer. Initially unsympathetic, Napoleon's patience and reluctance to make
trouble softened him. Cockburn was replaced by the tactless Colonel Hudson
Lowe, who scrupulously enforced his captivity, increased the guard on
Longwood, and imposed new petty restrictions on Napoleon and his entourage.
He also annoyed Napoleon by never looking him in the eye.
At the end
of 1817, Napoleon first became ill with a stomach ulcer or cancer. From the
beginning of 1821, the illness worsened swiftly. From March, he was confined
to his bed.
On May 5, 1821, Napoleon died. His body was dressed in the
uniform of the Chasseurs, placed in a series of coffins, and buried in the
Rupert Valley of St. Helena on May 7.
Thus ended the Age of Napoleon.

What if . . . Escape from St.

Helena
It would have been better to have avoided St. Helena
entirely. When Napoleon fled to Rochefort, two French frigates were ready to
take him to safety. If Napoleon had chosen to run the British blockade, he
would have found sanctuary in the United States so soon after the War of
1812. No European power would have dared attack America to capture one
prisoner. Secure in America, the opportunities to foment rebellion among the
French population of Canada or Louisiana might have led eventually to open
revolt and a new empire encircling the United States whose survival would
require rejoining the British Empire.
If Napoleon had met the
Prince Regent, the two would have become friends. While Napoleon might have
lived quietly, Irish rebels, unrepentant Scottish Jacobites and admirers
such as Byron would have persuaded him to interfere in the social unrest of
England to further their own ends. The general public would have been
charmed. Supported by Imperial Guard veterans and British allies, the
Hanoverian dynasty and the government would have fallen to a "whiff of
grapeshot." Even if Napoleon was overthrown later, the distraction of
recovering Ireland or Scotland might have cost England its overseas empire
to other powers.
At St. Helena, Longwood was guarded by one
hundred and twenty-five sentries in the day and seventy-five at night. In
total, 2,280 soldiers (including five hundred officers) guarded the island
and two brigs patrolled the offshore waters. Nevertheless Admiral Lord
Cochrane, now serving with the Chilean navy, was ready to liberate him in
1820 to lead the South American rebellions against Spain. When his
subordinate arrived in 1821, Napoleon was already dying. If Napoleon had
taken more exercise rather than refusing to walk accompanied by a British
officer, perhaps his health would have been better.
Freed by
Cochrane, Napoleon would have befriended the leaders of the revolution. With
marshals such as Bolivar, O'Higgins and San Martin to advise him of local
conditions and finally an effective admiral, Spanish South America would
fall, Mexico would succumb to Napoleonic veterans from Louisiana, and a new
superstate would be created, perhaps a United States of South America,
perhaps Napoleon's American Empire.
NATIONS
*** Insert a map of "The Known World" using Either
rude-world.tif OR cassell-worldwest1812.tif plus cassell-worldeast1812.tif
***

Europe
*** Insert a map of "Europe in 1789" using
rothenburg-europe1789.tif ***

Great Britain

Though Great
Britain remained a monarchy, Parliamentary power had increased throughout
the reigns of George I and II, requiring George III to rule in partnership
with a cabinet of ministers chosen from the hereditary House of Lords (which
included all titled English nobles and Anglican bishops) and the elected
House of Commons. The franchise was restricted to the 400,000 commoners (out
of nine million inhabitants) who met the forty-shilling freehold or freeman
status qualifications. England returned some 489 Members of Parliament, of
whom eighty were "County" members (owing their election to the local
nobility) and the rest were Borough members, representing smaller
constituencies. Each county and borough elected at least two representatives
as did the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. The Borough MPs included
lawyers, merchants, ship-owners and serving military officers; some seats
were "managed" as pocket boroughs. As voting was public, corruption and
coercion were frequent. Prospective candidates were required to own land
worth œ300 or œ600 pounds per annum to be eligible to represent borough or
county constituencies respectively.
Until 1784, George III's
ministries were drawn from aristocratic families rather than from political
parties. Thereafter Tory and Whig factions reemerged: the Tories represented
the rural gentry, the mercantile classes, and bureaucracy, while the Whigs
represented reformers, dissenters, and industrialists.
The King
appointed lords lieutenant to maintain law and order, and organize wartime
defense in the counties. They appointed unsalaried local deputy lieutenants
and justices of the peace from the squirearchy and merchants, who gained
status and influence from the posts.
England was beginning an
agricultural and industrial revolution. Agricultural experiments with new
crops and crop rotations, enclosure and animal breeding on private estates
had increased yields tenfold. Other landowners followed suit, promoting
Enclosure Acts through Parliament to acquire village common lands. The
poorest peasants had to choose between becoming permanent laborers or
emigration to the industrial towns.
By 1800, there were over fifty
towns with more than ten thousand residents -- Birmingham had reached
45,000, Liverpool 78,000 and Manchester 84,000. The industries which
encouraged this urban explosion varied considerably: textile mills
(Lancashire), pottery (Staffordshire), iron and steel foundries (Sheffield),
mining (Durham and Newcastle), shoemaking (Northampton), and hosiery
(Leicester and Nottingham). Mechanization entered manufacturing in fits and
starts: the water-powered spinning machine was adopted in 1769, but it was
thirty years later before the arrival of the powered weaving loom rendered
another group of semi-skilled workers redundant.
The factory workers
were poorly paid, employed in unhealthy and dangerous conditions, and housed
in slums. However for the prosperous, the growing towns became ever more
pleasant, with better water supplies and fire prevention measures, elegant
architecture, and cultural diversions such as theatres, libraries, and
coffeehouses.
A burgeoning canal system and an improving road network
provided England with an effective inland transport system. Meanwhile the
great ports of London, Bristol, Hull and Liverpool continued to attract more
of the world's maritime commerce thanks to British naval supremacy and an
expanding colonial and trading empire. By 1790, there were more than 9,000
British merchant ships at sea.
Daily newspapers had existed in London
since 1702. By 1780, there were 158 newspapers and periodicals being
published throughout England. The newspapers were usually single large
sheets, printed on both sides and folded once to make four pages. The
content of the provincial publications drew heavily on the popular London
newspapers. Popular periodicals such as The Spectator sold twenty
thousand copies per issue, but circulation remained low for most newspapers
until the invention of the stream-press in 1814. As these ephemeral
publications were relatively expensive, copies were normally shared or hired
in coffeehouses. Press freedom, controversial journalists, and cruel
caricaturists ensured that political and military news as well as society
scandal and gossip propagated beyond the ruling elite, producing an
informed, if frequently biased, reading public.

London
London was the largest city in all of
Europe with between 750,000 and one million residents. As seat of
government, home of the monarchy, center for commerce and finance, and the
principal British port, it was growing rapidly and haphazardly. Cramped
houses formed narrow streets darkened by overhanging shop signs. Carriages
jostled to make headway through the bustling throngs of noisy pedestrians.
Despite regular Paving Acts to improve the state of the streets, filth was
still slopped down the central gutters of the cobbled roads. Public
drunkenness and whoring were less common but the streets remained dangerous
with brawls frequent and footpads prowling at night. The city lacked a
police force throughout the period.
Shops were plentiful and
opulent with wares publicly displayed in the windows. Customers were advised
not to haggle in the better shops as the shopkeepers increasingly adopted
fixed prices and refused to sell their goods for less. Hordes of
street-sellers hawked fruit, vegetables and other produce.
London
boasted thousands of alehouses and coffee-houses. Some of the latter had
specialized clienteles such as Almack's habituated by gamblers, Peele's, St
James', and the Turk's Head which catered for writers and wits, and White's
which attracted sportsmen. The Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres could
 each seat rowdy audiences of several thousand. During cold winters when the
Thames froze, frost fairs were held on the river. The last was held during
the 1813-14 winter. Afterward the old London Bridge was demolished and the
freer flowing Thames failed to freeze.
*

Scotland

The immediate effects of the Act of Union

between England and Scotland had been to worsen conditions for Scotland,
lending encouragement to the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 ("the Fifteen") and
1745 ("the Forty-five"). The power of the clan system had been broken after
the Forty-five with severe penalties being levied on any Scots who bore arms
or wore clan plaid or kilts. These laws were finally repealed in 1782.

As the Highlander nobles became mere proprietors and large-scale

sheep farmers, clansmen drifted into crofting, fishing, and the army.
Thousands emigrated to America. (Later many took the "high road" to
England.) The vain hopes of a Jacobite restoration continued to stir the
clans even into the 1770s, though the self-styled James III of England (and
VIII of Scotland) had died in 1766. His elder son, Charles Edward Stuart
("Bonnie Prince Charlie" or Charles III), died in 1788.His younger son (the
soi-disant Henry IX) became Cardinal York, dying in 1807, and ending
the legitimate Stuart bloodline.
The later eighteenth century saw
"North Britain" (as the English styled Scotland) benefit from better roads
and increasing industrialization. Until American independence, the tobacco
trade created many fortunes in Glasgow. After a brief slump, the linen and
cotton industries became the Clyde Valley's largest
employers.
Scotland's 1,600,000 people were represented by a mere
forty-five Members of Parliament (thirty county MPs and fifteen representing
its sixty-five royal burghs) and sixteen peers in the House of Lords.
However as there were only three thousand actual voters (1788), manipulating
the Scottish elections was easy and the Scottish bloc vote in the House of
Commons was at the ministry's call. The Scots were sympathetic to the
American Revolution and advocated a widening of the franchise after the
French Revolution.

Wales

Wales remained stolidly rural with a

population of 600,000 (1800) and no towns larger than 7,000 inhabitants.
Wales elected thirty-two Members of Parliament; local government was
dominated by the gentry who served as Justices of the Peace and county
sheriffs. The richest aristocrats in Wales were actually English peers whose
main estates were in England. The Welsh nobility and gentry were not as rich
as their English counterparts, but the social gulf between them and their
tenants was much wider. Tenancies lasted for "three lives" or twenty-one
years. Owing to absenteeism among the landlords, estate stewards became
powerful intermediaries. Successful stewards eventually became lesser gentry
themselves.
Enclosure of land in the 1790s led to gradual agricultural
improvements and local unrest. This coincided with extensive canal building
by private entrepreneurs who recouped their investments through tolls.
Previously the poor Welsh roads had made sea trade important. The new canals
boosted the Welsh wool, leather, and mining industries, increasing exports
of coal, copper, iron, lead, and tin.

Ireland

"John Bull's
other island," as Ireland was sometimes styled, was treated by England as
another unruly colony rather than as part of Britain proper. It had been
finally conquered by the English following the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688
and William III's defeat of James II at the Boyne (1690). As the
Catholicized Norman and native nobility emigrated to Europe with their
retainers, they were replaced with a Protestant Ascendancy subscribing to
the established Church of Ireland, ruling over the 85% Catholic majority and
the dissenting Presbyterians in Ulster.
Ireland's population rose from
2,700,000 (1771) to 4,200,000 (1791). Most lived in the countryside, farming
potatoes or flax and weaving linen. Despite the efforts of English merchants
to exert Parliamentary influence at Westminster to break Irish commerce,
trade with America flourished from the western ports of Cork, Galway,
Limerick and Londonderry, and smugglers exported Cork silver and Waterford
glass to Europe.
Though some Ascendancy nobles were absentee landlords
financing a life in England through Irish rents, the rest had become
Anglo-Irish and sought a more equal relationship with England. Though
hopelessly corrupt (two-thirds of the seats were "rotten boroughs"),
Grattan's short-lived Parliament achieved some commercial concessions.
Ireland was still governed from Dublin Castle by the Viceroy and his
ministers. Irish legislation required the assent of both viceroy and
King.
Dublin itself was the second largest city in Britain with
Ascendancy wealth rejuvenating its architecture. Parklands such as St
Stephen's Green and Phoenix Park remained intact. Dublin was home to
Ireland's sole university, Trinity College, established by Queen Elizabeth I
for the education of Anglicans, and matched in quality only by Edinburgh.
Philosophical, agricultural improvement, and cultural societies flourished.
The popularity of the faked Ossian poems and authentic translations
from the Gaelic led to harps appearing in Ascendancy homes. Nevertheless
poets such as Oliver Goldsmith sought fame and fortune in England.

Irish cities and towns were mostly populated by workers and beggars,
leavened by a small middle class. In the countryside, most farmers leased
their land under the conacre system, growing potatoes for themselves and
managing grain and cattle for the landlord. Dwelling in mud cottages with
their livestock, these Gaelic-speaking tenants subsisted on potatoes and
skimmed milk. The short leases (eleven months outside of Ulster) denied the
peasantry any security of land tenure. Secret societies such as the
Whiteboys committed acts of sabotage and occasional violence against
landlords, their agents, and their property in retaliation for landowner
brutality. Taxes and tithes (to the Church of Ireland) were ruthlessly
levied. Beneath the conacre farmers was a large itinerant class of beggars,
gypsies, tinkers, and gombeen men. The last sold clothing and salt to
isolated communities, offering credit at usurious rates of
interest.

Ulster and the Penal

Laws
Ulster was Ireland's most prosperous province. The great
landowners enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. Longer leases had created a yeoman
farmer class while the linen industry provided employment for thousands.
Whaling, salmon fishing, and illegal whisky distilling supported coastal and
isolated communities.
Western Ulster was predominantly Catholic;
eastern Ulster was Presbyterian. Both Belfast and Londonderry had
religiously mixed communities. Belfast had expanded to 18,000 thanks to the
linen, cotton and ship-building industries, though many of the new
inhabitants lived in cramped slums. Barred (like Catholics) from attending
Trinity College, Presbyterians acquired Enlightenment ideas at Edinburgh and
Glasgow universities and from American traders, so that Belfast's
Presbyterian middle class became the most radical segment of Irish society.
Land hunger kept sectarian hatred alive in the country with rivalry between
the Presbyterian "Peep o' Day Boys" and Catholic "Defenders" flaring into
frequent violence.
Throughout Ireland, the Penal Laws were
enforced to ensure Catholics and Catholicism was unable to threaten the
Ascendancy. No Catholic could vote or hold parliamentary office, or seek
legal redress. They were excluded from careers in law, the judiciary, and
the navy, and forbidden from attending any British university. (Medicine was
their only permitted profession). Catholics were educated by priests and at
foreign universities. No Catholic was allowed to bear weapons or own a horse
worth more than five pounds. They were required to divide all land equally
among any sons. (An eldest son who converted to Protestantism inherited
everything.) The equal land division was often foiled by sham conversions or
transferring the property to a Protestant friend prior to death who then
returned it to the intended heir. Bishops were banned from Ireland on pain
of death by hanging, drawing, and quartering. Only a thousand priests were
legally permitted and they were forbidden to teach the Catholic faith.
Nevertheless more were trained in continental seminaries and returned to
work in secret. Many educated Protestants found the Penal Laws distasteful
and assisted Catholics in evading them.

France

His Most Christian Majesty, Louis XVI, ruled

over a nation of some twenty-six million inhabitants, exercising his
authority through the same administrative machinery created a century
earlier by Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin and the Sun King himself, Louis
XIV. The royal palace at Versailles outside Paris was both the seat of the
royal court and of the French government. The purchase of noble titles had
elevated higher officials into the aristocracy while marriages between the
noblesse d'épee and de robe gradually reduced the
effective social distinctions and enabled the ancient families to recover
some measure of political power.
The King's government was undertaken
by a small number of ministers, responsible for law, finance, home and
foreign affairs, the army, and the navy, and some thirty-four
intendants appointed as regional administrators. Originally created as
the monarch's agents to control the aspirations of local nobles and enforce
the royal will, the intendants had become aristocrats themselves and
in the ensuing conflicts of interest, they frequently acted on behalf of
their region (or its most vocal and powerful political factions).
Subordinate to ministers and intendants was a large and unwieldy
bureaucracy.
Various institutions in France such as the guilds and the
Church enjoyed special privileges which mitigated the supposed absolutism of
the regime. Provincial nobles agitated for further powers to be restored to
their regional Estates from the central government. The thirteen
parlements, particularly the parlement of Paris, were attempting
to acquire veto authority over new laws (rather than simply registration) in
addition to their status as appeal courts.
Agriculture was the
main-stay of most French families. The larger farms of northern France
yielded comfortable incomes for their tenants; the west, south, and
south-west were dominated by struggling share-croppers with small
plots.
Some 15% of the population lived in cities or towns, where
municipal charters shielded the residents from rural feudal obligations and
some taxes. With the exception of Paris and Lyons, the urban centers
witnessing the greatest growth in prosperity were the coastal ports, such as
Bordeaux, Le Havre, Marseilles and Toulon, thriving on overseas and colonial
trade. The wealth of Nantes was derived from the linked commerce of sugar
and slaves. Bordeaux spent its riches in its new theatres, shops, and fine
buildings. Lyons, the second city of France (with 150,000 people) was the
center of the silk industry, though workshops and small factories rather
than steam-powered "dark satanic mills" predominated.
With 650,000
inhabitants, Paris was the heart of France, and probably the cultural
capital of the European world as noble scions of every nationality
congregated in its salons, theatres, and restaurants during their Grand
Tour. While the great aristocrats enjoyed their palaces, and the wealthy
bourgeois lived nobly in their new residences, most of the ordinary
commoners were crowded into old faubourgs on the banks of the river
Seine and the Ile de la Cité. The hundreds of shopkeepers and minor
craftsmen of the faubourg Saint-Antoine (on the right bank of the
Seine) would provide the Revolution with its most radical
sans-culottes. The Cité was home to the goldsmiths, jewelers,
watchmakers and so on who serviced Parisian demands for luxury items.
***
Insert a map of "Pre-Revolutionary France" from schama-ancienfrance.tif
***

A Police State?
Prior to the
Revolution, the French police exercised the will of the monarch as well as
maintaining law and order, regulating food supplies and prices, censoring
 subversive literature, and inspecting prisons, buildings and streets. The
police service in Paris included commissaires who served as
administrators and judges for the city's twenty districts, inspecteurs
who investigated crimes and analyzed the information received from spies and
informers, and exempts who enforced order, supported by several
hundred foot soldiers, archers, and mounted police who proactively patrolled
the streets. Mouchards, or secret police, also reported on the
citizenry using a network of informers drawn from the ranks of the
prostitutes, servants, and criminals, and through the interception of mail.
Daily summary reports from the lieutenant-general of police were sent to the
king.
Directorial France's Ministry of Police came under the
leadership of Joseph Fouché from 1799. Initially directed to suppress
threats to the "Revolution" as manifested in the existing regime,
Fouché recruited hundreds of spies to monitor the activities of the
citizenry and to combat Jacobin, royalist, and foreign conspiracies aimed at
overthrowing the Consular and Imperial regimes. During occasional truces
between the rebel chouans and the regime, the former frequently came
out of hiding and relaxed their guard. Fouché's agents identified
them, placed them under observation, and added their details to the
comprehensive police records. Such information was ruthlessly exploited
whenever the truces ended. The existence of this secret police, (and smaller
networks reporting to the military, foreign governments, and even
individuals), magnified by popular belief to be omnipresent served to limit
the expression of political discontent.

Switzerland

The Swiss Confederation and its allied

communities of Geneva, the nominally Prussian fief of Neuch<\#137>tel, and
the republic of Valais formed an extremely loose and disunited federation,
lacking any central administration, legislature or constitution. Rent by
internal religious divisions, the Swiss avoided foreign intervention,
relying on their military reputation and difficult Alpine passes for their
defense. More than 40,000 Swiss served as mercenaries abroad, though
recruitment grew steadily more difficult as agriculture and manufacturing
became more lucrative. Cotton, silk and lace-making became key industries in
Zurich and St. Gall, while Geneva and Neuch<\#137>tel became renowned for
watch-making.
The Forest Cantons of Schwyz, Unterwalden, Uri, and Zug
remained dominated by Catholic nobles and clergy. Other rural cantons
functioned as corrupt, popular "democracies" where the peasants sold
prestigious offices to wealthy families and appropriated foreign
pensions.
The urban cantons were ruled by town councils with the
authority vested in "Great Councils" but the executive being formed from the
"Small Councils." In Zurich, the guilds ruled, regulating every aspect of
life from dress to pastimes. Though half of Basel's inhabitants were
citizens, the merchants' guild monopolized all high posts. Bern was governed
by an exclusive patrician class of sixty-eight families whose occasional
six-year tenure of one of sixty bailiff posts enabled them to rebuild or
enlarge their fortunes. Rural areas were neglected by the urban cantons. The
common bailiwicks (under multiple cantonal jurisdiction) were misruled by
bailiffs who recouped the office's purchase through levying fines.

Geneva's 25,000 people were stratified into four classes:

office-holding citizens, voting burghers, natifs and newly arrived
habitants who could neither vote nor hold office. A revolt in 1781 led
to the temporary elevation of some natifs but was repudiated by the
patricians supported by French intervention in 1782. Thereafter Geneva was
ruled by its Small Council, and became a major financial
center.
Though lightly taxed, the sharp social distinctions,
censorship and legalism encouraged an attitude of seeking advantages from
the States without doing anything in return. Swiss neutrality was quickly
sacrificed by Napoleon. His Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) gave Switzerland a
single government. Its treasuries were looted by France, while foreign
armies and internal revolts led to anarchy and Napoleon's formation of a
Helvetic Confederation under the Act of Mediation (1803). Switzerland
languished as a satellite state until Napoleon's downfall, when an enlarged
independent and neutral confederation was
established.

Spain

Since the accession of Philip V, Duke of

Anjou, as His Catholic Majesty, Spain had been ruled by a Bourbon dynasty
descended from Louis XIV of France. He had abolished the constitutions of
Aragon, placing the entire nation under the laws of Castile and requiring
all public business to be conducted in Castilian Spanish. From the Treaty of
Utrecht (1713) onward which assigned Gibraltar to Britain, the British were
seen as the enemy and the French as natural allies. Though Spain lost
control of the western Mediterranean, the Spanish Navy expanded throughout
the eighteenth century, defending the far-flung colonies and undertaking
voyages of exploration.
Spain's population rose to ten million (1800)
with a hundred thousand living in Madrid. Half a million Spaniards claimed
noble status; of these, only the seven hundred grandees and titulos de
Castile enjoyed great wealth and influence. Links between the Spanish
aristocracy and other European noble castes grew with many Spaniards proving
receptive to the writings of French and English thinkers. Whilst the
Inquisition remained active, its unwillingness to prosecute powerful
grandees weakened its ability to halt the spread of subversive
ideas
Population and prosperity migrated from the center to the
Peninsula's periphery. The provincial nobility sponsored the foundation of
regional economic societies between 1765 and 1789 to encourage investment
and promote technical knowledge. Catalan and Basque merchants benefited from
the opening of colonial trade to all ports by 1778. (Previously Cadiz and
Seville monopolized all commerce with the Americas.) Shipbuilding, coastal
fishing, iron and steel production expanded in the Basque region. The cotton
and domestic industries enriched Catalonia. Valencia became a center of
medicine and culture as well as the hub of the Spanish silk industry.

Agricultural improvements remained few -- the great landowners

were satisfied with the revenues from their estates while the peasants eked
out a living on tiny plots and the common land. The land-less laborers of
southern Spain suffered most from increasing prices and rents.
The
preference of many noblemen for French styles and fashions was equaled by
the favor shown to native styles and customs by other sections of society
and many noblewomen. Bullfighting, formerly popular only in Andalucia,
became a national entertainment. Similarly flamenco singing and dancing
spread throughout Spain.
A substantial French presence in Spain's
commercial cities and a later flood of French émigrés propagated
Revolutionary ideas and news of events north of the Pyrennees to ordinary
Spaniards despite the best efforts of government censorship. Initial
enthusiasm for the French Revolution collapsed with the execution of Louis
XVI and the Terror. Basque and Catalan regional patriotism redirected itself
against republicans and the Spanish people united against the perceived
Jacobin threat. The later loss of colonial trade and crippling military
costs combined with disease epidemics caused severe hardship to many
Spaniards, enflaming the discontent which erupted in violence against
Godoy's ministry and during the War of
Liberation.

Portugal

The discovery of gold and diamonds in

Brazil had ushered in a Golden Age for Portugal during the first half of the
eighteenth century. Bullion paid for the construction of new palaces,
churches, and noble residences. Portugal's economy was linked to Britain's
by the enduring Methuen Treaties which ensured preferential treatment for
Portuguese wines (in British territories) in return for unhindered sales of
English textiles in Portugal. Fish and corn were also imported from British
North America. All problems were (temporarily) solved by judicious gold
payments; meanwhile English expatriates consolidated their hold on
commerce.
The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 shattered the easy complacency
of the House of Braganza, and caused many intellectuals at home and abroad
to doubt the merciful nature of God. The city center was destroyed and the
English Quarter was badly damaged. Directed by the Marquis of Pombal, chief
minister of His Faithful Majesty Joseph I, Lisbon was rebuilt to a grid
pattern. Though the homes of the nobility and the rich were quickly
restored, housing for the poor took the form of huge shanty towns which grew
in the areas around Lisbon's seven hills. Under Queen Maria, a royal police
force preserved law and order in Lisbon aided by the introduction of street
lighting. Little was done to improve the road infrastructure of the nation.

Maria's reign witnessed Portugal's population rise to three million

with the bourgeois expanding to include some eighty thousand traders. Over a
hundred thousand craftsmen supplied Portuguese needs. The armed forces
recovered their professionalism after the long stagnation under previous
rulers. The Catholic Church regained its influence in society. Both the
monasteries and the rural squires retained their feudal dues and medieval
rights (e.g. in blacksmithing and milling). Though Portugal possessed
thousands of lesser nobles and impoverished knights, the grandees numbered a
mere fifty titled families. Elevation of bourgeois merchants to the peerage
forestalled any need to recall parliament while emigration to Brazil
provided a safety-valve for the disaffected youth of the smaller
towns.
Portuguese merchants felt increasingly patronized and exploited
by the heretical English who lived in fine fashionable homes in the suburbs
of Lisbon and Oporto. Strenuous efforts were thus made by Portuguese traders
to develop new industries and markets.
As Brazil became more
self-reliant, Lisbon's merchants exported low-quality goods to Angola and
created a triangular trade in slaves to Brazil. Careful only to sell cargo
space to slavers rather than purchasing the slaves outright, the ship-owners
profited regardless of whether the slaves lived or died en route. Payment
was accepted in gold, cotton, Peruvian silver and sugar -- the colonial
estates were always in debt to the home merchants. The silver was
re-exported to India while the sugar was sold to Mediterranean customers.
The cotton supplied the flourishing textile industry around Lisbon itself.
The capital became noted for its numerous goldsmiths and booksellers.

Portugal's other city, Oporto, was the center of the wine trade to
Britain with shipments being sent to London, Hull and Bristol. Portuguese
wine was sufficiently coarse to induce English merchants to fortify it with
French brandy before selling it in England. Low prices induced landowners in
many wine-growing regions to return to the cultivation of cabbages, cereals,
olives, and the newly introduced potato. Thousands of artisans near Oporto
became involved in the flax industry, performing piece-work at home rather
than in factories. The center of Oporto remained the city's commercial
heart. Colonial returnees flaunted their wealth in miniature palaces in the
eastern suburbs whereas the English community gravitated to the western
districts.
Portugal's bourgeois magnates briefly hoped that the French
invasion would permit them to escape from British competition. The behavior
of Napoleon's marshals swiftly disillusioned them. Selling supplies to the
British forces provided a new source of income. Nevertheless they were
greatly aggrieved by the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1810 which allowed the
British direct access to the Brazilian markets.

The Italian

States
Despite a population rising to eighteen million, Italy remained
a mosaic of small states ruled by powerless dynasties. Victories and defeats
in the diplomatic conflicts of the continental European powers were
translated into transfers of Italian states and duchies from one hegemony to
another. New rulers invigorated their kingdoms, reintegrating Italy with
Europe. New roads connected northern Italy through the Alps to European
markets, while sea trade boomed in the free ports of Ancona, Leghorn,
Trieste, and Venice. Northern Italy exported silk especially to France; oil,
corn, and wine remained the principal exports of the south.
The
luxurious Renaissance villas of the nobility and classical monuments
contrasted with the hovels of a mostly illiterate peasantry. The warm
climate encouraged most to spend their waking lives outdoors. The wealthy
had their sons schooled by private tutors or in the Jesuit academies; their
daughters prepared for eventual marriage with a convent education. Though
attached to Catholicism, popular and aristocratic morality was little
influenced by its tenets. Despite the censors, printers published
Enlightenment works in French and in translation; the native thinkers
responded by emphasizing Italian (rather than classical) history and urging
the use of Italian (rather than Latin) for cultural thought. Prior to 1796,
only the Church and law offered intellectuals careers; afterward new options
included the universities, academies, schools, journalism, and the military.
As Italy suffocated under Napoleon's Continental Systems, Jacobins channeled
desires for an independent united Italy through numerous and popular secret
societies such as the northern Adelfi, central Guelfia and
Neapolitan Carboneria.
The House of Savoy ruled Piedmont and
Sardinia as an absolute monarchy, reforming both territories to ensure the
preeminence of the ruler and stifling enlightenment thought. Although
Sardinia was a rural backwater, Turin and Nice enjoyed significant
expansion. Determined to expand territorially, Savoy's Victor Amadeus III
exploited the balance of power between France and Austria.
Mantua and
Milan (population 131,000) combined to form Austrian-ruled Lombardy.
Divisions between town and country had been reduced by a reorganization of
the Lombard provinces to ensure urban and rural participation in each
administrative unit, while church influence was curbed. Agricultural
innovations improved the standard of living and increased the wealth of the
great landowners. With the extinction of the Medicis, Florence (population
72,000) and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany were ruled by Austrian Habsburg
princes. Peter Leopold's reforms abolished torture and the death penalty and
instituted free trade policies. Despite this "Enlightened" despotism, most
peasants were sharecroppers or heavily indebted, the bourgeois were
politically weak, and the landholders supported only the changes which were
in their interests. The Este Duchy of Modena was an Austrian
satellite.
The Bourbons governed the joint Kingdoms of Naples and
Sicily. The Neapolitan barons were ill-versed in trade, preferring the
extravagance of the court at Naples (population: 400,000), and allowing
commoner parvenus to lease or purchase their estates to pay off debts. Heavy
business taxes on commoners limited commercial and industrial growth.
Agriculture concentrated on cultivating fruit, vegetables, grapes and
cereals. Seizures of monastic lands, the suppression of the Inquisition, and
elimination of the right of sanctuary shifted power away from the Church.
Sicily was ruled by a viceroy from its capital of Palermo (population:
140,000) -- however the baronial parliament ensured the retention of
aristocratic economic and social privileges. Another branch of the Bourbons
ruled the duchy of Parma.
Reduced after the loss of Corsica to a
city-state, the Republic of Genoa was still under the absolute control of
the oligarchy of the Bank of St George. The impoverished nobility and gentry
subsisted on the salaries obtained from filling the minor posts of the army,
administration and diplomatic service.
The Most Serene Republic of
Venice was a shadow of its former glory. Its ruling oligarchy had declined
to a mere fifty families. The city population had stabilized at 137,000. New
walls were erected to protect Venice from flooding. The mainland territories
were completely subordinated to the needs of the city and willfully
neglected, lacking even a network of roads. The country towns emulated the
city in lording it over their rural neighborhoods. Increasingly isolated
from the outside world, Venetian foreign policy was to hide from all
attention; its people and its rulers were gripped by a "terror of the
future."
The Papacy was at its nadir of prestige. The Papal States
and the Church were run by a ruling class of courtiers, "nephews" of
cardinals and previous popes, and feudal nobles, for their own benefit.
Divided by the Apennines, the southern papal domains consisted of large
fiefs worked by sharecroppers and unhealthy marshes while the northern
regions exported hemp and silk, and enjoyed a measure of commercial
prosperity. The University of Bologna sufficed as the center for
Enlightenment thought. Rome itself (population 162,000) was filled with
beggars and priests -- fully a third of the inhabitants of the States
were in holy orders. The reforming ambitions of Pius VI (pontiff 1775-99)
foundered; his successor Pius VII (1800-1823) had more urgent concerns.
***
Insert a map of "Italy in the 18th Century" from
discala-italy18thcentury.tif ***

The United Provinces

The
United Provinces, also called the Dutch Netherlands, had declined from their
peak in the seventeenth century, becoming a second-class power. Holland
still dominated the federation. A Calvinist state, the two million
inhabitants of the United Provinces included 700,000 Catholics and 200,000
Jews and Protestant Dissenters, who were excluded from all military posts
and commercial office.
Political tensions in the United Provinces
included the House of Orange's desire to convert their hereditary title of
Stadtholder into an effective ruling monarchy, the rivalries between
the nobility of the landward provinces and the merchant patricians of
Holland, and the desires of the burghers (the self-styled Patriot factions)
to obtain some share in the States-General which constituted the government.
The aristocratic families, known as Regents, monopolized all positions of
power and influence, even forming cabals to ensure vacant offices were
transferred to appropriate holders. Though society became more stratified,
wealth was a passport into the regent families.
The decay in the
fortunes of the Netherlands was most visible in the cities and towns. By the
1790s, Amsterdam's inhabitants numbered less than 200,000; elsewhere towns
steadily depopulated. Urban areas became filthier, dead animals were common
sights in the canals, and outbreaks of typhus, cholera and fever increased
in frequency. Gin drinking became a widespread vice as the traditional meat,
bread and dairy diet was eschewed in favor of gins, adulterated brandy, and
low-quality tobacco. Begging increased in the towns, while robber bands
prowled the countryside.
Devastating cattle plagues forced Dutch
farmers to diversify more, raising sheep and cultivating asparagus, clover,
chicory, flax, madder, potatoes and tobacco. Fishing and whaling declined
owing to a lack of qualified native sailors and supporting crafts. Dutch
ships remained small and traditionally designed, while other nations
constructed larger, faster ships, dredged their harbors effectively, and
avoided the need for Dutch middle-men. The Dutch remained the premier
smugglers in the New World -- this led to Dutch bankers supporting the
rebellious American colonies with substantial loans and the importation of
American revolutionary ideas into the Patriot cause. Manufacturing of
textiles and ceramics collapsed from foreign competition, causing skilled
workers to emigrate. High taxes (for the maintenance of the Barrier Forts
guarding the borders) and guild restrictions (which increased prices) added
to Dutch misery. The rise of Amsterdam as a world banking center did little
to reassure the elite who continued to fret about whether the United
Provinces had exceeded their resources or reached the maximum extent of
their wealth.

The Austrian Netherlands

The Austrian
Netherlands (sometimes called Belgium and including modern Luxembourg) was
secured by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) to the Austrian throne. The Habsburg
emperors modernized the previously Spanish governmental institutions, making
appointment to public office depend more on merit than influence or status.
The three million Flemings and Walloons came to be ruled by a combination of
Viennese officials, Belgian administrators, native nobles with a French
outlook, and Catholic prelates. The cities of Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent were
governed by their leading burghers. The subordination of Flemish to French
as the language of officialdom and the upper classes caused some resentment
among lower-class Flemings who neither spoke nor understood
French.
Under Maria Theresa, the Austrian Netherlands enjoyed an era
of increasing prosperity with agricultural progress being matched with
growth in manufacturing (such as cotton and woolen goods) and mining
activities. Wages remained low and the ongoing blockade of the Schelde
estuary by the Dutch prevented Antwerp's recovery as a port. For the
well-to-do, it was a time of revelry, dancing and feasting. Enlightenment
ideas percolated into employment, education, health and religious affairs.

Emperor Joseph II's attempt to lift the Schelde blockade failed; his
administrative and religious reforms threatened the political autonomy of
the Austrian Netherlands and the powers of the native aristocracy. The
latter triggered an unlikely alliance between conservatives and progressives
culminating in a middle-class revolt (the Brabant Revolution) in 1789. The
coalition fractured and Austrian control was reasserted by Leopold II in
1790.
The fall of the Austrian Netherlands to French Revolutionary
armies brought annexation to France. Revolutionary and Directorial France
abolished all traditional privileges, suppressed the Catholic Church, and
eliminated all vestiges of autonomy. Extensive military conscription led to
rural revolts (1798-99) and savage repression. The Consulate and the Empire
introduced the Code Napoleon and restored religious worship under the
Concordat. As an integrated part of France, the economy, especially in the
coal, metal, and increasingly mechanized textile industries actually grew
unlike the other satellite states. Napoleonic control of Holland effected
the removal of the Schelde blockade restoring Antwerp as a port and staging
ground for a French invasion into the unprotected eastern counties of
England.

The German States

Germany was not a single nation;

instead there were hundreds of mostly small states forming the Holy Roman
Empire which was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. The German rulers
were ostensibly vassals of the Emperor in Vienna. In their own territories,
these nobles could behave as absolutist suzerains.
The states had
varying characteristics. There were about a thousand imperial barons and
knights, mostly in the south-west and in the Rhineland, who held small fiefs
as direct vassals of the emperor. Hereditary castes of senators governed the
imperial free cities of Frankfurt-on-Main, Hamburg, Nuremberg, and some
fifty lesser municipalities. Unusually Hamburg prohibited nobles from owning
property within its confines; however this bourgeois bastion had nine levels
of citizenship. The larger principalities in the west, numbering some two
hundred and fifty states, were endowed with landed nobility and
bureaucracies, with small farmers working the land. Feudal obligations were
frequently "bought off." Only Baden, Bavaria, Hanover, Hesse-Darmstadt, and
Württemberg were of significant size. In eastern Germany, serfs and
near-serfs grew cereals on the large estates of the Junker nobles of
the major kingdoms of Brandenburg-Prussia, Mecklenburg, and Saxony. Serf
revolts were frequent.
The policy of cujus regio, ejus religio
(instituted after the devastating Thirty Years' War) ensured that the
state's religion mirrored its ruler's, though the conversion of a ruler did
not necessitate mass conversions among his subjects. Each state was
represented at the "Perpetual Diet" in Regensburg (which met until the
empire's dissolution in 1806) which provided a forum for diplomacy and
dispute resolution without recourse to war among the minor powers. Citizens
and nobles had recourse to two imperial courts (one in Regensburg which had
a huge case backlog, the other in Vienna). To simplify administration, the
tiny states were grouped into imperial districts which functioned as
regional federations.
The nobility constituted about 1% of the total
population. Imperial aristocrats married within their own class in order to
preserve their votes in the Diet. Ruling nobles created elaborate courts (in
proportion to their wealth) with entourages of secular and religious
advisors, entertainers, and servants. The upper classes' demand for luxury
goods adversely effected the economic development of the states.
The
clergy remained a privileged order. Many Catholic bishops enjoyed opulent
lifestyles, delegating their pastoral duties to suffragan bishops who were
usually of commoner and burgess stock. The Protestant clergy recognized the
local prince as governor of their church.
Everywhere in Germany, from
the secular courts of Munich and Dresden, the cathedral cities of Cologne
and Mainz, to the university town of Göttingen, beggars formed up to a
quarter of the population. Some indigents were burgess bankrupts, former
officers, even nobles fallen on hard times. Hygiene was non-existent with
filth even to the very walls of palaces; the absence of plagues was
miraculous.
*** Possibly insert map of "The German Confederation in 1815"
using ford-germanconfederation.tif ***

Prussia
Six million Prussians acknowledged the
 rule of Frederick the Great. His scattered domains were reflected in his
multiplicity of titles -- Margrave of Brandenburg, Grand Duke of
Silesia, King in Prussia (as its territories were not part of the
Empire), and Duke of Ansbach, Bayreuth, Cleves, East Frisia, Mark,
Minden-Ravensburg, and far-off Swiss Neuch<\#137>tel.
Though the
Prussian territories embraced multiple faiths, royal decrees granting
religious freedom forestalled any sectarian violence. Prussia was the most
tolerant of German states in this respect, but for pragmatic rather than
liberal reasons.
Likewise, pragmatic requirements for
aristocratic support during his wars forced Frederick the Great to concede
greater powers over their serfs to the Junker nobility. Military and
civil appointments were monopolized by the Junkers. Contemptuous of mere
trade, the haughty Junkers were frequently in debt -- though Frederick
bailed many out increasing their loyalty. They quickly became a disciplined
and obedient elite, performing their tasks efficiently in the bureaucracy
and the army. On their own estates, they were paternalistic
overlords.
To ensure an officer corps, Junkers' sons were required
to attend cadet school in Berlin from age twelve. Armed "escorts" were used
to prevent parental feelings interfering with a punctual departure for
school. The ordinary soldiers were recruited from each canton. The exclusion
of urban burgesses and property-owners ensured that this burden fell on the
peasants.
Prussia's healthy economy was based on a combination of
agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing. Many bourgeoisie became rich, some
astute property developers even received leases to royal lands. However
wealth could not purchase a noble title in the fixed Prussian social
hierarchy.

The Austrian Empire

The Habsburg
dynasty had held the title of Holy Roman Emperor since the election of
Albert II in 1438, and it remained their preferred title. It was not however
a hereditary title -- each new Habsburg monarch had to seek election
from the electoral college consisting of the Electors of Bavaria, Bohemia,
Brandenburg, Hanover, and Saxony, as well as the Archbishops of Cologne,
Mainz, and Trier. The end of each reign and the beginning of the next
presented opportunities for the electors to extract concessions from weak
monarchs in order to assent to their election. The true power of the
Habsburgs lay in their own "crownlands" of Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary,
rather than in their tenuous hold over the German States (see p.
00).
Even in the crownlands, Habsburg monarchs were required to rule
through consensus with the regional elites. The crownlands had been united
by "personal unions" of Habsburg princes with the previous ruling dynasties
rather than by conquest; hence the existing governmental structures had been
preserved and each local nobility resisted the establishment of a homogenous
constitution. The discontinuous territories and the central European
location of the crownlands ensured that some part of the empire was
threatened by foreign intervention at any time, denying the monarchy any
opportunity for forcing internal reform. As the regional Diets would support
defensive wars, Habsburg foreign policy emphasized coalitions maintaining
the balance of power.
Unlike their fellow monarchs, Their Apostolic
Majesties (as the Habsburgs were styled) were relatively well-informed upon
conditions of their ordinary subjects. This was due to Joseph II's
predilection for travelling incognito at home and abroad as "Count
Falkenstein," both as prince and co-Emperor. Joseph's fact-finding trips
inspired many of his reforms.
With a total population of twenty-seven
million, the crownlands had the usual high proportion of nobility and
Catholic clergy. However the bulk were peasants on noble estates and
proprietors of small farms. The gradual reduction of the hated robot
(compulsory feudal labor services) and an increase in rural manufacturing
led to better conditions for the peasantry. Towns remained small.

Vienna was the empire's capital owing to its central location between
Prague, Graz, Innsbruck, and Pressburg. Its population had grown to 300,000
with a third living in the suburbs. Vienna supported a substantial
bourgeoisie class as well as many urban poor. Court and royal life centered
on the Schönbrunn Palace.
German was instituted as the official
language of the crownlands in 1784, replacing Latin and displacing national
tongues such as Magyar. Public education was widespread. In rural areas,
children received moral, religious, and vocational training. In urban areas,
children learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. Burghers' children
proceeded to a "middle school," focusing on either academic or vocational
skills. The brightest and the wealthiest were finally sent to the regional
gymnasium in preparation for university.
The elimination of guild
privileges, road building and river dredging initiatives, and an internal
free trade zone led to a commercial boom. There was even a thriving sea
trade with the Ottoman Empire and the East Indies.
The Revolutionary
Wars forced a monarchic reaction against Enlightenment. The secret police
expanded and censorship was enforced. The wartime inflation enriched many
farmers.
*** Insert map of "The Austrian Empire in 1792" from file
ingrao-austrianempire.tif ***

The Habsburg
Dominions
In addition to Austria, the Habsburgs ruled the kingdom
of Bohemia (including Moravia), the kingdom of Hungary, the former Ottoman
territories of Croatia, Slavonia, Banat, and Transylvania (much of which
were still classified as the Military Border regions, home to scattered
military colonies providing a permanent defense against the Ottoman Empire),
Polish Galicia (see Poland p. 00), Lombardy (see The Italian States, p. 00),
and the Austrian Netherlands (see p. 00).
The Slavic lands, i.e.
Bohemia, Moravia, Slavonia, Croatia and Polish Galicia, had both the
wealthiest landowners and the poorest peasants in Europe. In Bohemia, the
 robot for bondsmen was several days of labor per week and many nobles
exploited their serfs even more. Three-quarters of a million Bohemians and
Moravians were employed in manufacture, particularly in the textile
industry. Brno became known as the Moravian Manchester in this era --
although its Castle Spilberk became infamous as a prison for revolutionaries
and radicals. Czech nobles continued to govern Greater Bohemia from the
Hradcany Palace in Prague, which with a population of 80,000 was the
second-largest city of the crownlands.
Hungary was controlled by
the numerous belligerent Magyar nobility. Only a few (such as the
Esterhàzy family) were great magnates; the rest drew their wealth from
horse breeding and cereal farming. Hungary exported livestock, grain and
wine to the other crownlands. Hungarian peasants had a better standard of
living than their Polish or Czech contemporaries owing to a much lower
urbarium (Hungarian robot). Decades of peace had encouraged a
rise in population and re-established an artisan class. Colonists and Balkan
immigrants had repopulated the southern and eastern regions. Pressburg had
reached 30,000 inhabitants; the twin cities of Buda and Pest on opposite
banks of the River Danube housed 50,000.
In urban areas of
Hungary, the arts were flourishing. The great nobles constructed new
palaces, while the wealthier towns founded theatres and orchestras.
Newspapers, reading clubs, and Masonic lodges multiplied. In more rural
areas, converted mosques reminded the traveler that while Hungary had been
detached from the Ottoman Empire for decades, it had yet to be fully
absorbed into the European mainstream.

Denmark

During the eighteenth century, Denmark

possessed the Germanic duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, the kingdom of
Norway (united to Denmark by a personal union), and the ancient Norwegian
territories of the Faeroes, Iceland, and Greenland, as well as three
Caribbean islands (St. Thomas, St John, and St Croix) and trading posts in
India and Ghana.
Denmark proper had a population of one million, of
whom a tenth lived in semi-autonomous Copenhagen, where nobles and a large
garrison mixed with merchants, craftsmen, sailors and fishermen. With the
decline of the Dutch, commerce had flourished, though Denmark was limited in
its exports to meat and oxen with its inferior grain being shipped to the
captive Norwegian market.
Temporarily governed in 1770-71 by Johann
Struensee, physician and Queen Caroline's lover, a conservative coup
reversed the Germanization of the court, leading to the restoration of
Danish as the official language of the military and the government and the
prohibition on foreigners serving the Crown from 1776 onward. These "Danish"
policies invigorated the national literature while Denmark's neutrality
during the American War boosted maritime trade. A special treaty with
England protected the vital Norwegian timber exports.
Nine-tenths of
Denmark was divided into some thousand estates owned by several hundred
landowners. From the 1780s, the magnates introduced various reforms,
commuting seigniorial dues into money rents and increasing the process of
enclosure. The lot of the peasantry, who were also taxed and tithed,
improved, through an underclass of day laborers and cottagers appeared owing
to the shortage of available land.
Crown Prince Frederick's military
and foreign policy of merchant convoys and neutrality in the 1790s served
Denmark well until 1801. After the forced dissolution of the Baltic armed
neutrality pact, it was only a matter of time before the Danes were
compelled to choose sides. Vacillation incurred the second British assault
on Copenhagen and Danish incorporation into a Napoleonic alliance and the
Continental System. Its overseas holdings were seized while British
squadrons prevented communication with Norway and the Atlantic possessions.
Though half the Danish merchant fleet was lost, Danish privateers enjoyed
some success against British Baltic shipping. Widespread smuggling through
British-held Heligoland ameliorated the impact of this unpopular war in the
German Duchies.
Though Denmark forfeited Norway at the conclusion of
the Napoleonic Wars, it recovered its Caribbean possessions and retained
control of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faeroes.

