Sixth Coalition in the context of "History of Portugal (1777–1834)"

Play Trivia Questions online!

or

Skip to study material about Sixth Coalition in the context of "History of Portugal (1777–1834)"




⭐ Core Definition: Sixth Coalition

In the War of the Sixth Coalition (French: Guerre de la Sixième Coalition; December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation (German: Befreiungskriege), a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Sardinia, and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba. After the disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812 in which they had been forced to support France, Prussia and Austria joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Portugal, and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France. The invasion of Russia cost the French many seasoned soldiers, so Napoleon took action to engage "Marie-Louises", young conscripts who were barely familiar with military affairs; they were called up from October 1813 to 1815. However, the constant warfare weakened the Coalition nations as well. The Russian military was particularly depleted after 1812, and Prussia also suffered a significant downgrade as a result of its losses in 1806–1807; nevertheless, it carried out large-scale reforms to improve the situation in the Prussian Army. Later, having encountered the Prussians in the Battle of Lützen, Napoleon would say: "These animals have learned something."

The War of the Sixth Coalition saw battles at Lützen, Bautzen, and Dresden. The even larger Battle of Leipzig (also known as the Battle of Nations) was the largest battle in European history before World War I. Ultimately, Napoleon's earlier setbacks in Spain, Portugal and Russia proved to be the seeds of his undoing. With their armies reorganized, the allies drove Napoleon out of Germany in 1813 and invaded France in 1814. The Allies defeated the remaining French armies, occupied Paris, and forced Napoleon to abdicate and go into exile. The French monarchy was revived by the allies, who handed rule to the heir of the House of Bourbon in the Bourbon Restoration.

↓ Menu

In this Dossier

Sixth Coalition in the context of Treaty of Paris (1814)

The Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814, ended the war between France and the Sixth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars, following an armistice signed on 23 April between Charles, Count of Artois, and the allies. The treaty set the borders for France under the House of Bourbon and restored territories to other nations. It is sometimes called the First Peace of Paris, as another one followed in 1815.

↑ Return to Menu

Sixth Coalition in the context of Frederick William III of Prussia

Frederick William III (German: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved.

Frederick William III ruled Prussia during the times of the Napoleonic Wars. The king reluctantly joined the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in the German campaign of 1813. Following Napoleon's defeat, he took part in the Congress of Vienna, which assembled to settle the political questions arising from the new, post-Napoleonic order in Europe. His primary interests were internal – the reform of Prussia's Protestant churches. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches to homogenize their liturgy, organization, and architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of Churches.

↑ Return to Menu

Sixth Coalition in the context of German campaign of 1813

The German campaign (German: Befreiungskriege, lit.'Wars of Liberation') was fought in 1813. Members of the Sixth Coalition, including the German states of Austria and Prussia, plus Russia and Sweden, fought a series of battles in Germany against the French Emperor Napoleon, his marshals, and the armies of the Confederation of the Rhine – an alliance of most of the other German states, – which ended the domination of the First French Empire.

After the devastating defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armée in the Russian campaign of 1812, Johann Yorck – the general in command of the Grande Armée's German auxiliaries (Hilfskorps) – declared a ceasefire with the Russians on 30 December 1812 via the Convention of Tauroggen. This was the decisive factor in the outbreak of the German campaign the following year.

↑ Return to Menu

Sixth Coalition in the context of Attrition warfare against Napoleon

Attrition warfare represents an attempt to grind down an opponent's ability to make war by destroying their military resources by any means possible, including scorched earth, people's war, guerrilla warfare and all kind of battles apart from a decisive battle. Elements of this kind of warfare had already been used in the Peninsular war. The Russian attrition warfare against Napoleon began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon's Grande Armée crossed the Neman River into Russia and ended on 14 December 1812 with the total defeat of the Grande Armée. A visual representation is given by the drawing of Charles Joseph Minard. The Trachenberg Plan was used in the Sixth Coalition in Germany 1813 and in France 1814. The Seventh Coalition defeated him at Waterloo in 1815 and exiled him to Saint Helena, where he died six years later.

↑ Return to Menu

Sixth Coalition in the context of Pariser Platz

Pariser Platz (transl. Parisian Square) is a square in the historic center of Berlin, Germany, situated by the Brandenburg Gate at the end of Unter den Linden boulevard. The square is named after the French capital of Paris to commemorate the victory of the Sixth Coalition over the French Empire at the Battle of Paris (1814), and is one of the main focal points of the city.

↑ Return to Menu