The Coalition’s reach in which to strike France was vast; in fact it was world wide. But no other land mass outside of Europe rivaled the interests of Britain or France better than India, the jewel that both Empires had fought over in the previous century, before France was forced to bow out. The following decades proved that India would be Britain’s greatest source of prestige, national honor and greatest resource for the British interest. In 1846, after the signing of a harsh treaty with Emperor Napoleon II, Britain now had to compete with a French concession of Ceylon.
With war now renewed against France and Britain, the British sought to regain their prestige in India. How quickly they would against a pitiful French garrison of 6,000 troops (mostly locals) at the battle of Pondicherry on February 13th, 1852. The news of the defeat was kept mostly silent, as very few citizens of France died; and most of neither the press nor the people cared about a far off land. The loss at Pondicherry was a reminder to the commanders though; Britain would always have a more popular local military base in India until further concessions could be secured.
The Battle of Pindicherry.
While the people may not have cared about far off India, they certainly followed the European battles with great interest. Four battles would follow in rapid succession that would garner much interest in France and the capitals of the coalition against her. The first battle was at Eindhoven on February 15th, in which the Dutch army was slaughtered by the tune of nearly 8,000 soldiers for the loss of 3,448 French. The second battle would witness the end of the Belgian army; which would surrender in full on February 17th. Over the previous weeks, the army had dwindled down ever steadily; finally on the date of it surrender it had only 4,896 men capable of taking the field.
In early February, reports were being received from reports that an Austrian Army and a Russian Army were looking to rendezvous and march into French territory. An eager general, Patrice Murat received orders to prevent such a meeting and would carry out his orders effectively on February 24th at the Battle of Kassel. With only 27,000 troops at his command, he would be heavily outnumbered if the Russians and Austrians met; but he caught the Austrians alone and routed their force causing 5,628 losses.
The Battle of Utrecht.
The last battle would be less spectacular but would spell doom for the Dutch Army. At the battle of Utrecht on February 27th, the Dutch took to the field with 7,972 troops against the nearly four times stronger 25,268 French men. The results were already expected for the battle…only 1,145 Dutch remained after the battle’s end. The losses for France were meager, at 214, with three of the deaths being caused by friendly fire incidents.
The rapid succession of victories would provide much needed relief to the administration of Napoleon II. Rampant speculation thought that if victories were not secured, even against the minor nations of the coalition, the people would quickly turn to the opinion that victory was unobtainable and peace would have to be secured. The victories also helped quell the rumor that Napoleon II, now 41 years old was beginning to suffer from health problems.