Norway and Iceland

United since 1536 with
Denmark, Norway remained a distinct realm. During the eighteenth century,
its fiefdoms were replaced by a system of shires and bailiwicks,
administered by governors and bailiffs appointed by the Danish crown.
Norwegians could appeal against the decisions of these officials to the
king.
The 800,000 Norwegians were thinly scattered in coastal
communities. Three-fifths of Norway's farmers owned their own land; in the
north of the realm, the great landowners preferred to offer limited
tenancies to preserve their own hunting and fishing rights. Farming, timber,
mining, fishing, and shipping formed the sole Norwegian "industries" with
merchants and burghers garnering fortunes during the wars of the eighteenth
century. Taxation was lighter than in Denmark, owing to successful Norwegian
defenses against Swedish incursions. Nationalism began to appear in the
upper classes at the close of the century.
Inclusion in the
Continental System brought bankruptcy, hardship and isolation from Denmark.
Ruled by a commission and threatened by Sweden, Norway was granted a
temporary dispensation in 1809 from the System to renew trade with England,
but suffered famine in 1812. Despite short-lived resistance, Norway was
severed from Denmark and united in a personal union with Sweden in
1815.
With fifty thousand inhabitants, Iceland was the most
populous Atlantic crown territory. Reykjavik was the only village in Iceland
with a mere three hundred residents by 1800. Trade with Iceland was almost a
Danish monopoly. Farming and fishing were the Icelanders' occupations, with
the seasonal fishermen being laborers for the local landowners. Poverty
increased, however, with famines induced by volcanic eruptions and severely
cold weather in the 1780s claiming thousands of lives. In 1809, J<\#191>rgen
J<\#191>rgensen, a Danish adventurer, staged a coup and held control of
Iceland for two months before he was ousted. Nevertheless Icelanders
remained content with the Danish status quo throughout the period.
Sweden

Sweden had been in decline since its

seventeenth-century apex of power, though it retained title to much of
Finland and the Caribbean island of St Bartholomew. Gustav III's coup had
ended the "Age of Freedom" which had degenerated into factional political
strife between the "Hats" (supporting the nobility and bureaucracy) and the
"Caps" (espousing the "people" and lower Estates). Rule was returned to the
monarchy and the powers of the four Estates (nobles, clergy, burgesses, and
peasantry) were reduced.
Three-quarters of Sweden's two million people
depended on agriculture for their living. In response to the ever-present
threat of famine, the Swedish farmers adapted English agronomic theories,
introduced potatoes and turnips, and accelerated the process of enclosure.
Insufficient work existed for the growing lower-class population; alcohol,
especially gin, became the preeminent vice, especially as the government was
unable to stop illegal distilleries.
Gustav's III's reign witnessed an
upsurge in cultural activity, especially in the theatre, opera and
belles-lettres. His policies led to the restoration of a healthy currency, a
reorganization of Finland's administration, naval strengthening, and the
abolition of torture. Enclosure in Finland led to discontent among the rural
population and defenses against potential Russian encroachment were limited.
In foreign policy, Sweden gradually became opposed to Denmark and Russia, as
Gustav made little secret of his interests in detaching Norway and
Russian-ruled Finnish provinces from his Baltic neighbors.
After
Gustav III's assassination, Sweden had little direct contact with the rest
of Europe between 1792 and 1804. Gustav IV concentrated on balancing Swedish
finances and seeking a rapprochement with Denmark. An inability to form any
alliances with Directorial France led Sweden to join the League of Armed
Neutrality. After the collapse of this pact, friendly relations were
restored with England, not least because Sweden exported half of its iron
and steel output to Britain in return for commercial goods. Understandably
fiscal policies were generous toward the minor industries of manufacturing
and mining.
Napoleon's execution of the Duc d'Enghien drove Gustav IV
into the Third Coalition and this personal animosity kept Sweden in the
alliance despite Russia's defection after Tilsit, Denmark's alliance with
Napoleon, and Russia's conquest of Finland. Turned into the scapegoat for
all Sweden's ills, Gustav was deposed and a new constitution instituted
which reduced the privileges and tax exemptions of the upper
classes.
Bernadotte (as Charles John) gave Sweden its first secret
police and espionage system as well as encouraging a resurgence of
"Scandinavianism," the desire for a union of the Baltic states.

*** Insert map of "The Partitions of Poland" from

ford-partitionspoland.tif ***

The Partitions of
 Poland
The "Royal Republic" of Poland ended in tragedy. At the
beginning of the era, its population of nine million included some 750,000
gentry and nobility, mostly land-less lords with excessive privileges. The
peasantry were defenseless, the bourgeoisie had dwindled, and even the
clergy were demoralized. Catherine II of Russia had arranged the election of
her ex-lover Stanislas Poniatowski as King of Poland in 1764. Though his
affection for Catherine influenced his foreign policy, Stanislas
nevertheless sought diplomatic alliances with Austria and France. Internally
he balanced Polish finances and limited the liberum veto, the
principle which required decisions of the governing Diet to be unanimous.

Worried by these reforms, Austria, Prussia and Russia acted in

concert, forcing Poland to surrender huge territories under threat of
invasion. The First Partition gave Galicia as far as the Vistula river to
Austria, all lands between the Dvina and Dneiper rivers to Russia, and West
Prussia and the northern portions of Great Poland to Prussia (though they
temporarily returned Danzig and Torun). Having shorn Poland of defensible
borders, they imposed a Permanent Council on Stanislas, hoping to hamstring
his rule. Instead he turned it to his advantage, increasing his popularity
by being seen to seek consensus.
Russian preoccupation with the
Ottoman Empire enabled Stanislas to convene the Great Diet from 1788-1792.
By its constitution, the nobility renounced many traditional privileges,
Polish citizenship was defined with burghers of chartered towns being
entitled to send delegates to the Diet, and the peasantry placed under
government protection. The liberum veto was abolished and the monarchy
henceforth was to be hereditary in the House of Saxony.

Dissatisfied aristocrats "invited" Russian intervention which

took the form of armed invasion (1792) while Prussia repudiated its
neutrality. Stanislas surrendered and the Second Partition was enacted
(1793), whereby Prussia gained Great Poland, Masovia, Danzig, and Torun, and
Russia acquired the eastern parts of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and
the Polish Ukraine. The brief revolt in 1794 led to the final Third
Partition (1795): Austria gained Polish Galicia between the Pilica and Bug
rivers; Prussia secured Warsaw and environs; and Russia the rest of
Lithuania and the Duchy of Courland.
The Poles endured systematic
Germanization by Austria and Prussia and repression under Catherine. Her
successors were more conciliatory -- the Polish Prince Adam Czartoryski
became a trusted minister of Alexander. Ineffectual conspiracies
proliferated. The valor of Polish exiles who had enlisted in Napoleon's
armies led to the temporary Grand Duchy of Warsaw (1807), a bureaucratic
state modeled on France. After Vienna, Poland was divided into five
portions: the diminutive Republic of Krakow, Austrian-held Poland,
Prussian-held Poland, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Lithuanian-Ruthenian
territories.

Russia

Under Catherine the Great

and her successors, Russia supported a population of twenty-five million
people. Half a million were "nobles," entitled to own land and serfs.
Courtiers, magnates, civil service officials, military officers and
provincial gentry alike were classified and pigeonholed according to the
"Table of Ranks." Dedication to the nation through service was rewarded with
elevation in the Table of Ranks, with the highest levels granting the
holders hereditary titles. Service demands and the attractions of the court
prevented any close ties developing between absentee landowners and their
estates. This divorce from rural and commoner concerns was exacerbated by
many young nobles spending their formative years at the Land Cadet Corps
College where they studied languages, literature, mathematics, geography and
history as well as military and genteel skills. (Russian noblewomen were
well educated in foreign languages at the expense of their native
Russian.)
Free from direct taxation, the nobility could develop or
dispose of their estates at their discretion. The richest nobles lived as
independent princes on their estates with scores or even hundreds of
serf-servants. Armies of serfs could be raised to perform the slightest whim
of a noble who had the power of life and death over them. Disobedient serfs
could be beaten with a knout, exiled to Siberia, or sent to the navy.
Three-quarters of the "nobility" owned fewer than one hundred serfs; half
less than twenty serfs. Many of these poorest nobles sank back into the
peasantry.
Between the nobility and the huge peasantry were the clergy
and the merchant classes. Though reduced to salaried officials of the state,
the Russian Orthodox clergy, from ignorant village priests to the educated
celibate "black" monks who formed the hierarchy, remained influential in the
lives of ordinary Russians. The merchants were frequently conservative "Old
Believers" harking back to the traditions of old Muscovy. Ennobled merchants
were encouraged to engage in industry, using serfs as an involuntary
workforce. Separated from home and village life, housed in barracks,
brutally punished and ill-paid, the unwilling serfs proved too unproductive
and were gradually replaced with free laborers. With the connivance of
nobles, even serfs rose to become the de facto owners of the factories
and merchants.
Rural serfs lived in wooden huts with tiny windows
(closed with dried bladders and shutters), and no chimneys.. Inside, a large
stove served as cooker and heat source. Furniture was minimal and crudely
made. An effigy of Christ or the Virgin Mary was usually the sole
decoration. Clothed in skins, linen or wool garments, and a full-length
frock fastened by a girdle at the waist, devout serfs wore a crucifix around
their necks. They lived on a diet of black bread, cabbage, cucumber, garlic,
mead and fruit liquors. Entertainment consisted of visits to the local
bathing house, taverns, and occasional fairs. Obligations for the local
noble ranged from three to six days' work per week, grudgingly performed, as
well as incidental services such as carting or building. The village council
regularly redistributed the common land among the serf families, dissuading
anyone from making improvement measures. House serfs were trained as
artists, craftsmen, and professionals, or formed into ballet troupes and
orchestras to entertain their masters. Quotas of conscripted serfs formed
the rank and file of the Russian armies.

Imperial
 Ambitions
From the reign of Tsar Peter the Great, the ruling
classes had been compelled to shift customs and behavior from Asiatic Mongol
to Enlightenment Europe. French was the official court language. French
cuisine and Western dress were common among the nobility. The imported
culture formed a veneer of civilization which did not reach the lower
classes.
The capital was St. Petersburg on the River Neva, where a
population of 270,000 endured a dreadful climate and sickly marsh mists, and
an elite enjoyed the magnificence of the royal court. The annual freeze of
the Neva from November to March dissuaded most merchants from residing in
St. Petersburg, preferring accessible Moscow. The lower classes ebbed and
flowed through the city according to the season. The cost of living was high
owing to the necessity of importing all goods.
The Tsars ruled
from the luxurious Winter Palace and the Hermitages. Among the thousands of
rooms in these vast complexes were the sovereign's private libraries,
galleries and theatres. The nobility spent their winters in fine townhouses
situated in the broad, straight squares or overlooking the canals and
spacious squares of the city. During the summer months, they resided in
their huge palaces south of the city. Occasionally they opened their gardens
to the public. The mornings saw the wealthy tour the city in carriages or
sledges; the afternoons were spent taking naps or playing cards; the
evenings concluded with parties, balls or theatre outings. Immigrants,
British merchants, sailors, and naval officers, foreign doctors, and
language tutors swarmed in St Petersburg with swindlers and adventurers
fleecing the more naïve Russians.
The old capital, Moscow,
was larger still with 300,000 inhabitants. Overflowing with priests,
monasteries, convents, and churches, Moscow remained the heart of the
Orthodox Church as the "Third Rome."
The empire was divided into
provinces ruled by royal governors, and further subdivided into districts
whose administration was elected by the local nobility. The imperial
subjects included nomadic Cossacks, the settled farmers of White Russia and
the Ukraine, the Finns living in their forests, and the coastal Baltic
communities. Conquests from the Ottoman Empire added steppe nomads from the
Black Sea and the Crimea, while the successive partitions of Poland brought
millions of Poles into the Russian dominions.

The

Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was contracting with only diplomacy
and "Great Power" rivalry forestalling a much swifter collapse. Its
population of twenty-five million was spread over three continents: eleven
million lived in Europe, eleven million in Asia and three million in North
Africa. Constantinople itself was home to over 300,000.
At the apex of
Ottoman society was the Sultan and his family. The eldest male now succeeded
automatically to the throne; the remaining princes lived in the "gilded
cage" of the Topkapi Palace awaiting their turn or death. The Topkapi Palace
was a "forbidden city" constructed as a series of diminishing concentric
circles. The public were only permitted into the first courtyard, the second
courtyard was reserved for those with official business to present to the
Divan (royal council), while officials were allowed into the third
courtyard. The remaining sections were the preserve of the Sultan, the royal
family and their retainers. The Sultans associated themselves with the
ulemas (Muslim religious) and spent their wealth on building mosques,
fountains and other public works.
The real power had shifted to the
viziers and provincial pashas, whose families and households supplied
subordinate administrators. Political marriages cemented alliances, and so
divorce and polygamy were rare among the upper classes, though the former
was common among the ordinary people.
Ottoman society was divided into
the askeri who included the ulemas, the kadis (judges),
the muftis (law interpreters), and the military, and the reaya
who were the empire's merchants, craftsmen, and peasants. The military were
mostly trained in obsolescent weapons and tactics -- the once famed
Janissaries had become a Muslim caste and garrison troops who found
additional employment as artisans and enforcers offering "protection" for
businesses.
Religious sheriat law applied to Muslim subjects,
while the Sultan devised laws for those of other faiths and circumstances
not covered by the sheriat. The Orthodox faith was protected by the
Sultans as a bastion against Catholicism and pro-Western sympathies. Though
Orthodox clergy were exempt from taxation, each new Patriarch paid the
Sultan 20,000 piastres ($15,000) for the privilege of succeeding to
the office.
Foreigners enjoying "capitulations" were subject to their
own nation's laws while in the Empire, and exempt from taxes and customs,
(Other foreigners had no protection.) Non-Muslims dominated trade. The
Empire imported coffee, dyes and coffee, and exported cereals, hides,
tobacco, and wool. Its subsistence farmers also grew olives, fruit and
vegetables.
In the towns, homes were partitioned by gender into
selamlik and haremlik spaces for men and women respectively, and
furnished with raised platforms covered with cushions. Men frequented coffee
houses while both sexes enjoyed the markets with their storytellers and
puppet theatres. The Sufi brotherhoods and lodges provided a focus to the
religious and social lives of many. The larger lodges included living
quarters, classrooms, libraries, hospices and even tombs.
The cities
were primitive, congested, and filthy. Epidemics even of bubonic plague
occurred often. Strangulation of rivals, beheadings and the staking out of
felons' bodies reminded westerners that the Ottomans rulers remained
capricious and ferocious.
*** Insert map of "The Ottoman Empire" from
quataert-ottomanempire.tif ***

The Lands of the

Sublime Porte
The Sublime Porte, as the court-government of the
Ottoman Empire was styled, had limited control over its provinces. The city
 of Dubrovnik sent cash payments to the Sultan, but in all other respects
behaved as an Italian city-state. Noble families such as Suleiman's
descendants ruled Baghdad, Ali Bey ruled Egypt, and Ali Pasha held
Epirus.
In the Balkans, Albania, Bosnia and Montenegro paid
nominal tribute to Constantinople. Villages elected their own notables, some
of whom abused the tax-raising powers for self-aggrandizement. The
armatoles (or Christian militia) frequently doubled as bandits. The
Balkan peninsula suffered from increasing depopulation during the second
half of the eighteenth century; peasants who wearied of Ottoman rule simply
left to live in its hills, mountains and vast forests. The Turkish
population was concentrated in the towns and cities as administrators,
troops, craftsmen and merchants.
Moldavia and Wallachia retained
their native boyar nobles, but the Sultan selected their princes from
leading Greek families who intrigued and paid huge sums for the positions.
The princes could expect to earn much more during even short tenures from
tax-farming and serf labor.
Ottoman Greece supported an elite of
native scholars and clergymen with the Phanariot families becoming
wealthy through their dragoman services as interpreters, agents and
diplomats for the Empire. They secured control over the Orthodox Patriarchy
and looked forward to the overthrow of the Turks and the restoration of a
Greek Empire as a second Byzantium. Greek mainland villages were governed by
their own notables and granted relative autonomy in return for prompt tax
payments. The communities of the Peloponnesus archipelago elected delegates
to their own senate.
The Arab provinces, especially Egypt, were
dominated by the Mamelukes. Initially purchased as slaves, the best of these
soldiers were educated in the households of their generals, manumitted, and
gradually rose to positions of power. Egypt became effectively autonomous
from Constantinople during the period. In Arabia itself, the Wahhabi
movement (led by Abdul Wahhab and later Muhammad ibn Saud) denounced the
"degenerate" rule of the Sultans and demanded a return to the strict
teachings of the Prophet. They menaced Ottoman control of the holy cities of
Mecca and Medina.
In North Africa, ostensible vassals such as the
Dey of Algiers continued their piracy and slave raids. (The Sultanate of
Morocco was never part of the Ottoman Empire.)

The New
World
*** Insert map of "North America" using jenkins-northamerica1763.tif
***

The United States of America

Prior to the Revolution, the

thirteen American colonies had each been administered by a royal governor,
an appointed colony council, and an elected assembly. The franchise to vote
and hold office in the assembly was limited to white males who belonged to
the Church of England. (Multiple Christian denominations contended for the
souls of Americans, however.) Both council and assembly could propose
legislation, which was then subject to the governor's veto. If he approved,
the new law required ratification by the English government. After the
Revolution and the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, each state admitted to
the union was entitled to elect two members of the Senate and one member of
the House of Representatives per thirty thousand franchised voters. The
frontier lands beyond the borders of the states were administered as
territories under appointed governors, being allowed to petition for
elevation to statehood on surpassing sixty thousand inhabitants.
By
the mid-1760s, the population of the American colonies reached two million,
doubling to four million by 1790 and to eight million by 1814. The slave
population rose from half to three-quarters of a million.
The New
England colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode
Island supported flourishing timber and maritime industries. Boston (16,000)
in Massachusetts and Newport (11,000) in Rhode Island thrived as shipping,
fishing and whaling ports.
The "Middle Atlantic" colonies of New
Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania were better suited for agriculture than
New England. The Hudson and Delaware rivers were critical trade arteries.
The cities of New York (25,000 residents) and Philadelphia (45,000
inhabitants) dominated this region.
The "South Atlantic" colonies of
Georgia, Maryland, North and South Carolinas, and Virginia harbored half the
American population. The Chesapeake region continued its cultivation of
tobacco, while wheat and corn plantations increased in the interior of
Maryland and Virginia. North Carolina added timber and naval stores to its
tobacco exports. Baltimore was the principal town and port for these three
states. Rice and indigo were the mainstays of Georgia and South Carolina
with Savannah and Charleston (properly Charles Town) being the only
significant urban centers in the south.
Wealth rather than noble
lineage determined status and influence in America, before and after the
Revolution. In the rural areas, planters with large estates controlled
political power; in the cities, financiers and merchants formed the colonial
and post-revolutionary elite.

The Western
Frontier
Despite the Royal Proclamation of 1765 forbidding further
settlement in Native American territories, American land speculators and
pioneers continued to covet the western territories. After the Revolution,
expansion into the frontier territories (Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and
Kentucky) gathered momentum, leading to displacement and confrontation with
the indigenous Native American tribes.
The territories which
later became the states of Ohio and Indiana were home to a number of settled
tribes such as the Delaware, Iroquois, and Shawnee. Strife between settlers
and tribesmen led to pitched battles. American victory at Fallen Timbers
(1794) broke Indian power in Ohio, requiring them to concede substantial
lands. Ohio became a state in 1803. Continued immigration produced renewed
 hostilities in Indiana. The Shawnee chief Tecumseh and his brother, the
Prophet, attempted to raise a native coalition against the entirety of the
American border in conjunction with British military support in 1811. The
Prophet was defeated that year by Governor Harrison at Tippecanoe. Tecumseh
died at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. The British defeat at New Orleans
weakened their negotiating stance, preventing them from realizing their
demand of an independent Native American nation in the north-west. Indiana
became a state in 1816.
In Tennessee, American pioneers were
largely independent of royal authority, prior to the Revolution. Early
cordial relations with the Cherokee tribesmen degenerated to intermittent
violence as permanent settlers superseded trappers and traders. Volunteers
from Tennessee fought in both the Revolution and the War of 1812, and their
territory was the first to receive statehood (1796).
Daniel Boone
was the first successful American explorer of Kentucky, and he was followed
by waves of settlers in the 1770s, despite the belligerence of Shawnee and
Cherokee tribes, who were encouraged to attack by the British during the
Revolution. Immigration increased after independence and Kentucky was
detached from Virginia's jurisdiction and recognized as a separate state in
1792.

Canada

Britain's original intentions were

to assimilate Canada by encouraging Anglo-American immigration and
reorganizing its administration on American colonial patterns. Territorial
changes to New France added coastal Labrador to Newfoundland and mainland
Acadia to Nova Scotia. Though several hundred English-speaking families
arrived and quickly assumed economic control, British governors preferred
the French seigniors, clergy and professionals to the pushy merchants, and
sought their loyalty. Under the Quebec Act of 1774, Catholics were allowed
to hold office while French law and the seigniorial system were upheld. The
newly established Catholic clergy persuaded their congregations against
rebellion; the English-speaking Nova Scotians reliance on military-naval
subsidies and English trade kept then loyal.
After the American
revolution, the United Empire Loyalists buttressed Canadian allegiance to
Britain, mostly settling in Cape Breton Island and New Brunswick, and on the
frontier in western Quebec.
Though French Quebec rejected the
rationalist ideals of France's Revolution, tension continued to rise between
the English and French communities. The British response was the 1791 Canada
Act, which partitioned Quebec into Upper Canada (west of the Ottawa river)
where English law and land tenure held sway and Lower Canada where the
French system prevailed. The English-speaking merchants of Montreal were
again disappointed in their attempts to obtain an elective assembly and the
jurisdiction of English common law which would have aided them in ousting
the French citizens from office.
Newfoundland became a crown colony.
Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were provinces
administered by elective assemblies. Cape Breton Island had an appointed
council, while Rupert's Land was run by the Hudson Bay Company. The unknown
lands beyond were merely claimed.
The Maritime Provinces grew slowly
reaching a population of 100,000 by 1812. Prosperity came from fishing and
trading local timber and foodstuffs with Britain and the West Indies. By
1812, land speculation and immigration of Scots, Irish, and Americans into
Upper Canada created a loyalist landed oligarchy.
Lower Canada's
population expanded to 300,000 with a tenth in Montreal itself which
continued to dominate the fur trade through the Beaver Club. The city was
the financial and forwarding center of the Club, from which "emissaries"
departed each summer to meet the "winter partners" who actually organized
the efforts of western hunters and trappers. These partnerships competed
against the Hudson Bay Company until 1821. The "Chateau clique" of French
ecclesiastics and seigniors, and English merchants dominated Lower Canada's
government, though commoners and professionals successfully manipulated the
assembly on key issues.
French Canadians' fear of assimilation into an
American superstate, British Canadian loyalism, the presence of regular
British troops, and American failure to attack Montreal decisively all
preserved Canada in the War of 1812.

Louisiana
The Louisiana Territory, ranging from
the "Stony" Mountains (later renamed the Rockies) in the west to the
Mississippi River in the east, and from Canada in the north to the Gulf of
Mexico in the south, was originally part of France's vast North American
empire. Ceded to Spain as compensation for the Spanish loss of the Floridas
in the Seven Years' War, the fifty thousand French settlers remained
sentimentally attached to France despite their abandonment. A brief revolt
in 1768 was swiftly suppressed by the Irish-Spanish governor, Alejandro
O'Reilly, who instituted and adapted conventional Spanish colonial
government to Louisiana.
The new governor and cabildo
(council) of New Orleans took over every aspect of civic and regional
administration, fixing prices for essential commodities, maintaining the
streets which became dustbowls in dry weather and quagmires in wet weather,
licensing all medical practitioners and so forth. The French practices of
licensing traders and sending gifts to important Native American chiefs were
continued and the tribes remained mostly peaceful. From Louisiana, Spanish
forces harassed the British during the American Revolution, capturing West
Florida.
Despite being almost totally destroyed by fire in 1788
and 1794, New Orleans rebuilt itself twice as a flourishing port of ten
thousand residents. A gay city of high living and loose morals, New Orleans
was the traditional blend of wealth and poverty. The rich enjoyed masked
balls, the theatres and the opera; the poor preferred the abundant taverns.
All classes enjoyed the legal dances and the illegal gambling.
The
1780s saw a resurgence of tobacco cultivation in Louisiana in addition to
its strong indigo industry. The tobacco expansion was too sudden, the
produce was badly packed, spoiling quickly, and the export market simply
collapsed. Cotton replaced tobacco during the next
 decade.
Louisiana failed to develop into a typical Spanish colony.
Trade concessions made it a popular smuggling route to Spain's other
possessions. A failure to attract sufficient Spanish and European Catholic
immigrants meant it was unable to halt Anglo-American expansion, requiring
Spain to grant American settlers navigation rights on the Mississippi and
trading privileges in New Orleans. Hence from 1795, Spanish policy aimed at
returning Louisiana to France, so that the latter could shield the
Viceroyalty of New Spain from American continentalism. Unfortunately for
Spain, Napoleon repudiated his word.

*** Insert map of "South

America" using Either fregosi-southamerica.tif OR parry-southamerica.tif
(Possibly try to combine these two maps) OR (as a last resort)
cassell-southamerica.tif ***

The Spanish Americas

Spain's
American empire included most of Central and South America as well as
portions of western North America. South America was governed as three
viceregal dominions. The Viceroyalty of La Plata was the newest with 350,000
residents and its capital at Buenos Aires. From Lima, the Viceroyalty of
Peru ruled one and a half million inhabitants. Two and a half million people
lived in the Viceroyalty of New Granada which stretched from the Brazilian
to the Mexican border. The seven million people of Mexico and beyond to
California belonged to the populous Viceroyalty of New Spain.
Below
the ruling viceroys, presidents, and captain-generals, the territories were
subdivided into provinces administered by intendants responsible for
all branches of government. Spanish towns were run by elected councils and
appointed subdelegados. The officials were generously paid, efficient,
and disliked by the colonials. Defeats in the Seven Years' War encouraged
increasing militarization with peace-time conscripted militias being
reinforced with professional regiments from Spain.
New Spain became
the empire's major silver producer. Despite the assistance of foreign
experts, mismanagement and conservative techniques limited effective
production to a few rich mines.
Salt beef and leather exports from the
La Plata plantations and native settlements flowed through the thriving port
of Buenos Aires. European goods destined for Upper Peru went overland from
Buenos Aires; cargoes for coastal Chile sailed round Cape Horn.

Catalan merchants established permanent bases for their fishing

fleets in Chile. The sea bream and conger catches were salted for sale in
Upper Peru. The Patagonian whalers exported whale oil directly to
Barcelona.
The South American Indians forgot their own agricultural
expertise and were slow to adopt European techniques. The Spanish
haciendas (plantations) employed thousands of natives cultivating
native crops such as potatoes and maize as well as introduced crops such as
rice and bananas. These inefficient and overextended estates strove to be
self-supporting but largely failed.
Zealous missionaries led Spanish
settlement and Native American conversion northward through California after
1768. The Jesuits were followed by ranchers and prospectors leading to the
creation of new towns at San Diego and San Francisco in California as well
as San Antonio and Albuquerque. This countered the expansionistic tendencies
of Russian traders operating from Alaska and British claims to the Pacific
shores of Canada.
Elsewhere an uneasy truce existed between the
Spanish and the British logging settlements in Honduras. The settler
population in the Dutch Guyana colonies of Berbice and Demerara-Essequibo
became predominantly of British extraction, and surrendered to the British
rather than join the French Empire. Disease-ridden French Guyana served as a
penal colony for Revolutionary France.

Spanish
American Society
Economically Spain's colonies were bound to
European markets, particularly England with its insatiable demand for raw
materials and agricultural products. Mercantilist policies protected Spanish
manufacturers, inhibiting industrial organization in the New World, though
many independent master craftsmen serviced colonial needs. A preference for
land and trade reduced the available capital for industrial investments. The
removal of trading restrictions between the provinces from the 1760s onward
encouraged legal commerce and colonial road-building, though the mountains
still required mule and llama trains. Despite the risk of privateers,
smuggling remained endemic, especially in war years. By 1797, Spain
permitted its colonies to trade with neutral powers.
Spanish
American (or Creole) society seemed ordered and prosperous, exuding
self-confidence in civic splendor and lavish townhouses. Officials, senior
clergy, and owners of plantations and mines spent most of their time away
from their stoutly-built haciendas, which were used more for storage than as
residences.
Creole society was highly stratified into castes. At
the apex were the gente distinguida who included senior officials and
clergy, professionals, wealthy landowners and mine-owners, and merchants.
Some mestizo (mixed-race) families who could trace their ancestry back
to the original conquest were accepted in high society. Mixed-race
shopkeepers and artisans formed the colonial middle-class with impoverished
white immigrants determined to avoid manual labor and the natives comprising
a discontented proletariat.
Creole social life focused on the
provincial courts and the local cathedral or church. Salon society as
practiced in continental Europe was unknown. The theatre and bull-fights
were equally popular pastimes. Though censorship was enforced, it was too
slow and haphazard to prevent Enlightenment and revolutionary ideas
circulating. However the Creole learned societies concentrated on practical
matters and periodical publishing.
Hostility grew between Creoles
and Peninsular Spaniards, with the former styling themselves
Americanos to differentiate themselves from the Peninsular immigrants
 and the mestizos. Though Creoles did become viceroys, competition for
the lesser posts and well-paid sinecures in government and church was much
greater. Catalan merchants disrupted cozy monopolies and preferential
treatment received by low-born immigrants offended the sensibilities of
Creole patricians. Gradually Creole loyalty to Spain eroded.

The Portuguese Americas

Discoveries of gold in the

1690s created Brazil's mining industry. By the mid-eighteenth century, the
economy had diversified to include cattle ranching, whaling, sugar, and
tobacco cultivation. Interior provinces such as Minas Gerais became
self-sufficient, whereas the coastal plantations adhered to mercantilist
policies. By 1801, Brazil's population stood at three million with a steady
influx of immigrants from Portugal and the Azores ensuring the colony
remained Portuguese. Insufficient white women meant that the sons of mixed
marriages were educated and allowed to hold minor offices. However the
military and religious orders were much stricter on race.
Brazil was
organized into fourteen regional "Captaincies". The towns were administered
by municipal councils consisting of up to six aldermen, two magistrates, and
one attorney. These councilors were selected from patrician families or
elected by complex annual ballots. European and Brazilian-born Portuguese
had equal opportunities to enter the councils, except in the largest cities.
These bodies enjoyed the right to correspond with the monarch, a privilege
frequently exercised by those of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia.
Portugal
had various rights, privileges and duties with regard to missionary work. In
return for bearing the cost of proselytizing, the monarchy had the right to
collect tithes and appoint bishops in its colonial territories. Papal
desires to rescind these concessions (so that Rome could more effectively
organize the missionaries) led to conflict with the monarchy. As in
Portugal, leading Brazilians joined lay confraternities
(misericórdia) which focused on charitable works. Membership in
these associations was considered an honor.
Brazil's rural aristocracy
came from humble origins. Their practice of endogamy -- cousins
marrying cousins and uncles marrying nieces -- kept their estates
undivided. Many families owned vast lands in the interior. Commissions in
the militia were sought as status symbols but the regular army and navy were
avoided. (The rank and file of these services were recruited from ordinary
citizens and mulattos.) The Crown sold all offices which even potentially
generated revenue, and was unable to prevent its officials from making
fortunes during their tenure. Merchants became rich from crown monopolies
-- this also encouraged smuggling from the less fortunate
traders.
The American struggle for independence encouraged some of the
Brazilian elite to consider the desirability of ousting the Portuguese
leadership so that they could form the new apex of society, even to the
extent of forming conspiracies with American collaborators. The rebellion of
1789 in the mining province of Minas Gerais demanded economic freedoms,
subsidies to attract white women to emigrate from Portugal, and the
establishment of a militia. It was vigorously suppressed by the authorities.
The deteriorating situation and eventual massacres of settlers in Haiti
(former Hispaniola) reminded the Brazilians of their own discontented
underclass. Though it was crushed, the 1798 rebellion of mestizos and
blacks indicated how quickly Jacobin ideas had propagated through Brazilian
society.
*** Insert map of "The West Indies" using fregosi-westindies.tif
***

West Indies

Spain's major Caribbean possession was Cuba, a

center of naval shipbuilding and already a tobacco exporter to North America
and Europe. After the Seven Years' War, Cuba's fortresses were reinforced
and slaves were introduced to establish sugar plantations. Spain also owned
Santo Domingo (the eastern half of Hispaniola), Puerto Rica and Trinidad,
though settler numbers remained in the low thousands.
French holdings
included Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Domingue (western Hispaniola) as well
as St. Lucia, Tobago and islets such as Les Saintes. Martinique was the seat
of government for the French Windward Islands. Both Martinique and
Guadeloupe were prosperous sugar producers, but easily eclipsed by
Saint-Domingue, which was responsible for two-thirds of French overseas
trade. Annually fifteen hundred ships carried sugar, coffee, cotton, and
indigo from the colony's eight thousand plantations to Europe and to British
North America in return for cash, grain, fish, timber, and horses. Merchant
houses in Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Nantes reaped vast profits, while racial
and class tensions seethed among the forty thousand white settlers, the
forty thousand mixed-race "mulattos" and freed slaves, and the half-million
slaves. (Slaves who married French subjects were immediately
freed.)
The Dutch islands of Curaçao and St Eustatius used their
free port status to prosper as clearing houses for manufactured goods and
colonial products.
The British West Indies included Antigua, Barbados,
Dominica, Granada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Nevis, St Kitts, St. Vincent, and
the Virgin Islands. The older colonies were worn out from over-cultivation
of sugar. The West Indian group in Parliament lobbied for lower sugar
duties, cheaper slaves and restrictions on trade with other sugar producers.
The home merchants simply wanted cheap sugar and molasses, plus captive
markets for slaves and manufactured goods.
The West Indian interests
failed to avert war with the American colonies, but resisted overtures to
join the rebellion, recognizing their reliance on the Royal Navy for
defense. During the war, all the British islands save Antigua, Barbados and
Jamaica were (temporarily) captured by Franco-Spanish attacks, but the
status quo was restored by treaty. Afterward price increases in timber and
food imports from Canada, devastating hurricanes and rising sugar duties led
to attempts to find new crop plants to replace the sugar
monoculture.
The ambition of most white planters was to manage (and
then own) an estate, retiring to Europe on the proceeds. The unhealthy
climate, the absence of cultural pursuits and educational facilities for
children, the lack of society, and the ever-present fear of slave revolt
encouraged absenteeism. Attorneys and resident planters supervised the
plantations of absentee neighbors, and became the leaders of island society,
deputizing for officials, who preferred not to leave the mother country, and
serving on elected assemblies and appointed councils.

The Rest of
The World
*** Insert map here of "India" from Either wolpert-india4.tif OR
(cassell-india.tif plus cassell-indiawest.tif) ***

India

India
had perhaps two hundred million inhabitants by 1800, mostly Hindus and
Muslims. The Mughal Empire had contracted to an impotent city-state --
the old emperor Shah Alem was blinded by Afghan invaders in 1788 and eked
out his life in Delhi's Red Fort. Agra, Jaipur and Delhi were administered
by a protégé of his former Maratha vassals. Sikh power was
concentrated at Amritsar in the Punjab, while Muslim emirs and chieftains
ruled Sind and frontier territories. Former vassals such as the pro-French
Nizam of Hyderabad acquired legitimate titles from the emperor and acted as
kings in their own domains. By avoiding dynastic proclamations and never
striking coinage in their own name, they became independent without ever
challenging the current emperor. By 1800, India had fragmented into 562
states.
The Marathas Confederacy had received permission to tax
central India in the early eighteenth century. By mid-century, their
interpretation of this as a license to raid, conquer, and then tax,
had made them the greatest Indian power. The Confederacy was divided into
five states ruled by distinct clans -- the Rao rajahs of Satara, the
Gaekwar in Baroda, the Holkars in Indore, the Sindhia in Gwalior, and the
Bhonsle in Nagpur. Though the Rao clan nominally headed this pentarchy, the
Sindhia clan were the most powerful.
Mysore under the usurpers Hyder
Ali and Tipu Sultan contended for supremacy in southern India. Like the
Marathas, imported Arabian horses gave Mysore superior cavalry forces than
their lesser rivals. Only Hyder Ali was sufficiently prescient to urge a
Hindu-Muslim alliance to expel the British while this was still possible in
the 1780s.
Although the French had been reduced to defenseless trading
posts at Pondicherry, Mahé, Karikal, Yanaon, and Chandernagore, all of
which were quickly captured by the British in the Revolutionary Wars, French
mercenaries commanded and trained Indian armies, and manned their artillery
units.
The British spread outward from their outposts and
presidencies of Surat, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, preferring to support
puppet nawabs than attempt outright conquest initially. The Company gained
tax rights over Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Under Cornwallis' Code of 1793,
private ownership of land in return for fixed rents replaced the Indian
system of lifetime land grants for local law and order. British provincial
courts replaced Indian courts with Company officials serving as both police
and magistrates. Internal duties were suppressed while the Company obtained
monopolies over salt import and sales as well as opium production and sale.
The latter provided it with a non-specie export for the Chinese market.
Methodical and fair rule, annual rather than multiple taxation, and land
settlements bound India's peasantry to the British Empire. Subsidiary
alliances and systematic force reduced the power of native princes and
brought peace to the continent. However no Indian was allowed to hold a
Sepoy commission or earn more than five hundred pounds annually in company
service. By 1820, Calcutta was a capital of a quarter of a million
inhabitants.

The East Indies

Ceylon

Until 1796, the

Dutch East India Company controlled most of Ceylon from Colombo and
protected the interior kingdom of Kandy. Large profits were made from
cinnamon, pearls, and elephant sales (the last to India). The Dutch
respected the existing structures of Ceylon society, including the local
nobility who helped them administer the island. The British East India
Company ousted their Dutch rivals in 1796, and Ceylon became a crown colony
in 1802. An attempt to conquer Kandy failed in 1803, but succeeded with the
aid of local chiefs in 1815. After the 1818 rebellion, Kandy was integrated
fully into the colony. British rule led to agricultural progress, abolition
of slavery, and a replacement of land grants with salaries for
service.

Malaysia

Malaysia remained dominated by shifting

sultanates whose subordinate chiefdoms were prone to waging civil and
foreign war with their neighbors. The Dutch held the trading post of
Malacca. The British East India Company purchased Penang Island in 1786 to
assist in supplying the Chinese markets. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles
purchased Singapore on behalf of the Company, eventually transforming it
into the region's greatest port.

Indonesia

Indonesia was
styled the Dutch East Indies. Dutch assistance in a series of succession
wars in Java and elsewhere in the archipelago during the early to
mid-eighteenth century had established the Dutch East India Company as the
preeminent power in the region from its bases in Batavia (now Jakarta). The
native nobles remained in place as tribute collectors (of produce) for the
company within its directly held territories. Elsewhere company trading
posts became (through intimidation) the sole export routes for the
semi-independent territories. Smuggling, corruption, and administrative
expense led to the dissolution of the company in 1799 with the Dutch
government taking direct control. French control of Holland brought eventual
French rule in Java by 1806. Despite impressive fortifications, Java was
conquered by the British East India Company in 1811, and Stamford Raffles
was appointed governor. His attempts at centralizing the Javanese regencies
and integrating the island into the British trading bloc were undone by its
return to Holland in 1815.
The Philippines

The Philippines
were ruled by a Spanish governor-general from the capital of Manila. As the
natives were at least nominally Catholic, the archbishop wielded great
political power and Church institutions became wealthy through the accretion
of estates. Priests and friars, fluent in the indigenous languages, spread
in the provinces, assisting the colonial administrators, educating the
Filipinos in European agricultural techniques, and attempting to eliminate
animistic religious survivals among their congregations. Lay Spaniards
enriched themselves, trading Chinese silk for Mexican silver.

Other

Lands

Africa

European knowledge and direct intercourse with

Africa was confined to its coasts. North Africa was ruled by Ottoman pashas
and independent Muslim princes. The Barbary States were infamous for piracy
and slave raiding. East Africa was a patchwork of urbanized Somali peoples
and Swahili-speaking nations, culturally influenced by the Arabian slave
traders.
Scattered European trading posts and coastal colonies were
established on the west coast of Africa. The French outposts were at
Gorée and in Senegal. The British, Danish, Dutch and Spanish founded
sturdy forts to protect their slaving interests on the Gold Coast, though
they could easily have been overrun by neighboring native townships. The
British created Sierra Leone, a colony for emancipated slaves, though
settlement was limited to Freetown. From here, European influences seeped
into West Africa. Meanwhile native nations and tribes such as the Ashanti,
Dahomey, Oyo, and the Fulani (of Sudan) were all expanding toward the
slaving coasts. Further south, the Portuguese dominated Angola, inciting war
among its tribes, undertaking sporadic missionary work, and introducing New
World crops such as cassava, maize, and sweet potato.
Owing to the
milder South African climate, the Dutch base at the Cape of Good Hope
blossomed from a mere port-of-call for ships en route to India and New South
Wales to a colony of twenty thousand settlers.

Australia

Britain decided to settle the New South Wales territory in 1786,

ostensibly as a penal colony. The First Fleet (under Arthur Phillip) arrived
with a thousand free and convict marines and settlers in 1788, founding
Sydney Cove. Despite disease, hostile Aborigines, and the lack of farming
skills among the convicts, the colony survived with its population augmented
by new batches of convicts, expanding the settled region around Sydney and
in Tasmania. Australian whalers traded with the Maoris of New Zealand,
introducing firearms to the tribal struggles.
The colony's governors
were all military officers. This did not prevent clashes with ambitious
members of the New South Wales Corps, who eventually deposed Governor
William "Bounty" Bligh in 1808, but were themselves recalled to Britain. His
successor, Lachlan Macquerie, spent his term in office balancing the
contending "exclusive" (former officers and free immigrants) and
"emancipist" (former convicts) factions.

China and Japan

China

China, ancient, arrogant, and vast, was

home to three hundred million. The Manchu emperors, like previous dynasties,
considered China to be superior to all other nations. The Ch'ien-lung
emperor (reigning 1735-96) patronized the arts (but censored any literature
criticizing the Manchus) and funded military expeditions to secure and
expand the frontiers. During his son's reign as the Chia-ch'ing emperor
(1796-1820), piracy, localized revolts, and increasing opium addiction
afflicted China.
While Shanghai became the principal port for
Chinese traders, European merchants were restricted to Canton from 1759 and
required to transact business in tea and silk with the association of firms
forming the cohong monopoly. The favored Portuguese held a trading
outpost at Macao near Canton. The East India Company convinced Admiral Drury
in 1808 to seize it for Britain, officially to preserve it from the French.
Macao seized, Drury was persuaded to continue to Canton. Civilians hurled
projectiles from the banks at his barge while Chinese navy junks barred the
river. Drury withdrew, receiving a letter later from Chia-ch'ing ordering
him to quit Macao, which was restored to the
Portuguese.

Japan

Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa

shoguns on behalf of the emperors. Natural disasters combined with peasant
revolts throughout the 1780s to unsettle the nation, with unrest reaching
the cities in 1787. Attempts at reform to reconcile the monetary economy of
the cities with the idealized and desired rice-based economy of the
countryside failed. The samurai suffered poverty while the despised
merchants enjoyed great wealth and richer farmers exploited their poorer
neighbors, reducing them to mere tenants.
As part of the
shogunate's isolationist policies, only the Chinese and the Dutch were
allowed to trade with Japan, and only at Nagasaki. By the 1800s, Russian
merchants were requesting and being denied commercial access to Japan. The
Russians retaliated with sporadic attacks on outlying northern islands
between 1804 and 1807. During a cruise for Dutch merchant vessels, HMS
Phaeton entered Nagasaki harbor unopposed in 1808. This dishonor led to
the ritual suicide of the port's governor and generals. Thereafter Japan was
left alone.
PEOPLE
RULERS

Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon was born in Corsica on August 15, 1769, the
second surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte. His father's influence and the
family's noble lineage gained Napoleon entry to the French Collège
d'Autun at age nine. Transferring to the military college of Brienne (for
five years) and the Parisian military academy (1784), he was commissioned as
an artillery second lieutenant (1785). He was variously in Corsica and
France between 1786 and 1792, supporting Pasquale Paoli's return to the
island (1789), promoted to artillery first lieutenant (1791), becoming a
Jacobin leader in Valence, and briefly a lieutenant colonel of the Corsican
national guard (1791). Promoted to captain, Napoleon joined the Jacobin
faction in Corsica (1792), and was active in the eventual civil war against
Paoli (1793). The Bonaparte family was forced to flee to
France.
After returning to his regiment, Napoleon was active in
the capture of Marseilles, and via influence, was appointed artillery
commander for the Toulon siege and promoted major (September) and
adjutant-general (October). Though slightly injured, Napoleon's artillery
maneuvering forced the British to evacuate Toulon. Rewarded with promotion
to brigadier-general (December) and appointment as artillery commander for
the Army of Italy, Napoleon was arrested on suspicion of extreme Jacobin
sympathies (August 1794), released a month later, but denied restoration to
his former command. Refusing a similar command against the Vendéan
counter-revolutionaries, he was in Paris from March 1795, lobbying for a
better posting and having an affair with Désirée
Clary.
Barras, acting to defend the Convention against a royalist
revolt, appointed Napoleon his second-in-command. Napoleon ordered the
artillery to fire on rebel formations, saving the republic with "a whiff of
grapeshot" (October 15, 1795). Created commander of the Army of the Interior
and advisor to the new Directory, Napoleon divided his time between courting
the widow Joséphine de Beauharnais and influencing the Directors'
plans for an invasion. Marrying Joséphine on March 9, 1796, he left to
join the Army of Italy as commander-in-chief on March 11. Napoleon's life
from this point to his death on May 5, 1821, is covered in the History
chapter.
Short (at five foot six and a half inches), thin and
broad-chested, Napoleon gained a pot-belly in middle age. His bluish-gray
eyes are set in a pale sallow face with a clear complexion framed by fine,
light chestnut-colored hair. Extremely ambitious for himself and his family,
Napoleon was a scion of the Enlightenment rather than a revolutionary.
Impatient, hot-tempered, and prone to verbally abusing subordinates,
Napoleon was charismatic, industrious, and single-minded. His interest in
the arts was partially aimed at self-aggrandizement, though he was
fascinated by antiquity and science. Napoleon was very physically
affectionate to his wives and mistresses.
Louis XVI

and Marie-Antoinette
Louis XVI, grandson of Louis XV, was born on
August 23, 1754. His wife, Marie-Antoinette, youngest daughter of Empress
Maria Theresa, was born on November 2, 1755. The two were married in 1770,
and Louis became King of France on May 10, 1770. Both were executed during
the French Revolution in 1793.
Louis' cold and brusque manner, marked
by fits of pique, concealed a kind and generous nature. Physically extremely
strong, the fair-haired and blue-eyed prince suffered from a lymphatic
condition which made him lethargic after indulging his voracious appetite,
and was impotent (this was cured by a later operation). Though his memory
was excellent, he was weak-willed and indecisive, being easily dominated by
court factions and after 1791, Marie-Antoinette, retreating into his hobbies
of hunting, lock-making and masonry. Louis' unwillingness to shed the blood
of his subjects and his later obsession with the example of England's
Charles I prevented his allies forcibly suppressing the Revolution.
As
princess and queen, Marie-Antoinette had the advantages of beauty, quick
wits and grace. She was also ill-educated, tactless, and unforgiving, making
enemies of aristocrats and generals who could have saved the monarchy. In
reaction to Louis' frigidity, she surrounded herself with a clique of
favorites -- her enemies accused her of immorality and promoting
Austrian interests. Her reputation was unjustly destroyed by the Affair of
the Diamond Necklace in 1786 (see Campaigns chapter, p. 00). Her friends
laid many plans to free Marie-Antoinette, but these foundered on her
unwillingness to be separated from her children and the vigilance of
Revolutionary zealots.

