In 1809, Austria, Britain and the Kingdom of Sardinia formed the fifth anti-French alliance to jointly fight against France. But the alliance was defeated by Napoleon after only six months.

Text | Xiangjie Knowledge Bureau

Editor | Xiangjie Knowledge Bureau

Italian Front

In 1809, Austria, the United Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Sardinia formed the fifth anti-French alliance to jointly fight against France. But the alliance was defeated by Napoleon after only six months. What's going on?

In Italy, Archduke John fought against Napoleon's stepson Eugène. The Austrians fended off several botched French attacks at the Battle of Sacre in April, leading to Eugene's retreat at Verona and the Adige River.

While John sent troops to support Charles, Eugene was able to concentrate his forces. John was victorious at the Battle of Cardillo on April 30, but was forced to retreat due to Eugene's growing superiority and movements on the Austrian-Bavarian front.

John was defeated at the Battle of the Piave River on May 8 and was forced to leave Italy. King sent Macdonald to pursue John and join Napoleon and the rest of his army at Vienna .

During the Dalmatian Campaign, Marmont, under the nominal command of Eugene, fought against the Austrian invasion led by General Stoichevich. On April 30, Marmont launched a counterattack in the mountains, but was repulsed by Grenzel's troops.

html Further attacks in May led to a series of victories over scattered Austrian forces. By the end of the month, Marmont was able to join the Emperor in Vienna with the bulk of his troops.

The failed British feint operation

In July 1809, the British launched the Battle of Walcheren in the Netherlands to relieve the pressure on Austria and weaken the French naval power. The plan was to land a force at Volcheren and advance along the port of Sichelt towards the French naval base of Antwerp.

Royal Navy patrols into Sichelt and Dockyard strikes in Antwerp alerted the French to the vulnerability of the area and worked to improve defenses and strengthen their garrisons.

John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, whose 39,000-strong force, more than those serving in the Iberian Peninsula and the largest British Expeditionary Force of the Napoleonic Wars , landed at Walcheren on 30 July.

Due to a lack of ships, the expedition was unable to land enough troops south of Sichelde to capture the fortified garrison of Cadzand.

The advance towards Antwerp relied on the capture of Flushing on the north shore to allow Royal Navy ships to pass through the Searst. It was not until August 13 that siege batteries were set up, and Flushing did not surrender until August 16.

Meanwhile, the British army had been suffering from "Walcheren fever", thought to be a combination of malaria and typhus, and lost 4,000 soldiers in the campaign. By comparison, only 106 men were killed.

By August 24, Chatham believed that the fever had greatly weakened his strength and that Antwerp's defense was too strong to attack. At the end of the battle, the British had failed to achieve their main goal of weakening the French naval power.

The first British troops were evacuated on 7 September, although the disease-ridden garrison was maintained until 9 December. The defeat of the battle led to the resignation of the British Prime Minister, the Duke of Portland, who was succeeded by Spencer Percival.

Austrian-Polish War

Austria invaded the Duchy of Warsaw and achieved initial success. On April 19, Poniatowski's army was defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Raszin, and Warsaw was captured four days later, an occupation that lasted until June 1.

The Poles continued their invasion of Galicia and achieved some success, but the offensive soon stalled and suffered heavy casualties. The Austrians also won several battles, but were hampered by Russian troops whose intentions were unclear and did not allow them to advance.

After Austria invaded the Duchy of Warsaw, Russia reluctantly joined the war against Austria to fulfill their alliance treaty with France. Russian troops, under the command of General Sergei Golitsyn, entered Galicia on June 3, 1809.

Golitsyn advanced as slowly as possible, with instructions to avoid any major conflict with the Austrians. There were skirmishes between Russian and Austrian troops, with minimal losses.

Austrian and Russian commanders communicated frequently and shared some combat intelligence.

A courteous letter from General Andrei Gorchakov, commander of the Russian division, to Archduke Ferdinand was intercepted by the Poles. The Poles sent an original copy to Emperor Napoleon and a copy to Tsar Alexander. As a result, Alexander relieved Gorchakov of his command.

There had been disagreements between Golitsyn and Poniatowski, with whom the Russians were supposed to be cooperating in Galicia. As a result of the Treaty of Schönbrunn, Russia received the Tarnopol district of Galicia.

War at Sea

Since the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, the British fleet has launched countless attacks on the French fleet, ports or colonies, and the British and French navies continued to fight in 1809.

After France's defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of the Atlantic in 1806, Britain defeated France in the Atlantic, and the remnants of the French fleet were based at the Bay of Biscay .

French colonies in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean provided shelter to the British fleet and could become its main threat. The French Atlantic Fleet was blockaded at Brest by British forces under James Gambier, but after the British invasion of Martinique in January 1809, the French were keen to intervene in the Caribbean.

A storm in February dispersed Gambier's fleet, allowing the French, led by Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willamez, to sail and anchor in the Basque country.

On February 23, three French frigates trying to join the main fleet were damaged in the Battle of Chateaulonne. A stalemate ensued, with the French anchoring under fire from coastal batteries but being blocked by the British.

On March 16, Zachary Alemande, who strengthened Anchorage's defense, replaced Willa Mays. The British Admiralty sent Captain Lord Cochrane to lead the attack on France.

Cochrane's fireship attack on 11 April caused panic in the French fleet and many ships ran aground. Although Cochrane's small force destroyed some ships over the next few days, Gambier failed to take advantage of the situation and send out the main British fleet.

This action confined the French fleet to its anchorage and allowed the British and Spanish to replace the French from Haiti that year and invade Guadeloupe in early 1810.

