Austriae est imperare orbi universo - a Habsburg AAR

War of the Third Coalition (Part 2)



The conflict between France and the Germans opened in spectacular fashion as Napoleon effectively crippled the Habsburg Empire in the famed Ulm Campaign. The First Consul, with around 150,000 men, faced over 100,000 Austrians in Southern Württemberg. The Ulm campaign was an incredible series of marches and manoeuvres by the French army that led to one of the largest single surrenders in history as General von Liebereich capitulated without having fought a single major engagement following the envelopment of his army around the town of Ulm. This mass surrender, for negligible French losses, left the way clearly open for Napoleon’s invasion of Bavaria – a major economic heartland of the Habsburg Empire. Following the defeat Emperor Karl II decided to take charge of the Habsburg Army personally.



Meanwhile, General Davout was forced to fight a much bloodier defensive campaign in the Netherlands in which he defeated a larger German army and ended all serious threat of German invasion of French territory. Following his victory he proceeded to invade the Kingdom of Bremen, all the while the Duke, Counts and Ecclesiastical rulers of Germany began to jump ship and pledge their support for the French.

With Germany seemingly lost after just a few months of fighting Emperor Karl decided to try to engage Napoleon head on, hoping that a victory against their leader would demoralise the French and begin their retreat from German soil. By October 1806 Napoleon had finished securing Bavaria and had begun his march towards Vienna. At Wels, near Linz, the Roman Emperor met him in battle. The French had roughly 120,000 men and the Austrians just 85,000.



Napoleon, noticing his numerical superiority and not wanting to risk defeat, attempted to wear the Austrians down by constantly applying pressure to their lines with several charges with his infantry. Once it became apparent that this was not working Napoleon sent some of his troops towards both the right and left flanks of the Austrian army in hopes of thinning their lines and making it easier for him to break them down. However just as this happened the Austrians began to advance forwards, enveloping themselves with the French on three sides. At this point Napoleon seemed to panic as he first gave orders for the troops he had sent to the flanks to withdraw back to the main line and then sent orders for them to charge. Confused, they did neither. At this stage as the French command started to falter as mixed messages swept across the army Karl, in the fashion of a true warrior King, organised his lancers for a charge right at the heart of the French army.



Incredibly the Emperor’s ballsy tactic worked as the French centre gave way allowing first then Austrian cavalry and then their infantry to break through. At this stage Napoleon gave orders for the army to withdraw. This was perhaps the First Consul’s only intelligent move of the entire battle as it saved the French from a truly significant blow. It was tactical victory for Karl as he defeated the undefeatable French hero however it was of only moderate strategic importance – the French lost around 20,000 men (not enough to stop future operations) however Napoleon was forced back from Vienna.

It is important to remember that although Karl had saved his capital, for the time being, Davout was still rampaging across Northern Germany and the armies of the Italian Republic had swept away Habsburg Lombardy and were only halted by the Alps.

Following Wels Napoleon decided to move his army to Munich were it would rest and regroup, Napoleon had decided not to attempt to continue his campaign in the Austrian uplands through Winter. However Davout decided to do otherwise as he continued to fight in Germany. On January 18th he took the city of Bremen and forced its King to flee to Berlin. Around 3 weeks later he took Lubeck which in turn convinced those few German minor states still fighting with the Emperor to change sides. Finally In early April Berlin fell as the defenders of the city mutinied, stringing up the last King of Bremen and surrendering to Davout.



Back in Austria over the course of the Winter Karl moved the main bulk of his army from Linz to St Polten which was much closer to Vienna. The main reasons for doing this were political rather than military. Franz von Habsburg, Count of Dresden and Salzburg, (pictured above) had become the central figure in a major movement within the Habsburg court that called for peace with the French and a change of focus from fighting losing wars in Europe to taking care of the unruly colonies. Karl could not simply get rid of Franz, as he would have liked, as the dissenter held great sway with both the people and the nobility – removing him would create a political crisis in the midst of a disastrous war. Instead Karl was forced to move his army much closer to Vienna from where he could an eye on his political rivals as well as leading the army.