George III

The grandson of King George

II of England, George III was born on June 4, 1738, becoming Prince of Wales
in 1750 and King in 1760. He engineered the early retirement of William Pitt
the Elder and the Duke of Newcastle from office, replacing them with his
former teacher, the Earl of Bute, who arranged George's marriage to Princess
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1761. George's desire for peace led to
the unfortunate Treaty of Paris. Bute resigned and England endured
short-lived ministries until 1770 when George was able to create an
agreeable government under Lord North. His contention that the American
colonies should be obedient to King and Parliament encouraged the slide into
war and prolonged the conflict after Saratoga. His popularity declined
steadily, recovering only with his adroit replacement of Fox and North with
Pitt the Younger (by urging Peers to defeat a government motion) in 1783.
Contentment with Pitt allowed George to concentrate on his family and
hobbies. In October 1788 to March 1789, he suffered his first major bout of
insanity and was terrified thereafter of its return and the medical
treatments. In 1801, George vetoed Pitt's proposals for Catholic
emancipation, replacing him with Addington. Pitt's brief return in 1804-6
was conditional on his forswearing radical policies. The succeeding
coalition ministry was ousted for suggesting that Catholics should be
permitted to hold army and naval commissions. Growing blind from 1805
onward, he succumbed to madness in October 1810, remaining insane, blind,
and deaf to his death on January 29, 1820.
Tall with auburn hair,
George was trusting, good-natured, conscientious, and obstinate. Immoral
conduct revolted him and he believed (initially) in ruling rather than
merely reigning A horror of obesity and a careful diet kept him slim. A
patron of the arts, George was also interested in botany and agriculture.
Devoutly Protestant, he vetoed Catholic Emancipation because he considered
failing to defend Protestantism tantamount to conceding the moral right of
the House of Stuart to rule England. His insanity was probably caused by
hereditary porphyria.

George IV

Nicknamed "Prinny," George IV

was born on August 12, 1762, the eldest son of George III. Rebelling against
his father's strict morality, George became a hard-drinking womanizer,
keeping the company of dissolute Opposition politicians and earning royal
rebukes. In 1785, he secretly and illegally married his mistress, Maria
Fitzherbert, and considered eloping to America. He was thwarted by George
III's swift recovery in 1789 from becoming Regent and replacing Pitt's
ministry with his Whig cronies. The plight of the French émigrés
moved him deeply. His request to fight abroad was vetoed; instead he was
appointed Colonel of a cavalry regiment.
Legally married to Caroline
of Brunswick in 1795, his only child (Charlotte) was born in 1796 and the
couple separated. George's attempts afterward and later in 1820 to divorce
Caroline for lewd and adulterous behavior foundered on limited evidence and
parliamentary support. His plans for Catholic Emancipation in Ireland with
himself as Governor were ignored by Pitt in 1798. Frustrated politically and
refused military promotion, George devoted himself to pleasure and patronage
of the arts.
He became Regent on February 5, 1811, retaining the
existing administration a year later to the dismay of his former Whig allies
who were intent on making peace with Napoleon, if they came to power.
George's decision denied Napoleon the respite he required to reestablish and
cement his continental hegemony. On January 29, 1820, he became King. His
efforts to become involved in European politics during his reign were
channeled into state visits of Ireland and Scotland. He died on June 26,
1820.
Tall with a mass of unruly black hair, George became stout in
middle age. An excellent mimic and competent linguist, the sly and
extravagant youth mellowed to urbane civility in later years, but never lost
his rakish reputation.

Tipu Sultan

The son of Hyder Ali,

adventurer and usurper of Mysore in India, Tipu was born on November 20,
1750. His education was initially left in the hands of Moslem zealots,
turning Tipu into a religious bigot. Later training with French officers in
Hyder's employ taught him European tactics but failed to instill
open-mindedness. His first military command was against the Marathas in
1767. Thereafter he served Hyder as a loyal commander in battle against the
Marathas (1776-79) and the English (1780-84), inflicting several defeats and
a humiliating treaty on the latter. Following Hyder's death in 1782, Tipu
styled himself sultan of Mysore. The 1780s saw Tipu gradually replace
Hyder's generals (sometimes by execution) with his own favorites and order
the forced conversion of his provincial subjects to Islam. His attack on
Travancore triggered the Third Mysore War in 1789. Though Tipu withstood the
English and their Indian allies until 1792, he lost half his kingdom. After
his defeat, he concentrated on attempting to transform Mysore into an
Islamic state, building its defenses, and seeking Moslem allies beyond India
and in France (offering the Directory half the subcontinent). The English
intercepted his diplomacy and preemptively attacked in 1799 with the future
Wellington besieging and storming the Mysorean capital, Seringapatam, on May
4. Tipu attempted to flee but was killed in the confusion.
Vicious,
cruel, and deceitful, Tipu ruled through fear. Always armed, Tipu was an
excellent rider and competent general. His sobriquet, "Tiger of Mysore,"
stemmed from his love of tigers. He was fond of mechanical innovations,
owning a life-size musical clockwork tiger (gorging itself on a British
soldier -- the sounds were screams).

Catherine the Great

Born Sophie Friederike
Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst on May 2, 1729, the daughter of a minor Prussian
prince, she was betrothed at 14 to Grand Duke Peter, heir to the Russian
throne. In 1744, she journeyed to Russia, became Grand Duchess Catherine,
and married Peter the following year. Peter was adolescent in behavior,
drunken, neurotic, and pro-Prussian in his sympathies, hating Russia. Their
marriage was long unconsummated, Catherine eventually having three lovers.
She gave birth to Paul in September 1754, probably Peter's son. From 1758,
she began planning to eliminate Peter.
Peter ascended the throne
following Tsarina Elisabeth's death on January 5, 1762. His withdrawal from
the Seven Years' War, alliance with Prussia, and antagonizing of army and
clergy emboldened Catherine's supporters to support her coup. Leading loyal
regiments, she proclaimed herself empress in St Petersburg on July 8, 1762.
Peter surrendered, abdicated and was imprisoned. Catherine's lover, Grigory
Orlov, arranged his murder eight days later. Catherine was crowned Empress
in September.
By seizing church lands and converting the clergy
into salaried officials, Catherine restored Russia's finances (1762). She
also connived at the murder of "Infant Ivan," imprisoned for twenty-four
years, the great-nephew of Peter the Great and rightful Tsar (1764). That
year, she installed her ex-lover Stanislas Poniatowski as Poland's ruler;
her love for Orlov prevented Poniatowski from proposing marriage to
Catherine. Though a reader of the philosophes and acclaimed by
Voltaire, Catherine's internal reforms foundered. Inspiring her armies to
success in the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774), Pugachev's rebellion of
1773-75 steeled her to impose serfdom (which she abhorred) more harshly on
the peasants.
The ambitious Grigory Potemkin became her lover in
1774 and soon her minister. Catherine interceded in the Bavarian succession
preventing war between Prussia and Austria, and befriended Emperor Joseph II
 of Austria. Potemkin conquered the Crimea from the Turks during the 1780s.
Nevertheless Catherine avoided an offensive and defensive pact with England
in 1782, which would have given Russia Minorca -- and Mediterranean
sea-power -- because Russia's short-term interests were continental.
Threatened by the French Revolution and agitation in Poland, she
collaborated in the partitions of Poland (1792, 1795). On November 17, 1796,
Catherine died from a stroke.
Of medium height and slender build
tending to later plumpness and dark-haired, Catherine's long face was
redeemed by blue eyes and a perfect mouth, making her pretty if not
beautiful. Sensual and sexually demanding, Catherine was ambitious,
energetic, charming, egotistical, and vain. Her reign witnessed the
expansion of Russian territory and trade, and the full entrance of Russia
into European politics. Had she allied with England, her successors might
have triumphed over the Turks recovering Constantinople. Had she married
Poniatowski, Poland's future would have been happier. Without Catherine,
Russia would have fought pointless wars against its neighbors, drifting
outside European concerns. Napoleon might have felt no need to march on
Russia's reduced empire.

Statesmen

William Pitt the Younger

The second son of
William Pitt the Elder, Pitt was born on May 28, 1759. Educated at home in
classics and mathematics, and trained in oratory by his father, he attended
Pembroke Hall at Cambridge from age fourteen, graduating without examination
in 1776. He became a lawyer in 1780 and was elected to a pocket borough
(1781). Appointed chancellor of the exchequer (1782), Pitt refused an
opportunity to become prime minister after Shelburne's fall in 1783,
preferring temporary opposition to an untenable government. A reform bill
gained him support among liberal parliamentarians and George III was able to
make him prime minister that December. Crown influence ensured a favorable
general election result (1784) stabilizing his government.
New
taxes, simplified and reduced customs duties, and a sinking fund served to
improve finances, limit smuggling, and reduce the national debt. His East
India Bill (1784) gave the government power over the East India Company.
Reforms to replace the rotten boroughs with county and city constituencies
and smooth commerce between England and Ireland were defeated by vested
interests (1785). The Eden Treaty (1786) yielded trade benefits to England,
while Pitt's diplomacy created the Triple Alliance of England, Prussia, and
Holland (1788) gaining Britain continental allies who assisted in the
peaceful resolution of the Nootka Sound dispute with Spain
(1790).
He weathered George III's bout of madness (1788-89) by
careful adherence to precedent in creating a limited Regency Bill, giving
the King time to recover and avoiding his replacement by the Whigs.
Preferring strict neutrality toward France and peace from 1789 onward, he
reorganized Canadian administration to forestall rebellion by the French
 settlers (1791). Provoked into war (1793), Pitt waged a "blue-water"
campaign to defend and extend British colonial and commercial interests,
rather than supporting a Bourbon restoration. To staunch the influence of
radical societies and spies, he invoked repressive legislation; to finance
the war, he initiated income taxes (1798). Crown and cabinet opposition
prevented an advantageous peace with Bonaparte (1799).
Pitt was
convinced that union and Catholic emancipation were essential to
safeguarding Ireland. Union was accomplished by buying out the Irish
Parliament; emancipation was vetoed by George III. Pitt resigned on February
3, 1801. George accused him later of driving him insane. Frequently ill
during 1802, Pitt supported Addington's ministry until 1804, criticizing its
weaknesses in finance and national defense. Re-appointed prime minister (May
1804), Pitt engineered the Third Coalition, but naval triumphs were
countered by Napoleonic land victories. His health failed rapidly (1805),
and he died on January 23, 1806.
Tall and lanky, Pitt had a full
face with an aquiline nose, a high forehead, and neat hair. Restrained and
aloof in public, he was witty and lively to intimates and relatives.
Celibate and dutiful in religion, he was insensitive to music and
romanticism, and careless about personal finances. A superb orator, his
style included devastating sarcasm. Bedeviled with a weak constitution, gout
and addiction to port, disturbances to regular daily routines caused him
headaches, sickness, and gradually reduced his working day.
Though
Pitt's reliance on colonial campaigns and continental allies lengthened the
war, his policies nevertheless weathered the revolutionary storm and set in
motion the path to Empire. He reshaped the prime ministerial office into one
coordinating the various departments. With greater support from king and
parliamentarians, Pitt would have achieved parliamentary reform, the
abolition of the slave trade, and ensured Catholic Ireland's loyalty to the
Empire. Without Pitt, revolution or invasion would have been England's
fate.

Joseph Fouché

Fouché was born

on May 21, 1758 near Nantes. His father was a sea captain and the family's
wealth derived from West Indian plantations. Educated by the Oratorian
order, Fouché was a lay science teacher until 1792. Already a Jacobin,
Fouché was married and elected to the Convention, initially as a
Girondin that year, serving in the committees. A sudden change of mind made
him vote for Louis XVI's death, and he became a Montagnard. During 1793.
Fouché was a representative en mission, ordering massacres in
Lyon, and engendering Robespierre's hostility. In 1794, he organized
opposition to Robespierre achieving his downfall. Reduced to detective work
from 1795, Fouché was appointed ambassador to Milan and the Hague
(1797).
Created minister of police (1799), he judiciously suppressed
royalists and Jacobins, and supported the Brumaire coup by sealing Paris.
Foiling numerous assassination attempts on Napoleon, Fouché's position
was temporarily abolished in 1802. His intelligence network remained intact
and he was reinstated (1804). Ennobled as count (1808) and Duc d'Otrante
(1809) for swift action in thwarting Britain's Walcheren expedition, his
intrigues with the British to forge a peace were discovered and he was
dismissed. He was appointed Illyrian governor (1812) to hinder his plotting.
Returning to France during the first restoration, he was ignored until
Napoleon made him police minister in the Hundred Days. Fouché
forestalled open revolt forcing France's fate to be decided at Waterloo, and
demanded Napoleon's second abdication. Proscribed as a regicide by the
royalist administration (1816), he died in exile on December 25,
1820.
Tall, thin, and pale-faced with a death's head visage,
Fouché was cold, brutal, ill-dressed and ill-washed. Calculating and
far-sighted, he lusted for power. Unscrupulous, he never willingly lost a
friend, cultivating allies among every faction. His reputation as regicide
haunted his later career.

Manuel de Godoy

Godoy was born on

May 12, 1767 in Badajoz, Spain, into an impoverished noble family of ancient
lineage. In 1784, he joined the royal bodyguard as a cadet and gained the
confidence of Princess Maria Luisa, wife of the future Charles IV. Godoy was
probably her lover (if briefly). Charles and Maria relied upon him to excess
and rewarded him with military promotion (Colonel 1789, Field Marshal 1792),
titles (such as Duke of Alcudia 1792), and the post of prime
minister.
His diplomacy to save Louis XVI from execution failed; his
negotiation of the Peace of Basel (1795) with France gained Spain a respite
from war and earned him the title of "Prince of the Peace" as well as the
jealousy of Prince Ferdinand. His later Treaty of San Ildefonso (1797) led
to Spanish defeat by England in the Battle of St Vincent and his own
dismissal (1798) (but without losing royal favor).
Reinstated in 1801,
Godoy's ambition (for a Portuguese throne) ensured his cooperation with
Napoleon in the War of the Oranges, and he profited (with Lucien Bonaparte)
from Portugal's war indemnity. Opposition to Godoy swelled among the
courtiers and the populace following renewed war against England and his
abolition of bull-fighting (1805). Godoy's incautious communications with
Napoleon over the Treaty of Fontainebleau to partition Portugal (and become
Prince of the Algarve) planted the seed for the Emperor's intervention. His
failure to urge the monarchs to flee immediately gave French forces time to
deploy and Ferdinand's supporters the opportunity to attack his house in
Aranjuez (March 1808). Almost lynched, Godoy was imprisoned by Ferdinand
while Charles abdicated. After his inability to prevent Charles ceding Spain
to Napoleon, Godoy joined Charles and Maria in exile until their deaths in
1819, remaining in Italy to 1832 and thereafter dwelling in obscure poverty
in Paris to his death on October 4, 1851.
Godoy was tall, muscular and
agile in his prime, becoming overweight in middle-age. Red-haired with brown
eyes, a wide nose, large mouth, and fine teeth, he maintained a mistress and
reputedly enjoyed the sexual favors of many aspiring noblewomen despite
marrying a royal cousin. Elegant, indolent, fair-minded, intelligent and
ingratiating, Godoy was throughout devoted to Maria and Carlos.

Lord Frederick North

Born on April 13, 1732, North was the
eldest son of Baron Guilford, later first Earl of Guilford. Educated at Eton
and Oxford, he became Member of Parliament for Banbury in 1754. Preferring
ministerial advancement, he turned down an Ambassadorship, becoming a
treasury minister (1759), paymaster general (1766), and chancellor (1767)
under successive administrations. Becoming prime minister in 1770, North
remained in office despite frequent attempts to resign until 1782. George
III's pleas and his own modest income (due to paltry allowances from his
long-lived father) played a part in preventing him quitting the post. After
a short stint in the Portland government (1783) and three years in
opposition, he retired from Parliament due to imminent blindness, became
Earl Guilford (in 1790), and died himself on August 5,
1792.
Plain-faced and slim in his youth, North grew corpulent and
increasingly near-sighted with age. Witty, lethargic and conservative,
North's excellent memory was combined with a preoccupation with detail, a
dislike of confrontation and a reluctance to make unpleasant decisions.
Always lacking in self-confidence, he became attracted and attached to
power.
As Chancellor, his vote was decisive in a Cabinet meeting in
retaining the tea duty in America in 1769, just as he later gave the East
India Company an exemption in return for corporate reforms in 1773. In both
cases, a different choice might have forestalled the American Revolution.
North prevented war in 1770 with Spain and France over contested sovereignty
of the Falklands through astute diplomacy. War might have been disastrous;
alternatively it might have revitalized colonial loyalties through shared
danger. His Quebec Bill of 1773 preserved Canada for Britain by reorganizing
its government. Throughout the American conflict, North's inconsistent
approach, lack of vision, and delegation of the war and diplomatic efforts
to ill-informed colleagues earned him his infamy as "the prime minister who
lost America."

Charles-Maurice de

Talleyrand-Prigord
Talleyrand was born on February 2, 1754. His
childhood clubfoot prevented an army career; his family compelled him into
the church to disinherit him from his title. After ten years' study, he was
ordained in 1779 and made an abbot, spending most of his time in Parisian
salons, and as liaison between church and state. He was consecrated bishop
of Autun in 1788, and elected clerical deputy with a reform agenda to the
Estates General. He persuaded Comte d'Artois that force or emigration were
the only options after the Bastille storming. Talleyrand urged church land
nationalization, adopted the Civil Constitution, left holy orders, and was
excommunicated (1791). Peace missions to England failed due to his notoriety
(1792). Emigrating to England and later America (1793-1796), he returned to
France, becoming foreign minister in 1797, resigning after U.S. envoys
exposed his corruption two years later.
Talleyrand's quiet
manipulation of the Brumaire coup secured his reinstatement, enabling him to
pursue France's best interests through a European peace and the papal
concordat. He married his mistress to forestall Napoleon creating him
cardinal. Unable to prevent Napoleon ending the Peace of Amiens, Talleyrand
advised Austrian alliance after Austerlitz to check Prussia and the creation
of a strong Poland to contain Russia. Talleyrand foresaw disaster in
Napoleon's Spanish intervention and thereafter worked against Napoleon,
intriguing with Tsar Alexander and Fouché. He was dismissed in
1810.
He convinced Alexander to restore Louis XVIII rather than
support a Napoleonic regency in 1814. At Vienna, Talleyrand ensured Bourbon
France's re-entry to great power status. Briefly prime minister, he was
swiftly ousted by the ultraroyalists and lived in retirement until 1829. He
funded anti-government newspapers and persuaded Louis-Philippe to depose
Charles X in 1830. As French ambassador to Britain, he negotiated the
creation of Belgium. Finally reconciled to the church, he died on May 17,
1838.
Of middle-height with a haughty face and obvious limp,
Talleyrand was worldly, ambitious, cunning, suave and courteous. Naturally
lazy and comfort-loving, his self-control was total.

George Washington
Washington was born on
February 22, 1732, the son of Virginian planters. He gained an education in
practical surveying and farming. From 1748 to 1751, Washington was employed
as a land surveyor, surviving smallpox (1752), and inheriting the Mount
Vernon plantation in 1753, whereupon he focused on improving his farm and
outdoor pursuits.
A desire for military glory led him to seek a
colonial commission in 1753. He nearly died while returning from his first
mission -- delivering an ultimatum to the French to cease encroachments
in the Ohio Valley. Appointed lieutenant colonel and colonel (1754),
Washington fought the first engagements of the French and Indian War.
Resigning his commission owing to inequities in status between regular and
colonial commissions, he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Braddock. His
advice contributed to British defeat at Fort Duquesne, though his heroism
prevented disaster. Appointed commander-in-chief of Virginia's militias, he
survived dysentery and managed to hold the border with his inexperienced
troops. Failure to gain a regular commission embittered him and he resigned
(1759), married and returned to Mount Vernon and a career in the Virginian
Legislature.
By the early 1770s, his political views were hostile
to British ministerial policies, and he was a delegate to the first and
second Continental Congresses. his military reputation, common sense, and
some complex maneuvering resulted in his appointment as American
commander-in-chief (1775), immediately organizing the disparate militias
into an army and prosecuting the Boston siege. His military blunders led to
defeats and precipitated retreat from New York (1776). Washington's bold
winter assault on Trenton and Princeton restored morale. He was fortunate to
escape from his defeat at Brandywine Creek (1777), but lost Philadelphia.
His endurance and leadership were tested to their limits in the Valley Forge
redoubt; he also thwarted a cabal to relieve him of command. He was denied a
comprehensive victory over the British at Monmouth (1778) due to the
mistakes of the American general Lee. Careful collaboration with the French
gained Washington his triumph at Yorktown. Thereafter Washington campaigned
for the prompt payment of his army and rejected a call to crown himself
king. He retired from active service in 1783. His fame ensured his household
was plagued with excessive visitors.
 Though initially hesitant,
Washington supported federalist solutions to strengthen the union of the
independent colonies at the Constitutional Convention and was elected
President in 1789. His administration balanced pro- and antifederalist
factions, established a national bank, and sought to unite the nation.
Re-elected in 1792, he pursued strict neutrality in foreign policy and
suppressed the Whisky Rebellion (1794). Failing health and increasing
factionalism led him to refuse a third term. He retired, dying on December
14, 1799.
Washington was tall (six foot two inches), strong, and
muscular with graying receding hair. Slightly scarred with smallpox, his
false teeth gave the impression of a permanently swollen mouth. Affable,
distant, grave, and generous with his hospitality, Washington mistrusted his
own abilities and often deferred to others' opinions. However he learned
from his inexperience, becoming America's best general and leader. Without
him, the war might have been lost; certainly America would have fragmented
into disunited states afterward.

Admirals

Thomas Cochrane
Lord Thomas Cochrane was born on
December 14, 1775, heir to the Scottish Earldom of Dundonald. His father's
attempts to restore the family wealth through scientific invention
backfired, so Cochrane entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1793.
Commissioned lieutenant (1796), Cochrane's seamanship preserved a captured
French 74, earning him promotion as commander of HMS Speedy, a 14-gun
sloop (1800). A series of successful single-ship actions against enemy
merchantmen, privateers and frigates ended with Speedy's capture by
three French ships-of-the-line (1801). Temporarily a prisoner-of-war,
Cochrane was exchanged and promoted to captain.
From 1805 to 1810,
Cochrane served as a frigate captain and as Member of Parliament (outwitting
the bought voters of one rotten borough) attacking the French and naval
corruption with equal vigor. He commanded a fireship attack on a French
fleet anchored at the Basque Roads (1809), but Admiral Gambier declined to
follow up his success. Nevertheless Cochrane was knighted. Gambier was
court-martialed, but acquitted.
Denied naval employment by
Admiralty enemies, Cochrane concentrated on poison gas weapons and close
bombardment plans to destroy France, secretly marrying in 1812. He was
accused of assisting his uncle's stock exchange fraud in February 1814,
found guilty on flimsy evidence, imprisoned, stripped of his knighthood, and
dismissed from the Navy.
Released in 1815, Cochrane went to Chile
to lead their navy against Spain in 1818 with plans to free Napoleon to lead
the armies of independence. His successes against the strongholds of
Valdivia and Callao destroyed Spanish naval power in the region (1820-21).
Disagreements over owed pay led to his move to the Brazilian Navy (1823-25).
Cochrane was instrumental in preventing the Portuguese reinforcing their
 garrisons and capturing several provinces. His attempts to further Greek
independence foundered on factional infighting.
Returning home, he
became Earl of Dundonald in 1831. A year later, he was reinstated in the
Royal Navy as Rear Admiral, being promoted to Vice Admiral in 1841, and
Admiral of the Fleet in 1855 (forestalling the use of his secret weapons in
the Crimean War). Cochrane died on October 31, 1860.
Tall (six
foot two inches) and broad, the red-haired Cochrane was fearless, honest,
generous, outspoken and amiable. Easily offended, he made many enemies. The
supreme frigate captain, a flying squadron under Cochrane would have
shortened the Peninsular War by decisive attacks on French ports and morale;
the American navy would have been annihilated in the War of 1812.

Sir Sidney Smith

William Sidney Smith was born in

London on June 21, 1764 into a military family. Daring, talkative,
vainglorious, and hyperactive, Smith was of middling stature with black eyes
and curly black hair. A midshipman at age thirteen, he was commissioned
lieutenant in 1780 and promoted to captain in 1784.
Between the wars,
he traveled in France, Spain, and North Africa, engaging in amateur
espionage. Smith served as a commodore with Sweden's navy in 1790 and was
knighted by Gustavus III for defeating the Russian fleet at Viborg.
In
1792, he joined his brother Spencer in a combined diplomatic and spying
mission in Constantinople. With the onset of the Revolutionary France, Smith
sailed to Toulon, arriving in time to burn part of the French fleet --
the Spanish failed to finish the rest. From 1795 until his capture in 1796
during a boat-action on the Seine, Smith commanded an inshore squadron to
harry French coastal trade. Imprisoned in the Temple in Paris, he wrote a
prophetic letter concerning the reverses of "Fortune's wheel" to Napoleon.
He escaped in 1798 thanks to royalist sympathizers.
Smith was sent to
Constantinople in October 1798 to support the Ottoman Empire. Smith reached
Acre ahead of Napoleon and fortified the city. British marines and sailors
held the city and Smith countered Napoleon's pamphlet warfare. (Napoleon
later said of Smith: "That man made me miss my destiny.") His diplomatic
status (with Britain and the Sultan) made his naval superiors
jealous.
Elected to Parliament in 1802, Smith busied himself with
trials of experimental weapons intending to use them against Napoleon's
invasion flotilla and combined fleet. Promoted Rear Admiral (1805), he
bolstered Sicilian defenses a year later. Appointed third-in-command of
Duckworth's expedition against Constantinople (owing to continuing Admiralty
disapproval), his advice was ignored and the opportunity to prevent a
Franco-Turkish alliance lost (1807). In 1808, Smith was sent to ensure
Portugal's exclusion from the Continental System (by destroying their fleet
if necessary); instead he escorted the Portuguese fleet to
Brazil.
Promoted Vice Admiral (1810) and Admiral (1818), Smith retired
to a quiet eccentric life in Paris in 1815, dying in May 26,
1840.
Pierre-André Suffren

Born into an aristocratic

French family on July 13, 1729, Suffren as youngest son was early entered
into the Knights of Malta and the French Navy. Experiences of sea battles
such as Cape Finisterre (1744) and Lagos Bay (1759) taught him the
deficiencies of the line of battle tactics, the need to overwhelm the enemy
and anglophobia. Naval Maltese service against Muslim pirates during the
1760s aided his promotion to captain in 1778 under Admiral d'Estaing. In
1781, Suffren was promoted to commodore and sent with a small squadron to
attack Britain's Indian possessions, engaging the British en route at
anchorage in Porto Praya -- uncomprehending subordinates prevented this
prefiguring Nelson's Nile victory. From 1782 to 1783, Suffren engaged the
squadron of Vice Admiral Hughes in five savage battles (at Sadras,
Provedien, Negapatam, Trincomali and Cuddalore) off India and Ceylon. His
resentful captains' failure to understand his tactics of breaking the line
and concentrating attacks rendered the fights inconclusive. After the war's
end, Suffren retired to become Maltese Ambassador to France. He collapsed on
December 7, 1788, and after unnecessary bleeding, died a day
later.
Hugely fat, the balding Suffren eschewed elegant dress in favor
of motley clothing, straw hats and slippers, and a bishop's mitre in battle
A glutton, he preferred spiced and hot foods and smoked cigars. Contemptuous
of failure, intolerant of criticism, Suffren's bullying behavior meant he
was unable to communicate his methods effectively to his subordinates. Had
he the charisma of a Nelson, the French-Mysorean alliance would have swept
Britain from India. Had he lived and survived the Terror (perhaps in Maltese
exile), the Directory and Napoleon would have given him the opportunity to
restore French naval power.

Pierre Charles Jean Baptiste Silvestre

de Villeneuve
Villeneuve was born into the French aristocracy on
December 31, 1763, and joined the navy at age fifteen, fighting in the
American War of Independence. Promoted to captain in 1793 and to rear
admiral in 1796, British blockades prevented him reinforcing Hoche's
invasion of Ireland that year with his squadron. Part of Napoleon's Egyptian
expedition, he failed to support Brueys' fleet at the Battle of the Nile,
but did lead the remaining ships to safety in Malta. Created vice admiral in
1804, he was appointed to the Toulon Fleet which he led to defeat against
Nelson at Trafalgar. Captured by the British, he was swiftly exchanged and
committed "suicide" on his return to France on April 22, 1806. An inveterate
critic of Napoleon's naval strategies, Villeneuve may have been murdered
-- his body had six knife wounds in and near the heart with the blade
in his heart.

Don Frederico Carlos Gravina

Born on September
12, 1756, Gravina's family were Sicilian nobles and Spanish grandees.
Entering the navy at nineteen, Gravina participated in the Gibraltar
blockade from 1779 to 1782, becoming a frigate captain a year later and
reaching the rank of commodore by 1789. His sea experience included service
in Mediterranean, North and South Atlantic, and Caribbean waters. He also
visited Constantinople and Britain to study astronomy and the Royal Navy
respectively. As a rear admiral, he distinguished himself in the evacuation
of Toulon (1793) and was promoted to vice admiral in 1794. He commanded
various squadrons including the Franco-Spanish ships at Brest and in the
West Indies until 1802. Appointed ambassador to France in 1804, he was
recalled to command the Cadiz fleet in alliance with France. Mortally
wounded at Trafalgar, he died on March 2, 1806
Short, stout, and
swarthy, Gravina was an able commander and diplomat, acclimatized to working
with the French and with pronounced anglophobia. Had he refused to yield to
the dictates of honor in leading the Spanish squadrons out of Cadiz with
Villeneuve, the Spanish fleet would have avoided destruction. His inability
to maintain his squadron in windward position rendered ineffective
Villeneuve's counter to Nelson's tactics.

Horatio
Nelson
Born on December 29, 1758 in Norfolk, Nelson joined the
Royal Navy at age twelve, learning seamanship in the West Indies, on an
unsuccessful Arctic expedition, and in the East Indies (where he caught
malaria). Promoted to lieutenant in 1777, he fought in the West Indies
during the American War of Independence. Promoted to post-captain in 1779,
he participated in raids against Spain's Nicaraguan settlements.

From 1784 to 1787, his enforcement of the trade laws and

friendship with Prince William annoyed the Caribbean merchants and Admiralty
alike. He married Fanny Nisbet in 1787 and returned to England on half-pay.
Recalled to active duty in 1793, Nelson served in the Mediterranean, losing
his right eye during a shore action in Corsica. Appointed commodore in 1797,
Nelson transformed potential disaster into victory against the Spanish off
Cape St Vincent by preventing the Spanish squadrons from combining until the
British fleet (under Jervis) was in position. Knighted and promoted rear
admiral, he lost his right arm in an assault on Tenerife.
In 1799,
Nelson pursued Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, virtually annihilating a
French fleet at the Nile. His love affair with Lady Emma Hamilton, wife of
the English ambassador to Naples, led him to disobey Admiralty orders to
reinforce Minorca and his subsequent recall to England. Returning overland,
he arrived in 1800 and was estranged from Fanny.
In 1801, Nelson
(now vice admiral) forced Denmark to withdraw from the League of Armed
Neutrality by destroying their fleet at Copenhagen. He planned (but did not
personally lead) an attack on the French base at Boulogne; the operation was
a bloody failure. He lived with the dying Sir Gilbert Hamilton, Emma, and
Horatia (his daughter by Emma) during the Peace of Amiens.
Nelson
received command of the Mediterranean fleet in 1803 with orders to prevent
the conjunction of the French, and later, Spanish squadrons. In 1805, Nelson
chased Villeneuve's squadron from Toulon to the West Indies and back to
Cadiz. The combined Franco-Spanish fleet attempted to break his blockade,
leading to the decisive battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805), during which
 Nelson was killed by a French sniper.
Short and small-boned with
sandy hair and blue eyes, Nelson was vain, snobbish, obsessed with his
health and hostile to the French regimes. Though rash in battle, his
successes ended Napoleon's hopes of Eastern conquest, prevented the
sea-borne invasion of Britain, and rewrote naval tactics. Without Nelson,
the sea war would have been a "close run thing"; after Nelson, the Royal
Navy appeared invincible for a century.

Generals

Michel
Ney
Marshal Ney was born on January 10, 1769. His father had
retired from the army to become a barrel cooper and Ney forsook an
apprenticeship to join the cavalry in 1788. His bravery and personal
leadership of cavalry charges in the battles of the Revolutionary Wars in
the Low Countries and Rhineland gained him a series of unwelcome promotions
culminating as divisional general by 1800.
Living quietly during
the Consulate, he was appointed to command of the Sixth Corps of the Grand
Army after the collapse of Amiens, and like Davout, Masséna, Murat,
and Soult, became a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Despite the bungling of
Murat, Ney triumphed over the Austrians at Elchingen in 1805, leading the
assault across the Danube personally. Impatient for battle, Ney misjudged
his position in the fog at Jena and survived only by charging the Prussian
lines. In 1807 a year later, Ney distinguished himself against the Russians
at Friedland. He was created Duke of Elchingen in 1808.
Appointed
a subordinate commander in Spain from 1808, Ney quarreled with his fellow
Marshals from his Galician outposts until eventually Masséna dismissed
him in 1811 for disobeying orders. He was restored to corps command in 1812
for Napoleon's Russian invasion, leading the advance guard until Smolensk.
At Borodino, Ney implored the Emperor to send the Imperial Guard against the
broken Russians in vain. Created Prince de la Moskowa, Ney commanded the
desperate rearguard actions which preserved the Grand Army from complete
destruction in the wintry retreat from Moscow, and was the last French
soldier to quit Russian soil, earning his accolade as "the bravest of the
brave."
Serving with Napoleon at Leipzig, Ney was chosen by the
remaining Marshals to persuade the Emperor to surrender in 1814. Initially
loyal to Louis XVIII, Ney hurried to capture Napoleon on his return from
exile, but instead rejoined his former leader, eventually receiving command
of two corps in the days before Waterloo. Ney failed to win decisively at
Quatre Bras, and despite wild courage in multiple attacks upon the British
lines, failed to defeat Wellington. Ney was later captured (August 1815) and
executed for treason by firing squad on December 7, 1815.
Of
middle stature and physically strong, the red-haired and blue-eyed Ney was a
born swordsman and rider. Glory and victory in battle, rather than wealth or
 status motivated Ney. A sound tactician, he was no strategist and heroic
impulse often overwhelmed cooler military judgement.

Louis-Nicolas Davout

Marshal Davout was born on May 10,

1770, into an aristocratic (though untitled) military family. Declaring for
the Revolution, Davout served with distinction in Flanders in 1793, rising
to brigadier-general before being forced to resign as a former aristocrat.
Reinstated, he joined the Egyptian campaign, initially hostile to Napoleon,
but later modeling himself on his commander following a private interview.
Promoted divisional-general and commanding the Third Corps, Davout assisted
in Napoleonic victories from Austerlitz to Wagram, and won Auerstädt
himself. As Military Police Chief, he discomfited spies and fellow Marshals
alike. Created Duke (1808) and Prince (1809) d'Eckmühl, Davout
acquitted himself well in Russia and held Hamburg until Napoleon's first
abdication. Serving as war minister during the Hundred Days, he surrendered
Paris after Waterloo. He retired to rural seclusion, dying on June 1,
1823.
A stern incorruptible disciplinarian, he cared for his soldiers
and was severe to his officers, being detested by fellow generals. Dogged,
brave, and the only marshal to understand Napoleon's methods, Waterloo might
have had a different outcome had he been present.

Andre

Masséna
Marshal Masséna was born on May 6, 1758 and soon
orphaned. A brief career at sea was followed by enlistment as a soldier in
1775. He quit as a sergeant in 1789 owing to lack of promotion, but rejoined
the revolutionary army, achieving divisional general rank (1793).
Masséna's victory at Rivoli ensured Napoleon's triumph over Mantua in
the Italian campaign. Appointed commander of the Army of Switzerland (March
1799), Masséna defeated the Russians under Korsakov at Zurich
(September), preventing the immediate invasion of France. Similarly his
stubborn resistance under siege in Genoa (1800) gave Napoleon time to reach
and defeat Austria at Marengo. His control of northern Italy earned him
riches through the illegal sale of trade licenses (1806) Created Duke of
Rivoli (1808) and Prince d'Essling (1810), Masséna was removed from
his thirteen-month command in the Iberian Peninsula (May 1811) following
defeats by Wellington. In disgrace, Masséna pleaded ill-health during
the Hundred Days and avoided service on either side. He died on April 4,
1817.
A dark thin man, the dour and egotistical Masséna's
passions were money and women. He lost an eye following a hunting accident
with Napoleon in 1808, and his health and resolution deteriorated
thereafter. Without Masséna's tenacity in Zurich, Napoleon would have
returned from Egypt to a dismembered France; his doggedness at Genoa saved
the Consulate.

Joachim Murat

The Gascon Marshal Murat was

born on March 25, 1767, the son of an innkeeper. Eschewing an ecclesiastical
career, he joined the cavalry in 1787. Captain by 1795, Murat found the
cannon required for Napoleon's Vendémiaire defense of the French
Republic. As Napoleon's aide, Murat attained renown as a horse and camel
cavalry leader in the Italian and Egyptian campaigns. His forcible ousting
of the assembled deputies completed Napoleon's Brumaire coup. As reward, he
was permitted to marry Caroline Bonaparte. He commanded cavalry units from
Marengo to Eylau, preserving the Grand Army from destruction at the latter
by charging unbroken Russian artillery and infantry. Ennobled as a grand
duke, Murat desired a kingdom, conspiring firstly for Poland then Spain
(1808). Instead he replaced Joseph Bonaparte in Naples, instituting many
administrative and economic reforms and supporting Italian secret societies
in the hope of becoming king of a united Italy. After Napoleon's retreat
from Russia, Murat intrigued with Metternich to save his Neapolitan crown,
though he fought at Leipzig for the Emperor owing to delayed receipt of a
deciphered message. His treaty with Austria survived Bourbon pressure until
he declared for the Emperor during the Hundred Days. His Italian loyalists
were swiftly defeated at Tolentino and Murat fled to Corsica. A crazy return
to Naples ended in his capture and execution on October 13,
1815.
Vain, obsessed with designing grandiose uniforms, and of merely
average intelligence, Murat was nevertheless the most courageous and
effective cavalry commander among Napoleon's Marshals.

Nicolas-Jean

de Dieu Soult
Marshal Soult was born on March 29, 1769, the son of a
rural French lawyer. Having joined an infantry regiment in 1785, he was
promoted to sergeant by 1789. His family dissuaded him from changing career
to become a baker. Soult served in Flanders and in the Army of the Rhine,
becoming a general after the Battle of Fleurus (1794). During the Consulate,
he governed southern Naples. In 1803, Soult was appointed to the Fourth
Corps of the Grand Army where he trained many future officers of Napoleon's
armies. On campaign, he contributed to the French triumphs at Ulm,
Austerlitz, and Jena, and was rewarded in 1808 with the title of Duke of
Dalmatia. Sent to Spain that year, Soult fumbled the pursuit of Moore's army
on its retreat to Corunna. His belated attempts to reconcile the Portuguese
(in a bid to win their support for him as king) gave Wellington the
opportunity to eject him from Oporto in 1809. Soult commanded in Andalusia
thereafter and acquired much wealth from judicious looting of secular art
treasures. Temporarily relocated to the German front in 1813, Soult was
appointed to overall command in the Peninsula after Jourdan's defeat at
Vittoria, but was compelled by 1814 to retreat into France. After Napoleon's
first abdication, Soult served Louis XVIII in Brittany, but was dismissed
upon Napoleon's return, so rejoined the Emperor as a corps commander and
ineffective chief-of-staff. In exile until 1819, he became French prime
minister under Louis-Philippe, serving in 1832-1834, 1839-1840, and
1840-1847, and organizing the conquest of Algeria during his last term. He
died on November 26, 1851.

Arthur Wellesley, Duke

 of Wellington
Born in Dublin on May 1, 1769, Wellesley (Wesley
until 1798) was the fifth son of the Earl of Mornington. Educated at Eton
and in France to avoid a disadvantageous Irish accent, he received a
lieutenancy at 18, advancing by purchase to lieutenant-colonel (1793).
Rejected by Kitty Pakenham, he focused on his career, learning how not to
fight in Flanders (1794-95).
Sent to India (1796), Wellesley
defeated Tipu Sultan, becoming Mysore's governor (1799), and promoted to
major-general (1802). Further victories over the Marathas including Assaye
(1803) increased and secured British territories in India. Knighted, he
returned to England (1805), marrying Kitty out of duty (1806) and serving in
Ireland as chief secretary and briefly against Denmark (1807). Promoted
lieutenant-general (1808), he was court-martialed (though acquitted) for
participating in the Convention of Cintra. From 1809 to 1814, he fought
cautiously in the Peninsular War, preserving his army and liberating
Portugal and Spain, becoming Viscount (1809), Earl (1812), Marquess (1812),
and Duke of Wellington (1814) as reward for his victories. Initially
ambassador to France, he was appointed a British representative to the
Congress of Vienna to avoid assassination and was ideally positioned to be
commander-in-chief against Napoleon's Hundred Days, gaining his final
victory at Waterloo (1815).
Wellington opposed punitive measure
against France and ensured an early end to the occupation (1818). Back in
England, he served in Cabinet as master-general of the ordnance and
unsuccessfully as a diplomat to the Congresses of the 1820s. He resigned
(1827) in opposition to unlimited Catholic Emancipation. Next year, George
IV requested that Wellington become prime minister. Despite misgivings and
hostility from fellow Tories, he removed anti-Nonconformist legislation and
reformed the Corn Laws. By persuasion and force (a duel), he persuaded
George IV, Peel, Tory allies and others to accept Catholic Emancipation to
prevent an Irish civil war (1828). Unwillingness to accept parliamentary
reform (fearing future revolution) and increased Whig representation
following the 1830 election led to his resignation. He continued to oppose
reform until 1832 when he convinced his supporters to abstain allowing the
law to pass and preserving the House of Lords.
Thereafter he
served as foreign secretary (1834-35), minister (1841-46) and army
commander-in-chief (from 1842). Though he retired from public life after
1846, his opinion was sought by all, with Queen Victoria treating him as a
hero. He died on September 14, 1852.
Slim, five foot nine inches
tall, Wellington had wavy brown hair, blue eyes, and an aquiline nose (hence
"Nosey"). In war, Wellington was decisive, a master of detail and tactics, a
disciplinarian, and only rash in disliking prolonged sieges. Unhappy in his
marriage, he enjoyed the company of intellectual females. Restrained and
limited in small talk, Wellington was indifferent to public opinion and
never apologized (though he would perform favors to redress a wrong). His
sardonic humor would occasionally be released in loud laughter. Wellington
was utterly dedicated and incorruptible in his country's service.

Revolutionaries
Georges-Jacques Danton

Danton was born on October 26, 1759 in Arcis-sur-Aube, and his love
of rural life and pursuits abided to his death. His face was pockmarked by
smallpox and his lip was disfigured. Well-read in French, English, and
Italian, Danton purchased his degree and practiced law in Paris from 1784.
Danton's improvisational and ambiguous oratory gained him fame in the
Cordelier and Jacobin clubs. Rumors persisted that he was in the pay of
England, royalists, and federalists. Adroit maneuvering allowed him to
manipulate and exploit the factions., though his opposition to the Terror
made him a target. Refusing to heed warnings, he was arrested, tried, and
guillotined on April 5, 1794.

Comte Honoré Gabriel Riqueti de

Mirabeau
The unscrupulous Mirabeau was born on March 9, 1749.
Pugnacious and vain, his charming manners offset by heavyset figure and
disfigured face, Mirabeau's amorous adventures and spendthrift nature led to
several prison stays and rejection from the aristocracy. From 1784 to 1788,
he worked variously as a pamphleteer and secret agent around Europe. His aim
in the Estates General was to be an intermediary between King and people,
reshaping the government to a constitutional monarchy, and he employed his
oratory to these ends. Jealousy and fear that Mirabeau might seek
dictatorial power ensured the decree prohibiting deputies serving as
ministers was passed. His intrigues with the court were thwarted by royal
distrust. His Machiavellian schemes were ignored, while his popularity
elsewhere increased. He became ill and died on April 2, 1792 with his aims
unfulfilled.

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

Born in
Fréjus on May 3, 1748, Sieyès was educated for an ecclesiastical
career. Although temperamentally unsuited for the priesthood, he
nevertheless was a diocesan chancellor by 1788. Despairing of French
society, he nearly emigrated to America, but changed his mind with the
explosion of political debate in 1788. His musical voice and austere yet
courteous manner limited his oratory. His political theories combining
revolution, limited monarchy and limited democracy ensured power remained
with the bourgeoisie throughout the Republic. He avoided the Terror by
removing himself from politics. Returning in 1795, he became a member of the
Five Hundred and by 1799 a Director. Instrumental in encouraging Napoleon's
coup d'état, his consulate and elaborate constitution were eclipsed by
Napoleon. Loyal to the Empire, he was exiled by the Bourbons from 1815 to
1830, living in Belgium. He died in Paris on June 20, 1836.

Wolfe

Tone
Theobald Wolfe Tone was born on January 20, 1763 in Dublin.
Intelligent and witty, Tone was a vain slender man with sallow and
pockmarked features. Already a practicing lawyer in 1789, Tone delivered a
proposal to Pitt the Younger recommending the use of the Sandwich Isles
(Hawaii) as a English privateer base. The suggestion was completely ignored.
Tone became hostile to British rule, quitted his law practice, and helped
found the Society of United Irishmen in 1791. His pamphleteering urged
Protestants and Catholics to unite, though he was hostile to both faiths and
dissatisfied with Pitt's resulting compromises. Banished in 1794 to America
for conspiring with France, he went to Paris, and persuaded the Directory to
attack Ireland in 1796. Next year, Tone failed to convince Napoleon to lead
a second expedition. In 1798, Tone joined Hardy's invasion force and was
captured. Tried and condemned to death, he botched his suicide and died in
agony on November 19, 1798.

Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre was born in
Arras on May 6, 1758. After his mother's death, his lawyer father left the
children in their grandparents' care. Educated at the Oratorian college (in
Arras) and from 1769 in Enlightenment teachings at Louis-le-Grand (in
Paris), Robespierre was a conscientious, if solitary student, receiving a
law degree in 1781. His Arras law practice was successful, gaining him a
reputation for honesty through his avoidance of unworthy causes. In pursuit
of fame, he submitted essays for academic competitions.
In 1789,
he was elected to the Estates General. Popular within the National Assembly,
he was denounced by royalist newspapers. During 1790, he became influential
in the Jacobin Club, and though excluded from Assembly committees,
championed universal suffrage and other measures while opposing royal and
ministerial abuses. After the Champ-de-Mars massacre of anti-monarchists,
Robespierre's life was threatened, so he moved in with the Duplay family for
safety. He preserved the radical rump of the Jacobins, denouncing Brissotin
policies, and by condoning the September massacres, was elected to the
National Convention in 1792.
Having ensured the execution of Louis
XVI, Robespierre supported the overthrow of the Girondins. Deciding that "a
single will" was essential to save the Revolution, he became its dictatorial
leader through the Committee of Public Safety in July 1793, increasing the
"Reign of Terror" to destroy all factions opposing his Rousseauist vision.
His health ruined by overwork, Robespierre isolated himself in June 1794,
emboldening his foes who indicted him. His unwillingness to lead an uprising
ensured his execution on July 28, 1794.
At five foot three inches
tall, Robespierre was a small, thin man. His broad, flat face was slightly
pock-marked. Tinted spectacles rectified his short-sightedness and concealed
his gray-green eyes. His chestnut hair was carefully brushed and powdered.
To his death, Robespierre was always immaculately dressed as a bourgeois.
Highly strung, his nervousness manifested as facial spasms.
Quiet
and grave, his speaking voice and oratory was weak. His listeners found him
self-righteous, though few doubted his sincerity. While not cowardly, his
tactics were often underhanded, demonstrating a Machiavellian skill in
dividing and destroying opposing factions. Suspicious and vindictive,
Robespierre was ruthless in implementing his patriotic and democratic
beliefs. Unworldly and tactless, he lacked a compromising spirit.
Thinkers
Edmund Burke

Born into a provincial

mixed-marriage family in Dublin on January 12, 1729, Burke was educated at
Trinity College, Dublin (1744), moving later to London (1750) to train in
law. Publishing a satire against attacks on revealed religion (1756) and an
essay on aesthetics (1757), Burke gained his first literary renown. He
married that year, and contemplated emigration to America. 1758 witnessed
his founding of The Annual Register as a survey of world affairs, to
which he contributed for thirty years, and his immersion in literary London.
A brief tenure as adviser to the Chief Secretary of Ireland (1761-64) was
followed by attachment to the Marquis of Rockingham's faction and entry into
the House of Commons (1765). He was elected for Bristol (1774), but
compelled to seek a pocket borough seat (1780) as Bristol wanted a delegate,
not a representative. Except for the years 1782-83, he remained in
opposition developing the idea of political parties rather than becoming a
"placeman" in office (at liberty to become England's finest
historian).
In Parliament, Burke opposed the Stamp Act, but believed
America should be ruled by the Crown. As agent for the New York colony (1771
onward), he proposed pragmatic solutions, retaining America through trade,
internal self-government, and voluntary tax contributions, but the North
ministry was unheeding.
The secret sponsor of the Catholic Relief
Acts, Burke was almost lynched in the Gordon Riots. To save Ireland, he
demanded Catholic emancipation, a freeing of commerce between Ireland and
England, the reduction of the Protestant Ascendancy's power, and even
effective autonomy. He believed that an empowered Catholic aristocracy would
forestall their collaboration with the United Irishmen, preventing
rebellion.
Burke's indignation at the abuses of the East India
Company, beginning with an parliament select committee inquiry in 1781, led
to him impeaching Warren Hastings, former governor-general, in 1787, and
prosecuting the case in the House of Lords. Although Hastings was found
innocent in 1795 on a plea of "necessities of state," India was governed
more carefully thereafter.
On November 1, 1790, Burke published
Reflections on the Revolution in France, analyzing the upheaval,
predicting its violent future, and appealing for a more conservative
approach such as found in the English constitution. Though attacked by Paine
and others, this pamphlet swayed British society against Jacobinism. Further
tracts followed defending his position and urging war against the
Revolution.
Retiring from Parliament in 1794, he continued his attacks
on Robespierre's successors. Burke died on July 8, 1797, and was buried
secretly to prevent his remains being disinterred by future English
Jacobins.
Despite debts incurred by collapsing East India stock, Burke
remained generous, convivial and sanguine. Passionate in debate, his
conversation was witty, his imagination brooding, and his powers of
foresight immense. Retaining his accent, his enemies suspected him falsely
of being a secret Catholic or even a Jesuit.

Thomas

Paine
Paine was born in Norfolk, on January 29, 1737. Minimally
schooled, he worked variously from age 13 as a corset-maker, privateersman,
exciseman, teacher, shopkeeper, and exciseman again. Briefly married in
1759, the widower Paine remarried in 1771, only to separate from Elizabeth
Ollives in 1774. Paine was dismissed from the excise for publishing a
pamphlet urging increased pay for officers (1774). Receiving letters of
introduction from Benjamin Franklin, Paine emigrated to America, where he
became a contributor to the Pennsylvania Magazine. In 1776, Paine
published Common Sense, a proposal for American independence,
crystallizing colonial desires for separation from England. During the
Revolution, Paine served as a military observer (1776), secretary to the
Committee for Foreign Affairs (until his resignation after revealing Silas
Deane's corruption in 1779), clerk of the Pennsylvanian Assembly, and as
procurer of supplies from France. His major contribution was his series of
16 Crisis pamphlets (under the pseudonym Common Sense, analyzing
the war and bolstering American patriotism from 1776 to 1783.
Granted
a farm in New Rochelle for his services, Paine turned his attentions to
bridge design, returning to Europe (1787) to promote plans for iron bridges
in France and England. Galvanized by the French Revolution, he defended it
against Burke's Reflections with his Rights of Man (Part 1,
March 1791; Part 2, February 1792) favoring republicanism against monarchy
and supplying a manifesto for government. Banned in England, Paine escaped
arrest for treason by emigrating to Paris, taking his seat in the National
Convention (despite knowing no French) in 1792. Girondin in sympathies,
Paine's efforts to ensure exile to America for Louis XVI failed, resulting
eventually in his own imprisonment (December 1793). Only illness prevented a
trial (and certain death). Released in November 1794, Paine concentrated on
pamphlets such as Age of Reason (1794, 1796) attacking organized
religion and newspaper articles denouncing England. In 1802, he returned to
the United States, where his reputation as an atheist, his poverty, and
political enemies made life difficult. He died on June 8, 1809.
Tall
and slender, Paine was lazy, slovenly, vain, hypersensitive, and overly fond
of brandy. Paine's public altruism in decrying profits from pamphlets
concealed private stinginess and demands for recompense. The age's supreme
propagandist, Paine's efforts contributed as much to the American Revolution
as Washington and Franklin.

Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
Rousseau was born in Geneva, on June 28, 1712. His
father, a watchmaker, was expelled from the city for pretensions above his
station. His mother gave him an idealized image of Geneva as republic. He
fled the city at age 16, converted to Roman Catholicism, and became an
adventurer. Eventually he came under the tutelage of the Baronne de Warenne
in Savoy, receiving a literary and musical education, and becoming her
 lover.
In 1742, Rousseau went to Paris where he met Diderot and
the other philosophes. He became a contributor to the
Encyclopédie on musical articles. Eight years later, he
published his first philosophical work, A Discourse on the Sciences and
the Arts, which proposed that man was good by nature, but corrupted by
society and civilization which had themselves gone wrong after the Middle
Ages.
In 1752, he attracted attention through his opera Devin
du village and his support for the Italian opera and melody over the
French opera and harmony espoused by Rameau and most of the
philosophes. Nevertheless he eschewed opportunities to become a court
composer, devoting himself to philosophy and literature.
He
returned to Geneva in 1754 to reclaim his citizenship, but was soon back in
Paris in the company of the philosophes. On one of his stays in
Geneva, he converted to Calvinism. In 1755, Rousseau published his
Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, which continued his thinking
on the corruption of mankind laying the blame on a fraudulent social
contract.
From 1756, Rousseau lived in seclusion on the estates of
various noble patrons. In 1761-2, he published the novel The New
Éloise, Emile and The Social Contract. The view on
education expressed in "Emile" angered the Jansenists in France. The
suggestions in The Social Contract that Geneva no longer conformed to
the ideals of its founders angered the Genevan leaders. Rousseau was forced
to flee France and was chased through the Swiss cantons, eventually finding
refuge in England in 1764.
Signs of paranoia appeared during his
English stay as he believed that his hosts were mocking him. He returned
secretly to France in 1768 and married his mistress Therese Levasseur.
Protected by aristocratic admirers, he spent the last decade of his life
producing autobiographical writings. He died on July 2,
1778.
Rousseau was the last philosophe and his thinking
bridged the Enlightenment and the dawn of the Romantic age. He altered taste
in music and the arts, encouraged his readers to be actively interested in
their children (rather than benignly neglecting them), and espoused the
beauties of nature and the desire for liberty. His writings, particularly
The Social Contract, inspired the radical deputies of the French
Revolution.

Artists and Writers

George Gordon

Byron
Lord Byron was born on January 22, 1788. His father squandered
the family fortune, dying in France (1791); his mother reared Byron on
modest means in Scotland. In 1798, Byron unexpectedly became the sixth Baron
Byron inheriting title and wealth from a great-uncle. The family moved to
Newstead Abbey with Byron being schooled in London and at Harrow. Byron went
to Trinity College, Cambridge (1805), becoming fast friends with John Cam
Hobhouse, and publishing his first two poetry volumes over the next two
years. Criticism of his Hours of Idleness incurred his retaliation
with English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), gaining him a
reputation.
From 1809 to 1811, Byron and Hobhouse toured Portugal,
Spain, and most importantly Greece. Back in England (1812), he published the
first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage establishing his fame
overnight. Love affairs with the eccentric Lady Caroline Lamb, Lady Oxford,
and reputedly his half-sister Augusta ensued. Inspired, he published The
Giaour (1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813), and The Corsair
(1814). To escape his romantic entanglements, he contracted a loveless
marriage (1815) to Annabella Milbanke, who bore him a daughter Augusta Ada.
They separated and Byron left England for Switzerland joining the Shelleys
(1816), and travelling to Italy (1817). The sale of Newstead Abbey (1818)
cleared his debts. Revived by an affair with Countess Guiccioli, he began
composing and publishing Don Juan (from 1818). He followed Countess
Gamba to Ravenna and Leghorn (1820-21), initiating a radical journal with
Shelley and Leigh Hunt. In 1823, Byron became involved with the Greek
struggle for independence, reaching Greece next year. He succumbed to fevers
and inept doctors, dying on April 19, 1824.
Slender, handsome with a
clear complexion, chestnut hair, and blue-gray eyes, Byron is sensitive
about his right "clubfoot." Lecherous, manic-depressive, unheeding of
consequences, Byron is honest, kind, intelligent, protective and
passionate.

Jacques-Louis David

David was born in Paris, on

August 30, 1748. Trained by Joseph-Marie Vien, he joined the school of the
Academe Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture at eighteen. Success eluded him
in the official artistic competitions, moving him to attempt suicide through
starvation, until he obtained the Prix de Rome in 1774. His travels in Italy
during the mid-to-late 1770s inspired him in neoclassical themes. Returning
to Paris in 1780, he married Margeurite Pecoul (1782) and was elected to the
Academie Royale (1784). His Oath of the Horatii and The Lictors
Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons brought him great fame and
began his influence on French society.
A Jacobin by 1790, he was
elected to the National Convention in 1792. His wife separated from him
because David voted for Louis XVI's execution. Under Robespierre's
influence, he became totally committed to the Revolution, using his talents
to advance its goals, such as The Death of Marat (1793) to commemorate
its first martyr. Motivated by revenge for its slights, he abolished the
Academie Royale, replacing it with the Commune des Arts and the Popular and
Republican Society of the Arts. Though he pledged to die with Robespierre,
David was absent from the Convention on the day of Thermidor and was
imprisoned rather than guillotined. He remarried his wife and was released
from prison (1795), becoming a teacher of artists.
David's The
Intervention of the Sabines (1799) brought him to the attention of
Napoleon. David soon idolized the Emperor, producing portraits and
contemporary history paintings. David became a Chevalier of the Legion
d'Honneur (1804) and First Painter of the Empire (1805). Unhappy under the
First Restoration, David welcomed the Hundred Days, resuming his post as
First Painter. After the Second Restoration, David was exiled. He continued
to paint, though without greatness, in Brussels, dying on December 29,
1825.
David had disheveled hair, brown eyes and a tumor on his cheek
which twisted his face. His character was contradictory; he was by turns
touchy, resolute, generous, jealous, contented and bitter. Always excitable
and an extreme patriot, David could be easily swayed in his opinions by
strong personalities.

Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe
Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt into a
middle-class family. He studied law and was inspired in the arts at the
University of Leipzig from 1765 to 1768 until illness required him to return
home, where he explored alchemy and the occult. His later stay in Strasbourg
influenced him toward Sturm und Drang, and his Sorrows of Young
Werther (published in 1774) secured his literary reputation. He moved to
Weimar in 1775, becoming Privy Councilor to Duke Karl Augustus, mixing
administrative duties with his creative output of poems, plays and prose. He
visited Italy in 1787, drawing renewed inspiration from the Greco-Roman
legacies, and decided thereafter to devote himself solely to his art. His
Roman mistress returned with him to Weimar, though he did not marry
Christiane Vulpius until 1806. In 1792, Goethe was part of Duke Karl's
entourage during the Prussian invasion of France and witnessed their defeat
at Valmy.
In 1794, he became friends with the writer Friedrich von
Schiller and the two collaborated on literary journals until 1800. Despite
the failure of these magazines to capture the imagination of a wide
audience, their friendship endured until Schiller's death in 1805. His grief
was eased by correspondence and discussions with the Romantic writers at
Jena, though he was critical of their defiance of form and preoccupation
with medievalism and the supernatural.
In 1808, he met Napoleon at
Erfurt, but refused a later invitation to join the Emperor in Paris,
preferring the artistic liberties of Weimar and his modest position as
theatre director to the court. 1808 also saw the completion of Part 1 of
Faust.
Though he "retired" from theatre management in 1817,
Goethe continued to produce extensively. With peace on the Continent after
1815, his fame drew Romantic admirers from all corners of Europe and the
Americas to visit Weimar and, if possible, meet the master. In 1832, he
completed Part 2 of Faust, dying on March 22 of that
year.
Of average height, aristocratic features, and long graying
hair, Goethe mixed stubbornness with patience and insatiable curiosity about
the world. He fell in love easily and frequently with usually unattainable
women. While his theories concerning color denied Newtonian physics, his
efforts in anatomy and botany were less flawed, leading to his development
of the science of morphology. Most importantly, his literary genius fuelled
the Romantic movement.
Scientists
Benjamin

Franklin
Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706, the son of a
soap- and candlemaker. Apprenticed as a printer at 12 to his brother James,
he eventually left for Philadelphia (1723) where he was persuaded to seek
employment in London. By 1726, he returned to Philadelphia as a printer,
gaining the franchise to print paper currency in 1729, and publishing "Poor
Richard's Almanac" annually from 1732 to 1757, becoming prosperous. The
1730s and 1740s saw him instigate a library, police force, and fire brigade
for Philadelphia, and the American Philosophical Society, as well as
becoming involved in colonial politics. His experiments with lightning and
electricity began in 1746 and were reported in Europe from 1751 gaining him
fame. By 1753, he was deputy postmaster general for the northern colonies.
His plan for a general colonial council was rejected; his negotiations in
London (1750s and 1760s) for a new charter for Pennsylvania were
unsuccessful. As London agent, he argued for the repeal of the Stamp Act and
for American interests in newspaper articles and in Parliament. Dismissed in
1775, he returned to Philadelphia, becoming a delegate to the Second
Continental Congress. From late 1776 to 1785, Franklin was in France seeking
an alliance against Britain and negotiating post-war treaties. Frequenting
the salons, he also observed the first balloon flight and lent his fame to
the commission to demolish the pseudoscience of mesmerism. Returning to
America (1786), he served on the Constitutional Convention. He died on April
17, 1790.
Tall, well-built with brown receding hair and eyes, the
bespectacled Franklin seems a mild-mannered homespun scholar. Forceful and
loving life, Franklin was critical in gaining French support for the
American Revolution -- without him, the war would have ended in defeat
or stalemate.

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

Lavoisier was born on

August 26, 1743, in Paris, the son of relatively wealthy barristers.
Educated at the Collège Mazarin, he studied the sciences in addition
to law, gaining his barrister's license in 1764. Drawn to science, he
vigorously pursued admission to the Academy of Sciences, submitting papers
on street lighting (1766), the aurora, gypsum and water analysis. The last
gained him the junior rank of supernumerary adjunct in the chemistry section
(1768). He bought a part-share in the Company of General Farmers (tax
farmers) (1768), married Marie-Anne Paulze (1771), receiving a purchased
hereditary title from his father and becoming independently wealthy.

In 1770, he refuted the belief that distillation could convert water

into earth. He began his research into gases and combustion during the
1770s, discovering that "dephlogisticated" or "common air" (oxygen) was
absorbed in combustion, confirming water as a hydrogen ("inflammable air")
and oxygen compound, and oxygen's role in acids. He employed chemical
experiments to discover adulterated tobacco in his reforms of tax collection
in the early 1770s, and became director of the gunpowder administration. His
improvements in niter extraction from saltpeter and location of new sources
enabled France to become an exporter of gunpowder, supplying the American
Revolution and later Revolutionary and Napoleonic armies. He was
instrumental in exposing mesmerism as fraudulent in 1781.
From 1783,
he published his combustion theories and attacked phlogiston beliefs,
eventually proposing a new chemical nomenclature based on his own work which
became widely accepted.
Elected to the representative assembly of
Orléans (1787), he worked tirelessly in its executive committees. In
Paris, he proposed the construction of a new city wall to assist in toll
collection. His liberal agenda of a legislative Estates General, regularly
elected and presided over by an executive monarchy ensured his election as
noble deputy to the Estates General. As the Academy's treasurer (from 1791),
he fought a vain rearguard action to preserve its character from attacks by
Marat and Brissot (who were partially motivated by personal jealousy).
Arrested in November 1793 as a "tax farmer," Lavoisier was imprisoned. Pleas
for clemency for his scientific abilities were ignored; he was tried,
convicted, and guillotined on May 8, 1794.
Slim with a finely featured
face and receding hair, the father of modern chemistry was ambitious,
driven, and intelligent. A practical experimenter, he researched many
problems simultaneously, but was always careful to have his preliminary
notes in sealed envelopes initialed by the Academy secretary to ensure proof
of prior discovery. Had he survived the Revolution, more discoveries would
have been his and later French governments would have benefited from his
applied scientific genius.

James
Watt
Watt was born in Greenock, Scotland on January 19, 1736.
Watt's father was both magistrate and businessman. Although he received a
conventional education, he also gained practical crafts skills in his
father's workshops, making models. Between 1753 and 1756, he was formally
apprenticed to masters in Glasgow and London, returning to Glasgow owing to
ill-health in 1757. Opening a shop at the university, he made diverse
mathematical instruments, and befriended numerous scientists. He married in
1764.
From 1764 to 1765, Watt worked on improving the Newcomen
steam engine, eventually inventing the separate condenser to reduce the
inefficiency of the original design. He formed a partnership with John
Roebuck in 1768 and patented the new engine. Watt himself became a surveyor
in 1766 and his work in canal routing delayed further steam experiments.
Roebuck went bankrupt in 1772, and his patent share was bought out by
Matthew Boulton, a Birmingham manufacturer. Bored, Watt resigned his
surveying post and emigrated to Birmingham in 1774. Successfully arranging
for an Act of Parliament to grant a 25-year patent extension, he formed a
new partnership with Boulton in 1775. A year later, the first two engines
were installed and the widowed Watt remarried. He spent the next five years
installing steam engines in Cornish mines.
At the behest of
Boulton who spotted potential new applications for steam, Watt invented a
rotary motion steam engine (1781), a double-acting engine (1782), a
perpendicular motion engine (1784), a centrifugal governor for engine speed
control (1788), and the pressure gauge (1790).
By 1790, Watt was a
Fellow of the Royal Society, an influential member of the Lunar Society, and
extremely wealthy from patent royalties. Despite his son's flirtation with
Jacobin revolutionary theories, Watt was able to gradually transfer the
running of his steam engine factory to him during the late 1790s. In 1800,
his patents expired and Watt retired to a life of ease, occasional travel,
consultancy and tinkering with gadgets in his private
workshop.
Watt died on August 25, 1819.
EVERYDAY LIFE
Entertainment
F<\#144>tes and fairs
provided diversions for all classes of society. Village f<\#144>tes
interrupted the rural routine. The fairs, held regularly in major cities,
had transformed themselves from specialist commercial affairs into general
markets and an excuse for a holiday. Some participants used them as
opportunities for rioting and debauchery. Market stalls jostled with
entertainment booths. Wild beasts, human and animal freaks astonished the
onlookers, quacks sold elixirs to the credulous, and showmen performed their
acts.
Violent sports were extremely popular. Although hunting and
shooting were the preserve of the elite and the well-to-do, other sports
such as fisticuffs, cock-fighting, and (in Spain) bull-fighting had broader
appeal. Rich and poor alike bred fighting cocks in Britain with important
tournaments (called "mains") being held at race-tracks and reported in
horse-racing journals. Gambling on the outcome of such events added extra
excitement.
Indeed gambling, often for high stakes, was the greatest
vice of the era, indulged in by all classes of society and by both men and
women. In the clubs, vast fortunes were wagered in games of whist, hazard,
and loo. Although the influence of Methodism acted as a brake on gambling in
Britain by 1800, it increased in popularity in the French Empire. Select
clubs catered to the wealthy, while the menu peuple frequented
gaming-houses and billiard halls. Only dancing was a serious rival to
gambling as the waltz, the quadrille and the mazurka swept across the
ballrooms of Europe.
On the seedier side, prostitutes were readily
available in the larger cities -- thirty thousand worked in Paris.
Although the Parisian prostitutes maintained a low profile during the
Revolution, their presence was more visible, especially in the fashionable
parts of the city, with the rise of the Directory.
More genteel
pleasures were also available. The English upper classes went to Bath "to
take the waters," bathing in and drinking the spring water during the
morning as a cure for various illnesses, followed by walking, riding, and
shopping in the afternoon, with shows and balls in the evening. The Parisian
bourgeoisie went for strolls in the fashionable gardens and parks, attended
the theatres to appreciate the latest opera or comedy, and visited the
boulevard theatres preferred by the menu peuple to watch melodramas
and low farces.
While Europe's upper classes shared a cosmopolitan
culture in the arts, fashion, and everyday pleasures, the lower classes were
fractured along national lines, taking rude joy in popular poetry satirizing
their social superiors and oral traditions of local heroes and rebels
battling against the established order, providing a reservoir of discontent
and patriotism to be tapped in the revolutions and nationalist
revivals.
 Nobility
Throughout Europe,
the aristocracy formed an elite social class, second only to royalty. While
tens of thousands claimed noble titles and ancient lineage on the Continent,
only a few possessed the wealth and lifestyle marking the true aristocrat.
In Great Britain, a severely restricted peerage meant that the nobility
consisted of perhaps four hundred titled families with incomes of ten
thousand pounds plus. The four thousand grand seigneurs of France
(like the seven hundred Spanish grandees and titulos) were less
wealthy than their British equals but enjoyed more lavish lifestyles at
Versailles.
Power and privilege varied across Europe. French
nobles enjoyed tax-exemption and feudal dues, but were excluded from power.
Spanish and German nobles received tax-exemptions, feudal dues and
significant jurisdiction in local affairs. Parts of Italy remained medieval
with government dominated by the aristocracy. In Prussia and Russia, the
rulers granted the nobility substantial local jurisdiction and control over
their peasants and serfs in return for state service. In Great Britain,
nobles and commoners were equal before the law, save for the hundred peers
who held seats in the House of Lords.
British nobles enriched
themselves through agriculture, commerce, industry and high office, being
unrestricted in their careers. Some received overseas posts or Secret
Service pensions to avoid poverty. Outside Britain, aristocrats received
lucrative government, military and ecclesiastical positions. While engaging
in retail or manual trades could forfeit status and privileges, agriculture,
mining, and overseas trade was usually permissible.
With a host of
servants in the great houses -- footmen, maidservants, cooks, gardeners
and coachmen -- a life of unlimited leisure was possible for the truly
wealthy. Most European nobles went on the Grand Tour of France and Italy,
absorbing the culture and/or indulging in vice and dissipation for up to a
year, making friends abroad, and acquiring foreign languages. At home, the
aristocracy could enjoy witty conversation in the salons and coffee-houses,
gamble in the clubs, and patronize the arts.
Entry to the
nobility was difficult. While the great English landowning families allied
with commoners who had become wealthy through speculation, trade or the
professions, continental aristocrats were less willing to marry "new money."
Purchase of titles permitted a trickle of new arrivals into the mostly
closed continental castes.

Clothing
The 1770s
witnessed the start of a series of changes in fashion. Silks, satins and
velvet waned in popularity against cottons. The bourgeoisie joined the
nobility in following every twist in haute couture.
Well-to-do men
throughout Europe dressed elegantly in the French style, wearing a coat,
embroidered waistcoat, and knee breeches. The bright decorated satins were
replaced with more subdued and darker fabrics. Hair was worn long and tied
in a "queue" at the back, powdered in blue or red during the 1770s in
England. Small wigs were common during the 1780s. Cocked hats such as
bicorns or tricorns dominated headgear until the nineteenth
century.
Regency England, under the influence of dandies such as
"Beau" Brummel, became the world center of masculine couture. Top hats
replaced cocked hats. The suit now consisted of a dark tailcoat, a
waistcoat, and lighter-colored close-fitting pantaloons buckled at the
ankle.
For women, panier gowns dominated fashion until 1775. These
consisted of a rigid corset and an oval framework petticoat (called
"paniers" because of their basket shape) which was tied at the waist using
tapes. (Some paniers were collapsible for greater maneuverability!) The gown
itself then flowed over corset and petticoat in a profusion of decorative
ribbons and ruffles. True devotees of fashion wore powdered high wigs and
much make-up, frequently to conceal smallpox marks. The English introduced a
more restrained gown with a high waistline and less ornamentation. This
eventually became the accepted style, even in France.
After the French
Revolution, female fashion across Europe imitated the neoclassical styles of
the Directory and the Empire. Thin and loose gowns with low necklines and
high waists were de rigeuer. Corsets disappeared. During the Empire,
opaque fabrics and sheath skirts replaced the translucent materials of the
1790s. Warm colorful overdresses, shawls and pelisses were all worn to
battle the cold. Natural coiffures replaced the Directory's plumed and
beribboned chignons as the dominant hairstyles.
From the 1770s,
children's clothing was no longer miniature adult styles. Girls wore dresses
which resembled in shape the most comfortable adult gowns. Boys wore frilled
shirts and ankle-length trousers.
For the laboring classes, the
traditional male smocks and aprons of the eighteenth century yielded to
trousers and breeches during the early nineteenth century. Shorter hair
replaced long queues. For women, simpler cotton clothing became more
available, supplanting the earlier bulky garments. In winter, cloaks and
capes supplemented the lighter skirts and aprons. Plain caps and bonnets
were worn as headgear.

Gentry
Below the
true aristocracy came the gentry of Britain and the rural, lesser nobility
of continental Europe.
The British gentry numbered less than a
thousand baronets and knights (with incomes of three thousand pounds) and
four thousand squires (with incomes of two thousand pounds). A host of
"gentlemen", little better than tenant farmers, provided the bulk of the
English rural middle-class. Although lacking legal privileges, the gentry
filled the Shire seats of the House of Commons and served as local judges.
Most country squires were ill-educated and uncouth, spending their time
working on their estates, shooting, hunting, fishing and drinking.
 Across the English Channel, the lesser nobility were much more
numerous. In 1800, half a million Spaniards, or one in twenty of the
population, were rural hidalgos, entitled to be styled "Don." In France
prior to the Revolution, the provincial hobereaux numbered about four
hundred thousand. This inflation was partly a consequence of all children of
a noble inheriting their parent's status, rather than only the eldest
surviving son as in Britain.
While the British aristocracy rubbed
shoulders with the gentry and squirearchy, the hidalgos and
hobereaux were largely ignored by their superiors and had little
influence on government. Instead they stayed on their tiny estates,
scratching a meager living from the land, and were often no wealthier than
their peasant neighbors and tenants. However they enjoyed exemptions from
many taxes, collected feudal dues, and retained ancient privileges such as
wearing swords openly and (for Spanish hidalgos) immunity from arrest
for debts.
Lack of disposable income ensured most hobereaux
were unable to participate in commercial ventures. Lack of social standing
and family connections denied them high office in government, the church or
the military. In Spain, the hidalgos could forfeit their status if they
engaged in commerce or industry. Understandably the rural nobility were
highly conservative traditionalists.

Religion
Religion was still a potent force in
eighteenth-century Europe, though actual faith was strongest among the lower
classes. Many of the upper classes attended religious services out of duty
or good manners rather than belief.
The established churches fulfilled
many roles in society such as popular education, running hospitals, and
almsgiving to the poor as well conducting religious services. The Protestant
national churches of Britain, Scandinavia and the northern German states
remained subservient to the state. The Catholic monarchs of Spain and the
Italian states were intent on limiting the Papacy by acquiring the rights to
appoint bishops themselves and to veto the promulgation of Papal Bulls in
their dominions. Similar freedoms had previously been won by the
French.
Religious minorities were present in every nation. More than a
million Calvinists lived in southern and south-western France; in return for
freedom of worship and civil rights, they remained loyal to the French
crown.
In Britain, the Protestant Dissenters were influential in the
new industrial towns, especially as advocates of better conditions for their
inhabitants. John Wesley's Methodists, who split from the Church of England
after his death in 1791, gained some seventy thousand morally earnest
converts through lively preaching. Catholics remained a tiny minority in
mainland Britain, but were no longer openly persecuted, though they were
denied access to education, military commissions, and holding land.

Jewish communities were scattered throughout Europe. The smaller

Sephardic grouping became westernized, lived in major cities, and were
(modestly) wealthy through trade and finance. The Ashkenazi Jews who had
emigrated west from Poland maintained their Eastern European identity and
stayed poor. In central and eastern Europe, Jews were required to live in
segregated ghettos, limited to financial careers or peddling, and required
to pay special taxes.
Rulers and governments became increasingly
tolerant of religious minorities. The last heretic died by the
auto-da-fé (public burning) in Spain in 1781. Joseph II of
Austria granted most Protestants and Orthodox Christians citizenship and
eliminated most of the restrictions on Jews. In 1787, Protestants received
full freedom of worship in France. Legal Roman Catholic chapels were opened
in London from 1792. Even in the Ottoman Empire, Orthodox Greeks were
tolerated as long as they did not conspire with foreign powers to attain
independence.

Clergy
The clergy mostly
reflected the aristocratic dominance of society.
In France from
1783 to the Revolution, every single bishop was noble-born. Moreover
aristocratic churchmen were appointed to the wealthiest livings or became
abbots of well-endowed monasteries. High social rank also conferred rapid
promotion in the church hierarchy. The Catholic Church in France was not
required to pay taxes, but could levy its own tithes on the faithful and was
corporately the largest landowner in the country. In Austria and Belgium,
the Church possessed an even larger share of the land. In Britain,
bishoprics in the Church of England earned their holders from five hundred
to seven thousand pounds annually, and entitled many to seats in the House
of Lords. Spain was different -- its bishops were predominantly
commoners and lacked great personal riches.
Spain excepted, most
prelates of the European established churches concentrated on their worldly
prerogatives and political affairs rather than their spiritual duties.
Absenteeism was commonplace in Britain and France with bishops preferring
the capitals to their sees and confirmation tours. (Louis XVI ordered his
bishops back to their dioceses.) Atheism presented no barrier to some
ambitious churchmen. However sufficient zealous clergy existed to preserve
the churches from complete discredit.
The bulk of the clergy,
whether French curés, Spanish parish priests, or English vicars,
survived on much smaller incomes. Most rural curés lived on
tithes or an annual stipend of 750 livres, barely more than their
parishioners earned. The Spanish clergy were often as poor and as ignorant
as their peasant congregations. Many English parsons supplemented their
annual benefices of sixty pounds by working as local schoolmasters or
through "plurality" (holding multiple livings). Unlike their continental
counterparts, they were welcome in the society of the gentry and
squirearchy, enjoyed similar status, and often partook of country pursuits.

The clergy represented a significant portion of the populace

-- twenty thousand in Spain, sixty-five thousand in Austria, and
130,000 in France. Although religious houses still proliferated across
Europe, (Austria, France, and Spain each had two to three thousand such
 communities), monasticism was in retreat as envious monarchs seized the
lands of the contemplative orders. The Catholic sovereigns, having first
expelled the Jesuits from their domains, forced Pope Clement XIV to disband
the order in 1773.

Money and Trade

Although the
Industrial Revolution was beginning in Britain, the measure of a nation's
wealth was still its overseas trade with the other foreign powers and its
own colonies. Merchants and bankers, rather than manufacturers, were the
preeminent forces in the business world.
Until the start of the
Revolutionary Wars, the struggle for international commerce was between
Britain and France. Each imported cotton from North America, sugar from the
West Indies, and precious metals and coffee from South America. In return,
they exported manufactured goods to the colonies. Much of the new wealth
came from the "triangular trade" of cottons and manufactured goods to West
Africa, slaves from West Africa to the West Indies, and raw cotton, sugar
and tobacco from the West Indies to Europe.
Britain, Sweden, and
Holland competed for the Baltic trade in wheat (from Poland), naval stores
(such as timber and hemp), iron, and copper (from Russia and Sweden) to the
seafaring powers. France held the upper hand in the Mediterranean. Cargoes
of manufactured goods, textiles, and fish were exported to the Levant in
return for wine, silk, spices, tea and coffee. In the Indian Ocean,
Britain's victories in the Seven Years' War had yielded it sole control of
trade in silk and calico with India itself, while Holland remained paramount
in the Spice Islands.
Chartered companies such as the Honourable East
India Company and the Dutch East India Company continued to exert
significant influence in commerce. A greater role was played by
international financiers specializing in particular goods, wholesale trade,
insurance or banking.
By 1800, there were seventy commercial and
three hundred country banks in Britain able to take deposits, pay interest,
lend money and discount bills. In 1773 dealing in stocks and shares moved
from Jonathan's Coffehouse in Change Alley to the Stock Exchange in London's
Threadneedle Street. Share speculation, its reputation long tarnished as a
consequence of the "South Sea Bubble" disaster of 1720, became respectable
again. Elsewhere in Europe, there were banks concentrating on commercial
financing. Paper bills and currency had supplanted shipments of bullion as
the accepted medium of exchange.
The capital of the world's money
markets remained Amsterdam until it was displaced by London as a consequence
of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Townsfolk
The commoners who formed the urban
populations divided into several social classes primarily based on wealth,
namely the burgesses, the "lower orders," and the criminal classes. Defoe
described them as "the rich, the poor, and the miserable."

Bourgeoisie

In Napoleon's lifetime, the title of

"bourgeois" was not a pejorative one; rather it indicated a property-owner
and full citizen of the town or city. Burgesses included professionals
(particularly lawyers), manufacturers, merchants, important officials, and
in France the rentier class living off pensions and other fixed
incomes.
Expanding trade with the overseas colonies, particularly
in sugar and slaves, was responsible for the new affluence of the merchant
classes. Industrial growth in terms of increased coal, cast-iron and textile
production enriched the manufacturers. Factories still remained an exception
with work being "farmed" out to master craftsmen and their journeymen.

Across Europe, but particularly in France, their new wealth

encouraged the burgesses to seek a share in the privileges of the
aristocracy and influence in politics. Even if they were unable to purchase
a title of nobility, the wealthy could still "live nobly" in fine mansions
and new estates, sometimes with greater extravagance than many
"blue-blooded" families.
The hyperinflation of Revolutionary
France drove the rentier class into poverty; the later English
blockades and colonial losses ruined merchants who had invested in overseas
trade. However bankers and speculators discovered new opportunities to
become rich at the expense of successive regimes. Both the Consulate and the
Empire offered the bourgeois careers in Napoleon's armies and
bureaucracy.

The "Lower Orders"

Next in social status

were the "lower orders" of England, known as the menu peuple in France
and popolino in Italy. These were the largest segment of the urban
population and included shopkeepers, master craftsmen, journeymen,
apprentices, skilled laborers, and servants. Shopkeepers received greater
respect in England than elsewhere.
The social status of the master
craftsmen was in decline, as changing circumstances and regulations eroded
the traditional prerogatives of the surviving guilds. Despite their
struggles, the craftsmen lost ground to their former bourgeois equals as
they steadily became simply skilled workers for the manufacturers who
supplied their raw materials and marketed their finished products.
Independent craftsmen involved in making luxury goods for the aristocracy
and the rich were better able to sustain their social standing.

Apprenticeship in the crafts remained a lengthy and rigorous

process of training. In France, journeymen were supposed to undertake the
"Tour de France" to gain experience under multiple masters. Associations
such as the compagnonnages assisted fellow journeymen in these travels
as well as protecting their interests. The old regulations were frequently
flouted as masters often employed up to a hundred apprentices and
 journeymen, and the coveted elevation to master was increasingly granted
only to their relatives.
Tradesmen, craft workers, and others
lived in the same city districts, dressed similarly, and spent their modest
incomes on bread, beer or wine, firewood, and occasionally some meat.
Internal squabbles among the lower orders were forgotten whenever threats to
trade in general or the food supply occurred. Violent protests and food
riots were their common solution.

Riffraff

For those
lacking useful skills, life was "nasty, brutish, and short." Respectable
members of society, including the shopkeepers and laborers, despised the
riffraff of society, dismissing them as the criminal
classes.
Casual workers, the utterly destitute, vagrants, and
beggars mingled with thieves, thugs, and common prostitutes in the crowded
faubourgs of Paris and other cities. Their sheer number gave the
rudimentary city police forces and administrations grave cause for concern.
A sixth to a quarter of the population of large cities such as London,
Paris, Strasbourg and Toulouse received some form of charitable relief in
the 1780s and 1790s.
In England, parishes were expected to
provide for the needs of their own poor from the rates collected upon the
middle classes. Indeed unfortunates who became destitute elsewhere were
shipped back to their home parishes. Up to 1782, the able-bodied were, like
the old, sick, orphans, and unmarried mothers, sent to parish work-houses
and contracted out to road-builders as cheap labor. From 1782, the
able-bodied were classified as vagrants, imprisoned in houses of correction
rather than the work-house, and driven into crime.

Crime and Punishment

Crime was rampant throughout
Europe.
England suffered the depredations of pickpockets, highwaymen,
and footpads. Seeming respectability allowed pickpockets to ply their trade
everywhere. The highwaymen terrorized the occupants of stage-coaches, but
rarely murdered their victims unlike the footpads who robbed and killed for
trifling sums.
Chronic brigandage afflicted rural France until the
late Empire. The Revolution and the Empire added rebels and army deserters
to the ragged bands of land-less peasants, mixing counter-revolution and
acts of terrorism to traditional pillaging. Empire criminals such as "Coco"
(Barthélemy Lacour), the master of disguise Desnoyers, and Desfossieux
(the era's Houdini) became infamous. "Coco" and others were eventually
recruited by François-Eugène Vidocq, a former criminal and
jail-breaker, to staff the Paris criminal police.
Smuggling, or "the
Trade," became more prolific during the war years following rising excise
duties and the naval blockades. In spite of informers and military support,
the English Revenue Service were unable to stop the cross-Channel traffic.
Many European officials simply ignored the prohibitions of Napoleon's
Continental System, conniving at the illicit trade with
England.
Punishments were usually harsh. Branding was common for minor
offences, though bribery might ensure a cold iron was used. Whippings (of
prostitutes), floggings and the pillory were all common English sentences
for "misdemeanors." Felonies, i.e. crimes of theft or violence, were
punishable by hanging with the condemned marching in public procession to
Tyburn Tree until 1783. (Thereafter, felons were publicly executed outside
Newgate prison.) A death sentence might be commuted to transportation to the
American colonies (until they declared independence) or to Australia (from
1787).
Criminals in Bourbon France were variously sentenced to
branding, the galleys, being broken on the wheel, or public hangings. Where
there was insufficient evidence, a royal lettre de cachet could
condemn a suspect to indefinite imprisonment. Revolutionary France
introduced the "humane" guillotine for capital offences, while Napoleon
exported many miscreants to Devil's Island and French Guyana.
Debtors
could easily spend their lives in prison as their living expenses were added
to their debt but they were unable to earn money. English criminals might
endure a year's imprisonment before their trials. Prisons were cramped with
sleeping quarters resembling dungeons, and small day-rooms and exercise
yards. Living conditions were filthy, food was minimal, jail fevers were
frequently fatal, and behavior in mixed prisons was debauched. Revolutionary
France's prisons were makeshift and easy to escape from -- careful
bribery gained inmates better accommodation or luxuries. Add freedom of
movement and the fears of "prison plots" to overthrow the Revolution seem
all too plausible.

Peasants
Village
society could be extremely self-contained, even inbred. Villagers fed and
clothed themselves, living in primitive hovels and thatched stone cottages
with at most two rooms, low ceilings, earthen floors, and small unglazed
windows.
Rural life was unremitting labor from dawn to dusk on
the farm or in the workshop for artisans such as smiths or potters. Payment
was usually in kind with trade between other villages being rare; nearby
towns provided markets for surplus produce and a break from
drudgery.
Parts of northern and western Europe underwent an
agricultural revolution involving improved crop rotations, which avoided
fallow fields, and new crops such as the potato. In Britain, experimentation
led to increased soil yields and fatter livestock. Common lands were
enclosed by Acts of Parliament, resulting in enlarged estates and the
eventual elimination of yeoman small-holders in favor of great landlords,
well-to-do farmers, and farm laborers. Many yeoman families ended up in the
work-house or London slums.
In France, agricultural progress was
limited after 1771 due to aristocratic apathy and fear of peasant revolts.
Instead the peasantry remained in poverty, overtaxed by their government,
 and subjected to traditional feudal obligations. Many peasants supplemented
their incomes through domestic industry such as growing raw silk or
finishing off textiles.
Elsewhere in western Europe, peasants
either worked as laborers on the great estates, such as in southern Spain
and parts of Italy, or owned small farms as in northern Spain, the
Netherlands, and Scandinavia. Feudal dues such as quit-rents, church tithes,
and "fines" on inheritances etc., plus noble monopolies on hunting and
fishing, were variously enforced to the benefit of the nobility and
detriment of the villagers.
Excepting Denmark and some French
ecclesiastical estates, serfdom was extinct west of the Elbe. In Prussia,
Poland, the Austrian Empire, Russia and the Ottoman Empire, serfdom
flourished and the rural populations endured the imposition of feudal duties
and labor services. In Russia, the serfs were bound to the land and its
owner creating a caste of virtual slaves.

Food and
Drink
The average European had three daily meals: breakfast, dinner
and supper. Breakfast, whether of bread and butter or tea and rolls, was
eaten late at 10 a.m. (in Britain), allowing the poor to perform morning
tasks and the rich to call on friends. Dinner was the chief meal eaten at 2
p.m. or as late as 5 p.m. by the rich. The poor ate their suppers around 9
p.m., while the rich might wait until after midnight, dining in a
fashionable club.
To a great extent, diet was determined by wealth.
The poor subsisted on bread. The English enjoyed more pudding and meat. The
French benefited from fresh vegetables. In Italy, pasta was supreme and
supplemented with occasional veal, sausages, or poultry. Porridges and
gruel, infrequently mixed with cabbage, leeks or onions, were staple foods
in eastern Europe. The potato was growing in importance. Gin, ale, beer, and
wine were popular in their localities, but trade outside the producing
region was minimal. Tea and sugar slowly percolated downward through
society.
The wealthy enjoyed more variety. A typical English squire
might have a meal of salt beef or cold mutton and cabbage or carrots
followed by a heavy pudding, and washed down with ale, port, or an
infrequent brandy. For less rustic palates, fish, oysters, game, cheeses,
jellies and fruit puddings provided a more diverse cuisine.
The truly
refined and well-to-do followed France in matters of gastronomy. Cooks
proliferated in aristocratic households, specializing in particular areas of
cuisine. Preservation of seasonal foodstuffs became common. Every aspect of
food preparation and presentation became an art. While individual dishes
were masterworks, less consideration was (as yet) given to their mutual
compatibility. Cookbooks differentiated between recipes suitable for
commoners (cuisine bourgeoise) and those appropriate for nobles
(cuisine des grands).
As servants of the nobility, some cooks
chose to flee France in the émigrés' train rather than risk the
guillotine. Those, who remained and survived the Terror, relocated to the
restaurants to pursue their vocations, and provided haut cuisine to the
French middle classes.
Order and logic in flavors, textures and colors
were brought to French dishes by Marie-Antoine Car<\#144>me, who was
variously employed by Talleyrand, Tsar Alexander, and England's Prince
Regent. His feasts were also noteworthy for elaborate confectionery
creations which modeled classical architecture of every kind. The opulence
was matched only by the accuracy of his displays. Car<\#144>me's influence
on gastronomy during the late Empire and the Bourbon Restoration were
ensured via his published cookbooks.

