Tsar Peter I ("The Great") began the modernization and westernization of Russia. He built a new capital on the Gulf of Finland (Petrograd or St. Petersburg-now Leningrad) and moved most of the government from the central core of Moscow. In his constant warfare with Sweden and Turkey, he gained seaports on the Baltic Sea in the north and on the Black Sea in the south. The Russian Tsar was complete autocrat over one of the most powerful states in Europe, although it was backward and barbaric by Western standards. German and French cultural influences competed for the attention of the Russian nobility.

The Austrian Empire dominated Central Europe and constantly warred with the infidel Turks. The "Kaiser" of Austria ruled a complex of peoples and languages: the Germans of Austria, the Western Slavs of Bohemia and Moravia, the Magyars of Hungary, and the Flemings and Walloons of the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium). By 1683 Austria had forced the weakened Ottoman Empire to surrender its last holdings in Hungary and Transylvania (modern Rumania) and had pushed it back to the line of the lower Danube River.

The Stuart Kings united England and Scotland and began to take a greater role in European affairs with one hand, while building a great colonial empire with the other. British seamen and soldiers clashed with the French in North America, Europe, and India. Petty European dynastic quarrels assumed world-wide importance during the great rivalry between Britain and France.

France, during the reigns of Louis XIV ("The Sun King") and Louis XV, continued to dominate Europe, playing one potential rival against another. In 1700 the junior line of the French royal family of Bourbon succeeded to the Spanish throne, and that nation became an unwilling partner in France's foreign policy. Little Portugal remained rather isolated from continental affairs, but continued its ancient alliance with England.

In the north, Sweden (including Finland) and the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway played minor roles, but geography made them important because they dominated the entrance to the Baltic Sea. Thus we have boxed the political compass of 17th century and 18th century Europe, describing the major and minor protagonists in the dynastic rivalries following the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.

The 18th century saw the destruction of most of the long established social institutions of Europe. The "Age of the Enlighten

ment" and the successful revolt of Britain's colonies in America led to the French Revolution in 1789 and facilitated the spread of egalitarian doctrines (such as "The Declaration of the Rights of Man") throughout Europe. The 18th century was not only an "Age of Reason," but it was the "Age of the Industrial Revolution," which changed the whole social fabric of Europe. Steam power replaced human and animal power in transportation and manufacturing. Factories began to dot the landscape, attracting rural laborers to the new industrial cities. A new social class, consisting of merchants and industrialists, challenged the power of the ancient landed aristocracy.

The revolution began in France, when angry and hungry Parisians assaulted and destroyed the Bastille, symbol of royal authority, on July 14, 1789. The flames spread to the countryside as rioting peasants destroyed feudal castles to erase the records of ancient feudal dues. A National Assembly made sweeping changes in France in a comparatively orderly and peaceful manner and drew up a written constitution which restricted the royal power.

As the revolutionary spirit rose in France, the royal family attempted to flee to Austrian territory in the Rhineland (June 1791) but they were arrested and imprisoned. Emperor Leopold of Austria and King Frederick William II of Prussia urged all European princes to recognize that the fate of the French royal family was a matter of concern to all. An Austro-Prussian Army invaded France in the autumn of 1792, but a hastily-raised force of raw French recruits defeated it at Valmy, less than 100 miles from Paris. This diplomatic and military fiasco scaled the fate of the French monarchy. Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, "kissed Madame La Guillotine" and Revolutionary France became a pariah among nations. It began to fight back. Three French armies invaded the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhineland. By the summer of 1794 France was at war with Britain, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Tuscany, Naples, and the entire Holy Roman Empire. Only Russia, busy in Poland and Turkey, failed to join the royal crusade against France.

France, in the period from 1789 to 1799, moved from absolute to limited monarchy, through radical republicanism (and a "Reign of Terror") to military dictatorship. The star of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the foremost soldiers of the age, rose from the smoke of battle. His conquests were more dangerous to the established monarchies of Europe than the armies of Revolutionary France

could ever be. He drove the Austrians out of northern Italy in 1796-97. Austria ceded its Belgian provinces and accepted its losses in Italy, then turned to Russia for aid. The mad Tsar, Paul I, formed a coalition in 1798, hoping to end the French menace. His British, Neapolitan, and Austrian allies suffered defeat after defeat, so he withdrew in disgust. Soon Britain was alone in the field.