At the start of April Napoleon began his advance Eastward from Bavaria. On May 2nd he received his salvation when the Kingdom of Hungary declared war upon Austria and quickly moved to occupy Pressburg. Napoleon then halted his advance on Vienna in hopes of forcing the Emperor’s hand and avoiding another battle of Karl’s terms.



This left Emperor Karl in a nightmarish situation. Napoleon’s move meant that he could no longer wait at St Polten for the French to come and would instead have to march Eastward to deal with the Hungarian threat to his capital. Karl did this and on June 4th he utterly crushed the Hungarians at the Battle of Wolfsthal, leaving their army in chaotic ruin. However whilst Karl left to deal with the Hungarians Napoleon had made extremely good time and had advanced beyond the painstakingly made fortifications at St Polten with little issue. Karl was then forced to launch another quick march, this time Westward, to save his capital from the French. He met Napoleon at the Battle of Pressbaum. The French had some 90,000 men, Karl 70,000 and his army was exhausted.



Quite possibly Napoleon’s most triumphal moment the Battle of Pressbaum, for intensive purposes, destroyed the Third Coalition. The Austrian army was utterly crushed, the majority surrendering to the French before the day was through. Karl was left to limp back to Vienna with what few stragglers remained.

On June 30th Napoleon entered Vienna. The following day Karl, now under house arrest, signed a ceasefire. Napoleon placed Franz von Habsburg in charge of the Austrian government and left around 10,000 soldiers (in Vienna alone) in guarantee that his victory was not stolen from him as he left to deal with his last major continental threat – Poland.



Napoleon’s campaign in Poland lasted barely 6 weeks from his arrival in late September. During that brief period the Polish army faced three major defeats before Ernst V of Poland agreed to surrender his crown and bring an end to the War of the Third Coalition (Britain continued to fight a low intensity war). With Ernst’s abdication nearly two centuries of Habsburg rule in Poland came to an end (the first Habsburg King of Poland was crowned in 1626). In Ernst’s place Napoleon placed one of his younger brothers, Louis (above), on the Polish throne.



In early 1808 Napoleon finally finished the treaty that would reshape Europe. Firstly Emperor Karl II was forced to abandon the title Holy Roman Emperor and adopt the new Imperial title – Emperor of Austria. Now the Roman legacy lived on only in the Byzantine court at Larissa. Karl was also forced to abandon all claims to sovereignty over the Germans. Italy (now a Kingdom with Napoleon as its King) gained massively from the treaty with all of Habsburg Lombardy and the Tyrol coming into its hands. Most important of Italy’s gains was the city of Genoa – one of the world’s largest ports. In central Germany Napoleon created the Kingdom of Westphalia which was to be ruled by his youngest brother Jérôme. In Eastern Germany the Kingdom of Great Saxony was created and it was ruled by Napoleon last brother without a Kingdom – Lucien. Lucien’s Kingdom gained much of its lands from the Saxon territories of Karl’s Empire. The Hungarians gained the long coveted Slovak city of Pressburg whilst Louis Bonaparte gained Silesia for Poland. Finally Karl II was forced into an alliance with France; Napoleon had given Austria a choice between an alliance and the dissection of its overseas Empire. Europe was now dominated by the Bonaparte dynasty and France.



Yet even more extraordinary events were to occur later that year as Napoleon – once applauded as the saviour of the Republic – abolished the First Republic of France and had himself crowned Emperor Napoleon I of France. In return for giving him back his palaces in Rome Napoleon had coaxed Pope Pius VII from Alexandria to crown him as Emperor. During the ceremony Napoleon was seen to snatch the Imperial crown from the hands of the Pope before crowning himself. Pius then proceeded to say "Vivat imperator in aeternum!" (May the Emperor live forever!).



Napoleon now dominated Europe like no man since the fall of Rome – fitting that he now took the Imperial diadem as his own.

Sweboy said:

How the mighty have fallen. Did you release those countries or did you just take poetic licence and just named them whatever you liked.

Excellent update as per usual.

Click to expand...

All of Part 2 has been made up by me. The gameplay ended in 1785 with the end of Part 1.


Out of interest, how are you guys enjoying the 2nd part of this AAR? Is it better or worse than the 1st part?