Slaves and
Slavery
Slavery and slave raids were practiced throughout Africa.
Women and children were preferred by African slave owners for labor and
marriage. Captured males (usually from the interior) were either killed or
sold to the coastal tribes of West Africa. European slave traders landed at
the ports to buy slaves in bulk and load them onto waiting ships to make
"the Middle Passage" (of the triangular trade) to the
Americas.
The slaves were chained to wooden bunks in the hold,
either on their backs ("loose packing") or on their sides ("tight packing"),
fed once per day, and infrequently permitted exercise on deck. Bodily wastes
were washed out with buckets of seawater once a fortnight at most. The
voyage lasted up to two months with a tenth to a quarter of the slaves dying
en route. Half the slavers usually died, often from diseases contracted in
Africa or on board.
On arrival, the surviving slaves were sold at
auction and then delivered to their new owners. Many imported slaves
perished to New World diseases in their first two years of service. On the
Caribbean islands, slaves were employed on sugar plantations, where their
lives were governed by fellow slaves appointed as foremen and European
overseers running the estates on behalf of absentee landlords. Slave labor
worked the silver mines in Central America and the coffee farms of Brazil.
In the American colonies, slaves were employed in rice and indigo farming in
the swamps of the south, rafts in the north, and tobacco cultivation in
Virginia. Whitney's cotton gin and the Louisiana Purchase increased the
demand for slaves in the new American territories.
On large
plantations, the slaves had their own quarters and maintained their culture.
Elsewhere they lived in their owners' homes or shops in slightly better
conditions but at the expense of their cultural identity. Farm foremen had
separate cabins, privileges, and possessions, but their role as
disciplinarians ensured their isolation from other slaves.
Major
opposition to slavery began in Britain in the 1780s, resulting in the
abolition of the slave trade to British colonies in 1807. The rebel colonies
of Spanish America followed suit between 1810 and 1812. Existing slaves were
not however freed until much later. In the United States, slavery continued
in the southern states.
Life in the American
Colonies

Everyday Essentials

The American colonials were

taller, healthier, and longer-lived than their European counterparts, due
mostly to their better and more varied diet. The mainstays were pork and
beef, boiled, broiled and in stews and pies, supplemented with vegetables,
corn, bread, and fruit. The absence of game laws allowed colonists to enjoy
venison and wildfowl. Dietary snobbery had vanished so foods (such as
oysters) elsewhere considered fit only for the poor were welcome dishes for
the rich. Coffee, chocolate and small beer were the most popular drinks
-- tea became unpatriotic and wine was an expensive
import.
Clothing was expensive with many settlers owning only one or
two complete sets of clothes. Heavy and hard-wearing materials were
preferred with aprons worn on top to protect the clothes while working.
Women wore a full-length shift, a long skirt and a bodice. Capes, cloaks,
and hats were worn as protection against the weather. (A quarter of all
female deaths occurred in the kitchen, usually because a dress caught fire
whilst the cooking pot was being handled.) Men wore leather vests and aprons
over shirts and breeches while working. On the frontier, buckskin breeches
and jackets were common. Formal dress followed French fashions.

Houses ranged from one-room halls to elaborate manor houses with

separate kitchen and bedroom wings. Most had wattle and daub or wooden walls
constructed around a supporting frame; a few were made of bricks. Roofs were
thatched or shingled, floors were covered with pine heartwood boards. In the
northern colonies, chimneys were central to the structure and ceilings were
low to preserve heat, while southern residences had high ceilings and
peripheral chimneys to lose heat. Glazed sash windows and candles provided
illumination with interiors being whitewashed or painted in bright colors to
aid light sources.

Marriage and Children

Couples met and

courted at church, horse races or dances. Marriage, however, was a business
arrangement requiring the consent of both families. Spouses were usually in
their mid-to-late twenties when they first married. Widow and widowers
remarried quickly as single life was rarely practical.
A quarter to
half of all women died in childbirth or in related complications. Infant
mortality was equally severe with age eleven being considered a landmark
beyond which a child could expect long life. Children were taught to read,
write, and simple arithmetic in addition to a trade. (The Protestant belief
that the faithful needed to be able to read the Bible themselves was a key
spur to ensuring literacy.) Upper-class children received a broader
education from private tutors and young men might be sent to the American
colleges for a university degree.

Occupations
Most settlers
were planters with farms of up to 250 acres. Agriculture lagged English
techniques relying on the "mound" system, wherein earth was piled up into
mounds and planted simultaneously with corn, beans and squash, rather than
full field plantings and crop rotation. Livestock roamed wild; fowl were
raised in hen houses and enclosed yards. Fishing and furs provided incomes
for many.
Skilled labor was scarce. Freed from the strictures of the
guilds, craftsmen could achieve master status, acquire wealth, and become
planters themselves, training apprentices, indentured servants or slaves in
their skills for hire to their neighbors. Blacksmiths, shoemakers, and
coopers were paramount, though leatherworkers, metalworkers, and weavers all
made respectable livings. Nearly all men were required to be available for
militia service.
Prior to the American Revolution, these artisans
mostly repaired goods which were manufactured in and imported from England.
Likewise many raw materials were exported to England. Planters and colonial
merchants corresponded regularly with the officials ("factors") of British
mercantile houses on business and other matters.
English coinage was
scarce owing to a prohibition on local mints. Hence barter was common in
frontier territories whereas letters of credit and bills of exchange were
preferred in the cities. Foreign currency could be substituted at official
rates, and some colonies printed paper money to ease cash flow.

Entertainment

The colonial era did not witness much

first-class home-grown art, music or literature. Nevertheless Americans
enjoyed all three, commissioning paintings and importing engravings from
England. Musical accomplishments, such as singing or proficiency with wind
instruments (for men) or stringed instruments (for women), were admired.
Dancing was taken seriously at balls which might last several days.
Southerners preferred the French minuet; Northerners favored Scottish reels.
Puritan hostility forestalled local theatrics, but travelling English
troupes performed popular plays and operas. Subscription libraries with
hundreds of volumes appeared in the cities and many wealthy planters owned
large book collections.

Crime and Punishment

Criminals were
tried according to English common law and received the benefits of being
presumed innocent until proven guilty, the right to counsel (if they could
afford a lawyer) and trial by jury. Unlike England, few felons received
death sentences owing to the shortage of labor. Instead fines, the pillory
and floggings were the prevailing punishments. Malefactors were normally
branded on their right thumb as a permanent record of their
offences.

Nabobs of the Indies

The
 Nabobs were those who had amassed great fortunes while working for (and
frequently at the expense of) the Honourable East India Company, and on
their return to Britain bought their way into Parliament via a "rotten
borough." Even the officers of the East Indiamen ships could become wealthy
as the company permitted them space on board for their private cargoes
according to their rank. A successful captain could easily retire on the
profits of three or four voyages, if he chose his goods carefully.

In India itself, the potential gains both from honest commerce

and bribes were much greater. So were the opportunities to squander one's
earnings in luxurious living, in entertaining native-born and often
mercenary mistresses, or in evenings spent at the gaming tables. Naturally
gentlemen affected complete disinterest in money matters, leaving the
management of their finances and daily expenses to sircars (brokers)
who made recourse to moneylenders when outgoings exceeded
incomes.
Living well in Company-ruled cities such as Bombay or
Madras meant renting expensive bungalows, purchasing costly imported
furniture, and employing an army of servants (sometimes over a hundred) for
every menial task. The magistrates were frequently required to sentence
insubordinate servants to corporal punishment (by rattan cane).

Company factors were manicured and shaved by their servants

before a breakfast of tea and toast. Unsuitably dressed (for the climate)
and wearing the customary wig, the factor would travel in a palanquin borne
by native bearers or in a carriage to the office. After working in the
morning for three hours, he would return home for dinner at 2 p.m. Ladies
would ride or drive in the morning or await house calls from friends. (Their
aim in travelling to India was to acquire a rich husband.) Europeans slept
through the heat of the afternoon, rising again in the evening to dress
formally for a reception, a ball, or a boating party. Supper would be served
after midnight. Excessive consumption of food and drink was the norm. Scant
regard was paid to the quality of wines and clarets. Smoking mixtures of
tobacco, spices and herbs using hookahs was a pastime for both
sexes.
Once a fortune and/or a suitable marriage was made, the
Nabobs would leave India to enjoy their retirement in Britain.

Life in Revolutionary France

For many nobles, the
Revolution was a financial and social disaster. The loss of the feudal dues
reduced their incomes by 10-60%. Egalité (equality) abolished
their status and privileges. Everyone was now addressed as citoyen
(citizen) rather than monsieur. Louis XVI's younger brothers (the
Comtes de Provence and Artois) led an aristocratic emigration from 1789
onward. Those who stayed survived the Terror by renouncing their titles and
living in obscurity.
Well-to-do peasants purchased émigré
and church lands. Poorer peasants could not compete in these auctions and
remained impoverished. The controlled economy of the Terror worsened rural
conditions and increased conflict between urban and rural France. The
attacks on organized religion exacerbated the situation (see box, p.
00).
The Revolution proper was the apogee of the sans-culottes.
Belonging to the poorer urban social classes, the sans-culottes
included skilled workers, shopkeepers and craftsmen, and objected to the
display of wealth. Their dress was the pantalon (long trousers) rather
than culottes (knee breeches, the carmagnole (short-skirted
coat), the red cap of libertél (liberty), and sabots
(wooden shoes). The accoutrements of the ancien regime such as wigs
and perfumed rosewater were spurned. In the spirit of egalité
and fraternité (brotherhood), they used the familiar form of the
French language.
The militancy of the sans-culottes found new vigor in
the conscripted Revolutionary armies. Soldiers received revolutionary
newspapers, sang revolutionary songs, and elected their officers. The spirit
of the Revolution endured in these citizen-soldiers after Robespierre's
fall.
Sensuality succeeded the repressive and puritanical daily life
of the Terror. Fashions became garish, morals loosened, attire became
uninhibited. Women wore dresses in the Roman and Sabine styles, leaving
their breasts exposed. Guests attending the increasingly popular balls and
dances shaved their necks and wore thin red silk bands around the throat to
mock the guillotine. The jeunesse dorée, young middle-class men,
wearing square-skirted coats, tight trousers, and high cravats, thrashed the
sans-culottes with their weighted sticks. The Incroyables
affected lisps, dressed outlandishly with pointed shoes and voluminous
coats, and cut their hair short at the front and raised it with a comb at
the back. The merveilleuses wore revealing Grecian tunics and changed
their wigs and their conversations every four hours.
The influence of
classical styles and Roman motifs in art, fashion, and public life continued
throughout the Directory and beyond into the Consulate and Empire.

Dechristianization and the Supreme

Being
Although France was Catholic prior to the Revolution,
anticlericalism had been encouraged by the philosophes, leading to
widespread criticism of the church hierarchy and contemplative monastic
orders. Nevertheless the enforcement of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
from 1790 angered the peasantry.
Persecution really began in 1792
with refractory priests being slaughtered in the September Massacres.
Thousands emigrated. The "dechristianization" program gathered pace in the
autumn and winter of 1793-94 with demands for priests to renounce their
vocations, church closures and desecration, and the seizure of clerical
property.
The introduction of the Revolutionary calendar from
October 1793 (but backdated to September 22, 1792 which became Year One of
the Republic), disrupted the pattern of life even further. Consisting of
twelve months, each of thirty days or three décadi (ten-day
"weeks"), followed by five festival days known as sans-culottides, the
new calendar abolished religious holidays and enraged many
workers.
 The Revolutionary Year was as
follows:
Vendémiaire = September 22 -- October
21
Brumaire = October 22 -- November 20
Frimaire =
November 21 -- December 20
Niv<\#153>se = December 21 --
January 19
Pluvi<\#153>se = January 20 -- February
18
Vent<\#153>se = February 19 -- March 20
Germinal
= March 21 -- April 19
Floréal = April 20 -- May
19
Prairial = May 20 -- June 18
Messidor = June 19
-- July 18
Thermidor = July 19 -- August
17
Fructidor = August 18 -- September 16
The
sans-culottides were from September 17 to 21.
The calendar
was suspended following the Thermidor coup but was reinstated in
1798.
Idolatry of Revolutionary heroes such as the murdered Marat
filled the religious vacuum of the popular classes. Maratism was
insufficient for Robespierre who believed in the deism of Rousseau. The
Committee of Public Safety initiated the Cult of the Supreme Being in June
1794. Robespierre's behavior at its public inauguration led many to fear he
intended to become its high priest and persecute unbelievers through a
religious Terror. This cult of Reason collapsed with Robespierre's downfall.
The austere cult of Theophilanthropy, emphasizing nature and morality, was
equally short-lived in 1799.
Catholicism recovered following
Thermidor but remained disestablished. The persecution of refractory priests
continued until Napoleon's Concordat with the Papacy.

Life in Imperial France

Hundreds of émigrés
returned to France as the Directory transformed itself into the Consulate.
Napoleon desired an aristocracy to add glamour to his new authoritarian
empire. Most ancien régime nobles remained aloof from the pomp
and brilliance of the imperial court with its lavish balls, parties and
soirees preferring their own exclusive salons, so from 1808, Napoleon
created a new imperial aristocracy.
The Concordat between Napoleon
and the Papacy temporarily eased the religious divisions in France. The
Organic Articles gave Napoleon significant influence over the Church,
leading to the inclusion of his Bulletins and the virtues of patriotism and
submission to conscription into sermons. Despite the rapprochement,
Fouché's police spies infiltrated congregations to uncover royalist
conspiracies. The Church recovered its dominance over primary education,
while private schools and the new lycées catered to middle-class
children. The latter emphasized logic, rhetoric, and classical languages
rather than modern languages and history and were intended to produce the
next generation of Imperial administrators and military officers.
The
exigencies of the British blockades encouraged experimentation in
agriculture with peasants participating under pressure in trials of maize,
potatoes, and sugar beet. The prefects averted mass starvation in the winter
of 1811-12 only through soup kitchens -- revolt was prevented by
requiring the poor to work hard for this sustenance. Itinerant beggars
threatened more successful farmers with arson if they refused to yield food
or work. Fishermen and peasants added smuggling and poaching to their
trades.
Art, architecture and sculpture in the Empire continued to
reflect the neoclassical themes in the realistic styles espoused by painters
such as Jacques-Louis David. The tastes of the populace differed greatly
from the classical emphasis of the imperial court. The masses patronized
fairs and boulevard theatres, enjoying burlesques and melodramas. Plays told
a story and had a moral -- actors were often forced by the audience to
diverge from the script, lest the performance be abruptly ended. The
literate read historical fiction, escapist romances and translated English
novels. Poets imitated and translated the classics.
Revolutionary
France had witnessed an explosion in newspapers and radical pamphlets. In
1804, Paris possessed seventy newspapers. Napoleon and his censors reduced
this to thirteen by 1805 and to a mere four (plus one provincial periodical)
by the Empire's end. The principal newspaper, Le Moniteur, became a
mouthpiece for Imperial propaganda, supplemented (until 1812) by Napoleon's
military Bulletins.

The Conservative Reaction

Napoleon's first
abdication heralded the return of the remaining émigré
aristocrats to France. Their influence in politics was checked until the
Hundred Days excused greater repression against Napoleonic supporters and
instituted a conservative Catholic Royalist regime. Regicides and ardent
imperialists were proscribed and fled abroad to avoid imprisonment or
execution.
The constitutional charter which had restored Louis XVIII
prevented society being restored to its pre-Revolutionary character. The
bourgeoisie who had benefited from purchasing noble and church lands were
allowed to keep them. Some émigrés displaced commoners in
military and administrative positions; others were forced into trade to
recover their fortunes. Censorship was relaxed, the electoral regulations
were reformed, and food supplies became assured to town and country.

Catholicism was reinstated as France's state religion and recovered

its preeminence in education. Throughout Europe, church attendance rose as
the upper classes rediscovered their faith. Pope Pius VII re-instituted the
Jesuit order to undertake its mission of conversion and education. Religion
became a source of conflict between rulers and ruled in Russia, Poland, the
Balkan territories of the Ottoman Empire, and the Netherlands.
The
protracted wars had engendered a desire in governments and monarchs to
maintain the status quo -- Francis I of Austria's motto was "Rule, and
change nothing" -- and preserve intact the institutions and attitudes
which they had spent so long defending. However the economic slump which
followed the coming of peace required corrective action and gave impetus to
calls for reform.
In Britain, radicals and Dissenters attacked the
inequalities of the electoral system, governmental corruption, and new laws
through the newspapers. Although official pressure reduced the agitation in
1816, the Peterloo massacre (1819) caused by a panicked crowd fleeing a
cavalry squadron allowed the passage of the "Six Acts." These laws banned
political meetings and parades, permitted the police to perform house
searches and seize subversive literature, taxed newspapers and periodicals
(to prevent the poor from buying them!), and weighted justice against
defendants in criminal cases.
Secret societies flourished across
Europe, plotting to overthrow the established order. They included
Freemasons, Carbonari in Italy and France, and nationalist groups in
Germany, Greece, and Russia.

Travel by Land
Only the wealthy
traveled for leisure; everyone else on the roads journeyed for business
reasons or out of necessity to avoid arrest or seek their fortune.

Wealth and status were reflected in the traveler's means of

transportation. Those compelled by circumstances to use humbler modes than
usual for their station were often unwilling to admit their rank to protect
their reputations. The poor walked or hitched on a farmer's lumbering cart.
Public stagecoaches provided faster travel for the well-to-do. Post-chaises
could be hired by the rich for their exclusive use -- some aristocrats
and magnates owned their own. For shorter journeys, riding on horseback was
practical.
Types of chaises and coaches varied. The post-chaise was a
four-wheeled closed carriage with one front-facing seat large enough for
three passengers. Luggage rested on a platform at the front. Post-chaises
were drawn by two horses, one of which would be ridden by the driver. The
four-wheeled landau seated four passengers inside on two facing benches. The
driver had his own raised front seat outside to supervise the four horses.
Lucky stagecoach passengers rode inside the coach itself; the unlucky clung
to handrails while seated on the coach roof or suffered the buffeting of
unsecured baggage in the luggage basket at the back of the
stagecoach.
The treatment of travelers depended on their mode of
transport -- those owning their own horses or arriving by post-chaise
received preferential service. Stagecoach passengers paid for their cheaper
fares in terms of the indignities offered by disrespectful coachmen,
turnpike wardens, and rude innkeepers, and lack of choice in fellow
passengers and schedules. All road travelers faced risk to life and property
from highwaymen. Surrendering one's purse without attempting self-defense
avoided violent revenge. Increasing road traffic was matched by the rising
numbers of highwaymen and better quality inns.
Road conditions, time
of year, amount of traffic, and type of carriage all affected the cost and
speed of travel. Turnpike tolls in Britain and internal customs in France
raised the price of fares. The former, while popularly condemned for
increasing food prices in rural areas, did enable faster travel in areas
where the turnpike trustees used the toll revenues wisely. Roads were more
passable in summer than winter, and so travel was both faster and cheaper.
Travel to popular destinations was unsurprisingly cheaper than to more
obscure places -- on some main routes, the stagecoaches achieved
swifter journeys by not stopping overnight at inns. Under poor conditions,
an average day's travel by coach might be some fifty miles. By 1800, a
stagecoach in Britain could expect to traverse over a hundred miles per day.
Post-chaise passengers paid four times as much per mile as stagecoach
travelers.

Travel by Sea
Sea travel was the preserve of the
professional seamen. Warships, privateers and pirates cruised the sea lanes
of the world. Whalers roved the Arctic Ocean while the fishing fleets sailed
more temperate and inshore waters. Small merchant vessels shipped diverse
cargoes around the coasts, obsolescent men of war with reduced armament
served as troopships, and slavers profited in the Triangular
Trade.
During times of peace, the owners of the swiftest ships reaped
the greatest profits. In wartime, solitary vessels were easy prey for
commerce-raiders. Hence merchants petitioned their governments to provide
naval escorts for convoys. Lubberly captains and crews would sail only
during the day, delaying the others, and ignore signals from the guarding
warships to maintain position and speed, exasperating the Navy officers. Woe
betide the frigate captain however if privateers "cut out" any ships from
the convoy.
While military necessity might require high-ranking
officers, ambassadors, or spies take passage on a naval ship, privately
owned ships carried all other passengers in addition to their normal cargo.
Very few could afford the high cost of sea travel. A typical berth on an
East Indiaman from England to India cost four hundred pounds; passage (but
not food) on a Post Office mail packet to the West Indies cost fifty
guineas. The packets were however fast, crossing the Atlantic in forty-five
days.
The majestic East Indiamen vessels of the Honourable East India
Company might take three to five months on the journey from England to
India. Their schedules used the prevailing monsoon winds and avoided
cyclones and typhoons in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. Outward
passage was best attempted between May and October, while homeward ships
sailed between November and April. East Indiamen passengers enjoyed fine
food and wines, but had to suffice with "cabins" created with canvas
partitions and endure the rude sounds and odors of a sailing ship. Stranded
East Indiamen might be attacked off the African coast by natives, or
threatened by French privateers in the Indian Ocean. Between both perils was
Cape Town where the passengers visited Table Mountain and the zoological
gardens while the captain awaited favorable winds.
Military Life
Sailors
The Age of Fighting Sail was
made possible by the tens of thousands of ordinary sailors who lived,
fought, and died at sea. Abandoned to fend for themselves in peacetime,
sailors could only leave the service by death, injury, or desertion during a
war.

Pressed Men and Volunteers

Manpower shortages were

experienced by all navies, as their hardships, harsh discipline, and poor
pay discouraged trained seamen from serving. Between the wars, short-handed
captains toured fairs and markets at their own expense to attract suitable
volunteers.
Imminent conflict demanded the commissioning and crewing
of laid-up ships achieved by judicious use of the press-gang and its
continental equivalents. In Britain, parties of sailors and marines would
target inbound merchantmen, effectively kidnapping their best sailors, and
raiding taverns and brothels for unwilling recruits. The sight of a King's
ship heading for port was just cause for able-bodied men to take to the
hills. Foreigners, Americans with legal "Protections," certain key merchant
sailors, and gentlemen (if dressed according to their status) were exempt.
The Impress Service, run by "beached" officers, organized permanent
press-gangs during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Criminals
"volunteered" rather than suffer transportation or hanging. European navies
drafted conscript soldiers to complete ships' crews. Nevertheless all
officers agreed that one volunteer was worth three pressed
men.

Seamen

Sailors were rated (and paid) according to their

maritime experience as landsmen, ordinary seamen or able seamen. The ship's
company was also divided by function: the older "focslemen" worked the
anchors, forward sails and cannon, the nimble "topmen" trimmed the highest
sails and handled cable and capstan, the inexperienced or stupid "waisters"
looked after the livestock, pumped the bilges, formed gun-crews and handled
the lower sails of the main and mizzenmasts, and the "afterguard" manned the
braces which controlled the sails. These four groups were divided into
larboard (port) and starboard watches, working and resting alternately. A
final group -- the "idlers" -- comprising cook, carpenter and
mates, and officers' servants worked all day instead of standing watches.
The "quarters, watch, and station bill" prescribed the duties of each sailor
in sail handling and battle, even indicating the weapons (cutlass, tomahawk,
pistol or boarding pike) to be issued for each man.
Additionally the
sailors were organized into "messes" of up to eight for sleeping and eating.
Changes could be made at the start of each month -- too many transfers
indicated an unhappy crew; seamen who switched regularly were probably
troublemakers.
Warrant Officers

Between the commission

officers and the sailors were the warrant officers, professionals appointed
to the ship itself rather than to a single tour of duty. The most senior of
these -- master, purser, surgeon and chaplain -- had equal status
to the lieutenants (and resided with them), but less authority. Transfer to
larger ships constituted promotion for warrant officers.
The master
was responsible for navigation and the updating of sea charts, the stowing
of cargo and the ship's sailing qualities. The purser combined the roles of
storekeeper and shopkeeper, buying in supplies and distributing them to the
crew. In the Royal Navy, pursers were allowed a commission of one-eighth,
ostensibly to counter wastage by vermin and malfeasance by contractors. For
a purser, there were thus fourteen ounces to the pound, and dishonesty and
corruption were rife. The surgeon looked after the health of the crew, but
contemporary medical knowledge limited many to treating venereal diseases
and amputating limbs. Chaplains were rare, finding congenial employment only
on the largest ships. Some doubled as schoolmasters.
The gunner's
charges were the cannon, shot, and powder, and the keys to the ship's
magazine. He also supervised the midshipmen. The boatswain's (bosun's)
responsibilities included the sails, rigging, anchors, and ship's boats. He
and his subordinate mates passed orders to the crew. The carpenter ensured
the integrity of the masts and hull, and repaired battle damage. The
master-at-arms exercised the men in weapons and monitored the vigilance of
sentries.

Marines

Contingents of Marines served in all the

major navies, enforcing discipline and suppressing mutinies. Neither sailor
nor soldier, the marines provided musket sharpshooters, additional cannon
crew, and boarding parties. True amphibious operations involving marines
were rare, partly due to their small numbers -- forty on a frigate, a
hundred and ten on a third-rate.

Aft the Most

Honor
British naval officers were mostly drawn from the
middle-classes and seafaring families, with some younger sons of the gentry
and aristocracy. Catholics were officially prohibited from holding
commissions. In the French and Spanish navies, the aristocracy dominated the
higher echelons while commoner officers languished as lieutenants and junior
captains despite usually greater seamanship and sea experience. The
execution or emigration of aristocratic officers during the Revolution led
to their replacement by surviving lieutenants and senior warrant
officers.
The traditional route to high rank was to serve as a
volunteer aboard ship (usually from age eleven) as a midshipman (Royal
Navy), aspirant (French Navy), or guardia marina (Spanish Navy).
Some midshipmen received up to two years' basic instruction at naval
 academies. Royal Navy candidates taking the examination for lieutenant
needed to be (or appear) at least twenty-one years old (later reduced to
nineteen) and have a minimum of six years' sea service. If they failed the
exam, they were required to wait six months before their next attempt.
Passed candidates continued to serve as midshipmen or master's mates (in
their twenties and thirties) until a lieutenancy became vacant.
Exceptionably able seamen or warrant officers were sometimes promoted to
commission rank
Lieutenants (or Spanish tenientes) kept
watches, led a division of the crew, and a section of the guns in actions.
First lieutenants organized the watches and duties and acted as the
captain's second-in-command. In the Royal Navy, smaller unrated vessels
(such as cutters, schooners, brigs, and transports) were commanded by
lieutenants.
Promotion to "master and commander" required
recognized merit, notable success in action, luck or influence, and allowed
the fortunate officer to command sloops, fireships, and bomb vessels.
Promotion to post-captain necessitated further brilliance or exertion of
influence, and granted permission to command rated ships, namely frigates
and ships of the line. The French equivalents of post-captain were
capitaine de frégate and capitaine de vaisseau; the
Spanish captains were ranked according to the ship commanded --
capitan de corbeta (sloops etc.), capitan de frigata (frigates),
and capitan de navio (ships of the line).
Royal Navy
captains could be temporarily appointed as flag-captains or commodores
(commanding a small squadron and flying a broad pennant on the flagship).
Seniority decided when a captain could be promoted to Rear Admiral -- a
few were forcibly retired by Admiralty intervention; others became "yellow
admirals" -- rear admirals unfit for further service. Advancement
through the flag ranks was strictly by seniority with long-lived officers
rising through Rear Admiral (of the Blue, White, and Red), Vice Admiral (of
the Blue, White, and Red), and finally Admiral (of the Blue, White, and
Red). French equivalents were Chef de division, Contre-admiral,
Vice-admirall and Admiral; Spanish flag officers were Jefe de
escuadra (Rear Admiral), Teniente-generale, Amiralante, and
Capitan General de Armada (Admiral of the Fleet).

Life at Sea

Daily Routine at Sea

The Royal Navy

day began at 4 a.m. for the idlers. The off-watch was roused before dawn,
lookouts sent aloft, and (in war-time) the ship sent to battle quarters.
Assuming no enemy sail was sighted at dawn, the lower decks were cleaned
prior to breakfast at 7.15 a.m. The crew were paraded in divisions at 9.30
a.m. for gunnery or sail exercises, ship maintenance or to witness
punishment. Dinner was at noon with decks cleared by 4.15 p.m. for supper at
5 p.m. Before sunset, the ship went to quarters for captain's inspection.
The masthead lookouts were replaced by deck lookouts and the crew retired to
their hammocks. All lights (save officers') were extinguished by 8 p.m.;
gunroom lights were out by 10 p.m.
Daily Routine in Port

In
port, the petty officers would wake both the off-watch and any female
companions aboard, leading to more confusion and noise than normal. If
anchored with a fleet, a drumbeat would mark time to dawn until a signal gun
was fired from the flagship to indicate sufficient visibility. Sailors would
be employed in cleaning the hull and other major maintenance during the day.
As many seamen would desert if allowed ashore, captains allowed bumboat men
to ferry traders and prostitutes to the ship. The latter would be deemed
"wives." (Officially women were prohibited on board navy ships unless they
were the wives of male passengers. However some officers disregarded these
regulations.)

Rations

Shipboard food varied from unappetizing

to inedible. In the Royal Navy, sailors subsisted on a pound of "bread"
(weevil-infested hard biscuit) and a gallon of weak beer per day.
Additionally two two-pound measures of salt beef, two pounds of salt pork,
four half-pints of pease, three pints of oatmeal, three four-ounce chunks of
cheese, and six ounces of butter would be served according to a regular
routine over a week. Watered wine and rum replaced the beer in the
Mediterranean and Caribbean respectively. Lime juice was introduced in 1795
to prevent scurvy. Commission officers brought their own provisions to
supplement the official rations.

Duty and Discipline

Severe
punishments were the normal reaction to indiscipline. Flogging and hanging
were meted out by the Royal Navy. The Dutch Navy retained keel-hauling until
1813; the Spanish Navy could sentence sailors to the galleys. After the
Revolution, the French Navy replaced corporal punishment with various levels
of arrest. Most seamen did not object to just punishments, but inconsistent
or excessive sentences could provoke mutinies.
The thirty-six Articles
of War governed all aspects of Royal Navy life for officers and men, dealing
with crimes as diverse as treason, cowardice, fraud, disobedience, dueling,
and sodomy. Officers could only be punished by court martial with at least
five post-captains as judges and jury, and were often tried for the
slightest breach of the Articles. Seamen found guilty by court martial
(rather than the captain's summary justice) could expect a "flogging round
the fleet" (several hundred lashes) or death rather than a dozen lashes.
Officers could be cashiered, demoted, or (rarely) shot.

The Real

Enemy
Few sailors died in the great sea battles -- only two
thousand British sailors perished in all of the fleet actions combined from
1793-1815. Instead shipwrecks, accidents and disease killed tens of
thousands. Although inoculation and fruit juices eliminated smallpox and
scurvy, pressed criminals carried typhus from the prisons and yellow fever
decimated crews stationed in the West Indies. Alcoholism was common in all
navies.

All the World's Fleets

Ships
were classified into rates by their number of cannon (not carronades).
First-rates (of 100 guns plus) and second-rates (of 90 guns plus) possessed
three armed decks and served as admirals' flagships, but they were difficult
to sail. Third-rates (of 64, 74 or 80 guns) with their two armed decks
comprised the majority of active ships-of-the-line. A "74" with an
experienced crew could match a frigate for speed. Fourth-rates (of 50-60
guns) were too small to survive in the line-of-battle but their shallow
draught allowed their effective use in the Baltic and North Sea. Fifth-rates
and sixth-rates were frigates (of 32-44 and 20-30 guns respectively on a
single gundeck) serving as "eyes of the fleet," commerce raiders, convoy
escorts, and blockade enforcers. The unrated ships included three-masted
sloops, two-masted brigs (up to 18 guns), and two-masted schooners and
single-masted cutters (with up to 10 guns). Sloops protected convoys and
conducted patrols, brigs attacked enemy merchantmen and undertook close
coastal blockades, cutters and schooners served as fleet tenders,
messengers, and reconnaissance vessels.
In peacetime, the Royal
Navy mustered perhaps thirty active ships-of-the-line and twice as many
frigates. In war, the inactive ships were swiftly recommissioned -- by
1794, the Royal Navy had 91 ships-of-the-line, 9 fourth-rates, 116 frigates
and 87 unrated vessels in home, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and the East
Indies waters. Captured prizes and new constructions offset weather and
battle losses, so that by 1799, the active list included 146
ships-of-the-line, 21 fourth-rates, 176 frigates and 303 unrated vessels.
(Between 1793-1815, 108 French frigates and 41 ships-of-the-line were taken
into the Royal Navy).
The ships of the French Navy were fast and
weatherly, organized into nine divisions, centered on the ports of Brest,
Rochefort, and Toulon. Lorient, Le Havre, Boulogne and Cherbourg gained
importance during the Empire. In 1790, the French Navy had 80
ships-of-the-line and 70 frigates, falling to 40 and 35 by 1805. Throughout
the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, extensive shipbuilding programs and
acquisition of allied ships maintained the navy's strength at this level
despite additional losses.
The Spanish Navy in 1790 mustered 72
ships-of-the-line, 46 frigates, and several dozen corvettes and xebecs. Home
ports were Cadiz, Ferrol, and Cartagena, with overseas bases in Havana and
Manila. Major defeats at St. Vincent and Trafalgar plus ships surrendered to
Napoleon halved the Spanish navy by 1806 and the decline continued to 1815.

In 1790, the Dutch Navy possessed 48 small ships-of-the-line (the

largest were ten "74"'s), thirty-six frigates and some forty unrated
vessels, organized into the home fleet and colonial squadrons in the East
Indies and Cape Colony. By 1800, the Batavian Republic was reduced to 16
ships-of-the-line and 12 frigates and remained at this level until
1815.
The Russian Navy was concentrated in the Baltic and the
 Black Sea at Kronstadt and Sebastopol. In 1790, the Baltic fleet had 51
ships-of-the-line, 32 frigates and a hundred sloops and oared vessels; the
Black Sea fleet had seven ships-of-the-line, 23 frigates and a score of
lesser craft. Seventy-five new ships-of-the-line were constructed from 1791
to 1815, replacing older vessels and those shipwrecked.
Denmark's
fleet in 1790 had 38 ships-of-the-line, twenty heavy frigates, and some
sixty xebecs. Reduced to 20 ships-of-the-line and 17 frigates after 1801,
the remaining ships were captured intact in 1807. Thereafter the Danes
defended themselves and attacked British convoys with a flotilla of 168
gunboats (oared and sailed). The Swedish Navy consisted of a High Seas Fleet
(17 ships-of-the-line, 8 frigates and 8 sloops in 1788) and the "Army Fleet"
(some sixty hybrid large galleys, rising to 150 by 1808). Both forces stayed
within the Baltic.
The small Portuguese Navy consisted of 10
ships-of-the-line, 14 frigates and 30 minor vessels in 1790, with only a few
ships being lost to the French during the period. The Ottoman Empire
maintained 30 ships-of-the-line (50-74 guns), 50 "frigates" (10 to 50 guns)
and 100 galliots. The Neapolitan fleet in 1792 comprised 5
ships-of-the-line, 8 frigates, and 11 corvettes and brigs.
During
the War of 1812, the United States Navy challenged Britain with seven heavy
frigates (larger and better armed than British equivalents), two sloops, one
corvette, three brigs, and four schooners. However they were supported by
swarms of independent privateers.

Fighting at

Sea
Once a strange sail was sighted, the crew would "beat to
quarters," clearing the ship for action, loading the guns, and hoisting
challenge flags according to the signal book. If the opposing ship failed to
make the correct response or fled, a gunnery duel would commence with both
captains trying to gain the weather gauge to deliver "raking" broadsides
into the stern or bows of the opposing ship. The British fired on the
"downroll" (into the enemy's hull) to destroy cannon and their crews; their
opponents fired on the "uproll" (into the enemy's sails, rigging and masts)
to disable the enemy. Wind, currents, skill, and the best trained crews
decided the fight. If the ships were grappled together, boarding parties
would risk swivel guns and boarding nets to defeat the enemy crew in
hand-to-hand combat. The vanquished would strike their flag.
Captains
facing hopeless odds might order a withdrawal. Experienced crews could set
all sails in six minutes, and tricks such as wetting the sails or having
sailors bearing roundshot move around the ship as mobile ballast could
ensure that a stern chase became a long chase. The truly desperate would
jettison water casks or even their cannon to increase their speed.

Fleet actions were limited to indecisive "line of battle" engagements

dictated by the Fighting Instructions and limited signals. Improvements in
signal codes such as Admiral Howe's private signals (1790) or Popham's
"telegraphic" code (1800) gave British admirals the ability to order complex
maneuvers and implement tactics to overwhelm enemy fleets arranged in battle
lines.
Prize money spurred officers and men alike to victory. Captured
ships were often "bought in" by the Admiralty and the money divided as
follows: an eighth to the commanding admiral, a quarter to the captain, an
eighth share among the lieutenants, master, surgeon, and Marine officer,
another eighth to the principal warrant officers, an eighth shared among
midshipmen, Marine sergeants, and other warrant officers, and the final
quarter to the crew.

Abstract Naval
Battles
The rules for naval battles in the Age of Sail as
presented in GURPS Compendium 2 should be used. However the following table
should be used for ship data:

Ship Data

Ship Type Avg.

Speed Max Speed Typical Firepower Maneuverability
Small
Sloop 15 20 0-50 -1 to -3
Large Sloop 12 17 80-100 -2 to
-4
Small Merchant 10 12 35-75 -2 to -5
Merchant
Ship 7 11 45-135 -4 to -6
Naval Sloop/Brig 12 17 30-102 -2 to
-4
Sixth-rate (20) 7 11 138 -4
Sixth-rate (24)
7 11 183 -4
Sixth-rate (28) 7 11 192 / 210 -4
Fifth-rate
(32) 7 11 246 / 246 -5
Fifth-rate (36) 7 11 410 /
258 -5
Fifth-rate (Fr, 38) 8 12 354 -4
Fifth-rate (Fr,
44) 8 12 372 -4
Fifth-rate (44) 7 11 402 -5
Fourth-rate
(50) 7 11 522 -6
Fourth-rate (60) 7 11 474 -6
Third-rate
(64) 6 9 678 -7
Third-rate (70) 6 9 849 -7
Third-rate
(74) 6 9 867 / 1000 -7
Third-rate (80) 6 9 894 /
1140 -8
Second-rate (98) 6 9 1044 -9
First-rate
(100) 6 9 1136 -10
 First-rate (Fr,
110) 6 9 1252 -10
First-rate (Fr, 120) 6 9 1358 -10

The
table above includes carronades (usually mounted in the bows and stern) in
the broadside firepower. British cannons could be 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, or
32-pounders; carronades came in four sizes, namely 12, 18, 24 and
32-pounders. (French guns came in 6, 8, 12, 18, 24, and 36-pound sizes;
French carronades were always 36-pounders) It is the mix of the various
sizes which is responsible for the non-monotonic increase in firepower with
higher-rated ships. Where two firepower ratings are given, the second value
is for an equivalent French ship of that rate. Average and maximum speeds
should be reduced to 75%, if the ship has not been careened in the last year
(but its hull is sheathed in copper below the waterline), and 50% if the
ship lacks copper sheathing and has not been careened in the last twelve
months. GMs should vary speeds by +/- 1 mph and Maneuverability Numbers by
+/- 1 to reflect the sailing qualities of better (or poorly) designed ships.
French and Spanish ships were usually better sailors than native British
designs.

Soldiers
Europe itself had enjoyed
peace between the end of the Seven Years' War and the onset of the
Revolutionary Wars. Austria and Russia warred intermittently with the
Ottoman Empire on the continental fringes. Conflicts among Britain, France
and Spain were fought mostly in the colonies and India. The value of light
infantry, simply equipped and highly trained with rifles, had been shown in
the American War of Independence, but the lessons were quickly forgotten.
Military doctrine and tactics remained locked in mid-century ideas with
commanders and troops paying most attention to perfection of elaborate
uniforms on parade and ability to perform complex maneuvers ("evolutions")
en masse. "Live" firing of weapons was rare in continental armies. Soldiers
were seen as a necessary evil, living apart from mainstream society, and
controlled only by harsh discipline.
The French Revolution brought
sweeping changes to the French army. Corporal punishment was replaced with
degrees of arrest and imprisonment. The purchase of commissions was
abolished; meritorious soldiers were promoted to officers; unsuccessful
generals were guillotined. Political representatives of the revolutionary
regimes accompanied the soldiery in the early campaigns. Mass conscription
and patriotic fervor to defend the Revolution and France reintegrated the
army with the nation. New tactics were developed to employ the inexperienced
recruits effectively.

Types of Soldiers

The

Infantry
The core of every army was the infantry organized into
regiments of one or more battalions. The second battalion of most British
regiments remained at home on recruiting and reserve duties. The multiple
battalions of continental regiments usually served together. French
battalions consisted of one grenadier company (of the best soldiers), four
fusilier companies, and a voltigeur (skirmisher) company. British
battalions had eight ordinary companies, a grenadier company, and a light
infantry company of skirmishers. A full-strength company had one hundred
soldiers and was led by a captain and two lieutenants.
The average
infantryman carried some seventy pounds of equipment, including a knapsack
of spare clothing, a haversack of food, blanket, greatcoat, musket, bayonet,
gunpowder pouch and up to sixty rounds of ammunition in addition to their
share of common gear. Sergeants were responsible for bearing the company
accounts. Uniforms were uncomfortable and colorful rather than camouflaged
for most units: French soldiers wearing blue, British in red. By 1808,
British soldiers were officially relieved of wearing their hair in powdered
queues.
Skirmishers required greater resourcefulness than ordinary
infantry, being expected to engage the enemy without detailed orders. They
usually fought in pairs, firing alternately. British skirmishers such as the
fifth battalion of the Royal Americans and the Rifle Brigade (95th Foot)
were armed with rifles and wore green. Napoleon preferred the musket's
faster rate of fire to the rifle's accuracy and so his armies made minimal
use of rifles.

The Cavalry

Cavalry were divided into two

classes: heavy cavalry used as battlefield shock troops, and light cavalry
intended for skirmish and outpost duties. However British units served in
both capacities according to need. Cavalry regiments consisted of three to
six squadrons, subdivided into two "troops" per squadron, and with up to
sixty cavalrymen per troop.
Rough-riders and riding masters
instructed new recruits in equestrian skills. Officers usually purchased
their own horses. The standard of animal care varied from army to army;
however in battle horse casualties were significantly higher than
human.
The cavalry were armed with sabers and encouraged to use the
cut rather than the thrust in battle (though the latter was known to be more
deadly). Most cavalry units also used carbines (short muskets) and pistols,
but their range and accuracy was limited.

The Artillery

The
great guns including cannons, howitzers and mortars were the responsibility
of the artillery units. Ammunition ranged from ordinary shot through
anti-personnel canister and case shot to flares, smoke bombs and the highly
erratic "Congreve" rockets. Guns required a minimum six-man crew; rapid
firing required up to ten men for light field pieces, and up to sixteen for
the heaviest ordnance.
Prior to the Revolutionary Wars, it was
customary to attach several light guns to infantry battalions.
Insufficiently powerful to provide effective fire support, they hindered
rapid infantry deployment. Later the artillery was regrouped into
"batteries" of between four and twelve guns to deliver concentrated fire.
British "batteries" (confusingly called "brigades") consisted of five cannon
and one howitzer (for indirect fire) from 1802. After 1809, Napoleon
reintroduced battalion guns to the French army to strengthen his infantry,
reserving the heavier cannon for batteries.

Officers and Gentlemen

Patriotism, a love of
glory, hopes of a fortune, or simple inability for any other vocation
spurred gentlemen to become officers. The younger sons of the European
aristocracies and scions of military families became infantry ensigns,
cavalry cornets, or military cadets at sixteen with their first commission
purchased by their families. Those unable to afford an ensigncy could serve
as a volunteer in the ranks (but messing with the officers) until death
created a subaltern vacancy. Officially Catholics were forbidden to serve as
officers in English or Scottish regiments; however the need to swear the
pro-Protestant oaths demanded by the Test Act was forestalled by the regular
passage of the Indemnifying Act through Parliament and a willingness to
overlook religion in most cases.
Necessity ensured that at least
five per cent of the serving officers were promoted from the ranks as
rewards for conspicuous bravery. (Literacy was required of all officers,
however). Often they were sidelined as quartermasters and adjutants. Absence
of a private income required them to survive on their pay which was only
possible by sacrificing the luxuries of the mess, endearing them even less
to their social "superiors."
In technical corps, such as the
artillery, promotion was by strict seniority. In the infantry and cavalry,
officers could purchase higher rank either with hard cash or by recruiting
sufficient soldiers. (Valor could also win promotion.) To prevent the
inexperienced buying their way to high rank, the British imposed time
requirements. To be promoted to Captain, an officer had to serve at least
two years as a Lieutenant, to reach Major, seven years experience (two as a
Captain) was demanded, and a total of nine years service was required for
Lieutenant Colonels (equivalent to continental Colonels and battalion
commanders). The higher ranks of Colonel, Major General, Lieutenant General,
and General were attained through seniority. Merit, influence, and seniority
decided who was sent on active service.

Staff

Officers
Army staffs were few in number and included the senior
artillery, engineer and medical officers, the commissary, the paymaster, the
deputy judge advocate (responsible for court-martials) and a handful of
junior officers serving as aides-de-camp and messengers. Chaplains rarely
saw active service with their regiments.
The engineers were
notoriously overworked and sustained high casualty rates. The British corps
were all officers with manpower supplied by semi-skilled infantry and
civilians. Similarly British supply wagons were operated by hired drivers
and unfit soldiers. Most nations relied on complex provisioning systems to
keep their troops in the field with British commissariat clerks being
unusual in paying cash for goods and fortunate in receiving supplies by sea.
Following the Revolution, the French simply requisitioned material from the
local populace, paying seldom and in arrears. The system simplified French
logistics and increased their mobility, but only worked in rich farmlands.
Where the country was hostile or lightly populated, soldiers would go
hungry. Undisciplined vanguard units were likely to consume food and drink
to excess to the disadvantage of the rest.
Intelligence was provided
by the light cavalry and "observing officers," who wore full dress uniform
and rode fast horses when on reconnaissance -- the former prevented
execution as spies if captured, the latter prevented capture! Maps were
scarce and usually of poor quality -- wise commanders inspected the
terrain in person.

Daily Life

Conscripted (usually for life),

tempted by the bounty, or suborned by a gang of "crimpers," army conditions
were nevertheless better than civilian life for many rank and file recruits.
Able troopers could hope for promotion to corporal, even sergeant, for good
service. Old soldiers could expect sinecure postings to quiet garrisons and
eventual discharge.
Soldiers received free housing (whether quartered
in proper barracks, inns, or local houses), free clothing (in terms of
replacement uniforms) and food. For a British soldier, the daily ration
consisted of a pound and a half of bread, a pound of beef or a half-pound of
pork, a quarter-pint of pease, an ounce of butter or cheese, an ounce of
rice, and five pints of small beer or cider. (At sea, they shared the naval
diet.) Those who wished could buy additional food; services such as laundry
came out of their pay.

Discipline

Excessive drinking, absence

of diverting pastimes, and the need for absolute obedience led to frequent
floggings, usually of incorrigible troublemakers. Imprisonment,
Krummschliessen (chaining right hand to left foot for hours), and
execution were also employed. On campaign, non-commissioned officers acted
as provost-marshals to enforce discipline against looters, deserters, and
cowards.

On Campaign

At sea, soldiers traveled in navy

vessels, East India Company transports, or (unsuitable) hired merchantmen.
On land, infantry marched fifteen miles per day (though seventy miles in
twenty-four hours was achieved on some forced marches). Cavalry usually made
seventeen miles in six hours' travel, though up to twenty-eight miles could
be covered. Using relays of horses, couriers attained much higher speeds.
While the artillery could cover three miles in a single hour, the
requirement to rest the horses meant that only six miles could be managed in
four hours and twelve miles in ten hours.
When traveling, advance
parties left early each morning to mark out the next night's camp. Meanwhile
the watch would be changed and the camp swiftly struck. The force would then
march out in column, halting briefly at intervals of a couple of miles to
permit the rearguard to close on the main body. On arrival, the new camp
would be set quickly, sentries posted, and the soldiers would sleep in their
greatcoats or occasionally tents.

Camp Followers

Well-to-do
officers employed servants and some brought wives and children on campaign.
Although wives of private soldiers were allowed in British barracks, no more
than six wives per company were allowed to join their men on foreign
service. These women cooked, laundered, foraged and tended the wounded. If
their husbands were killed, they were rarely widowed for long. True
camp-followers had no status and were abandoned by the army at the war's
end. In addition to the womenfolk, traders and rogues accompanied the army
to sell goods to the soldiers and join in looting the dead (and the wounded)
on the battlefield.

