The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History by Alexander Mikaberidze

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History by Alexander Mikaberidze Geertjan Zuijdwegt The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History BY ALEXANDER MIKABERIDZE Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. xxiii + 936 pages. Hardback: $41.95. ISBN: 9780199951062. During the peace talks at the Congress of Vienna, in the autumn of 1814, the French negotiator Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand questioned the use of the term "allies" to denote Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia. Napoleon, after all, had just been defeated, so who was there to ally against? It was used for brevity's sake, Talleyrand was assured. He wittily replied: "Brevity should not be purchased at the price of accuracy."1 Looking at its sheer volume of almost 1000 pages, Alexander Mikaberidze's new global history of the Napoleonic Wars has equally refused to buy brevity at the price of accuracy. Lauded as a masterpiece by Andrew Roberts, the book offers a comprehensive account of Napoleon's wars. They are situated extensively in the historical contexts out of which they emerged: the French Revolution, the eighteenth-century international system, and the French Revolutionary Wars. The book is valuable primarily for the global dimension of its analysis. Even though it is neither the first, nor unique, The Napoleonic Wars lives up to its subtitle: it is the best and most comprehensive global history of the Napoleonic Wars to date. Given such ambitious scope, Mikaberidze's accuracy is not, in fact, [End Page 90] purchased at the price of brevity. Few readers will wish the book shorter. Few, also, could wish it better written (although slight grammatical mistakes, especially in the use of articles, might have been remedied in copyediting). A cynical observer might be tempted to attribute Mikaberidze's focus on the worldwide impact of the wars of 1789–1815 to a contemporary fad with extending European history beyond its European confines, but this would be a mistake. If Mikaberidze succeeds in showing anything, it is that the world at the turn of the nineteenth century was economically and politically interconnected to an extent that, to many readers, will come as something of a surprise. His analysis of the social, economic, and political impact of the French Revolution and the ensuing wars on the US and Canada, the Caribbean, South America, northern Africa (especially Egypt), the Middle East (especially Iran), and India is both convincing and revealing. This comes in addition to extensive and enlightening discussions of such impact on the more usual, European suspects: France, Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and a host of smaller nations, princedoms, and territories. All of this made possible by Mikaberidze's use of an extensive range of sources in a great variety of languages. Yet, The Napoleonic Wars remains first and foremost a military history. Sometimes derided at continental European history faculties, military history (with a realist bent when it comes to international relations—as Mikaberidze's has) is indispensable to understanding the global past, and Mikaberidze proves as much. In fact, his book is useful beyond its authorial intention. Its explication of early nineteenth-century European power politics enabled me to better grasp the long pedigree and dynamics of the current conflict in Ukraine. Readers of this journal will wonder, of course, what there is to gain from The Napoleonic Wars for the study of John Henry Newman. The answer depends on the level of analysis. For instance, religion, Newman's primary concern in life, is conspicuously absent from Mikaberidze's account. Although he pays some attention to French revolutionary ideology, religion is hardly a factor in his narrative, and this does, in fact, amount to a shortcoming. Yet, as a backdrop to the world Newman grew up in, Mikerabidze's book is a must-read. In much the same way as reading a history of World War I is key to understand an Englishman born in 1901, a history of the Napoleonic Wars is key to understand Newman, who was born in 1801. In later life, Newman vividly recalled lying in bed, age 5, looking at the candles stuck into the windows of his childhood home in Ham (Richmond) in celebration of Horatio Nelson's naval victory at Trafalgar over a maneuvering Franco...