We're getting towards the climax of the Napoleonic era but there is still plenty of fun to go, after all we've not had any Mongol Hordes yet .

A Continent Under One Man – The High Tide fo Napoleonic Power

The period between 1808 and 1812 marked the high tide of Napoleon’s power. During this period the war with Britain continued to role on at a lower intensity, Napoleon’s American allies all made their peace with the British whilst France expanded her influence over yet more of the European Continent.



1808 was not a good year for French ambitions abroad and that was largely due to Dietrich von Habsburg, brother of Emperor Karl and First Lord of the Imperial Fleet. Dietrich had control over the world’s 2nd largest fleet (before Trafalgar it had been the 3rd largest behind France). It was no secret that Emperor Karl II was being held in Vienna against his wishes and Dietrich decided to set up a separate government to properly represent the Austrian Emperor in Silber Fluss. With him Dietrich brought substantial military backing as he managed to escape the Adriatic with the Habsburg Mediterranean Fleet and subsequently secured the support of Habsburg stations in the East Indies, the West Indies, Australia, Silber Fluss, South Africa and Kalifornia. Only the Indian station remained loyal to the Vienna government. Dietrich’s new ‘Free Austrians’ movement was quickly spread across the overseas Habsburg Empire by a mixture of popular feeling and the strength of Dietrich’s fleet.



Over the course of a little over two and a half years Dietrich managed to secure everything except for the Indian Raj for the Free Austrians. The vast majority of his funding came streaming from the Austrian homeland where nobles, merchants, clergy and even common people donated to anti-French funds. It was believed that Karl himself was one of the main contributors.

It is also notable that between 1808 and 1809 Britain made peace with Haiti, New England and the Union of Central American States. The only notable change made by these peace deals was the British recognition of the Union’s independence. The end of the conflict in UCAS and the withdrawal of British troops from the region was an enormous boon for the previously rather weak Colombian rebels. With much fewer British soldiers to oppose them and many thousands of soldiers now supposed to be demobilised large contingents of troops flooded over the border from the now peaceful UCAS in British Colombia to help fuel to Revolution.

The period between the end of the Third Coalition and the formation of the Fourth was marked by economic warfare between Britain and France. The British, with support from the Free Austrian Fleet, attempted to strangle the French of their trade from outside Europe. This tactic left India and the French East Indies as regions under effective self governance yet both maintained their independence from France’s enemies. Meanwhile Napoleon instituted the Continental System which effectively embargoed all British trade with Europe.



Britain’s growing influence in the late 18th and early 19th century had as much to do with the economic revolution in Britain as much as the decline of traditional trading rivals of the British: Spain and Austria. Despite struggling to maintain technological parity with France and Austria for generations in the late 18th century Britain took a sudden leap forward into the future. Agriculture was revolutionised, mass industry began to emerge and most importantly the British pioneered with steam power. The new ‘workshop of the world’ held incredible economic muscle as British exports began to dominate Europe. Napoleon hoped that by severing the Continent from Britain’s economic influence he could end the possibility of yet another Coalition forming.



Between 1808 and 1811 Napoleon ‘gave’ the Hungarians (the recently promoted) Marshal Davout and around 20,000 French soldiers to secure authority over the Balkans. This was regarded as Hungary’s ‘reward’ for their timely invasion of Austria in the previous war. For around 3 years Davout led the Franco-Hungarian army across the region, securing a Hungarian state that stretched from the Black Sea to the Adriatic. However the city of Ragusa remained stubbornly impregnable. The last city of the once powerful Croat Republic was heavily fortified, was kept supplied by the British and Free Austrian Fleet, received artillery support from off shore Allied vessels and was garrisoned by a large force of Croats, British and Free Austrians.

The first cracks in Napoleon’s Continental System did not take long to emerge. The Kingdom of Portugal, merely a small coastal strip stretching from Porto to Lisbon, had long been economically dependent upon Britain, even before the British Industrial Revolution. After just a few months of the Continental System Portugal was on the edge of economic ruin and dropped out. Soon British imports again began to flood into Porto and Lisbon, but worse still they quickly made their way from Portugal into chaotic Spain. Incandescent with rage Napoleon ordered his brother – King Joseph of Spain – to invade Portugal and forever crush that nation.