Battlefield Medicine

For the soldier,

disease was a graver danger than battle, and a posting to the "Fever
Islands" (the West Indies) a death sentence. Accidents and fatigue added to
the casualty list as did malingerers. Surgeons and assistants were attached
to regiments; military hospitals also had physicians. Some were extremely
able; others barely trained. In battle, "dressing stations" were established
in the rear. The French instituted "ambulance" services to ferry the wounded
for treatment. In other armies, the injured had to make their own way there
or remain where they fell for hours or days until medical parties located
them. Sometimes regimental bandsmen served as stretcher-bearers; more
frequently the battle-shy helped the wounded to safety (out of compassion)
and occasionally forgot to return to the combat. The survival of casualties
depended on the ability and willingness of the surgeon to persevere with
"hopeless" cases.

In Battle

Sieges and Breaches

When
besieging a town or fortress, the attackers first deployed a covering force
to prevent defender sorties and the arrival of relief forces. Next, circuits
of trenches were dug moving ever inward and breaching batteries established.
The defenders fortified their redoubt with a surrounding "glacis" (a raised
ramp of soil to soak up cannonball impacts) and bombarded the besiegers who
in turn concentrated their fire on weak points, eventually creating a breach
in the wall. Once this was adjudged "practicable" (i.e. large enough for
sufficient attackers to penetrate the defenses), the garrison was asked to
surrender and could do so without loss of honor. If the defenders refused, a
"Forlorn Hope" of volunteers (officers and men desiring promotion and glory)
led the assault. A well-defended breach doomed the Forlorn Hope and
sometimes the main attack. If the defense failed, no mercy was shown to the
garrison and the town was subjected to looting, rapine, and mayhem until the
provost-marshals could restore discipline.

Artillery

Tactics
Artillery was most effective when given time to prepare their
position. If defending a village, the cannon were placed to the side of the
village or in the local churchyard to prevent accidental conflagrations. On
a battlefield, the guns were lowered into shallow pits with only their
muzzles poking through shields of soil. Gunners measured the distances to
landmarks in advance placing the smallest guns (which had the shortest
range) furthest forward. All batteries were positioned within nine hundred
yards of each other with infantry and cavalry units between for protection.
Sentries or cannon loaded with canister guarded the flanks. To prevent
explosions, only one ammunition wagon was allowed forward at any
time.
The guns would open fire once the enemy was one to two thousand
yards distant, targeting opposing artillery first, then cavalry formations,
and finally infantry in squares or columns. If oblique fire could be
achieved at infantry in line, then high casualties would be inflicted. Once
the battle reached a decision, the artillery would pursue a withdrawal or
protect a retreat by a staggered sequence of firing and moving maneuvers. If
the latter was impossible, the guns were spiked and the wagons blown
up.

Cavalry Tactics

Cavalry attacked in one of three

formations: squadrons in line with up to twenty-four yards separating each
unit and skirmishers in the gaps; in two lines (en echiquier) with the
second line squadrons a hundred yards behind the first line matching up with
its squadron-sized holes; and in echelon with each squadron separated by a
hundred yards. When advancing, the cavalry would gradually increase their
pace from a walk (120 yards/minute) through trot (240 yards/minute) to a
gallop (480 yards/minute) once they were within two hundred paces of the
enemy target. (Charge pace was 600 yards/minute but ruined horses.) The
second rank of riders remained at least three yards behind the foremost
horsemen, only moving forward in the final fifty yards to fill gaps. Where
possible, a second cavalry formation trotted after the first at three
hundred yards distance with wide gaps through which front-line squadrons
could withdraw. These reinforcements allowed an assault to be quickly
supported or renewed.
Echelon attack was most useful against opposing
cavalry. Infantry was most vulnerable in line, or from the rear and flanks.
Infantry squares were weakest at the corners, but a dying horse falling into
a square could breach it anywhere. Attacking artillery was suicide.
Cavalry's perennial weakness was their inability to reform for a pursuit or
regroup following successful and unsuccessful charges -- instead they
usually rode heedlessly forward after glory, formations fragmented, and they
were overwhelmed by resolute foes.
Infantry Tactics

Infantry
marched and maneuvered in columns (usually three men abreast), but deployed
in line (two or three long rows of men, front rank kneeling, next rank
standing behind, final row as reserve). The normal pace for "evolutions"
(formation maneuvers) was 75 yards/minute, but seasoned troops could perform
at the "double" rate of 120 yards/minute. Against cavalry, infantry formed a
square, holding their musket fire until close range and then presenting an
array of bayonets (normally sufficient to frighten surviving horses into
pulling up). A steady line could also break a cavalry charge with a volley
at forty yards. Squares were extremely vulnerable to artillery. In line,
however, soldiers followed the path of incoming shot, sidestepping left and
right to allow cannonballs to pass through safely. Volley fire, by rank or
by entire unit, was the principal infantry attack with trained troops being
able to load, aim and fire between four and six times per minute depending
on musket design and cleanliness (repeated firing fouled the barrel).
Infantry fired and moved alternately in both advance and
withdrawal.

Napoleonic Tactics and Counters

The conscripts of
the French Revolutionary armies were too inexperienced to fight in line;
instead their training emphasized the attack in column. Napoleon's
innovation was to combine artillery, cavalry and infantry in such assaults.
The artillery bombarded selected areas of the enemy line while the infantry
slowly advanced in squad and company-wide columns, drummers within the
formation timing the march and the regular shouts of "Vive
l'Empéreur." The voltigeur skirmish companies would move rapidly
forward to weaken the enemy lines further, eventually withdrawing to allow
the columns to reach and overwhelm them. The fusilier companies would then
proceed to "roll up" the broken line, and the cavalry would be unleashed to
smash remaining resistance and rout the enemy.
The British developed
counters to each aspect of these assaults. To minimize casualties from
artillery, the troops were ordered to lie down or to remain behind the
crests of hills and ridges (the "reverse slopes" tactic). Light infantry
armed with rifles thwarted the voltigeurs, shot enemy officers, and
harassed the columns' flanks. As the columns approached, the British lines
then got to their feet or advanced over the crest, awaiting their opponents
in complete silence until they moved within close musket range whereupon
volley after volley was fired into the columns. As soon as the grenadier
companies were destroyed, the columns were halted by their own dead. This
was the moment for a rousing cheer and a controlled bayonet charge to rout
the enemy.

All the World's Armies

The
table below gives a snapshot of the army strengths of the major powers in
terms of infantry battalions, cavalry squadrons, and artillery batteries
around 1800. Full-strength English-style battalions mustered 1000 men;
French-style battalions had 600 soldiers. Cavalry squadrons varied between
120 and 150 riders. Batteries usually had between six and twelve cannons and
howitzers.

Army Strengths

Table
Country Infantry Cavalry Artillery
Austrian
Empire 255 322 1000
guns
Denmark 30 36 20
France 265 322 202
Great
Britain 115 140 40
Portugal 48 48 24
Prussia 175 156 50
Russia 359 341 229
Spain 153 93 60
Sweden 75 66 70
USA 12 4 4

Austria
did not organize its artillery into batteries. The Ottoman Empire had some
24,000 soldiers trained in firearms and modern tactics plus 196 regiments of
Janissaries, each with between two and three thousand scimitar-wielding
fanatics.
The Mass Combat Rules presented in GURPS Compendium 2
should be used for resolving battles in the period. The European armies are
quite similar in organization and troop types.

Troop

Types
Rangers: Unarmored irregulars (often raised from
colonial settlers) or specialist soldiers used for scouting duties. Usually
armed with rifles and swords. Quality is Average to Elite. TS value 5
(irregular) 8 (regular).
Native Americans: Unarmored or
lightly armored irregulars. Armed with axes, bows, and knowledge of the
terrain. Quality: Green to Veteran. TS value 3 (5 if armed with
muskets).
Native Indian: Unarmored or lightly armored
regulars, armed with swords and pikes. Quality: Green to Veteran. TS value
2.
Light Infantry (Skirmishers) : Regular soldiers wearing
no armor. French and French-influenced units used muskets, bayonets, and
sabers; British skirmishers bore rifles and bayonets; Austrian
jägers wielded rifles and sabers. Minimum quality: Average. TS
value 9.
Infantry: Regular soldiers wearing no armor and
usually armed with musket and bayonet. Members of Grenadier companies also
had sabers. Minimum quality for Grenadiers: Seasoned. TS value
10.
Light cavalry: Regular unarmored soldiers, and usually
armed with saber, pistol, and carbine. Mounted on unarmored light horses. TS
value 10.
Heavy cavalry: Regular soldiers wearing at most a
cuirass for armor, and usually armed with saber, pistol, and carbine. Polish
cavalry units often used lances. Mounted on unarmored heavy horses. TS value
12.
Artillery: Gun crew armed as per regular infantry.
Quality: Average or better. TS value 28-55 (according to
size).
Officers always carried swords and usually had pistols
and/or rifles according to the custom of their service and personal
inclination. Quality of troops should be limited to Seasoned, except for the
British and French armies. From the Peninsular War onward, GMs should be
generous in ascribing Veteran and Elite status to British units which have
seen significant service in Spain and Portugal. Revolutionary France's
armies should be a mixture of Raw to Average quality units. Most units in
the later Directory should be Average or Seasoned. Forces serving with
Napoleon should reach Veteran or possibly Elite status by 1805. The
proportion of Veteran and Elite troops should continue to increase in
Napoleon's armies until the Russian campaign. Afterward only a few units
such as the Imperial Guard should retain Elite status; the majority of
Napoleon's army thereafter should decline to Inexperienced and Average
status.
Arts and Sciences
Philosophy
The eighteenth century up
until the outbreak of the French Revolution was the Age of Enlightenment.
Intellectual thought in philosophy, the social sciences and the natural
sciences flourished across civilized Europe. It was an era dominated by the
philosophes, a band of disparate philosophers and writers centered in
but not confined to France. By 1769, the most influential social and
political treatises of Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau had already been
published. The seventeen-volume Encyclopédie, published by Diderot and
d'Alembert with contributions from many of the other philosophes, was
completed in 1772.
With the exception of the Encyclopédie, the
philosophes pursued no concerted agenda. Despite differences in
emphasis and in beliefs, such as the existence or non-existence of God or in
continued human progress, they shared a number of traits including
questioning traditional assumptions and explaining the world in rational
terms. Most attacked religion, especially the established churches and any
faith which relied on "revelation" for its teachings. Their ideas were
disseminated by the philosophes themselves in the salons and Masonic
lodges as well as through their writings. Their intended audience was the
literate bourgeoisie rather than the ordinary townsman or peasant.
The
works of the Enlightenment thinkers were also read by the European rulers.
Both Frederick the Great of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia
patronized the writers and claimed to be influenced by them, consequently
gaining significant prestige among the intellectual communities. In
practice, these "enlightened" monarchs remained autocrats tending toward
despotism. Practical attempts at implementing "enlightenment" principles in
terms of political reforms occurred in Austria under Joseph II, Spain under
Charles III's ministers, and in lesser German and Italian principalities
such as Leopold II's Tuscany. Britain, perhaps because of its more advanced
constitutional government, was largely unaffected by Enlightenment thought
until William Pitt the Younger applied Adam Smith's theories to trade
policies.
Montesquieu advocated that the most suitable forms of
government were the republic (for small city-states) and monarchy (for large
nations). To curb the tendency of monarchies to degenerate into despotism,
he indicated the need for checks and balances to be achieved by
strengthening the powers of the nobility and parliament. Conversely Voltaire
placed his hopes in enlightened monarchs.
Rousseau argued that the
creation of societies had corrupted the innocence of primitive man. Progress
in terms of building communities and the institution of property led to
human vices, jealousy, and the perpetuation of inequality through iniquitous
social conventions. His solution, published as Du Contrat social in
1762, was a new social contract where people surrendered their natural
rights defensible only through individual force in return for civil rights
recognized and adhered to by all members of society. To maintain the new
society, Rousseau invoked a "general will" representing the common good, and
determined either by majority decision or by a incorruptible law-giver.
Those who refused to follow the "general will" were to be coerced by society
into acceptance. To replace Christianity, he promoted a civil cult to
instill morality into the people. Rejection of this cult could be a capital
offence.

Mercantilism versus Free

Trade
The colonial expansion and trade monopolies of the European
powers until the end of the eighteenth century reflected mercantilist
economic doctrines. According to mercantilism, bullion was the prime measure
of a nation's wealth. Mineral resources and trade were essential to
guarantee the supply of money. In commerce, exports should exceed imports,
with colonies providing raw materials and serving as closed markets for the
nation's manufactured goods. Colonies were prohibited from developing their
own industries to prevent competition with the home suppliers, and all
colonial trade must go via the home country. This was the theoretical
state of affairs existing throughout the New World until the American
Revolution.
In contrast to the regulatory regime of the
mercantilists, the "Physiocrats" of France espoused a "laissez-faire" policy
and considered land rather than coin to be the foundation of wealth. All
restrictions on trade and labor were to be removed, so that supply and
demand coupled with natural laws would achieve fair prices. In essence,
Physiocracy tried to rationalize medieval and agricultural economies.
Turgot's attempts to implement physiocratic principles led to his dismissal
as France's comptroller general and the end of the school's
influence.
Adam Smith in his treatise, The Wealth of Nations
(published in 1776), argued more forcefully for free trade. Smith showed
that labor was the true foundation of a nation's wealth in terms of goods
and services, division of labor was necessary to increase production, and
that competition was essential to individual and national improvement.
Wages, costs, and profits were all invisibly regulated to their natural
level through competition. The natural desire to better oneself would lead
to economic growth. Domestic and foreign trade were equally valid; however
the protectionist structures of the mercantilist system merely gave special
interests such as manufacturers and merchants monopolies which enriched them
but did not benefit the nation as a whole. His theories of capitalism would
influence British economic policies in the early nineteenth century.

The attacks of the French philosophes on religion ensured

that their works were banned by the Catholic Church in France, Spain, and
Italy. This did not prevent leading clergymen and even parish priests from
acquiring copies of the proscribed volumes. Criticism and suspicion became
more widespread with the French Revolution as their writings were deemed to
have contributed to the revolt. The non-French philosophers, such as
Bentham, Kant, and Goethe, did not suffer such opprobrium.
The
reactions of the later thinkers to the French Revolution were initially
supportive, even enthusiastic. The Anglo-American Thomas Paine, whose
Common Sense pamphlet had enflamed the American Revolution, became a
member of the National Convention during the Terror and attacked authority
and privilege in his Rights of Man tracts (published in 1791 and
1792).
Edmund Burke was the first to criticize the French Revolution
in his Reflections on the Revolution in France published in 1790.
Although his knowledge of French history and current affairs was limited, he
wrote eloquently in the defense of existing institutions and the dangers of
rapid change. His predictions of revolutionary violence were soon fulfilled.
Combined with popular disgust at the brutality in France and fears of
rebellions in Ireland, Burke's essay eventually crystallized the British
government's attitudes to the French Revolution and its successor regimes.

The optimism of the Enlightenment concerning human progress and

economic growth was challenged by Thomas Malthus in his 1798 Essay on
Population, wherein he argued that population growth would always attempt
to outstrip food production and was only prevented by wars and disasters.
Thus any "improvement" in the human condition was illusory and fleeting.
Nevertheless the Utilitarian school of Jeremy Bentham considered that the
greatest good act was one which brought the greatest happiness to the
greatest number.

Freemasonry
The
rationalist ideals of the Enlightenment philosophers found acceptance and
easy dissemination within the secret brotherhood of the "Free and Accepted
Masons," no doubt assisted by philosophes such as Voltaire being
themselves Freemasons. Attacks on the traditional religions and support for
solidarity between the classes increased their following among the
anticlerical and liberal segments of society, but aroused the hostility of
the churches, particularly the Catholic Church.
Freemasonry grew
from a number of medieval stonemason guilds which had accepted honorary
members to maintain their numbers, and accreted the rites of chivalric and
religious orders. The first Grand Lodge was founded in 1717 in England,
followed by lodges in France, Italy, Prussia, and the American colonies
during the next twenty years. In eastern Europe, Freemasonry acquired
greater religious overtones and merged with other secret societies and cults
including the Rosicrucians and the Bavarian Illuminati. Beyond the
Napoleonic age, Freemasonry would establish itself across the world, but
most strongly in the dominions and colonies of the British
Empire.
Potential Masonic candidates were and are required to be
adult males who profess a belief in a "Supreme Being" and the immortality of
the soul, and be sponsored by an existing Freemason. The candidates are then
tested and bound by secret oaths to the society. As they gain knowledge in
the "Craft" -- the lore of Freemasonry -- and secure the approval
of their superiors, they may be elevated through the ranks of the
brotherhood from "entered apprentice" through "fellow of the craft" to
"master mason."
In the British Isles, the early Freemasons had
links with the Jacobite factions desiring a restoration of the Stuart
pretenders, the self-styled James VIII and his son "Bonnie Prince Charlie,"
 to the British throne. In France, liberal nobles discussed Enlightenment
solutions to their nation's developing crises in the Masonic lodges. The
leaders of the American Revolution were all Freemasons of various
degrees.

Literature
In the mid-eighteenth
century, Europe possessed two international languages -- Latin and
French. Latin remained the language of the Catholic Church, of education, of
scholarship, and a common official tongue in Central and Eastern Europe.
French was the language of the literate and the cultured. Hence continental
Europe was heavily influenced by the prevailing French literature of the
period, namely the writings of the philosophes.
In Britain, the
novel had become established as a major literary form. The works of Defoe,
Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, and Sterne reflected middle-class attitudes
and a realistic outlook on the world. Widely read in Britain, translations
of English novels such as Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Richardson's
Pamela enjoyed popular success among the continental literate classes.
Gothic novels such as Ann Radcliff's Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and
Matthew Lewis' The Monk (1796) followed in the wake of Walpole's
Castle of Otranto.
Elegance, rather than passion or originality,
was the hallmark of the high culture, but already the first stirrings of
Romanticism were appearing in the form of the German Sturm und Drang
movement which gave primacy to emotions. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's
Sorrows of Young Werther (published in 1774) ushered in a wave of
literature focusing on feelings. It was also accused of encouraging
suicides. By the 1780s, folk-ballads and the lyric were paramount in German,
English and Scottish poetry, led by Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, William
Blake, William Cowper and Robert Burns. In France, the psychological novel
appeared with Pierre Laclos' Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) and
proto-Romanticism emerged in the form of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul
et Virginie (published in 1787), but the Greco-Roman emphasis of the
Revolutionary regimes and the guillotine forced French poetry back into the
classical forms. With the exception of Chateaubriand and Madame de Stael's
novel Delphine (1802), French literature under the Empire was at best
of middling quality.
Romanticism proper erupted onto the English
literary scene in 1798 with the anonymous first publication of Lyrical
Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The classical
conventions were rejected; truth was to be found in nature and in the heart,
and to be expressed in the words of the common man. The Romantics praised
the liberating ideals of the French Revolution and rebelled against the
encroaching Industrial Revolution. The later Romantics retained a zeal for
liberty, manifesting in Percy Bysshe Shelley's Queen Mab (1813) and
Prometheus Unbound (1820). John Keats focused on mixing images and
sensation with symbolic imagery in his series of odes. Lord Byron created
alternate heroic personae in his long poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
(1812-1818) and Don Juan (1819-1824).
In prose, Jane Austen's
psychological novels (from Pride and Prejudice to Persuasion)
explored the manners and sensibilities of the English gentry with wit and
irony in the 1810s. Sir Walter Scott switched from narrative historical
poems such as The Lady of The Lake to historical novels beginning with
Waverley (1814) appealing to the values prized by previous ages.

Drama
Drama remained popular
throughout the era becoming accessible to ever wider sections of the
population. Unlicensed playhouses and provincial theatres proliferated in
England and France to supplement the "official" institutions of the
capitals. In Paris, the Comédie-Française and the Théƒtre
des Italiens held monopolies on certain types of plays and operas, leading
to ingenious legerdemain by rival managers to stage prohibited plays.

Existing theatrical classics, albeit adapted to suit the more

refined tastes of contemporary audiences, supplied actors and managers with
the best opportunities for fame and fortune. The natural style of acting (as
opposed to recital declamations) introduced by David Garrick, the finest
actor of the eighteenth century, became widespread. Garrick was still giving
farewell performances in the early 1770s at the Drury Lane Theatre in
London.
Few new plays were produced of lasting value. In Britain,
there was some success in comedy with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to
Conquer (1773) and Richard Sheridan's The Rivals (1775) and The
School for Scandal (1777). In France, the plays of Pierre Beaumarchais,
namely The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro
(1784) which openly criticized the privileged, were lauded by the
bourgeoisie and the nobility.
The French Revolution stripped the
official theatres of their monopolies and divided the acting companies into
Jacobins and royalist sympathizers. The quantity of dramatic productions of
every kind increased greatly. The quality declined with greater rapidity as
managers rewrote existing scripts in accord with republican sympathies. Many
new plays were nothing more than political tracts promoting the new civic
virtues, and were rewritten quickly as new factions came to power. Actors
and actresses became more important than the playwrights and attracted even
greater followings under Napoleon. During the Empire, the theatrical
monopolies were restored to the Opéra and Théƒtre-
Française in 1806 and the independent playhouses began to close.
Despite Napoleon's preference for the works of Racine and Corneille, the
melodrama flourished in the populist theatres. Guibert de
Pixérécourt modernized this art form from 1797 onward, reducing
the musical element and substituting prose dialogue and ambitious stage
effects, while retaining exotic locales and stereotypes.

Music
Napoleon's lifetime was also the era of the
"Classical" mode of music. Instrumental music had reached new heights of
popularity with the stabilization of the instrument ensembles for orchestral
and chamber music. The orchestras featured violins, violas, flutes, oboes
and French horns among others. String trios and quartets, piano trios and
solo keyboards all attracted specially written sonata music. The bourgeoisie
joined the aristocracy in attending grand professional performances and
paying tutors to teach their children musical accomplishments.
By
1769, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was still a child prodigy touring Italy and
composing sonatas, operas and other music on a commission basis for the
nobility. Settled in Salzburg during the 1770s and in Vienna during the
1780s, his output for the German princes and upper Austrian society was
prolific. His compositional range was unrivalled, including fifty-six
symphonies, fifteen operas, fourteen masses, four Masonic cantatas,
twenty-one serenades, and forty piano concertos and sonatas.
Joseph
Haydn, with the patronage of the Esterházy princes in Vienna, composed
secular and sacred music in the form of symphonies, string quartets and
sonata. From the 1760s onward, his reputation spread throughout Europe and
his works were collected by aristocratic music-lovers. A specially
commissioned set of symphonies (including Surprise and Clock)
delighted London audiences during Haydn's visits in 1791 and 1794, while
oratorios such as The Seasons (1801) and a national anthem for Austria
(1797) ensured his status as Europe's preeminent composer at the turn of the
century.
Ludwig van Beethoven's music remained steeped in the
Classical forms. Nevertheless in themes and subject matter, he was
influenced by the literary Sturm und Drang movement and inspired by
the revolutionary tumult of the age. He removed the dedication of his
Third Symphony (1804) to Napoleon on hearing of the latter's ascension
to Emperor. Between 1800 and 1814, he completed his eight major symphonies
plus Wellington's Victory in 1813 to celebrate the battle of Vitoria.
The 1810s saw his music recognized throughout Europe, and he was personally
courted by the assembled dignitaries at the Congress of Vienna.

A Night at the Opera

The established operatic
form in 1769 was the Neapolitan or Italian style where the dramatic elements
were artificially divided up (and hence mostly irrelevant) so that the
musical pieces followed a set pattern allowing the singers to demonstrate
their vocal talents. Its appeal was limited to court circles and private
theatres outside Italy.
As early as 1728, Gay's Beggar's
Opera (really a play with songs) had indicated the greater potential
appeal of alternative styles and was still frequently produced in Britain
and the American colonies. However the real challenge came from the
"natural" operas (such as Orfeo (1774), Iphigénie en
Aulide (1774), Iphigénie en Tauride (1779)) written by
Christoph Gluck. His reforms altered the balance between drama and music
such that the latter now supported the former. The new model returned to the
patterns of ancient drama with the principal characters and the chorus
having equal shares in the action.
This new style, along with
variations such as the light-hearted opéra-comique, gradually
 supplanted the traditional Italian forms. The operatic center shifted from
Naples to Vienna. Opera itself became a normal part of city life,
captivating the affluent middle-classes across Europe, and becoming probably
the continent's most popular musical type by the creation of the
Empire.
Other composers added new masterpieces to the repertoire.
In 1786, Mozart set The Marriage of Figaro to music, but removed the
explicit revolutionary sympathies for his Viennese audience. He further
developed the comic opera in Don Giovanni (whose "demonic" aspects
fascinated spectators) and Cosi fan tutte, which were premiered in
1787 and 1790 respectively. His final work, The Magic Flute (1791),
blending fairy tale and Masonic elements, was coolly received at first but
gained in popularity after his death.
Fidelio, Beethoven's
sole opera, was initially unsuccessful in 1805 due to the French occupation
of Vienna discouraging opera attendees, but was acclaimed after a second
revision in 1814. Tancred (1813) and The Barber of Seville
(1816) ensured Gioacchino Rossini's reputation as the leading operatic
composer of the nineteenth century.

Fine
Arts
The archaeological discoveries of Herculaneum and Pompeii in the
first half of the eighteenth century spurred the adoption of neoclassical
themes in painting and sculpture from the 1760s onward. Adherence to formal
styles and the limited subject matter (of idealized ancients and beautiful
aristocrats) led to tame and bland art on the continent. Portraits,
especially by the English painters Gainsborough and Reynolds, remained in
demand.
Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii (1785)
introduced a new school of art, depicting classical history and myth in
stark and dramatic profiles. Both before and during the French Revolution,
David's paintings linked the moral conflicts and virtues of the Roman
Republic with the overthrow of the ancien regime and the new order.
Foremost among the French artists, David recorded the momentous events of
the Revolution, and became the premier painter of the Empire, immortalizing
Napoleon on canvas. A slew of younger painters, such as Gérard, Gros,
Guérin, and Prud'hon, followed David's neoclassical styles and subject
matter.
In Britain, poet and painter William Blake rejected
rationalism and neoclassicism. His watercolors and engravings sprung from
the imagination, evoking images of the supernatural, Biblical stories, and
the works of Dante and Milton. After 1800, John Constable brought accurate
observation to his paintings of the Suffolk countryside, while J.M.W. Turner
created dramatic and mysterious seascapes and landscapes.
In Germany,
artists reacting against neoclassicism sought inspiration in Christian and
mystical subjects. Philipp Runge and Caspar Friedrich used landscapes as
allegories for the relationship between man, nature, and God. The
self-styled "Guild of St Luke," nicknamed the Nazarenes, was formed by
Johann Overbeck in Vienna in 1809, producing somewhat naïve
watercolors and drawings on Biblical themes and less successful historical
paintings.
Francisco Goya's focus shifted from conventional portraits
of Spanish courtiers and religious art to satirical etchings on the failings
of contemporary society and freer characterization of sitters in the 1790s.
Though court painter to Charles IV, his depictions of the royal family were
extremely unflattering. During the French invasion of Spain, he maintained
his position, painting a succession of generals, but also recorded the
horrors of the war in a series of etchings, unpublished until
1863.
Neoclassicism dominated sculpture with the Italian Antonio
Canova, being the leading exponent of neoclassicism and the most famous
European artist by 1800. For the next two decades, Canova's friezes, tombs,
busts, and statues were in demand throughout the imperial, royal, and
religious courts of Europe. He persuaded Pauline Bonaparte to pose nude for
Venus Victrix (1807), but his idealized statues of Napoleon were not
drawn from life.

Miscellaneous
In
architecture, neoclassicism or "the true style" (as it was then called)
reigned supreme. The inspiration was again the ruins of antiquity, but Greek
rather than Roman ideas were adopted. In England, the Adams brothers
remodeled aristocratic homes in the country and in fashionable London
squares along classical lines. In France, a more elaborate form known as the
"Louis XVI" style shaped the interiors and exteriors of the new Parisian
townhouses (h<\#153>tels) of the aristocracy and wealthiest burgesses.
Variations on these styles remained in vogue for public and private
buildings until beyond the Napoleonic era.
Classical motifs
appeared in furniture with British cabinet-makers such as George Hepplewhite
and Thomas Sheraton publishing influential catalogues containing draft
designs for articles ranging from chairs and desks to beds and cabinets.
Other craftsmen executed these designs in mahogany with satinwood inlays or
marquetry for ornamentation. Experienced "cabinet-makers" served as complete
interior decorators, advising on and supplying wallpaper, fixtures and
fittings. The Hepplewhite and Sheraton furniture was extensively copied in
Europe and in the new United States.
The British pottery designer
and manufacturer, Josiah Wedgwood, had already established a national and
worldwide market for his cream-colored "Queen's ware" by 1769, and had begun
producing items in neoclassical styles. From 1775 to his death in 1790, he
experimented with coloring oxides to create wholly new stoneware which were
widely popular among the European middle classes.

Advances in Science
Advances in algebra and geometry
transformed mechanics from a field of physics to a branch of mathematics.
Differential equations were applied by Joseph-Louis Lagrange to problems in
physics and astronomy in his Analytical Mechanics (1788). Pierre-Simon
Laplace demonstrated in his multi-volume Celestial Mechanics
(1799-1825) that Newtonian gravitation could explain the perturbations in
planetary orbits, eliminating the necessity of divine intervention to
maintain long-term solar stability. Laplace also proposed the nebular theory
of the solar system's origin wherein the sun and the planets resulted from
the cooling of fiery balls of gas.
In astronomy, William Herschel
discovered the planet Uranus during an observation of the night sky in 1781.
Herschel wanted to name it the Georgian Planet after his patron King George
III; the French preferred to call it Herschel. Fortunately the tradition of
using names from Greco-Roman mythology was maintained. A royal pension
enabled Herschel to construct telescopes far more powerful than his
scientific rivals and embark on ambitious celestial catalogues of nebulae
and stars.
In optics, Newton's corpuscular theory of light survived
occasional critiques throughout the eighteenth century. More significant
challenges arose from Thomas Young's discovery of interference which he
explained via a wave theory of light which was further developed from 1815
by Augustin-Jean Fresnel, leading to further controversy between adherents
of the two theories.
In the mid-eighteenth century, the "phlogiston"
theory held sway in chemistry, maintaining that substances released this
"element" during combustion. Experiments began to challenge this traditional
view with Joseph Priestley isolating "dephlogisticated gas" (oxygen) and
identifying other gaseous compounds in the 1770s. Antoine-Laurent
Lavoisier's careful laboratory methods revealed the action of oxygen in
combustion shattering the phlogiston theory. Later work by John Dalton in
1808, led to an atomic theory of chemistry, while Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac
reported on the ratios of gases necessary to form particular compounds. By
1818, Jons Jacob Berzelius was able to issue the first table of elements
identified by the symbols (Au, Ag, etc.) still current.
Franklin's
invention of the lightning conductor was followed by further experiments
with electricity in Europe. During the 1780s, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
measured electrical and magnetic forces (using a torsion balance) and Luigi
Galvani investigated electrical effects in animal physiology. Alessandro
Volta politely disagreed with Galvani's conclusions of an electrical fluid
in animals, believing that electricity could be generated using metals
alone. He subsequently invented the first wet-cell battery ("electric pile")
in 1800.
In geology, scientists debated the validity of the Neptunist
and the Vulcanist/Plutonist theories of the Earth's formation. Abraham
Werner's Neptunists believed that the Earth's surface was initially covered
by an ocean. Rocks were sediments deposited on this ocean floor as the water
subsided. Volcanism was ignored -- lava was the result of subterranean
coal deposits catching fire! The Vulcanists explained the formation of rocks
by the cooling of gases into igneous matter, pointing to volcanic eruptions
as evidence for new material being expelled from the Earth's core. James
Hutton's Plutonist theories, first published as an essay (Theory of the
Earth) in 1788, posited that the action of rivers eroded the land,
carrying silt and sediments to the seas. Heat from the core caused portions
of the Earth's crust to expand, raising the compressed marine sediments to
form new land.
The Chevalier de Lamarck, working outside the
international network of scientists and ignoring the cautious approach of
his contemporaries in critically collecting evidence before presuming to
advance theories, pronounced a theory of biological evolution in 1809
(Zoological Philosophy) by which animals adapted to their environments
and their young inherited these changes. Opposition to this theory came from
believers and scientists alike.

Scientific
Academies and the Pursuit of Knowledge
Many European institutions
of higher learning simply ignored the Enlightenment. France's twenty-two
universities stagnated until their closure by the Revolutionary government.
Oxford and Cambridge functioned as "finishing schools" for gentlemen --
real degree examinations were only introduced at Oxford in 1800,
thirty-seven years after Cambridge.
The Scottish universities of
Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St Andrew, like their continental counterparts at
Leyden, Geneva, and Göttingen, embraced the new philosophy and
sciences in faculty and teaching. The ecclesiastical and royal patrons of
Bonn, Pisa, and Siena encouraged their adoption of the Enlightenment.

Supporting or replacing the universities in disseminating new

ideas were scientific and literary societies in northern England, Scotland,
France, Germany, and Poland. Perhaps the most influential was the Lunar
Society of Birmingham which was dedicated to the advance of the arts and
sciences. Its mixed membership of scientists, writers and industrialists
assisted the progress of the Industrial Revolution in Britain.

Voyages of Exploration
The
Napoleonic era witnessed a number of epic sea voyages to explore previously
uncharted waters and discover these new lands. These occurred both between
and during the wars. The British and French governments were willing to
offer explorers passports of safe conduct even at the height of hostilities.

Earlier seafarers had indicated the existence of large islands in

the South Pacific and a large southern landmass was posited as a
counterbalance to the northern continents. The British Admiralty and the
Royal Society commissioned Captain Cook to undertake a series of surveys of
the Pacific. His first voyage (1768-1771) included astronomical observations
of a transit of Venus, studies of Maori life during a circumnavigation of
New Zealand, and landings in New South Wales. His later voyages (1772-1775
and 1776-1779) probed the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans but failed to discover
either Antarctica or a North West Passage.
The French explorers
du Fresne and Comte de La Pérouse were less successful, both losing
their lives, the former in a skirmish with Maoris, the latter in a
shipwreck. La Pérouse also arrived too late to prevent the British
settlement at Botany Bay. Both Britain and France sponsored competing
 expeditions in 1800 to explore the Australian coast. Superior British
seamanship led to a complete circumnavigation of the continent by 1804 and
the name was finally changed from New Holland to Australia in 1817.

Advances in Medicine
In medicine, the medieval theory
of humors (yellow bile, blood, phlegm, and black bile), with its attendant
doctrines of sickness being an imbalance and cures restoring the balance,
was slowly yielding ground to more scientific approaches. Some of the newer
theories were equally wild such as John Brown's division of diseases into
strong and weak, which were to be treated by alcoholic stimulants and opiate
sedatives. In mesmerism (named after its developer Franz Mesmer), an
invisible magnetic fluid was considered to course through the human body.
Manipulating this fluid was supposed to remove "obstacles" (and hence cure
diseases). The hypnotic elements were largely responsible for the limited
successes of mesmerism, and Mesmer was successively debunked in Austria and
France in the 1770s and 1780s. Quacks and mountebanks proliferated. They had
few pretensions to scientific theory but a great grasp of pseudo-medical
terminology with which to "diagnose" credulous patients, "specifics" --
sometimes toxic concoctions -- to cure ailments, and unusual treatments
such as "bathing in earth."
Three vocations covered the spectrum of
medicine per se, namely the barber-surgeon, the apothecary, and the
physician. The barber-surgeons combined the skills of hair and nail trimming
with amputation of limbs. Apothecaries dispensed drugs and (for an extra
fee) advice. The physician diagnosed illnesses, prescribed treatments, and
attended operations.
Padua, Leyden, and Edinburgh were the medical
centers of excellence offering practical training in surgery and medicine,
joined by Paris at the close of Napoleon's Empire. (Medical degrees from
Oxford and Cambridge were often merely purchased.) As a consequence of this
education, Scottish doctors (such as John and William Hunter) became
preeminent in Britain, teaching anatomy by dissection, and raising surgery
from a trade to a profession. Obstetrics became respectable for male doctors
with the forceps becoming an indispensable instrument for healthy births.
Donations from the rich assisted in the opening of many county hospitals.
Admission was free, if the patient had a letter of recommendation from a
patron or a governor, otherwise a hefty deposit for possible burial fees was
required.
Despite the improvements in technique, surgery remained a
last resort. Bacteria were not yet associated with disease, so surgical
instruments were merely cleaned, not sterilized. Patients were held down by
attendants on the table, and given alcohol to drink to relieve the pain.
(Sometimes they would be given a lead ball or a leather strop to bite during
the operation.) The surgeon then operated quickly to minimize the pain and
blood loss, usually completing the entire process in a few minutes.
Infections following the operation represented the major danger to the
patient.
Convulsions, consumption (tuberculosis), fevers, smallpox,
dropsy, and infections from rotting teeth were all major killers.
Inoculation for smallpox had been practiced in England since the 1720s, but
was still a risky procedure viewed with alarm by many continental
physicians. Edward Jenner developed a smallpox vaccine from cowpox in 1796
which slowly gained widespread adoption over the next two decades. The
rediscovery of citrus fruits as a preventative for scurvy in 1757 was
finally implemented by the Royal Navy in 1795, eliminating it immediately
from shipboard life. Gout was popularly believed to result from
overindulgence in drink and debauchery, and attacks were treated by swathing
the feet in heavy bandages.
Blood-letting continued to be a principal
remedy ordered by physicians for numerous ailments. Quinine (called Jesuit's
bark) was used to counter fevers, foxglove for heart conditions, and chalk
for upset stomachs. Many other common herbs formed the basis of a variety of
tinctures, extracts, poultices, and pills to cure diseases, relieve
conditions, and speed healing.
Insanity was incurable and the only
solution was detention in lunatic asylums such as Bedlam in England. Inmates
were often chained, beaten and abused by their keepers. Bedlam was a popular
London tourist attraction with visitors paying to wander around the
hospital, usually in the company of an attendant. In Paris, reforms in the
treatment of the insane appeared in the 1790s with kindness replacing
brutality.

Advances in Technology
Technological development
was largely divorced from the discoveries in the natural sciences. Moreover
the nascent Industrial Revolution was confined to Britain and proceeded in
fits and starts.
Steam power was already used to pump water from coal
mines when James Watt added a condenser to existing steam engines in 1769.
>From 1775 to 1800, engines of increasing efficiency built by Watt found
application throughout the mining industries. By the 1780s, steam engines
could supply rotary motion and these newer devices were adopted to power
cotton and grain mill machinery. Once Watt's patents lapsed in 1800, other
inventors developed high-pressure steam engines. Richard Trevithick's
engines were used successfully as mine pumps in Cornwall and Latin America,
but his attempt to create a steam-powered locomotive in 1804 to haul ores
via the mine plateways (prototype railroads used by mine wagons) failed as
the tracks broke under the weight. In America, Oliver Evans built a
high-pressure steam dredge for Philadelphia in 1805.
Early experiments
with steam-powered paddleboats in France and Britain between 1775 and 1802
provided the inspiration for American Robert Fulton's development of the
paddle steamer in 1807. His North River Steamboat was the first of his
fleet of twenty-one steamships to ply the Hudson river. In Britain, similar
steamships appeared from 1812. By 1820, there were regular steam-powered
ferries and packets operating in the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Over
a hundred steamers navigated the major inland waterways of the United
States. Misapprehensions concerning fuel requirements and inadequacies of
the paddle-boat design for the open sea limited these early steamers to
coastal and river transport of passengers and mail.
The Age of Steam
had its critics. The new steam-powered machinery of the textile industry
required workers to submit to a regimented working day in purpose-built
factories, replacing the "putting-out" system where they had worked in their
own homes without supervision. From 1811 to 1812, bands of unemployed
artisans (known as Luddites after their supposed leader Ned Ludd) rioted in
central England, destroying the machines in nocturnal attacks. Lord
Liverpool's government suppressed the Luddites with mass transportation and
execution of offenders in 1813.
Some inventions of the period were
ahead of their time and did not enjoy widespread adoption. Although a German
architect claimed a successful flight in an ornithopter (a
human-powered glider where the "pilot" controlled flapping wings) in 1781,
the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Etienne, constructed hot-air balloons
made from paper which were capable of lifting animal and human passengers
into the air for short distances. Later French balloons used hydrogen for
greater lift and range, but could not be steered. A military unit, the
Aérostiers, was formed in 1794 to provide military reconnaissance from
tethered balloons to the French Revolutionary army in the field. Napoleon
disbanded the company in 1799.
The first trial of underwater warfare
occurred during the American War of Independence. The Turtle, a wooden
one-man submarine powered by manual propellers, attempted to attach a
gunpowder charge to the hull of HMS Eagle via a screw device operated
from inside. The attack failed as the screw was unable to penetrate the
British ship's copper sheathing. A similar attack during the War of 1812
failed because the screw broke before the mine was attached.
Later
Robert Fulton proposed submarine attacks against the British blockading
fleet to the French government, building the Nautilus in 1801. This
craft had a collapsible mast and sail for surface travel as well as a manual
propeller for underwater motion, and contained enough air to last four men
and two burning candles three hours. However the Nautilus was too slow
to catch British ships in order to affix the explosive charges. French
admirals considered this means of warfare to be barbaric and feared that the
British would adopt it quickly and with greater success were it to be
introduced. The failures in action and naval disapproval led Napoleon to end
the experiments.
Fulton next approached the British Admiralty in
1805. Although the Nautilus was able to destroy an old anchored brig
in trials, two real attacks on French vessels were unsuccessful. Following
Trafalgar, the Admiralty realized that developing this mode of warfare could
at best only undermine British naval supremacy and they withdrew their
support. Fulton returned to America and concentrated on steamships.
CHARACTERS
Character Types
Clergy
In the
Age of the Enlightenment, religious beliefs are mocked as superstition by
philosophers and rulers encroach on clerical privileges. Dissolute and
atheist clergy bring themselves and their churches into disrepute. Later,
the Revolutionaries will persecute all revealed religions. Clerics must
choose whether they prefer secular or ecclesiastical Enemies by their
political choices; some will join counter-revolutionary movements or serve
as spies working against Napoleon's
Empire.
Advantages/Disadvantages: The Clerical Investment and
Literacy advantages are required. The religion must be clearly stated at the
time of character creation. Characters usually must take Vows; failure to
adhere to them will produce a negative Reputation. A Sense of Duty to the
church and congregation is only required for clergymen who believe in their
faith. Status is not necessary, but will help secure high ecclesiastical
rank.
Skills: Clergy should know the appropriate Theology and
Religious Ritual at 12+. Roman Catholic Clergy will have at least some
Latin.
Colonists
The great European powers have founded
colonies and settlements in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Some colonials
already desire independence from the mother country. Disease, weather,
hostile natives, and the attentions of foreign powers make life dangerous.
Colonists include gentleman plantation owners (and their deputies),
bureaucrats, hardy pioneers, artisans, transported convicts, and slaves. In
long-settled territories such as the American colonies, almost any
occupation is possible.
Advantages/Disadvantages and Skills:
Most colonists are everyday folk, excelling only in the skills necessary for
them to earn their living.
Craftsmen
Despite the
burgeoning Industrial Revolution in England, most goods are still
manufactured by skilled craftsmen. Stifling guild regulations will stall the
advancement of many ambitious apprentices and journeymen; the French
Revolution will temporarily eliminate the markets for luxury goods. Masters
may join journeymen in peregrinations around Europe or even depart for the
colonies. Others (such as weavers) may find employment in the
factories.
Advantages/Disadvantages and Skills: No advantages or
disadvantages are required, although Patrons (either wealthy customers or
guilds) can be useful. Craftsmen should develop the appropriate Crafts
skills to high levels. Factory workers should have above-average
DX.
Criminals
The underworld is home to many types of
criminals. Burglars prefer breaking and entering into shops and townhouses,
using force only in self-defense. Footpads are city muggers employing
usually lethal violence to rob people walking in the streets after dark.
Pickpockets circulate in the crowds attending fairs, markets, plays, and
public execution, combining teamwork and a veneer of respectability to
relieve the unwary of their purses. Highwaymen remain the glamorous mounted
bandits waylaying stagecoaches on the road with a shout of "Stand and
Deliver! Your Money or Your Life!"
Advantages/Disadvantages:
Criminals require the usual nefarious advantages and disadvantages that have
been common to thieves for centuries. Highwaymen might have some subset of
Absolute Direction, Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Danger Sense, Night Vision,
Rapid Healing, and Toughness. Disadvantages might include some of
Alcoholism, Greed, a Social Stigma (Outlaw), and perhaps a Code of
Honor.
Skills: All criminals should develop Fast-Talk, Stealth,
and Streetwise. Burglars will find Lockpicking and Climbing essential.
Footpads will focus on combat skills such as Blackjack and Knife.
Pickpockets will need Pickpocket, Sleight of Hand, and Holdout; some
Savoir-faire or Disguise may be useful. Highwaymen will require Riding and
Black Powder Weapons with Area Knowledge being important for emergency
getaways.
Diplomats
Diplomats represent their countries'
interests abroad in times of peace and war. Slower rates of travel than
today gives them greater discretion and decision-making power. They face
greater risks, being potential hostages for the actions of their government.
Diplomatic appointments to smaller states can last for many years. Espionage
(in terms of reporting all news and court gossip) is an expected duty of the
diplomat.
Advantages/Disadvantages: High IQ, Voice and Charisma
are all useful. Cultural Adaptivity (p.CI23) is an asset. Diplomatic
Immunity (p. CI24) does not exist.
Skills: Diplomacy, naturally,
and indeed nearly any social, artistic or cultural skill will prove
helpful.
Entertainers
Entertainers include acrobats,
actors, buffoons, dancers, freaks, musicians, and prize fighters.
Entertainers make excellent spies; many had criminal leanings. Prize
fighters were usually skilled wrestlers or bare-knuckle boxers.

Advantages/Disadvantages: Voice and Charisma are useful. Many

entertainers, especially actresses, acquired aristocratic or wealthy
Patrons. Entertainers, again especially actresses, suffered from a poor
Reputation.
Skills: Carousing, Fast-Talk, Savoir-Faire, and Sex
Appeal are generally useful for most entertainers. In addition, skills
appropriate to the specialty should be heavily
developed.
Explorers
Parts of the globe remain
undiscovered by Europeans. Expeditions may be sent by any of the colonial
powers to discover new territories for settlement and exploitation. As long
as their passports are in order, explorers will be tolerated by the military
forces of opposing nations even during wars. Expeditionary leaders are
usually aristocratic and/or military in background, although scientists may
have prominent roles.
Advantages/Disadvantages and Skills:
Outdoor skills and (for seafaring explorers) naval skills are essential for
survival. Surveying (p.CI158) will be handy.

