The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly owing to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly as Napoleon's armies conquered much of Europe but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France.

Despite a final defeat, five of seven coalitions have seen the triumph of France. She beat the first and second coalition during the French Revolutionary Wars, and after the third (Victory of Austerlitz), the fourth (Victory de Jena, Eylau,Friedland) and fifth coalition (Victory of Wagram) with Napoleon. These great victories have developed a sense of invulnerability of the French Army, especially with the entrance to Moscow. But after the retreat from Russia, in spite of incomplete victories, France was beaten by the sixth coalition in Leipzig and the seventh coalition in Waterloo.