ABSTRACT
The principal opponents throughout the wars were Britain and France. The British, supreme at sea, financed a succession of European coalitions against Napoleon's Empire. Napoleon, supreme on land, contemplated the invasion of England particularly between 1803 and 1805, but never succeeded in controlling the Channel to enable such an enterprise to be launched. On 16 May, 1803, Britain declares war on France seizing all French ships in British ports. The chronology of the Anglo-French War therefore largely becomes subsumed in that of other conflicts. Napoleon arrests all British residents in France and sends troops to occupy Hanover and ports in southern Italy. Napoleon seeks to forestall this by destroying his enemies' piece-meal, beginning with those in Belgium. Napoleon attacks Wellington's position at Waterloo, but fails to break the British infantry lines, and the arrival of Blucher's main army in the afternoon ensures a crushing defeat for the French on June 18, 1815.