Laborers
Small farmers and farm workers can sometimes
eke out a living in the countryside. Enclosure, rising rents and taxes, or a
bad harvest may ruin them, forcing them to beggary and banditry on the roads
or to emigrate to the cities.
Advantages/Disadvantages and
Skills: Above-average ST will be a useful asset for arduous manual labor.
Wealth levels are usually Struggling or Poor. Ruined laborers will be Dead
Broke. Good farmers are likely to have some skill in
Agronomy.
Men of Letters and the Arts
Many artists,
composers, philosophers, scholars, and writers journey around Europe,
seeking inspiration, employment, and sometimes safety (especially if they
have offended the current regime in their home nation). For those without
personal wealth, cultivating a temporary employer may produce a long-term
patron.
Advantages/Disadvantages: Independent Income or Wealth
will provide financial freedom; otherwise a Patron will be necessary.
Reputations (both positive and negative) must be earned.
Skills:
Expertise in the chosen area of artistic endeavor is necessary for those
without personal resources. Savoir-Faire and Languages (especially French)
will open many doors.
Mercenaries
Whether fighting in
the American war, participating in the confrontations in the Baltic,
training native troops to withstand the British in India or assisting in the
independence struggles of South America and Greece, there is always
employment for mercenaries. Even serving officers may, subject to the
approval of their superiors, fight in the forces of other nations while
their own country is at peace.
Advantages/Disadvantages: Strong
Will, High Pain Threshold and Toughness will keep mercenaries alive.
Laziness, Gluttony and Compulsive Carousing are typical
disadvantages.
Skills: Infantry should have Black Powder
Weapons, Spear, Hiking, and Savoir-Faire (Military). Cavalry should learn
Black Powder Weapons, Broadsword, Riding, and Savoir-Faire (Military).
Artillery specialists should develop a high Gunner skill. Languages are
helpful.
Merchants
Shrewd merchants can make their
fortune in speculation, in careful investments in manufacturing industries
or in overseas trade with the colonies, India and the Spice Islands.
Protecting business interests often requires travel. When businesses fail,
they sometimes do so spectacularly. Bankrupts should flee before the
bailiffs land them in debtors' prison.
Advantages/Disadvantages:
Appearance, Charisma, Empathy, Strong Will, and Voice are helpful. Greed is
an occupational hazard.
Skills: Acting, Administration, Area
Knowledge, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Economics, Fast-Talk, Languages, Law,
Merchant, and Savoir-Faire will aid entrepreneurs.
Pirates and Privateers
The Golden Age of piracy is long past. Those who
wish to plunder merchant shipping on the high seas usually now do so as
privateers. Their Letters of Marque and Reprisal limit their depredations to
the ships of hostile nations, but should prevent them being hanged if
captured for common piracy. However there are still pirates in the world:
the Barbary Coast is home to Saracen raiders and slavers who terrorize the
Mediterranean coastlines, and in the East Indies, native corsairs prove
vexatious to European commerce.
Advantages/Disadvantages:
Combat-related advantages such as Alertness, Combat Reflexes, High Pain
Threshold, Immunity to Disease, Rapid Healing, and Toughness are all helpful
to pirates and privateers. Charisma, Literacy, Status, and Wealth are
possible for the more genteel privateer captains. Alcoholism, Code of Honor,
Compulsive Gambling, Greed, Impulsiveness, and Overconfidence are all
plausible character flaws.
Skills: Seamanship is essential. Axe,
Black Powder Weapons, Boating, Brawling, Climbing, and Shortsword (Cutlass)
are likely additional skills. Carousing and Gambling will help pass the
time. Many will not have any Swimming.

Professionals
Officials, doctors, and lawyers provide
essential and expensive services. Often wealthy, their upward progress in
society is hindered by the privileges of the aristocracy. Political
upheavals present opportunities for these classes to seize power for
themselves.
Advantages/Disadvantages and Skills: Professionals
usually enjoy above-average Status and Wealth. Reputation will depend on
their competence and attitudes. Professionals should develop their
occupational skills. Politics may be helpful for those seeking government
office.
Rebels and Revolutionaries
Injustices, perceived
and actual, sow the seeds of revolt in the hearts and minds of many. For
some, the opportunity or necessity arises to take action through open
rebellion or hidden conspiracy.
Advantages/Disadvantages: Open
rebels will acquire Social Stigmas, Reputations (both favorable and not),
and Enemies. Conspirators will have at least one Secret to protect. Some
will take Vows or possess a Sense of Duty.
Skills: Diplomacy,
Leadership, Combat skills, and some combination of Social and Thief/Spy
skills. Anyone intending to construct an "infernal device" to blow up an
Emperor should invest in some Demolitions
skill.
Sailors
Merchant vessels carry cargo and
occasional passengers across the oceans. Imperial expansion is secured and
protected by the navies. Both mercantile and naval fleets have an insatiable
demand for skilled seamen.
Advantages/Disadvantages: Navy
sailors will find combat-related advantages such as Alertness, Combat
Reflexes, High Pain Threshold, Immunity to Disease, Rapid Healing, and
Toughness useful. Alcoholism and Compulsive Gambling are common to merchant
and navy seamen alike. The latter can take an Involuntary Duty. Navy
officers require Literacy and some Military Rank, and will find Charisma,
Patrons, Status, an Independent Income or Wealth helpful. Duty is required
and a Code of Honor expected for officers. Greed, occasional Odious Personal
Habits, Dependents, Impulsiveness, and Overconfidence are possible;
Cowardice and Sadism will lead to future problems.
Skills:
Seamanship is essential, with Boating and Climbing too useful to ignore. Few
will learn any Swimming. Naval service will require training in Axe, Black
Powder Weapons, Gunner (Cannon) and Shortsword (Cutlass). Warrant officers
will learn additional skills according to their specialty such as Carpentry,
Merchant (for pursers), Navigation, Shipbuilding, Shiphandling, First Aid,
and Surgery. Commission officers will add Navigation, Shiphandling,
Savoir-Faire (Military), Tactics (Naval) and Leadership among others.

Scientists and Engineers

Though rare, scientists are
making new discoveries in their private laboratories and publishing their
theories in the journals and correspondence of clubs and societies dedicated
for the advancement of progress. Engineers meanwhile are designing and
building steam-powered machines with varying degrees of
success.
Advantages/Disadvantages: Literacy is essential.
Independent Income, Wealth, or a Patron will be necessary to fund
experiments until a potentially profitable breakthrough is achieved. Results
will eventually generate a Reputation. Curious and Workaholic are common
disadvantages. Innumerate should be avoided.
Skills: Language
(Latin) and Research are usually essential. Available sciences include
Archaeology, Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Naturalist,
Physics and Zoology. Engineers will require some understanding of
Mathematics, Physics, Mechanic (Steam) and
Engineer.
Slavers
Slavers, sometimes called Guineamen,
make their fortunes in the Triangular Trade between Europe, West Africa, and
the Americas. Native treachery and tropical diseases make this an extremely
dangerous career. Though most captains take care of their human cargoes,
this is only to maximize profits; compassion has no place in a slaver's
heart.
Advantages/Disadvantages and Skills: Health-related
advantages such as Immunity to Disease will be extremely useful. In terms of
skills, a combination of sailor and merchant training will be desirable.
Additionally personal combat and medical skills will prove
valuable.
Soldiers
In battlefields across Europe and
beyond, soldiers decide the futures of nations and empires. Infantry fight
in disciplined lines, columns, and squares; dashing cavalrymen charge to
glory, artillerists destroy enemy formations and fortifications with
concentrated cannon fire. Many will die in foreign fields; a very few will
achieve lasting fame.
Advantages/Disadvantages: Any subset of
Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Strong Will, High Pain Threshold and Toughness
will keep soldiers alive. Officers require some Military Rank and Literacy;
a Code of Honor is expected. Status, Wealth, or an Independent Income will
smooth relations with fellow officers. Duty is mandatory. Alcoholism and
Compulsive Carousing are frequently encountered.
Skills:
Infantry should have Black Powder Weapons, Spear, Hiking, and Savoir-Faire
(Military). Cavalry should learn Black Powder Weapons, Broadsword, Riding,
and Savoir-Faire (Military). Artillery specialists should develop a high
Gunner skill. Officers need some Leadership and Tactics
(Land).
Smugglers
Smugglers are a natural response to
the high customs and excise duties imposed by mercantilist trade policies
and the shortages resulting from blockades. Smugglers sail in sloops to
another country's port, purchase goods honestly, and then return to their
home country, landing their goods secretly for careful sale to the gentry
and merchants. Their avoidance of duties allows them to reap handsome
profits at lower prices than legal goods. Revenue services wage an unending
war against the "Trade." As smuggling is "a hanging matter," strife between
excisemen and smugglers is frequently violent. In wartime, smugglers often
land and retrieve spies.
Advantages/Disadvantages and Skills: A
mixture of merchant, sailor and criminal skills will be most useful to the
aspiring smuggler.
Spies
Spies are everywhere. At home,
they uncover plots to overthrow the regime and unmask foreign infiltrators.
Abroad, they collect information on troop movements, naval activity,
encourage conspiracies, and undertake occasional assassinations. Every
nation employs hundreds of spies. The French spy network controlled by
Fouché during the Consulate and Empire is the most extensive and
efficient in Europe. Spies may be male or female, hired civilians or
professional military officers, and come from any social class. Many
Parisian beggars were paid informers of
Fouché.
Advantages/Disadvantages: Military Rank is
appropriate for military spies. Other useful advantages include Absolute
Timing, Alertness, Charisma, Double-Jointed, Eidetic Memory, Empathy,
Intuition, Language Talent, Literacy, Status, Strong Will, Voice and Wealth.
Duty and Secret are reasonable disadvantages. Other flaws may include
Enemies, Fanaticism, Greed. Jealousy, Lecherousness, Overconfidence and
occasional Sense of Duty.
Skills: Any and all of Acting, Area
Knowledge, Black Powder Weapons, Climbing, Dancing, Disguise, Fast-Talk,
Fencing, Forgery, Knife, Languages, Lockpicking, Poison, Riding,
Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal, Shadowing, Streetwise, etc., are likely to be
useful sooner or later.

Advantages
Alcohol Tolerance see
p. CI19
Drink is an important component of carousing throughout the
era. As the water is frequently not potable, alcohol becomes an essential
part of most civilian and nearly all military diets. Characters with this
advantage gain a +1 bonus to Carousing (p. B63). Characters who display
behavior that reveals this advantage or the Light Hangover or No Hangover
advantages will gain a +1 Reputation among military men and
roués.
Claim to Hospitality see p. CI21
Europeans of
at least Status 1 or Military Rank 3 (i.e. commissioned officers) may take
this advantage. (Characters who do not take this advantage haven't moved
around sufficiently in society to be well-known.) On meeting an NPC who is
also a European and is at least of this Rank or Status and no more than one
level higher, characters can expect a civil greeting and at least a single
night of lodging and board for themselves and companions. They are likewise
expected to extend similar hospitality to others if they are able to do so.
This costs 5 points if usable only in one's home country and colonies and 10
points if usable everywhere. Other social groups such as the American
colonists may purchase variations on this usable on their relatives and
friends. Members of the Freemasons may claim such hospitality from members
of any Lodge -- this is a 10-point advantage. In wartime, a captured
officer can automatically expect such hospitality (i.e. more comfortable
imprisonment and better food) from the enemy, if he gives his parole, i.e.
promises not to escape or work against his captors.
Clerical
Investment see p. B19
Anyone who is a priest, minister or cleric
must take this advantage. Clerics will be addressed by an appropriate title
-- Master for Protestant ministers, Father for Roman Catholic priests,
Brother for monks, and Friar for Franciscans.
Some Roman Catholic
clergy (e.g. the Jesuits and the Dominicans in charge of the Inquisition in
Spain) receive a -6 reaction from Protestants. Even from Roman Catholics,
the Inquisition clergy receive a -2! They are usually obeyed by the laity of
the same Status or lower. In France, the Constitutional Clergy and the
non-juring clergy (those obedient to Rome) have -4 reaction penalties to
each other and zealous followers of the other branch of the church.

Christian nuns do not have the Clerical Investment advantage; they

are not ordained and have neither the legal nor spiritual authority of a
priest. Monks may or may not be ordained as priests; most are not. Monks and
nuns are required to take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and get
a +1 reaction from those of their own faith. Priests are required to take a
vow of chastity and a promise of obedience.
Light Hangover see
p.CI27
See Alcohol Tolerance, above
Disease-Resistant see
p. CI24
See Immunity to Disease, below.
Immunity to
Disease see p. B20
Health-related advantages, including
Disease-Resistant and Rapid Healing, become very important when playing in
this era. There is no magical healing or modern medicine; contemporary
medicine is extremely dangerous and experimental. A chest wound requires at
least a month of recuperation in this period, and Europeans are extremely
prone to tropical diseases such as prevail in the West Indies, India and
Africa. (GMs should consult pp. CII167-174 for more information on these
diseases.) Inoculations against smallpox are available but these cost cash
not character points!
Literacy see p. B21
The level of
literacy varies according to social class and country. In Europe, Literacy
is the norm for all characters with Status 1 or higher, Illiteracy is the
norm for all characters with lower Status. In the American colonies,
Semi-Literacy (p. CI29) is the norm for all Americans of European extraction
but born in the colony. Elsewhere, Illiteracy is the norm.
Military
Rank see B22
Military Rank is normally gained through regular or
militia service in the national armies, the national navies, or in the
Honourable East India Company's private military forces. Military Rank in
the last services does not provide additional Status outside of India.
For other military forces, characters may gain a free rank of Status for
every three levels of Military Rank. Brevet ranks are strictly temporary,
but may last in the army until the end of a campaign or even an entire war.
Naval brevet rank should not be purchased -- shortages of ships and
officer berths means that someone will be appointed directly or receive a
permanent promotion. See Aft the Most Honor and Officers and
Gentlemen for further details on gaining military rank.
Military
Rank, unlike Social Status, costs no money to maintain, but officers will be
expected to live like gentlemen, especially as they gain higher rank.
Incompetence and cowardice will usually result in them being cashiered or
shot. All military service should be accompanied with a Duty
disadvantage.
Military Rank in the army is as follows (names will
differ according to nation):

Army Military Rank Table

Rank
8: Marshals of the Empire, Field Marshals
Rank 7: Generals (7.8, 39),
Lieutenant Generals (7.4, 37), Major Generals (7.0, 35)
Rank
6: Colonels (6.4, 32) and Lieutenant Colonels (6.0, 30)
Rank
5: Majors
Rank 4: Captains
Rank 3: Lieutenants
Rank
2: Ensigns (2.4, 12), Cornets (2.4, 12), and Sergeants
Rank
1: Corporals
Rank 0: Enlisted men
Military Rank in the navy is
as follows (names will differ according to nation):

Naval Military

Rank Table
Rank 8: Sea Lords (British Admiralty), Admirals of the
Fleet
Rank 7: Admirals (7.8, 39), Vice Admirals (7.4, 37), Rear
Admirals (7.0, 35)
Rank 6: Commodores (6.8, 29), Post-Captains
[British only, 3 years plus seniority] (6.4, 27), Captains [French or
Spanish, commanding ships-of-the-line] (6.6, 28), Post-Captains [British
only, less than 3 years seniority] (6, 25) Captains [French or Spanish,
commanding frigates] (6, 25)
Rank 5: Commanders (commanding sloops or
smaller vessels)
Rank 4: Lieutenants
Rank 3: Masters, Surgeons,
Pursers, Chaplains
Rank 2: Senior Warrant Officers (gunners,
boatswains, carpenters, masters-at-arms)
Rank 1: Midshipmen, Junior
Warrant Officers (master's mates, bosun's mates, etc.)
Rank
0: Sailors

Armies and navies in the era are extremely stratified in

this era with senior officers such as generals and admirals being divided
into various subranks. To represent this, certain ranks are followed with a
pair of numbers indicating a more exact rank status and points
cost.
Merchant-service titles are not military ranks.

No
Hangover see p.CI28
See Alcohol Tolerance, above
Patron
see pp. B24, CI28
Patronage, or more properly "influence," is the
lubricant which ensures the smooth running of society. Patrons who are
merely wealthy may be willing to bail you out of financial trouble (or
debtor's prison) or fund your scholarly research or creativity. Patrons with
"influence" may be able to arrange a preferential posting in the army or
navy or East India Company, smooth your path to promotion, arrange a
governmental sinecure or minimize the consequences of your failures.
Possible Patrons include rich aristocrats, senior military officers,
government ministers and high officials, diplomats, even royalty.

Rapid Healing see p. B23

See Immunity to Disease,
above.
New Advantage
Independent Income (5 points)
You have a private income. Unless you are a spendthrift, you
should never have to work for a living. You may still choose to work --
if so, you will still benefit from your private income. The source is up to
you: investments in for example the East India Company, rent on land or
houses, a military pension or half pay, monies from the Secret Service fund,
an allowance from a relative, or a sinecure. Some "sinecures" actually
involve real work, but no one will complain if you hire a clerk to serve as
your deputy and undertake your duties in say the West Indies for a fraction
of your salary. This advantage does not give you any specified level of
income; the income per month is equal to 5% of the starting wealth for your
wealth level. A Dead Broke character gains nothing from this advantage and
should not take it; a Very Wealthy or better character effectively already
has it. Characters should spend up to ten hours per month "working" for this
income, by corresponding with brokers and merchant houses, collecting rents,
writing to the wealthy relative, collecting the pension, or signing
documents.

Disadvantages
Addiction see p.
B30
Addictive substances such as alcohol, tobacco and opium are
legal in this period. Many patent medicines contain high doses of such
substances, and are marketed as cures for debilitating and chronic diseases,
leading to the potential for addiction to the medicine. All Addictions are
legal and hence worth 5 points less than normal.
Alcoholism see p.
B30
The easy availability of alcohol, and indeed its necessity in
most diets, means that alcoholism is common in all classes of society.
Alcoholism is a 15-point addiction. Drinkers will receive a -1 reaction
penalty from followers of "dry" religions and sects; alcoholics will receive
a -2 reaction penalty from such people.
Code of Honor see p.
B31
Honor is still taken seriously by most gentlemen in this
period. Though illegal, duels are still fought over insults, political
disagreements, and adulterous liaisons. The Gentleman's Code of Honor (-10
points) is the standard for the upper classes. The Pirate's Code (-5 points)
is sometimes followed by ordinary soldiers and sailors, rebels and
revolutionaries.
Compulsive Gambling see p. CI88
Gambling
is a pastime of rich and poor alike. Fortunes can be lost and won (and lost
again) in a single evening. Most characters who gamble regularly should take
this Disadvantage at -5 point level.
Cowardice see p.
B32
The very accusation of cowardice is an insult which cannot be
ignored; it must be disproved by an act of extraordinary and conspicuous
bravery and/or by "demanding satisfaction" from the accuser by a duel. In
this age of honor, known cowards will suffer a -3 reaction, and this
Disadvantage is worth -15 points.
Dependents see p. B38
In
the 18th century, Dependents can also include people who are seeking your
character's "influence" to further their careers by arranging promotions or
sinecures on their behalf. The more powerful a character becomes, the more
people will seek to ingratiate themselves. In addition, a character's
relatives, friends and their relations will expect preferential treatment.
The value of this Disadvantage will depend on how much influence the
character is prepared to exercise for his proteges, and should be discussed
with the GM.
Duty see p. B39
Duty, especially to one's
sovereign and/or country, is important in 18th-century society. All members
of the regular military forces -- officers, volunteers, conscripts and
pressed men -- can take a 15-point Duty, owing to the frequency of
hazardous duty, the harsh discipline, and the near-permanency of membership.
Members of militia forces can take a 5-point Duty to reflect the less
frequent requirements for service.
Fat and Overweight see pp. B28,
B29
Having enough to eat is a sign of wealth. Most people do not
have enough food to keep hunger at bay. Being overweight or fat does not
provoke the same reaction penalties in the 18th century as it would in more
health-conscious eras. Being Overweight or merely Fat at the 10-point level
has no reaction penalty. Only being Fat at the 20-point level will incur a
-1 reaction. All the practical problems and limits on HT still apply. Stout
characters may wish to consider the Gluttony disadvantage or suffering from
gout as well.
Gout is a hereditary disorder which was believed to be
caused by over-indulgence in food and drink. It is a recurring ailment which
can be triggered by infection, emotional disturbances or trauma. The
symptoms are extreme pain and tenderness in the joints of the foot. Attacks
can last up to a fortnight and will prevent the character from walking
without suffering agony. The victim should take the Lame disadvantage at -15
points or higher. This disadvantage can be set off by the triggers mentioned
above instead of the usual failed HT or Will rolls. This is a special
effect, and has no effect on point cost.
Gluttony see p.
B33
A common vice, blatant gluttony in full view of the wrong
people, for example the righteous members of a Revolutionary Tribunal, will
incur a reaction penalty ranging from -1 to -3, depending on how bad
conditions are currently for the onlookers (or the people they purport to
represent).
Greed see p. B33
There are fortunes to be made
in Europe, in the colonies, and beyond. For the avaricious, this is a golden
time of opportunities. Greed will keep a merchant in the disease-ridden West
and East Indies even to the ruin of his health. Corruption is rife in
officialdom. Greed will ensure that office-holders squeeze every last penny
from bribery simply to undertake their ordinary responsibilities.

Innumerate see p.CI91

This is a 5-point disadvantage.
Knowing how to count is important, especially if a character wants to
collect the right pay or avoid being fleeced. This is a common disadvantage
among the lower classes of European society.
Intolerance see p.
B34
Intolerance of other religions is the norm. There is no point
value for Intolerance (Religious) (p. CI91). Blatant religious
tolerance is an Odious Personal Habit. Intolerance toward other
nationalities is a disadvantage. If it is toward all foreigners, it is worth
-10 points. If it is only toward one commonly-encountered nationality, it is
worth -5 points. If it is toward an uncommonly-encountered nationality, it
is merely a -1-point quirk.
Lecherousness see p.
B34
Lechery is a common vice in this age with many men taking
mistresses or enjoying more temporary dalliances in brothels and bawdy
houses. Women often take lovers. Age is no barrier to desire and its
consummation.
Odious Personal Habit see p.B26
Boasting (at
either -5 or -10-point levels) is a common disadvantage. Refusing to drink,
gamble or indulge in similar common pursuits is worth -5 points if the
character spends much of his time in circles where such activities are the
norm. Openly advocating religious tolerance of minority Christian sects is
an Odious Personal Habit worth -5 points. Openly advocating religious
tolerance of non-Christian faiths in Europe or in settler communities in the
colonies is worth -10 points. The wars of religion are over, but their
aftereffects linger.
Primitive see p. B26
Technological
progress from 1769 to 1821 is extremely uneven. England leads the way in the
practical development of steam power, while Europe in general is a center of
scientific advances in many fields. Europeans and overseas colonists may not
take the Primitive disadvantage. Indigenous characters from China, India,
the Muslim nations and the Americas may take Primitive at the 5-point level;
they are familiar with TL4 technology. Characters from elsewhere in Asia or
Africa are at the 10-point level as their technology is TL3. Pacific
islanders, Australia and New Zealand natives, and members of any truly
isolated culture can have technology ranging down to TL0.
Secret
see p. CI78
Many people have secrets. Suitable secrets include
clandestine love affairs, concealed (usually ruinous) debts, shady pasts in
terms of political beliefs, religious backgrounds, or even hiding one's
gender.
Social Stigma see p. B27
Being of a minority
religion will qualify as a Social Stigma disadvantage if it is obvious from
appearances such as a priest in his cassock or a Quaker using his
distinctive thee and thou. Being a woman will qualify for a -5 point Social
Stigma Disadvantage owing to the limits on their behavior. Foreigners (Irish
in England, Austrians in France, American colonials in England, etc.) may
take a -5 or -10 Social Stigma, even in the most enlightened regions. This
does not apply if the PC expects to spend a significant proportion of his
time in his home country.
New Quirk
The Blue
Devils
Command is a lonely business. The ability to out-think one's
opponent can lead to bouts of introspection over one's own deeds, inducing
chains of often gloomy "What If?" thoughts. For officers who care about
their subordinates, this can lead to fits of depression (see Chronic
Depression p. CI87) and indecision (see Indecisive p. CI91 and Weak Will p.
B37). Alcoholism may provide an escape for some; others may break completely
(use a combination of Confused (p. CI88), Insomniac (p. CI82), Nightmares
(p. CI92), and Post-Combat Shakes (p. CI93) in addition to the original
depressive and indecisive disadvantages).

Skills
This section
describes some skills which are of particular relevance to GURPS Age of
Napoleon campaigns. Readers are referred to GURPS Basic Set and
Compendium I as other skills are encountered elsewhere. Of
particular note to characters in this era are: Diplomacy, Fencing, Gambling,
Leadership, Riding, Seamanship, Shiphandling, Streetwise, and
Survival.
Black Powder Weapons see p. B49
Nearly all
fighters will only receive training with flintlock pistols, muskets and
rifles. Matchlock and wheellocks are rare antiques and will therefore count
as unfamiliar weapons to flintlock users.
Gunner see p.
B50
There are three major types of heavy weapon in the period,
namely cannons (including carronades), howitzers and mortars. Naval gunners
will normally only learn how to fire cannon, unless they see service on a
bomb ketch (which carries mortars). Army gunners should expect to learn all
three weapon types eventually.
Savoir-Faire see pp. B64 and
CII60
While a faux pas may not be sufficient cause for an
offended party to "demand satisfaction," rude or boorish behavior will have
repercussions to Reputation, may bar a character's entry to the fashionable
salons where aristocratic ladies hold court among a circle of witty
conversationalists, or create unexpected Enemies who will exercise their
influence to arrange the preferment of a character's
Rivals.
Strategy and Tactics see p. B64
Characters may
specialize in Tactics (Naval) which defaults to IQ-6, Tactics (Land)-2, or
Strategy (Naval)-6. Both land and naval tactics specializations mutually
default at -2. Land tactics and land strategy are assumed unless the
character sheet states Tactics (Naval) and Strategy (Naval). The borderline
between Tactics and Strategy is often blurred for naval officers. Only the
most senior admirals will ever have any say over worldwide grand strategy.
The gravest responsibilities for most flag officers will be fleet maneuvers
and fleet-level battles. Captains and their juniors will be concerned with
the tactics of ship-level engagements and boat-level skirmishes.

Notes on Weapons

Boarding Axe: Treat as an axe

(p. B206). Not made for throwing (-2 to skill). Common on
ships.
Boarding Pike: Treat as an spear (p. B206). Not made for
throwing (-2 to skill). Common on ships.
Cavalry Saber: Treat as a
broadsword (p. B206).
Cutlass: Treat as a shortsword (p.
B206).
Muskets and Rifles: Muskets and rifles (really muskets with
spiral grooves inside their barrels) can be used in three ways in
hand-to-hand combat. First, if a bayonet is fitted, it can be used as a
spear. Treat this as a spear held in two hands (p. B206), but reach is 1 and
skill is Spear-1. The musket or rifle can be fired at -1 to skill when fixed
in place.
Secondly a musket can be "clubbed": held by the barrel
and swung two-handed. Treat it as a maul (p. B206), but damage and Min ST
both drop by 2, and skill is Two-Handed Axe/Mace-1. Muskets and rifles are
sturdy enough to be used in this manner without sustaining
damage.
Finally a musket butt can be used as an improvised weapon:
treat as a punch made using DX or Brawling, at -2 to skill but +2 to normal
punching damage.
Pistols: Most pistols are sufficiently sturdy to
be used as improvised blackjacks. Use Blackjack-1 and reduce damage by
1.
For a more detailed treatment on weapons of the period and
fighting styles, see GURPS Swashbucklers and GURPS
High-Tech.

Languages
It is expected that most GURPS
Age of Napoleon characters will be European or of European extraction,
and so most of the languages they are likely to learn will be Mental/Average
(see p. B54-55). Exceptions will include non-Indo-European languages from
Africa, America, Asia, and so on.
Many European languages have some
default to each other, especially the written forms. The Romance languages
include Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian. French defaults to either
Italian or Spanish at -5, Latin at -6. Spanish and Italian default to each
other at -2, Latin at -3.
German and Dutch default to each other at
-3, and the Scandinavian languages to them at -6. Danish and Norwegian
default to each other at -1, and Swedish to each of them at -3. English and
Dutch default to each other at -5. English and German default to each other
at -7. (While much of the vocabulary of English is Romance-based, more of it
is Germanic, as is its underlying grammar.)
Languages defaulting to
each other should not be taken to mean that there is a word-to-word
correspondence.
French is the "lingua franca" of Europe and is the
language of many royal courts including Russia and Prussia for part of the
period. Anyone who wishes to move in high social circles should learn
French. Latin remains the language of the Catholic Church and is extremely
common to physicians, scholars, scientists, and anyone who has benefited
from a university education.
For time travelers, the languages of the
18th century default to their 20th century descendants at -1 owing to
differences in vocabulary and grammatical usage. Masquerading as a foreigner
would not be difficult, but to pass as a native will require special effort
and training.

Wealth, Social Status and Reputation

Average
starting wealth in GURPS Age of Napoleon is $750. GMs may permit PCs
up to Wealthy to spend all their money on personal "adventuring" gear
-- there may be good reason for the PC to have converted all his wealth
into portable goods and cash. Adventurers who are Very Wealthy, Filthy Rich,
or Multimillionaires may only spend 20% of their starting wealth on items to
be used directly in the campaign: 80% must be tied up in a home, land,
furniture, clothing, investments, etc. PCs who acquire debts through unlucky
gambling, unwise speculations, or repudiated loans may have to liquidate
more of their starting wealth.
For anyone on the lowest rungs of the
social ladder, life will be defined by the social class of birth. The middle
classes can hope to rise by success in their chosen profession, marriage
into a higher social rank, or even ennoblement by purchase or royal
patronage. Scions of the upper classes may receive grander titles following
unexpected deaths in the family or be elevated in the peerage for military
or political services.
The bold and the lucky may find themselves
rising into high society -- one of Napoleon's Marshals became King of
Sweden! Players should create beginning characters of no higher Social
Status than 3. Use the Status and Cost of Living table below as an idea of
Status in this era. Cost of living is also determined by the PC's Status.

Status and Cost Of Living

Level Examples Monthly Cost of

Living
8 Divine ruler, emperor: $20,000+
7 King,
pope: $5,000+
6 Prince, duke, marquis, archbishop: $2000
5 Earl,
count, bishop: $1000
4 Viscount, baron, landed lord, monsignor,
abbé: $500
3 Lesser lord (e.g. untitled noble), English baronet,
knight, canon: $100
2 Squire, hidalgo, hobereau, burgess,
lawyer, great merchant, parish priest: $40
1 Rural gentleman,
merchant, master craftsman, curate: $20
0 Shopkeeper, journeyman,
laborer: $10
-1 Casual worker, servant: $5
-2 Outsider,
criminal, prostitute: $2
-3 Street beggar, vagrant: $2
-4 Serf
or slave: $2

Note that living below your Status level may reduce your
Status! Roll vs. IQ each month; a failure means Status drops by 1. The point
value of a character also drops if his Status drops. A noble's Status can
never go below 1 by this means.
A Reputation is a common
advantage/disadvantage in this era. Even junior army and naval officers will
acquire reputations in their respective regiments and ships. Increasing rank
will lead to greater recognition throughout the services. Academic societies
and court patronage will spread the fame of men of letters, sciences, and
the arts. Political sympathies such as Whig or Tory in peaceful times can
divide society; in more turbulent times, "Jacobin," "regicide," or
"royalist" can be death sentences. Coward and cheat are possibly the worst
reputations among the privileged orders. Rakes and other dissolutes can
expect differing reactions according to their company. Atheist is a hard
Reputation to lose -- characters should expect little help or sympathy
from even mildly religious people. Once a character features in national or
world events, the newspapers will magnify every virtue -- while the
satirists and lampoonists will exploit every flaw.

Jobs
Table
In civilized areas, PCs may find jobs to provide income while
they are not in play. Not every job is available in every part of the world.
Jobs can help cover the PC's cost of living. The Job Table lists a number of
possible occupations. Some have skill or experience prerequisites (default
values do not count; at least a half-point must be invested in the
skill).

Job Table

Job (Required Skills), Monthly

Income Success Roll Critical Failure

Poor Jobs
Beggar*
(none), $2 10 -1i/3d
Farm Laborer (ST 9+), $2 12 LJ
Street
Thief* (DX 11+, Stealth 11+, Lockpicking or Pickpocket 10+), $3 Best PR 2d/3
months in jail/sent to penal colony
Street Vendor (none),
$3 IQ-1 -2i/1d
Tenant Farmer (Agronomy 12+, ST 10+), $3 12 -1i/-2i,
evicted

Struggling Jobs
Clerk (Literacy, Accounting 12+),
$10 PR LJ
Cavalryman (Black Powder Weapons 10+, Riding 12+, Sword 10),
$8 + rank plus room and board Best PR 2d/4d
Infantryman (Black Powder
Weapons 12+), $7 + rank plus room and board PR 2d/4d
Inventor*
(Engineer-12+), $1 xEngineer PR -1i/-2i , 1d, workshop damaged in
explosion
Laborer (ST 10+), $15 ST LJ
Performer* (any Music
Skill-12+), $1 xSkill Best PR -1i /-2i , lose
job
Petty Thief* (four Thief/Spy skills 12+ or two at 14+), $8 Best
PR 2d/3 months in jail/sent to penal colony
Porter (ST 12+),
$8 ST LJ
Sailor [Navy or Merchant] (Seamanship 10+), $6 plus room and
board PR 2d/3d
Servant/Lackey (Savoir-Faire (Servant) 13+, Status -1
or higher), $6 plus room and board PR LJ
Teacher (Literacy, Knowledge
skill at 10+) $15 PR LJ
Thug* (Brawling 11+ or any Weapon skill 11+),
$8 PR-2 3d/ 3 months in jail / penal colony
Writer* (Writing-14+), $1
xSkill PR -1i/-3i, derisive reviews or censored

Average Jobs
Actor* (Performance-12+ and Acting ), $2
xSkill Best PR -1i /-2i , lose job
Army Officer
(Status 1+, Leadership 12+ or Wealthy+, Tactics 10+), @TEXT:Ensigns $38,
Cornets $60, Infantry ($30 xRank) -45, Cavalry ($38
xRank) -45, plus room and board Best PR 2d/-1
Rank
Bureaucrat (Administration 12+, Literacy, Status 1+),
$20 PR LJ
Continental Gentry (Status 2+),
$100 Status+8 -1i/-3I
Factory Worker (ST 10), $20 10 -2i/ 2d or
LJ
Gambler* (Gambling 11+), Skill
x$3 PR -1i/2d
Merchant* (Merchant 13+), Skill
x$3 PR -1i/-2i, bankruptcy
Navy Commissioned
Officer (Status +1, Leadership 12+, Seamanship 10+,
Navigation 10+,
Shiphandling 10+), $38 (Rank 4), $45 (Rank 5), $75 (Rank 6 -frigate captain)
$120 (captain ship-of-the-line) plus room and board Best PR 2d/-1
Rank
Navy Warrant Officer (Seamanship 12+ plus professional skill at
12+), $5 + ($5 xRank) plus room and board Best PR 2d/-1
Rank
Parish Clergyman (Theology 12+, Clerical Investment, Literacy,
Status 1+), $20 (poor curate) to $100 (rich living) Worst of PR,
IQ -1i/LJ
Scientist (any Science skill 14+), $2
xSkill PR Ridicule/LJ
Shop Owner* (Professional
skill 12+, Status 0+, a shop), Skill
x$2 PR -1i/-2i
Skilled Craftsman* (Craft skill
13+, Status 0+), Skill x$2 PR -1i/-2i
Surgeon*
(Surgeon 12+, Physician 12+), $90 Best PR -1i
Thief* (four Thief/Spy
skills at 14+), $25 Best PR 2d/6 months in jail/ transportation to penal
colony

Comfortable Jobs
Army General/Navy Flag Officer
(Strategy 10+ or Politics 10+), $225 (Rank 7), $300 (Rank 8) plus room and
board Worst PR 1d, -1i/3d or cashiered
Diplomat (IQ 12+, Diplomacy
12+), $400 IQ Transferred to hardship post/LJ
English Gentry* (Status
2+), $1000 Status+8 -2i/forced to sell off part of estate
Lawyer* (Law
13+, Status 1+, Literacy), $200 PR -3i/-10i, disbarred
Master
Craftsman* (Craft skill 15+, own shop), Craft skill
x$6 PR -2i/-4i
Merchant Ship Captain* (Navigation
10+, Shiphandling 11+, Leadership 11+), $150 plus room and board Worst
PR -1i/-6i
Office-holder (IQ 10+, Status 2+),
$400 IQ LJ
Physician* (Physician-14+, Literacy, Status 1+),
$250 PR-2 -1i/-2i
Slaver* (Merchant 10+, Diplomacy 10+),
$200 PR -2i/3d and -4i
Smuggler* (Merchant 10+, Streetwise 12+,
Shiphandling 11+), $200 PR-2 3d/3 years in jail/transportation to penal
colony

Wealthy Jobs
High Church Official (Status 5+, Theology
12+, Administration 12+, Clerical Investment), $2,500 Best PR Income drops
10%
Professional Investor/Manufacturer* (Status 2+, Filthy Rich,
Merchant 14+), $5,000 PR -3i/-10I
Titled Nobility* (Status 4+),
$4000 Status+8 -2i/forced to sell off part of estate

Equipment
Table

Money

Every nation had its own currency -- even

some of the colonies resorted to producing their own paper bills when
coinage from the home country was in short supply. Gold, silver, and copper
coins were the principal form of currency. The usage of the same metals
allowed merchants to assess the value of the foreign currency by weight and
metal type. Paper bills and letters of exchange steadily became more
prominent in national and international commerce.
The following table
summarizes the relationship between the GURPS dollar and a selection
of the national currencies:

Currency Conversion

Table
Austria:
1 Thaler (silver) $1.00
1 Florin
(silver) $0.50
1 Kreuzer (copper) $0.008

England:
1
Guinea (gold) $5.25
1 Pound (unit of account) $5.00
1 Shilling
(silver) $0.25
1 Penny (copper) $0.02

France:
1 Livre
or 1 Franc (silver) $0.40
1 Sou
(copper) $0.02

Holland:
1 Ducat (gold) $2
1 Guilder
(silver) $0.40
1 Stuiver (copper) $0.02

Spain:
1 Peso
(a.k.a. 1 Piece of Eight) (silver) $0.50
1 Real (silver) $0.06
1
Maraverdi (copper) $0.002

United States:
1 Dollar
(silver) $1.00
1 Cent (copper) $0.01

The currencies are

subdivided as follows:
1 thaler equals 2 florins; 1 florin equals 60
kreuzer
1 pound equals 20 shillings; 1 shilling equals 12 pence
1 livre or 1
france equals 20 sou
1 ducat equals 5 guilders; 1 guilder equals 20
stuivers
1 peso equals 8 reals; 1 real equals 34 maraverdis
1 dollar equals
100 cents.
The fantasy/medieval equipment tables from GURPS Basic
Set may be used. All prices should be divided by 20 to approximate the
prices of this era. During inflationary periods such as the Revolutionary
Wars or other times of hardship, GMs should feel free to double or even
triple the scaled prices for food and other essentials from the Basic
Set. A selection of further goods and services is given in the table
below.

Equipment Table

Entertainment

Book (not
novel) $5-$10
Evening's entertainment and drinking at a
club $0.25
Newspaper $0.05
Novel $0.75
Services of a
street prostitute $0.25
Theatre ticket $0.25
Visit to
Bedlam $0.04
Visit to a Pleasure Garden $0.25

Food and
Drink

Beer (one quart) $0.12

Bread (one lb.) $0.04
Butter
(one lb.) $0.l4
Cheese (one lb.) $0.07
Cherries (one
lb.) $0.12
Chocolate (one lb.) $8.50
Meat (one lb.)
$0.08
Coffee in a coffee-house (per cup) $0.02
Sugar (one
lb.) $0.12
Tea (one lb.) $1.50

Miscellany

Decorate and
furnish a London townhouse $5,000
Fire Insurance (for every $500
insured) $3
House ( four bedrooms) $750
Inoculation against
smallpox $1.25
Lodgings (squalid, per week) $0.62
Patent
medicine $0.50 - $5
Portrait (by an "unknown"
artist) $75
Portrait (by a world-class artist) $1,000
Reward for
catching a deserter $5
Reward for catching a
highwayman $200
School education (per year, in private
school) $75
Set of human teeth (for use as dentures) $150
Shave
and wig combed $0.06
Soap (bar) $0.12
Suit of fashionable
society clothes $150
University education (Oxford or Cambridge, per
year) $360
Wooden stool $0.32
Writing desk (high
quality) $18

Tools and Instruments

Logarithmic
Tables $50
Marine chronometer $500
Navigating
instruments $100-$500
Surgical Kit $100
Surveying
Instruments $300
Telescope $100

Transport, Travel and

Communications
Carriage travel (in city, per mile) $0.25
Coach
travel (in summer, per mile) $0.05
Coach travel (in winter, per
mile) $0.06
Passage to India (from England) $2,000
Passage to
the West Indies (from England via Post Office packet) $260
Posting a
letter (inland destination < 80 miles) $0.06
Posting a letter (inland
destination < 150 miles) $0.10
Posting a letter (inland destination >
150 miles) $0.12
Posting a letter (London to
Edinburgh) $0.14
Posting a letter (London to
Dublin) $0.12
Posting a letter (London to America) $0.25
Posting
a letter (London to France) $0.20
Posting a letter (London to
Spain) $0.37
CAMPAIGNS
Types of Campaign
History versus

Fiction
The Napoleonic epoch, particularly the French Revolution and
the subsequent wars, has inspired many greater and lesser works of fiction
-- including War and Peace. Some of the early literature such as
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and Baroness Orczy's The
Scarlet Pimpernel exaggerated some aspects of the era for dramatic
effect. Later series such as CS Forester's Hornblower novels and its many
excellent imitators to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe sequence have been written
by historians and authors willing to pay attention to authentic historical
detail. Many of their plots are based on actual events or purport to be the
hidden histories of the times. As such, they provide a treasure trove of
ideas and models for roleplaying campaigns. (See the Bibliography for
listings.)
Should history be changed in a roleplaying game?
Yes
and no.
Yes. A lot of history buffs are well-versed in the minutiae of
this era. Occasionally changing dates and names will keep such players
guessing and allow the GM to obtain endless plots by dipping into history.
However, do not move the famous battles such as Austerlitz, Trafalgar,
and Waterloo. Players will want their characters to be present at such
pivotal moments. Plot-lines which allow them to be responsible behind the
scenes for making such events happen will be especially appreciated. Allow
real historical figures to feature in the campaign -- meeting the
famous will both ground players in the historical framework and inspire
their characters. (Remember that Richard Sharpe won his commission by saving
Wellington in India.)
No. Do not substantially alter the lives
of major personalities or the outcomes of major events, unless the desired
intention is to trigger an alternate time line. Napoleon's life was
threatened from many quarters. Player-characters could be plotting to kill
him or working desperately to save him. If Napoleon is assassinated, the
game becomes an alternate history and everything which happens after the key
juncture is subject to change. Read the "What if ... " sidebars in the
History chapter and the People chapter for some suggestions as to what might
have been and how to maintain the broad sweep of history.
The late
Patrick O'Brian lamented his error in not starting his Aubrey-Maturin saga
sufficiently early in the wars and had to warp strict chronology to fit in
his later novels. So while it is probably not necessary to send characters
to sea as youthful midshipmen in 1768 (like Alexander Kent's Richard
Bolitho), GMs expecting prolonged campaigns should still choose an early
starting year.

Realistic versus Cinematic

For GMs desiring

completely accurate historical gaming, a fully realistic approach is best.
In such campaigns, the streets are filthy, the battles are bloody, and
disease kills more characters than musket fire. Personal combat should use
the Advanced Combat Rules (pp. B102-105). GURPS Vehicles should be
used for shipbuilding and naval engagements, while the Mass Combat rules
(pp. CII113-124) will cover land battles. GMs and players should be warned
-- this level of realism leads to frequent fatalities.
For GMs
seeking dramatic action rather than accuracy, a cinematic approach is best.
In such campaigns, the harsh realities are blurred into soft focus, the
peasants are healthy, the streets are clean, and the battles are glorious.
Such high adventure requires the Optional Cinematic Reflexes (pp.
CII71-79).
Many GMs will seek a middle ground, including the gritty
details, but letting the NPCs suffer the brunt of the cannonballs and
musketry. It was a cliché of the era that nobody ever died in a battle
from an aimed musket shot, and there were cases of soldiers being knocked
out by the passing wind of a cannonball. For such campaigns, GMs should only
use those rules options with which they are comfortable.

Female Characters in the Era

Eighteenth-century
women were second-class citizens. Aristocratic women played second fiddle to
noblemen, but remained socially superior to untitled male commoners.
Campaigns with even a modicum of realism should require the Social Stigma
disadvantage be taken by female player-characters.
Women adhering
to society's conventions wielded the power in their husband's households and
organized the balls and parties where their husbands and brothers could
network, gain patronage and dispense influence. In France especially,
educated and attractive women held court in the salons where intellectuals
and young bucks vied in wit and gallantry for their attention. Austria and
Russia were graced by their ruling empresses, Maria Theresa and Catherine
the Great.
Female PCs do not have to spend their lives like Jane
Austen in quiet retirement observing the manners of genteel society and
penning ironic novels. Adventurous members of the upper classes may travel
with their husbands (or if unmarried with just a maidservant) to foreign
parts. Love affairs should be discouraged or at least be discreet lest the
erring wife be declared mad and shut away in an asylum under heavy
medication laced with arsenic traces. Middle-class women may relocate to the
colonies to seek or join a husband, though they too should maintain public
respectability. Lower-class women may behave as they wish, though they will
receive scant protection in law should their actions embroil them in
peril.
Women were found in every army as camp-followers.
Frequently armed, they were not averse to killing and looting enemy wounded.
Some disguised themselves as men and fought in the ranks -- female
officers are not impossible. Pasquale Paoli organized women-only detachments
to defend Corsica from the French Revolutionary armies.
Though
women were officially prohibited from serving aboard ship, some captains and
 officers took their wives to sea. Female stowaways were secreted below decks
on many ships-of-the-line, and stayed out of sight of less liberal
commanders. At Trafalgar, women served with the gun crews on HMS
Victory -- one even gave birth during the battle.
Less
structured careers such as privateering, the merchant marine,
(counter-)revolution, espionage, and entertainment posed fewer barriers to
women of the period. Even in science, Madame Lavoisier assisted in her
husband's research and the University of Bologna had one female professor.

Thus with a little effort, there are first-class role-playing

opportunities for female PCs in any GURPS Age of Napoleon
campaign.