Italian Rebellion

Archduke John issued a proclamation in April 1809, calling on the people of Veneto to rise up against France for Italian nationalism. A portion of Venice's population, including many criminals, revolted, occupying public buildings and destroying tax and conscription records.

Many towns in Veneto were controlled by the rebels, who moved into Emilia-Romagna, where Bologna was threatened and Ferrara was besieged for ten days.

The rebellion ended in November 1809, and Napoleon reacted strongly: 4,000 troops were sent from Naples to Bologna and 675 citizens were arrested, 150 of whom were killed. In the mountains and swamps of the area, some rebels remained to serve as bandits until the end of the French occupation.

Rebellion in Tyrol

In Tirol, Andreas Hofer led an uprising against Bavarian rule and French rule, which led to an early isolated victory at the Battle of Bergisel.

Hofer liberated Bavarian-occupied Tyrol in late August, but on 29 September an Italian force led by Louis Gaspar Paley captured Trento, although they were unable to advance further.

In the second month, after the Treaty of Schönbrunn was signed by the Bavarian army led by Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Count Dron took the remaining troops to suppress the rebellion.

In early November, a three-headed force consisting of 45,000 soldiers, supported by French and Italian troops, occupied the area. Hofer went into hiding, but was betrayed by one of his men in January 1810 and executed by the French.

Gotescher's Rebellion

One of the counties ceded to France was Slovenia, which was part of the Illyrian province. The German minority Gottschels revolted against the French garrison under the leadership of John Elke.

The rebels were quickly defeated and the French planned to burn the city of Gotechs. After a petition from the local clergy, the work was not carried out, but the city was ransacked for three days starting on October 16.

黑Brunswick人

The Duchy of Brunswick had been incorporated into the French vassal stateKingdom of Westphalia, but its Duke Frederick William sided with Austria in 1809.

Several thousand of his volunteer Brunswickers fought alongside the Austrian army under General Kienmaier in Saxony, a French vassal state under Frederick Augustus I.

After capturing the Saxon capital Dresden and repelling the army commanded by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte, the Austrians effectively controlled all of Saxony. By this time, the main Austrian force had been defeated at Wagram, and an armistice at Zenum had been agreed.

The Duke of Brunswick refused to be bound by the armistice and led his army to fight on through Germany to the mouth of the Weser River, from where they sailed to England and joined the British Army.

Consequences

According to historian Charles Esdaile, after Austria's main power was defeated at Wagram, the country's power collapsed and Emperor Francis was forced to sue for peace.

The British attributed the end to "diplomatic considerations" and believed that Austria could have continued to fight. The Treaty of Schönbrunn, signed on October 14, 1809, cost the Austrians a heavy political price.

Metternich and Charles succeeded in negotiating lighter terms in exchange for Austria's cooperation, most of the Habsburg dynasty's hereditary territories were retained.

The lands given to France were significant, including Carinthia, Carniola and the Adriatic ports, cutting off Austria's access to the Mediterranean .

Western Galicia was given to the Duchy of Warsaw . The lands of the short-lived Duchy of Salzburg, which Austria had acquired in compensation for the loss of the Adriatic coast and the loss of Tyrol in the Peace of Pressburg, were transferred to Bavaria.

The Tarnopil region was ceded to Russia. Austria lost more than 3 million subjects, accounting for about 20% of the kingdom's total population. Emperor Francis agreed to pay an indemnity equivalent to nearly 85 million francs , recognized Napoleon's brother Joseph as King of Spain, and reiterated the exclusion of British trade from his remaining territories.

After Austria's defeat, Napoleon married Emperor Francis' daughter Marie Louise . Napoleon hoped that the marriage would solidify the Franco-Austrian alliance and provide legitimacy to his regime.

This alliance gave Austria respite from a decade of on-and-off war with France and restored her status as a European power; the marital relationship did not prevent Francis from declaring war on France in 1813.

From a French perspective, the effects of the conflict were not all positive. Revolts in Tyrol and the Kingdom of Westphalia during the conflict demonstrated German popular dissatisfaction with French rule.

Just a few days before the conclusion of the Treaty of Schönbrunn, an 18-year-old German named Friedrich Staples approached Napoleon during a military review and attempted to assassinate the emperor, but was intercepted by General Rapp.

The emerging forces of German nationalism were already well established, and the war of the Fifth Alliance nourished their development.

In 1813, during the Sixth Alliance War, there were anti-French uprisings and spontaneous guerrilla activity, although whether this was driven by pan-German nationalism or patriotism for the old order is disputed by historians; a unified Germany did not emerge until 1871.

The war destroyed France's military superiority and Napoleon's image. The Battle of Aspen-Essling was the first major defeat of Napoleon's career and was greeted with enthusiasm by much of Europe.

The Austrians have proven that strategic insight and tactical ability are no longer the preserve of the French.

The decline in French infantry tactical skill led to increasing numbers of infantry columns eschewing maneuvers and relying on sheer numerical superiority to break through, a development best highlighted by Macdonald's attack at Wagram.

The Army of Allemagna did not have the qualitative advantage of the Continental Army, in part because new recruits had replaced many of the veterans at Austerlitz and Jena, reducing tactical flexibility. Napoleon's army was increasingly composed of non-French contingents, weakening morale.

Although Napoleon's strategy was successful, as demonstrated by overturning France's initial poor position, the increasing size of his army made military strategy more difficult to manage.

The scale of the war became too great for Napoleon to fully control, which became apparent during the next Napoleonic War, the French invasion of Russia in 1812.

The British described the war as "the first modern war" because of its use of "unusually large and symmetrical conscript units" that were divided into legions and dispersed across the theater of command.

He concluded, "This is a war with greater scale and mobility than before. The decisive factor is a war of attrition , rather than a fierce battle of one or two days."