Napoléonic wars

The politicization of U.S. interests in Latin America began to take clearer form as a consequence of the Napoléonic Wars.

What Napoléon did not understand was the importance of controlling the seas. Thus, his fortunes began to shift after Lord Nelson’s great naval triumph over the French at Trafalgar, off Cádiz, Spain, in October 1805. From this point forward, Britain ruled the seas, but while the victory was a turning point in the Napoléonic Wars, Napoléon’s defeat on land took several years more.

The German states of the 19th century saw the battle of Leipzig as the most important victory of the Napoléonic Wars. It became a symbol of German military virtue. The battle of Leipzig was called the ‘Battle of Nations’. It was the largest battle of the Napoléonic Wars, and the Germans viewed Leipzig as the most significant victory to the end of Napoléon’s empire.