In the Shadow of the Eagles

Two out of
every three years in the eighteenth century witnessed war in Europe. Even
when Europe was at peace, India and the overseas colonies could be relied on
as alternative conflict zones. Thus campaigns involving active duty soldiers
will be action-packed. Consult the Timeline in the History chapter to
determine which countries are (or will be) at war around the campaign's
starting date.
Sea power and the desire for imperial aggrandizement
transforms European conflicts into global wars. GMs can and should move
regiments around so that the soldiers can be available for the next slice of
action. This does not mean the PCs should be fighting on a different
continent every week -- do retain the realism of travel time --
but it does mean that the characters should not spend the rest of the war
garrisoning the first town they captured, just because that's what
happened to the real historical battalion. Likewise officers who are
captured after losing a battle or siege should receive opportunities to
escape or be selected for a prisoner exchange. However prisoners who escape
after giving their parole will not be considered honorable enemies and
may be denied further active service by their own government.
All
armies operate under military discipline of varying severity. PCs,
regardless of Military Rank, should obey the orders of their lawful
superiors, or have good reasons ready for their court-martial. NPCs of lower
Military Rank will obey orders, but stupid and near-suicidal orders will
have a detrimental effect on respect and loyalty, provoking desertion and
mutiny. Desertion is usually punished by death, so don't get caught! While
good officers could expect devotion from their men, bad officers frequently
had fatal accidents in the confusion of battle.
Commission officers do
not have to accept postings. Many will prefer to eke out half-pay rather
than accept a garrison command in the Caribbean. (Posting an officer to the
"Fever Islands" is an easy way to get rid of someone permanently -- it
may be years before Horse Guards recalls the character home.) Refusing a
posting in the French Revolutionary armies could earn the character a
one-way date with the guillotine.
Players may want more freedom of
action than realistically available to rank-and-file line infantry. Scouts
(in the American War), French Voltigeurs and British riflemen are
trained to fight as individuals. Cavalry have sufficient maneuverability to
make detaching small units for special missions practical. Alternatively
allow at least one PC to be an officer. The purchase system for commissions
ensures that GMs can easily prevent players from gaining too much freedom of
action prematurely in a campaign.
In most armies, there was a social
as well as military chasm between officers and the lower ranks. (In
Napoleon's forces, every soldier fancied he had a marshal's baton in his
knapsack which he could win through bravery and victory.) Realistically,
large parties cannot all be officers, and players should expect their
non-officer characters to obey officer PCs. However, because GURPS Age
of Napoleon is a game and because the fictional conventions support such
behavior, PC non-officers may enjoy a soldierly camaraderie with their
official superiors (but not in front of other superior officers!)
To
prevent all soldier characters from looking the same when generated, GMs
should encourage players to come up with varied backgrounds and occupations
followed by their characters before they enlisted or were
conscripted.

Adventure Ideas
For
military and naval campaigns, the following selection of adventure ideas can
be expanded into full scenarios to sandwich between the marches, voyages,
gunnery and sail practice, skirmishes, and spectacular battles. Only a few
are specific to particular times and places.
Transform an assorted
group of convicts into an elite military unit. ( The PCs may be the trainers
and/or ex-prisoners.)
Ride beyond the army's front lines as an
Exploratory Officer in full dress uniform to discover the whereabouts of
enemy forces. Lead a crack unit to intercept enemy baggage trains or
dispatch riders; alternatively "salvage" priceless art treasures and relics
before someone else loots them.
Rivalry between sailors and
soldiers on a transport ship encourages gambling on fist-fights. Accusations
of cheating and sore losers leads to wider mayhem. Someone must prevent a
general bloodbath.
Chafing at military discipline, a group of
soldiers/sailors take unauthorized leave to sample the pleasures of a nearby
port. They must elude the guard, enjoy themselves in town without causing a
hue and cry and attracting the attention of the provost-marshals or local
authorities, then return before their absence is noticed.

Discover evidence of important supplies being stolen from the

army's baggage train. Find out who is responsible and stop
them.
An entire detachment of native, mercenary or disaffected
troops deserts, setting up a local tyranny and committing atrocities. Locate
their base and eradicate them, killing or capturing all of
them.
Protect an important person from assassination and
kidnapping attempts. Identify the enemy agents who are trying to sabotage
this mission and deal with them.
Organize a fighting withdrawal
through hostile territory (e.g. to Corunna or from
Moscow).
Participate in a "Forlorn Hope" assault on a fortress.
Then hold the stronghold against recapture.
Capture a Napoleonic
Eagle or the equivalent British battalion standards (the King's Color and
the Regimental Color) in battle. As soldiers rally to these ensigns, the
fighting will be most severe around them.
Rescue prisoners from
the enemy. Alternatively escape after being captured.
Conquer a
Caribbean island from its colonial masters. Suppress a slave rebellion or
prevent disgruntled privateer crews from overthrowing the existing or new
regime.
An upsurge in successful privateering or piracy threatens
the safety of homeward convoys. Find and destroy them before any further
ships are lost. Twist one: Catch the pirates in the very act of taking a
merchantmen. They threaten to kill their prisoners unless they are allowed
to escape. Twist two: the privateers know too much about the convoy
schedules -- who is helping them? Twist three: the merchantmen are
being lost in home waters -- a gang of smugglers have become "wreckers"
luring the ships to destruction on the rocky coasts with false
lights.
Organize and protect a convoy either to or from home
waters, surviving bad weather, stubborn and incompetent merchant captains,
and the inevitable attempts of privateers to pick off stragglers. For added
spice, GMs may make the convoy unusual -- the Atlantic whaling fleet
(for encounters with icebergs and Eskimos) or convict transports heading for
Botany Bay or French Guyana (for the perils of disease, prisoner mutinies,
and attacks by savages in landfalls in the Pacific.)
Ferrying
spies into and refugees out of enemy territory. Betrayed by a double agent,
the landing party must avoid capture at all costs. Their ship will be
identified and driven off with overwhelming force. Denied an easy escape,
the group must find another route home, stealing a ship or finding passage
with smugglers. As a deadly twist, the smugglers break their side of the
bargain and attempt to kill their passengers.
The crew (or a
significant proportion) are planning mutiny. The officers must realize
what's amiss, identify the ringleaders, and take decisive action. If not,
they'll lose the ship and perhaps their lives.
Shipwrecked in
unexplored territory, marooned on a desert island, or set adrift in an open
boat by successful mutineers, the survivors will need courage and skill to
find their way back to civilization (and possibly revenge on those
mutineers!).
Bizarre and contradictory orders, paranoid fantasies,
and excessive punishments for imaginary offenses become commonplace as the
ship's captain succumbs to insanity. Prevent him committing legal murder and
forestall a mutiny by removing him from command without breaching the
Articles of War (and hence court-martial and a death penalty for
 insubordination against a superior officer).
Undertake a "cutting
out" expedition to recover a captured frigate from under the guns of harbor
fortresses, or lead fireships and bomb vessels to destroy a French invasion
flotilla.
Intercept and ravage an enemy convoy. For added spice,
increase the naval escort so that the encounter becomes a battle-royal
between the squadrons, while the treasure fleet attempts to flee in the
confusion.
Discover a plot to rescue Napoleon from his island
prison (of Elba or St Helena) and prevent the conspiracy from succeeding at
any cost in lives and honor.

Hearts of Oak
Naval
campaigns possess the same advantages and disadvantages as their land-based
military cousins. GMs and players who like to explore the whole setting
should exploit the flexibility granted by a fast sailing ship. For example,
in the American War, a British frigate could be blockading the New England
coast one autumn, defending the West Indies from French attack the next
spring, back in England that summer, and then escorting military transports
to Gibraltar to relieve the siege, before sailing onward to India to combat
Admiral Suffren's forces.
Every member of the Royal Navy from the
youngest powder monkey to the most senior admiral is under the discipline of
the Articles of War. This will limit the freedom of action of players, even
those whose characters are officers. PCs who reach the exalted ranks of
master-and-commander and captain have ultimate responsibility for their
ship. In the absence of a superior officer, there are no restrictions on
their behavior save Admiralty displeasure and the risk of mutiny. If the PCs
succeed, no questions will be asked, if they fail, no answer will be
sufficient. Every officer in the navy will remember that Admiral Byng was
court-martialed and shot on his own quarterdeck for "failing to do his
utmost." In the run-up to Trafalgar, the unfortunate Admiral Calder was
court-martialed because his engagement with the Combined Fleet in the Bay of
Biscay was indecisive. Captains can measure the happiness of the crew (and
hence spot the signs of mutiny) by the enthusiasm shown in Sunday services
and the amount of skylarking indulged in. Similarly muttering and fidgeting
during and after a flogging will indicate that the crew believes the
punishment to be unjust or excessive.
Players who like playing the
real underdogs might prefer their characters to join the French or Spanish
navies for an extreme challenge. In addition to facing superior British
seamanship, gunnery and numbers, mariners will have to cope with
inexperienced crews, incompetent fellow officers, and the rapid promotion of
undeserving compatriots simply on the basis of their purer noble lineage.
Once the Revolution begins, French naval officers with royalist sympathies
will have to take great care to avoid denunciation.
Royal Navy
officers are extremely unlikely to refuse an appointment -- even in
war, there are always fewer ships than officers. Captains who are sitting
MPs may request service in home waters to be available for important
Parliamentary business. A naval posting to the Caribbean is not too
unhealthy -- ships will usually be on patrol during the fever
season.
Seniority is all-important in navies of the period. Characters
of the same military rank will be ordered into seniority by date of
commission, so making every PC an officer will not remove the obligation of
subordinate PCs to obey their superiors. However the fictional conventions
allow for protagonists of varying ranks to share the limelight --
simultaneously this permits GMs to create parties with varied strengths. For
example in addition to the traditional captain and loyal first lieutenant
pairing, Marine officers, surgeons, sailing masters, and other warrant
officers are all suitable candidates for PCs. Access to the lower deck can
be achieved through the crucial position of captain's coxswain, while other
seamen can attach themselves to particular officers. The press-gang is no
respecter of nationality or occupation -- players should feel free to
create diverse backgrounds for their pressed characters.
GMs should
seriously consider starting characters at the lower naval ranks such as
lieutenants, midshipmen, and warrant officers' mates, both to allow the
players to grow into positions of responsibility and to provide the GM with
the widest range of possible scenarios. Officers should advance slowly
-- Richard Woodman kept his hero Nathaniel Drinkwater in the junior
ranks for years (and hence commanding unrated ships), making his secret
service career feasible. Alexander Kent gave his Richard Bolitho a more
conventional career as an exceptional ship and fleet commander --
Bolitho was a captain by 1783, but reached flag rank only in 1800 (through
the normal process of promotion by seniority). Seafarers will experience the
greatest breadth of action whilst commanding frigates or smaller ships.
Ships-of-the-line necessitate a change in campaign focus.

Privateers
and Pirates
Players seeking seaborne action with greater freedom of
action, less discipline, and increased diversity of character types may wish
to consider privateering and/or piracy campaigns. Naval officers involved in
financial scandals or duels (such as Cochrane and the fictional heroes Jack
Aubrey and Harry Ludlow) may find a new career as privateers.
Pirates
still proliferate in the South China Sea and among the Barbary States of
North Africa. The increased naval presence in colonial waters and hence the
likelihood of being captured and hung for piracy dissuades nearly all
Europeans from becoming freebooters. Instead civilians await a war and then
approach their home or colonial government to solicit "Letters of Marque and
Reprisal," licensing them to attack enemy ships until the end of the war as
"privateers." If captured, a privateer produces his letters of marque as a
legal defense against prosecution as a pirate.
Privateer ships come in
two flavors. Armed merchantmen employ their privateer status mostly as an
exemption from sailing in convoy, enabling them to deliver their cargoes
faster, and occasionally diverting to seize smaller enemy ships. Real
privateers use custom-built schooners and converted slaving vessels, heavily
armed and manned (for gun crews, boarding parties, and prize crews).
Privateers are most successful when their own nation is losing because the
fleet is busy defending home waters and naval frigates are too busy guarding
convoys.
Privateering campaigns should start with the budding
privateers finding someone with enough cash to purchase and fit out a
suitable vessel. Obtaining the Letters of Marque, agreeing a suitable
division of prize money between owners, government, and crew, recruiting and
training crews, etc., will be initial tasks for the PCs. Getting to sea
might involve running a British blockade. Thereafter privateers will spend
their time afloat hunting the sea lanes for prizes, and their time ashore
networking with colonial governors, merchants, and criminals to glean
information as to the likely movements of enemy vessels. For maximum profit,
commerce raiders should locate and harry convoys, cutting out stragglers and
pouncing on ships dispersed by storms, before escaping from vengeful
frigates. Attacking naval ships is heroic, stupid, and unprofitable. British
privateers should avoid the Royal Navy -- they don't like any
privateers and they will attempt to press crewmembers regardless of their
exemptions!

Traders, Slavers, and Smugglers

The opportunities
for merchant adventurers to become outrageously wealthy are many, especially
in maritime commerce. The truly successful may become financiers and
bankers, offering loans to governments and other entrepreneurs. However
repeated failures will lead to spiraling debts and bankruptcy. Fleeing the
country is often the only way of escaping the creditors and prolonged
incarceration in a debtors' prison.
Seagoing merchant PCs who prefer
their independence will ply the West Indian and Baltic trade routes.
Contrary winds prolonging voyages by several months, storms, spoiled stores
and cargoes, and petulant passengers will enliven peacetime commerce. War
will bring the threat of privateers and hostile navies, the necessity of
traveling in convoys, and frequent attempts by the Royal Navy to press crews
at sea and as soon as the ship reaches port.
The trade with India is
the preserve of the Honourable East India Company. Merchant adventurers
should be careful which rumors they believe when selecting their private
cargoes in England to ship outward to India -- it is easy to glut the
market and lose rather than gain a fortune! In India itself, everyone from
the lowliest clerk to the governor's council is trying to amass personal
wealth. Adventurers must keep their wits about them to prosper despite the
corruption, the intrigue, and shrewd local traders. As they rise in the
Company hierarchy, officials may be sent to collect taxes, administer
justice, and negotiate with native princes. Martially-inclined characters
will gravitate to the Bombay Marine (the Company's private navy) or officer
positions in its Sepoy land forces during the Company's wars with Indian
rulers and their French allies. At $2,500 per share, few PCs will be able to
afford significant stockholdings in the Company itself.
More ruthless
players might consider a stint in the slave trade. Slaving is not a career
for the compassionate or sickly. Slaving expeditions will involve purchasing
supplies of trade goods such as muskets, gunpowder, brandy, wines, textiles,
etc., in the home nation, sailing to West Africa, and then braving disease
and native betrayals to buy a consignment of slaves. Assuming the slavers
can avoid the depredations of privateers en route and being defrauded by
colonial planters, each healthy slave can be sold for some $400.
The
"Trade," as smuggling was known in England, prevailed wherever duties were
excessive on foreign goods. Smugglers operated in the English Channel, the
Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. When war, blockades and the Continental
System prohibited outright the import of certain goods, smugglers worked
harder and became richer. During the wars, English smugglers met French
counterparts mid-Channel to transfer cargoes and passengers (such as spies,
royalists, and rebels). Smugglers use swift under-armed schooners as
discretion is the only part of valor. Illicit cargoes can be towed under the
keel. If pursued by a Revenue cutter, smugglers will frequently sink the
cargo in shallow waters and retrieve it later when the excise officials are
safely elsewhere. Being caught in the possession of contraband goods can
spell the end for these traders. On land, the struggle between smugglers and
the Revenue service will involve organizing gangs, preparing safe houses,
cultivating friends in high places, ferreting out informers, corrupting
excise officials, and so on. The penalty for informing on a smuggler gang is
death using gruesome methods such as burying a bound and gagged victim alive
on a beach when the tide is out.
For prolonged mercantile campaigns,
GMs should encourage players to move among the vocations of law-abiding
merchant, smuggler, and perhaps slaver or privateer to prevent the game
stagnating.

Other Campaigns and Crossovers

GURPS Swashbucklers

In a sense, GURPS Age

of Napoleon is a continuation of GURPS Swashbucklers, describing
the later swashbuckling era in greater detail. GMs and players needing rules
and information on fencing techniques in the eighteenth century or on the
mechanics of sailing and ship-to-ship combat should consult GURPS
Swashbucklers.

Pioneer Campaigns and GURPS Old West

Players with a taste for the Western genre could play

pioneers on the American frontier. Settlers will have to build and maintain
their plantations against the depredations of hostile Native Americans,
dishonest traders, and the agents of other colonial powers. The relative
proximity of the "West" to the long established colonies will prevent
frontiersmen from ignoring the simmering discontent which will lead to the
American Revolution -- pioneers will have to choose between the Patriot
and Loyalist causes and suffer the consequences. GMs should consult
GURPS Old West for more information on western-genre games and
Native Americans.

The Undiscovered Country

PCs can take
advantage of government imperialism to get involved with land and sea
expeditions to distant lands. Naval expeditions seek Terra Australis but
find Australia, New Zealand and uncounted Pacific atolls. Explorers might
stray further south than Captain Cook and discover the frozen wastes of
Antarctica. Alternatively the Admiralty might send them to discover the
North West Passage (the sea route from the Pacific to the Atlantic over
North America).
The Association for the Discovery of the Interior
Parts of Africa, a club of wealthy Englishmen motivated by scientific and
humanitarian interests, will fund expeditions into unknown Africa. Europeans
disguised as Arabs were able to travel through Muslim North Africa to reach
the cities of Gondar (in Ethiopia) and Sennar (in Funj on the Blue Nile).
Mungo Park took a more direct route during his 1795-7 explorations of the
Niger river. (See the upcoming GURPS African Kingdoms for more
information on the native nations.)
Expeditions involve getting
there, seeing the sights, and getting back home, preferably alive! Long sea
voyages are prone to outbreaks of scurvy and mutiny; land-based treks may
require caution and diplomacy for the travelers to pass through hostile
nations to reach the limits of the known world. New lands will have to be
charted or mapped, definitely named, and if the natives seem sufficiently
primitive, claimed for the home country. Flora, fauna, and natural resources
must be investigated. Encounters with natives may be peaceful or violent
-- one day the explorers may be treated as gods, the next as devils.
Rival expeditions may encourage healthy competition, unlikely alliances, or
ruthless sabotage. Ammunition and guns must be conserved against real need.
Depleted stores, stiff native opposition, or even successful discoveries
will signal time to leave. Time, however, marches on -- the explorers
may escape the frying pan of the cannibals only to find themselves in the
fire -- this time of a war.
GMs may introduce elements of the
fantastic -- unnatural beings, lost civilizations, monsters on land and
at sea are all possible. How much effect three broadsides every two minutes
will have on eldritch horrors and sunken cities rising from the sea when the
stars are right is a different matter.

Science, GURPS High-Tech, and GURPS Steampunk

Science is respectable
in civilized Europe. Scientists consider themselves to be members of the
international "Republic of Science." PCs should join learned societies and
seek entry to the prestigious academies. Discoveries and theories will gain
them recognition and influence. The government may appoint them to
commissions to solve questions of national importance or disprove the wild
claims of pseudosciences such as mesmerism. Innovators will have to contend
with bureaucracy, corruption, superstition and traditionalism. The Luddites
will provide violent opposition. Inventors determined to establish the
military value of submarines, hot-air balloons, or Sir William Congreve's
rockets may find themselves required to put up or shut up in a real battle!
GURPS High-Tech will prove useful for realistic games in this
vein.
Greater divergence is possible leading to alternate
histories. Perhaps the pseudosciences such as mesmerism and phrenology
(studying the skull contours reveals the traits and abilities of the
individual) actually work. Perhaps the military trials of Fulton's
innovations are successful or the Admiralty decides to utilize Lord
Cochrane's chemical weapons. Hot-air balloons evolve into early dirigibles,
fleets of submarines cruise the sea lanes, steam-powered engines tunnel
underneath the English Channel, and clouds of poison gas add an extra horror
to Napoleonic battlefields. GURPS Steampunk provides suggestions for
unusual scientific revolutions -- GMs should be careful not to go
overboard with the weird technology as this is still only the dawn of the
Age of Steam.

GURPS Horror, GURPS Undead, and GURPS Voodoo

Belief in magic and omens is common in rural

areas. The touch of a hanged man or a noose traditionally cures illnesses. A
suspected witch was drowned in 1780; two years later the last witch was
burned. Vampires and werewolves are considered real terrors. African rituals
follow the slave trade to Haiti, merge with Christianity, and become voodoo
practices.
Tim Burton's movie "Sleepy Hollow" (adapted from The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow) is an idiosyncratic vision of a
post-Revolutionary New England where magic and witches are real, if rare.
Tom Holland's The Vampyre tells the tale of how Byron became an
immortal vampire during his sojourn in Greece. Period Gothic horror novels
such as The Monk and Mysteries of Udolpho will also supply
useful inspiration.
Fending off Arab raiders and enduring killing
heat and deadly plagues, a mixed group of soldiers and scientists might try
some early excavations in Egypt. Instead of finding the expected historical
artifacts and treasures, they free an ancient evil. See the movie The
Mummy for a twentieth-century romp on these lines.

GURPS Castle Falkenstein

For a really wild game, GMs might wish to

consider combining GURPS Age of Napoleon with GURPS Castle
Falkenstein in order to retell the history of New Europa in the
eighteenth century long before the Second Compact. The events of the real
Europe and New Europa are broadly the same -- both have an American
Revolution, a French Revolution, and the Revolutionary-Napoleonic Wars. GMs
using the material in this book should remember that the colonial powers
were less successful in New Europa and adapt historical events accordingly.
For instance, Native American shamans may attack both sides in the American
Revolution. The Inner Sea will stretch the resources of the Royal Navy even
more thinly in the continental blockades. Magic will be used in battles on
land and at sea by all sides -- sharpshooters will target wizards
first, then officers. GMs must also decide which sides Auberon and the
Adversary are supporting in this era's conflicts. Was the French Revolution
intended by Auberon to peacefully reform and modernize France? How did the
Adversary warp its ideals to create the Terror? Is Napoleon the tool of the
Seelie or the Unseelie Court? Or is he simply a Corsican adventurer who has
seized his opportunity to achieve his own destiny by playing one Faerie Lord
off against the other?
Spies and Spymasters

Players and GMs who prefer espionage games will be spoilt for choice
in this period. Every nation has its spies; some also have secret police.
Each network gathers information on the political, diplomatic and military
intentions of foreign states while hampering the efforts of rival agencies.
Secret police agents also monitor and sometimes suppress internal
dissidents.
Spies may be involved in all aspects of espionage:
intelligence-gathering, counter-intelligence, recruitment, and special
operations.
Intelligence-gathering is the foundation of all
espionage. Missions may range from simple observation of troop deployment
and naval readiness through interception of couriers and dispatches to
infiltrating foreign governments. It has been suggested that Casanova's
travels and amatory adventures around Europe concealed a more furtive real
career. British agents in the household of Tsar Alexander discovered and
reported the secret articles of the Treaty of Tilsit almost immediately,
enabling the British to forestall Napoleon's hopes of attaining naval
superiority using the Danish fleet.
Counter-intelligence is the
process of capturing and/or misinforming enemy agents. The British secret
service searched for Jacobin and pro-French sympathizers in the
corresponding societies of the 1790s. Fouché ordered the surveillance
of hundreds of suspected and known Jacobins, royalists, and other enemies of
the regime.
Recruitment concerns the selection of new agents, by
blackmail, bribery, and occasionally appeals to (misplaced) ideals. New
recruits may be double agents, of course. Informers reporting to the British
in Dublin Castle virtually paralyzed the Society of United Irishmen. From
Basel, the spymaster William Wickham orchestrated royalist resistance and
espionage missions against Napoleon.
Special operations is a catch-all
for everything else. For instance, American agents planned to kidnap Prince
William Henry (later King William IV) during a planned visit to New York and
hold him to political ransom -- British counterintelligence discovered
the plot and increased security, deterring the conspirators. The duelist and
rake Baron Camelford (a cousin of William Pitt the Younger) was suspected of
being involved in attempts to assassinate Napoleon -- Camelford himself
died mysteriously in a duel. In Spain, the adventurer Domingo Badia Leblicht
proposed a convoluted and audacious plan to Manuel de Godoy. This involved
Leblicht disguising himself as the Prophet's descendant and befriending the
Sultan at Mecca, whereupon he would persuade the rebel factions to oust the
Sultan, ceding Moroccan territories to Spain in return for Spanish
assistance. Had it worked, the scheme would have weakened the threat of the
Barbary States and made Gibraltar potentially untenable. Carlos IV vetoed
the project.
PCs should be warned that the penalty for espionage is
death by firing squad.
The Affair of The Diamond
Necklace
The Diamond Necklace Affair is proof that truth is
stranger than fiction. It reads like a Dumas plot, yet it happened and
brought Marie-Antoinette and the French monarchy into disrepute. GMs may
wish to use it as a model for courtly intrigue.
The adventuress
Jeanne de La Motte, a self-styled countess and descendant of the Valois
kings, had conned her way into Versailles. She met the wealthy Cardinal de
Rohan, who was desirous of regaining Marie Antoinette's favor (she had
rejected an amorous advance from him years previously), and persuaded de
Rohan that she could achieve this. He gave her money periodically,
ostensibly for charitable works.
La Motte staged a nocturnal
meeting in August 1784 between de Rohan and Nicole Le Guay, a
milliner-prostitute disguised as the queen, who handed the Cardinal a single
rose. He gave La Motte more money, and was persuaded that Marie Antoinette
wanted to purchase a diamond necklace (valued at $640,000) from the jewelers
Boehmer and Bassenge. (Marie Antoinette on her mother's advice had
previously refused to buy the jewelry.) Convinced by a forged letter
apparently from Marie Antoinette and the influence of the charlatan
Cagliostro, whose claims of communion with the gods of the Nile and the
Euphrates had made him the Cardinal's personal prophet, the Cardinal used
his credit to buy the necklace, yielding it to "the Queen's courier" in
January 1785. This courier was actually La Motte's lover and proceeded to
break the stones up for fencing around Paris and later London.
La
Motte bought a sizeable estate, the Cardinal waited on the Queen's favor and
first installment, and the jewelers fretted about their own creditors. In
July, Boehmer gave Marie Antoinette a note referring to the diamonds, but
she assumed this was another ploy to persuade her to buy them and burned the
note. De Rohan stalled Boehmer and Bassenge. Bizarrely La Motte went
directly to them and revealed that they had been cheated. The jewelers
sought the Queen on August 5th, and an enraged Louis XVI summoned de Rohan
ten days later.
De Rohan admitted he had been fooled, but
beseeched Louis XVI to conceal the scandal. Instead Louis XVI arrested him
and imprisoned him in an extremely comfortable apartment in the Bastille.
The conspirators were found, arrested, and more harshly jailed. Tried before
the parlement of Paris, the Cardinal and most of the plotters were
acquitted. De Rohan was nevertheless stripped of his ecclesiastical rank and
sent into monastic exile. La Motte was publicly flogged, branded and
imprisoned for life in 1786. Escaping from the Salp<\#144>trière
prison two years later, she published libelous memoirs concerning
Marie-Antoinette from safety in England. Though innocent in the affair,
Marie-Antoinette's reputation was ruined.
Louis XVI was
periodically blackmailed by adventurers threatening to libel the monarchy.
Sometimes he employed agents to track down and acquire the manuscripts.
Truly audacious rogues invented scandalmongers and received royal funding to
gallivant around Europe in hot pursuit of the imaginary writers!
Politicians, Rebels and Reactionaries
GMs and players
with a taste for Machiavellian maneuvering and pure roleplaying should
consider a political campaign where PCs jockey for social status in the
salons, coffee houses, and gaming clubs of Europe and seek influence in
government or at court. Male Russian characters might even try to become
Catherine the Great's next lover!
In England, politicians may seek
careers in Parliament, bribing the voters of rotten boroughs to secure their
election, acquiring sinecures, promoting and defeating legislation. Social
engagements, romantic interludes, diplomatic missions (probably combined
with some espionage), and postings overseas to govern colonies will provide
a change of pace. A particularly successful group might even be invited by
the King to form the next ministry.
In France, politicos may seek
election to the Estates General and attempt to direct the course of the
Revolution. Early commitments to the wrong faction, royalist connections, or
ill-chosen enemies may prove their later undoing. As the Terror gathers
pace, politicians must choose either to support Robespierre, to flee into
exile, or to plot his downfall. If they survive the Terror and the
Thermidorian reaction, skilled manipulators will seize the opportunity to
become ministers for the Directory, perhaps becoming Directors themselves.
Ministers must counter the machinations of Talleyrand and Sieyès and
protect themselves against Jacobin and royalist conspiracies; alternatively
opposition politicians may work to overthrow the Directory in favor of a
stronger government headed by an obscure general. Characters during the
Consulate and Empire may follow administrative and diplomatic careers
imposing Napoleon's will on conquered Europe and cowed neighboring states.
The farsighted may choose to play a double game betraying the Empire to the
Allies.
In some situations and to some people, political solutions
appear impossible. PCs, disillusioned with British intransigence, might
therefore find themselves responsible for organizing the American
Revolution. Initial tasks might involve forming local cells of the "Sons of
Liberty" to oppose the Stamp and Townshend Acts, producing and distributing
subversive literature, and provoking and instigating events such as the
Boston Massacre. Other activities are likely to include securing support
from influential individuals across the colonies and overseas, gun-running,
training the nascent militias, and spying on Loyalists and the British.
After Lexington and Concord, the campaign moves to a more military
emphasis.
Similar styles of campaign can be run in France (after the
Revolution), occupied Spain (during the Peninsular War), and Ireland. French
Royalists can alternately conspire against the Republic and Napoleon or
resort to open revolt in the Vendée. In Spain, insurgents can conduct
guerrilla warfare against the French and their Spanish allies. The best-laid
plans of conspirators often go astray, however: the United Irishmen intended
to signal the start of an all-Ireland rebellion in 1798 by stopping all four
mail coaches leaving Dublin -- only one was stopped and the revolt was
piecemeal. Georges Cadoudal's "Opera Plot" failed to kill Napoleon by a
matter of seconds in 1804.
Throughout Europe in the early nineteenth
century, secret societies such as the Philadelphes (France),
Tugenbund (Germany), and Adelfi (Italy) proliferated with the
first "professional" revolutionaries such as Filippo Buonarroti appearing.
Buonarroti was a noble Tuscan lawyer who became a Freemason, an enthusiast
for the French Revolution and a Jacobin. He plotted against the Directory
and Napoleon, and was an inveterate pamphleteer. By the 1820s, members of
his organization were established across the continent.

Scarlet Pimpernels
"We seek him here,
We seek
him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in Heaven?
Is he in
Hell?
That dammed elusive Pimpernel."
-- The Scarlet
Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy.
Sir Percy Blakeney, alias the
Scarlet Pimpernel, is Baroness Orczy's most famous creation. Reputedly the
Pimpernel was partially modeled on Baron Jean de Batz, a wealthy Royalist
adventurer who tried and failed to save both Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.
In the case of Louis, de Batz and four followers tried to force their way
through the crowds to rescue the king while en route to his execution
-- his companions were cut down, but de Batz escaped. Finding greater
success by corrupting influential revolutionaries, de Batz bribed the entire
staff of the Conciergerie prison in preparation for ensuring Marie
Antoinette's escape. She refused to leave her children behind, the
suspicions of outsiders were aroused, and the rescue aborted.
The
fictional Scarlet Pimpernel is a rich English baronet, the height of fashion
but seemingly lacking in real intelligence. In fact, Blakeney is a master of
disguise and dissimulation. His secretive League of the Scarlet Pimpernel
has twenty members dedicated to rescuing French aristocrats from the
guillotine. Abetted by French sympathizers, the League breaks royalists out
of prisons, disguises them (as soldiers, plague victims, etc.), and spirits
them from Paris to a coastal rendezvous with a fast ship bound for England.
As a final mocking insult, the League leaves a calling card inscribed with
the drawing of a scarlet pimpernel. Naturally the Revolutionary government
is determined to unmask and eliminate the Pimpernel . . .

Pawns of the Secret Masters

It was an age of secret
societies and conspiracies. Rulers feared a conspiracy of the powerful above
all other dangers. Revolts by the ordinary people could always be
suppressed; the great nobles and magnates could topple thrones. In the early
days of the French Revolution, the shadowy Committee of Thirty met in the
Palais Royal, the Parisian residence of the Duc d'Orléans, who later
styled himself Philippe-Egalité. Its membership included Mirabeau,
Talleyrand, Lafayette, and Sieyes. The writers Laclos and Beaumarchais
served as propagandists for the Orleanist faction. The extent of the
Committee of Thirty's influence on the Revolution is unknown; in an
Illuminated campaign, it could be substantial. An Illuminated Comte de
Saint-Germain might be directing resistance to the Revolution after faking
his own death in 1784.
Freemasonry had spread even as far east as
Poland and Russia as well as west to the American colonies. Its claims to
embrace all orders of society and all religions were frequently exaggerated
by its supporters. Its unity was spurious with factionalism and power
struggles rampant among the different forms and lodges. No overarching
ruling body had yet appeared to prevent schism. As Freemasonry migrated into
Germany and Russia, it acquired mystical overtones in "The Strict
Observance" (as opposed to the "Lax Observance"). Strict Observance
Freemasons claimed to have adopted surviving traditions from the Knights
Templar. By the 1780s, Freemasons were under police surveillance in the
Habsburg territories.
The Rosicrucians were (apparently) founded in
1755. Their leadership (centered in Berlin) claimed to have gained
supernatural and/or magical powers, and practiced astrology, cabalism, and
sorcery. Frederick William II of Prussia became a member of the society.
Attempts were made to recruit Grand Duke Paul (later Tsar Paul I), but all
such societies were restricted in Russia by Catherine the Great in the
1790s.
The Bavarian Illuminati were (supposedly) founded by Adam
Weishaupt in 1776, and quickly gained a reputation for mysticism, sorcery,
and exotic rituals. By 1785, they had been banned in
Bavaria.
Illuminated campaigns could focus on how these seemingly new
societies gained their arcane traditions. Are their founders actually Secret
Masters from existing orders creating alternate power bases? Are the new
orders simply covers for existing conspiracies? Have the new societies
merely inherited their powers from seemingly unaided discoveries, and if so,
is this Knowledge That Was Not Meant For Them To Know? What is the price for
this knowledge, when will it be paid, and to whom or to what? Conceivably
initiated PCs might reach such positions of power in these "new" secret
societies to be able to create their agendas and set in motion the global
conspiracies of the future ...

Time
Travelers
Napoleon saved the French Revolution with his "whiff" of
grapeshot and France from factionalism with his coup d'état. The
Napoleonic myth inspired the Latin American rebellions against colonial rule
and secured a Second Empire for his nephew, Napoleon III. The Napoleonic
Wars crystallized national identity in Europe, sowing the seeds for lasting
German and Italian unification, with disastrous consequences in the
twentieth century. Napoleon is a natural target for meddling time travelers
intent on altering the course of history. Here are some critical junctures
with suggestions as to their consequences:
The Buonaparte family
declined the opportunity to follow Pasquale Paoli into exile. Had they
relocated to England, Napoleon's sympathies would not have lain with France.
Likely he would have lived and died in impoverished obscurity.

Napoleon applied in 1783 to the British Admiralty for a

cadetship, but his application was ignored. As an officer of the Royal Navy,
he might have brought Corsica permanently into the British Empire. If his
loyalty proved weak, he might return to France but with an understanding of
sea warfare sufficient to alter the outcome of the naval
conflict.
On St Helena, Napoleon regretted not leading an
expedition against Ireland. Even a small force would have been sufficient to
demolish British resistance. The United Irishmen would have persuaded
thousands of volunteers to join the French, creating an "Irish ulcer" for
Britain. Blockade and attempts at reconquest would bleed Britain dry and
divert its government from colonial adventures (thus reducing the future
empire in size). Ireland would also provide the French with a staging ground
to invade the vulnerable western coasts of Britain.
Napoleon was
nearly captured twice during his Egyptian expedition to Egypt. En route to
Egypt, the English and French fleets passed each other unawares. He eluded
the blockading squadrons on his return journey. Interception would have
(temporarily) ended his career and perhaps his life. Another more biddable
general would have assisted Sieyès in his overthrow of the
Directory.
A more subtle change might be effected by reinforcing
the balconies of Malmaison. One such balcony collapsed under Josephine
rendering her infertile from internal injuries. Preventing this accident and
encouraging the birth of a heir without recourse to divorce and remarriage
would establish the dynasty without encumbering Napoleon with unreliable
allies.
A qualified victory at Austerlitz (perhaps by an early
Russian arrival at Ulm, Prussia attacking the empire's flanks, or Kutuzov
refusing battle in order to draw the French deeper into hostile territory)
might have curbed Napoleon's ambition and made him willing to accede to
Talleyrand's Austrian alliance and concomitant balance of power in
Europe.
Likewise adherence to the Tilsit treaty would have
preserved his throne and left Napoleon master of Europe. After a couple of
purely defensive wars to reinforce the empire's stability, Napoleon would
find Tsar Alexander amenable to resurrecting their plan to attack India
jointly via Persia, fulfilling Napoleon's dreams of emulating Alexander the
Great.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
The following are the sources
favored by the author of this
work:

Non-Fiction

History

Blake, Nicholas, and

Lawrence, Richard. The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's
Navy.
Briggs, Asa. How They Lived : Volume III.
Bryant,
Sir Arthur. The Years of Endurance 1793-1802.
Bryant, Sir
Arthur. The Years of Victory 1802-1812.
Bryant, Sir Arthur.
The Age of Elegance 1812-1822.
Churchill, Winston S. A
History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume 3 -- The Age of
Revolution.
Encyclopedia Britannica.
Esdaile, Charles
J. The Wars of Napoleon.
Ford, Franklin L. A General History
of Europe : Europe 1780-1830.
Fregosi, Paul. Dreams of Empire :
Napoleon and the First World War, 1792-1815.
Goodwin, A. The
French Revolution.
Hampson, Norman. A Social History of the
French Revolution.
Hart, Roger. English Life in the Eighteenth
Century.
Haythornthwaite, Philip J. The Armies of
Wellington.
Haythornthwaite, Philip J. Who Was Who in the
Napoleonic Wars.
Hibbert, Christopher. Redcoats and Rebels: The
War for America, 1770-1781.
Hibbert, Christopher. The French
Revolution.
Horne, Alistair. How Far from Austerlitz : Napoleon
1805 -- 1815.
Kincaid, Dennis. British Social Life in
India, 1608-1937.
Knox, Oliver. Rebels and Informers : Stirrings
of Irish Independence.
Lewis, Gwynne. Life in Revolutionary
France.
Marcus,G.J. Heart of Oak.
Pivka, Otto von.
Armies of the Napoleonic Era.
Pivka, Otto von. Navies of the
Napoleonic Era.
Pocock, Tom. Battle for Empire: the very first
world war 1756-63.
Pope, Dudley. Life in Nelson's
Navy.
Pope, Steve. Hornblower's Navy: Life at sea in the Age of
Nelson.
Rothenberg, Gunther. The Napoleonic
Wars.
Rudé, George. Europe in the Eighteenth Century :
Aristocracy and the Bourgeois Challenge.
Rudé, George. The
French Revolution.
Schama, Simon.Citizens : A Chronicle of the
French Revolution.
Schama, Simon. Patriots and Liberators :
Revolution in the Netherlands 1780-1813.
Schom, Alan. Trafalgar:
Countdown to Battle 1803-1805.
Sydenham, M.J. The First French
Republic 1792-1804.
Sydenham, M.J. The French
Revolution.
Taylor, Dale. The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in
Colonial America.
Woodman, Richard. The History of The
Ship.

Biographies

Aldridge, Alfred. Man of Reason (The

Life of Thomas Paine).
Andrist, Ralph K. ed. George Washington A
Biography in His Own Words.
Bradford, Ernie. Nelson: The
Essential Hero.
Cavaliero, Roderick. Admiral Satan : The Life
and Campaigns of Suffren.
Clarke, John. The Life and Times of
George III.
Cooper, Duff. Talleyrand.
Cronin, Vincent.
Napoleon.
Derry, John W. William Pitt.
Donovan,
Arthur. Antoine Lavoisier, Science, Administration, and
Revolution.
Forssell, Nils. Fouché, The Man Napoleon
Feared.
Grimsley, Donald. Jean-Jacques
Rousseau.
Hampson, Norman. Danton.
Haslip, Joan.
Catherine the Great.
Haslip, Joan. Marie
Antoinette.
Hibbert, Christopher. Wellington, A Personal
History.
Hilt, Douglas. The Troubled Trinity: Godoy and the
Spanish Monarchs.
Kirk, Russell. Edmund Burke, A Genius
Reconsidered.
Macdonell, A.G. Napoleon and his
Marshals.
Padover, Saul K. The Life and Death of Louis
XVI.
Palmer, Alan. The Life and Times of George
IV.
Pocock, Tom. A Thirst For Glory : The Life of Admiral Sir
Sidney Smith.
Pocock, Tom. Horatio Nelson.
Roberts,
Warren. Jacques-Louis David, Revolutionary Artist.
Sharma, H.D.
The Real Tipu.
Strawson, John. The Duke and The Emperor :
Wellington and Napoleon.
Thomas, Donald. Cochrane : Britannia's
Last Sea-King.
Thompson, J.M. Robespierre.
Whiteley,
Peter. Lord North : The Prime Minister Who Lost
America.

National Histories

Andersson, Ingvar. A History

of Sweden.
Bardon, Jonathan. A History of
Ulster.
Birmingham, David. A Concise History of
Portugal.
Boxer, C.R. The Portuguese seaborne empire,
1415-1825.
Claypole, William, and Robottom, John. Caribbean
Story, Book One Foundations.
Din, Gilbert C. The Spanish
presence in Louisiana, 1763-1803.
Di Scala, Spencer M. Italy :
from Revolution to Republic.
FitzGibbon, Constantine. The Irish
in Ireland.
Halecki, Oscar. A History of
Poland.
Halliday, F.E. England : A Concise
History.
Hibbert, Christopher. The English: A Social History
1066-1945.
Ingrao, Charles. The Habsburg Monarchy
1618-1815.
Jelavich, Barbara. History of the Balkans --
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
Jenkins, Philip. A History
of the United States.
Jones, Gareth Elwyn. Modern Wales: a
concise history c.1485-1979.
Kamen, Henry. A Concise History of
Spain.
Kitchen, Martin. Cambridge Illustrated History of
Germany.
Kochan, Miriam. Life in Russia under Catherine the
Great.
Libaek, Ivar, and Stenersen, Olivind. History of
Norway.
Maclean, Fitzroy. Scotland: a concise
history.
McNaught, Kenneth. The Pelican history of
Canada.
Oakley, Stewart. The Story of Denmark.
Oliver,
Roland, and Fage, J.D. A Short History of Africa.
Omond, G.W.T.
Belgium and Luxembourg.
Parry, J.H., and Sherlock, P.M. A
Short History of the West Indies.
J.H. Parry. The Spanish
Seaborne Empire.
Procacci, Giuliano. History of the Italian
People.
Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire,
1700-1922.
Wolpert, Stanley. A New History of
India.

Fiction
Connery, Tom. Markham of the Marines
series (A Shred of Honour, etc., disgraced Army officer tries to
restore his carreer by transferring to the Marines during Revolutionary
Wars).
Cornwell, Bernard. Richard Sharpe series (trilogy
beginning with Sharpe's Tiger details the wars against Tipu Sultan and
the Marathas, main sequence beginning with Sharpe's Rifles covers the
exploits of this private turned officer in the Peninsular War. A must
read).
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. (It was the best
of times, it was the worst of times. 1790s England and
France.)
Donachie, David. Harry Ludlow series (The Devil's
Own Luck etc., combines privateering and solving mysteries.)
Doyle,
Sir Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard (the
misadventures of a French cavalry officer in Napoleon's
armies).
Forester, C.S. Horatio Hornblower series (from Mr
Midshipman Hornblower onward, the classic naval hero of the Napoleonic
era).
Howard, Richard. Alain Lausard series (beginning with
Bonaparte's Sons, Lausard is a former aristocrat and officer
conscripted into the ranks of Napoleon's armies).
Kent, Alexander.
Richard Bolitho series (Midshipman Bolitho, etc., action at sea
from 1768 to 1815 with the scion of a Cornish naval family).
Kurtz,
Katharine. Two Crowns for America (a secret history of the American
Revolution).
Mallison, Allan. A Close Run Thing (experiences of
young Cornet Hervey at Waterloo, sequels deal with post-Waterloo
watershed).
Marryat, Frederick. Mr Midshipman Easy (best-known
of Captain Marryat's sea yarns -- based on his real experiences during
the Napoleonic Wars under Cochrane).
Meacham, Ellis K. Percival
Merewether trilogy (action with the Bombay Marine, beginning in The
East Indiaman).
O'Brian, Patrick. Jack Aubrey-Stephen Maturin
saga (Master and Commander, etc., probably the finest sea series in
terms of historical literature -- combines naval action with espionage.
A must read).
Orczy, Baroness. Castles in the Air (misadventures
of a police agent in Restoration France).
Orczy, Baroness. The
Scarlet Pimpernel (saving aristocrats from the guillotine in 1790s
France, the first and best of 13 books).
Parkinson, C. Northcote.
Richard Delancey series (The Guernseyman is set during the
American Revolution, later books cover the wars with
France).
Parkinson, Dan. Patrick Dalton quartet. (beginning in
The Fox and the Faith, Dalton is accused of treason and forced to seek
refuge in America during the American Revolution).
Pope, Dudley.
Lord Nicholas Ramage series (beginning with Ramage, the only son
of the tenth Earl of Blazey, battles his way through the Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars defeating the enemy as well asa Royal Navy admirals
determined to court-martial him).
Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace.
(1800s Russia during the struggle with France).
Woodman, Richard.
Nathaniel Drinkwater series (An Eye of the Fleet, etc., combines
gritty shipboard life and naval action with conspiracy and espionage. A must
read series).
For a comprehensive list of nautical literature of all
eras, visit the following URL:
http://www.boat-links.com/naut-lit.html

Films and
Television
The Hornblower novels have been dramatized as a film
(Captain Horatio Hornblower, RN (1951) which combined several novels
and starred Gregory Peck) and as a television series (with Ioan Gruffudd in
the title role). Many of the Sharpe novels have been adapted for television
(with Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, and Daragh O'Malley as Patrick Harper).
(directed by Ridley Scott 1977) follows the lifelong
enmity between two French officers during the Napoleonic Wars. The
Scarlet Pimpernel has been transformed into film (Anthony Andrews played
Sir Percy in 1982) and television (Richard E Grant as Sir Percy and
Elizabeth McGovern as Lady Blakeney), both versions staying true to the
books. A Tale of Two Cities has been variously adapted. (Carry On
Don't Lose Your Head (1967) is a much more light-hearted look at the
French Revolution.) GMs and players trying to capture the mood of the
American Revolution should watch The Patriot (2000 starring Mel
Gibson).
REVOLUTIONS AND EMPIRES
Welcome to the Age of Napoleon. It is
a time of rebellion and revolution, and of wars that span the entire
world.

GURPS Age of Napoleon contains everything needed for

roleplaying in this exciting era:
• A detailed history of the
period from Napoleon's birth in 1769 to his death in 1821, focusing on the
American War of Independence, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic
Wars.
• Coverage of major events happening away from the main
conflicts.
• Analysis of turning points where the course of
history could have been altered.
• A geographical survey of the
18th century world.
• A Who's Who of the people who shaped the
era.
• Descriptions of the everyday life of aristocrats,
peasants, colonists, and others.
• Details on military life in
the armies and navies of the Great Powers.
• Notes on the arts,
sciences, technology and philosophies of the time.
• Specific
GURPS character creation guidelines.
• Campaign and
scenario suggestions.

Fight for American freedom or a united British

Empire in the American War of Independence. Risk the guillotine to rescue
aristocrats from Robespierre's secret police. Follow Napoleon's Eagles
across Europe and beyond. Sail with Nelson's fleets to death or glory.
Cruise the sea lanes as an independent privateer. Seek untold wealth in the
Indies. Intrigue with spies and rebels to overthrow tyrants and foreign
conquerors.

Experience all of these and more with GURPS Age of

Napoleon.