However the Portuguese had not been unprepared. Shortly before dropping out of the Continental System they had been sent around 10,000 British Marines under the command of Arthur Wellesley, the rising star of the British military.



Ever since the French invasion of Spain the Portuguese had feared Franco-Spanish invasion and since then an impregnable system of forts, the Torres Verdras Line, had been under construction. However with Portugal’s low budget and poor organisation the process had been infuriatingly slow. However after Wellesley’s arrival things proceeded at an incredible pace. By the beginning of the Spanish invasion the Line was all but complete and by the time Franco-Spanish forces arrived outside of Lisbon at the start of 1809 the fortifications had been finished and Lisbon was secure.



The Peninsular War had been raging ever since Napoleon first placed his brother on the Spanish throne in 1804 and since then a French occupation force in the hundreds of thousands had supported the indiscipline and notoriously treacherous Spanish Army (Joseph’s army) in fighting a mass Spanish insurgency. The Spanish troops turned against the French more often than they fought with them and the countryside was always in a state of chaos whilst major cities and forts remained in Franco-Spanish hands. The Spanish rebels were supported by Britain between 1804 and 1809 but it was not until the British granted Wellesley ‘’total responsibility for the Coalition war effort in Iberia’’ following his securing of Lisbon that the Peninsular War began to turn firmly against the Bonapartists.

Through 1809 British and Free Austrian ships began to support the capture of several Spanish ports. Most important were the captures of Cadiz (June 1809) and La Coruna (November 1809). Meanwhile at the same time Wellesley left Lisbon and began to take charge of British, Portuguese and Spanish troops in open engagements in Spain.

For the most part Wellesley found that the great numerical superiority of the Bonapartist forces made battle very difficult and he frequently fled from possible engagements. However it was considerably more costly for the Franco-Spanish forces to move around Spain that it was for the Coalition troops making every feint and every chase and extremely expensive operation for the French.



In the first major battle of the Peninsular War in mid 1811 Wellesley managed to destroy and entire division of French troops in the Somosierrey Pass. This victory gave the Allies effective control over all Galicia.



During this period an impressive development took place in the Kingdom of Great Saxony. Marshal von Blücher, a man of Prussian birth (he was born in the Prussian Republic of Memel), fled from the lands of the Golden Horde to Saxony in 1808. In the Mongol Empire he had been a prominent General however in recent years the European peoples under Horde rule (Lithuanians, Prussians, Finns, Russians, other Slavs ...) had started to rise up against their Asiatic masters. In 1806 Blücher betrayed his Khan and took command of a large scale Russian revolt. The war lasted two years and although he almost secured freedom for the Horde’s European peoples he was eventually beaten down by much large Tartaric forces. In 1808 he was given asylum by King Lucien Bonaparte of Great Saxony and shortly thereafter made Marshal of the infant Kingdom’s army and tasked with creating an effective military force from nothing.

Within a couple of years Blücher had created a powerful army of around 150,000 men that was credit by Napoleon as ‘’the most disciplined in Europe’’. This mighty force was, however, not loyal to its King, Lucien Bonaparte, but its commander - Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.



Napoleon had long viewed the key to his success as the support of the Great Khan – Engke Khan. With an alliance with the Golden Horde Napoleon could secure safe access overland to India, attack British Scandinavia and cut the British off from one of the largest markets on earth. In 1810 Napoleon secured part of what he had wanted when Engke Khan agreed to a Treaty of Mutual Cooperation. The Great Khan refused to sign an official alliance and did not allow French troops to pass through his lands on route to either India or Sweden. However he did agree to join the Continental System and expelled all British merchants from his vast Empire.

For the next two years Napoleon happily sat by as Britain struggled to deal with total isolation from Europe.



However in April 1812, in a complete political u-turn, Engke Khan signed an agreement with a British ambassador which ended Mongol participation in the Continental System and entered the Empire into the British blockade of the French.

Napoleon resolved to return the Mongol Empire to the Continental System – through force if necessary.