Bonaparte, though only one of several brilliant French generals, was driven by lust for power and conquest. Like Alexander the Great, he desired to conquer India. His first step was to establish French power in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. He proposed to cut a canal through the Isthmus of Suez, send a fleet and army to India, and avenge the loss of India to the British.

British seapower once more foiled French plans. Admiral Nelson destroyed Napoleon's fleet at the Battle of the Nile (August 1, 1798), cutting his army off from France. The resourceful Napoleon defeated the weak Egyptian Army, then moved up the Eastern Mediterranean to Syria, a Turkish province. He stormed the port of Jaffa but was frustrated in his efforts to capture Acre by the timely arrival of a British fleet. Using the excuse that another coalition had been formed against France (which was true), Napoleon ruthlessly abandoned the remnants of his army in Egypt and secretly fled home (August 1799). His hapless troops held out against an Anglo-Turkish Army for 2 years before surrendering with honor. Napoleon's reputation was unhurt by his Egyptian failure; strangely enough, he even gained a halo of romance which attracted the great majority of Frenchmen to his side. He attained one of his major goals; he upset the Directorate which had ruled France since 1795 and took power as one of three ruling Consuls. In 1800 he launched a lightning campaign against the Austrians in Italy, knocking them out of the war. Tsar Paul I was murdered by military plotters and his son, the mystical Alexander I, succeeded to the throne. In October 1801 Russia made peace with France. Napoleon needed a breathing spell to consolidate his power at home and he concluded a treaty with Britain, the sole antagonist in the field. Under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens (1802) Britain gave up most of the bits and pieces of strategic land picked up during the preceding years: Cape of Good Hope, Malta, Egypt, and certain West Indian islands. In 1802 Napoleon was elected consul for life with the right to appoint his successor. He turned his genius to civil reconstruction and changed a confused revolutionary society into

an orderly imperial state. He was a popular tyrant and in 1804 he proclaimed himself Emperor of the French. This made him even more obnoxious to the legitimate rulers of Europe, but he made them acknowledge his regime by force of his military genius.

The brief peace ended in 1805. Britain formed a third coalition against Napoleon. It included Russia, Austria, Prussia, and several minor states. Napoleon's occupation of the Low Countries was a pistol pointed at the heart of Britain. He planned to cross the Channel and conquer the British Isles, a military feat which had not been accomplished since the time of William the Conqueror. However, that 20-mile stretch of choppy water dominated by British seapower was too much of an obstacle for Napoleon's Grand Army (as it was for Hitler in 1940). Lord Nelson destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet off Trafalgar Cape (October 1805), ending Napoleon's last hope of conquering Britain. The French Emperor turned eastward with pantherlike speed and crushed an Austrian army at Ulm. Tsar Alexander I sent a Russian Army under General Kutuzov (whom you will meet in Tolstoy's War and Peace) to support his unfortunate ally. Napoleon defeated the allied force at Austerlitz in December 1805.

Tolstoy begins his monumental narrative, War and Peace, at this point. He opens the novel in July 1805 with a description of high society in St. Petersburg, the Imperial Russian capital, and introduces the chief characters whose adventures are related during the subsequent 12 to 15 years. Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, one of the nominal heroes of the novel, is an adjutant to Marshal Kutuzov. Tolstoy describes the Battle of Austerlitz as experienced by Prince Bolkonsky.

The Third Coalition ended when Napoleon forced its members to accept the Treaty of Pressburg (December 1805). Austria ceded its Italian possessions of Venetia, Istria, and Dalmatia, swelling the territory of Napoleon's new "Kingdom of Italy." Bavaria gained the Tyrol for its services to Napoleon, and other pieces of the patchwork Austrian realm went to Württemberg and Baden, states ruled by Napoleon's puppets. In all, Austria lost about three million inhabitants and decreased greatly in strength and prestige.

Although bound by ties of mutual interest with Russia and Austria, King Frederick William III of Prussia remained neutral. His timorous policy failed. Napoleon callously violated Prussian territory in order to attack Austria. The spineless Prussian king

then signed a defensive-offensive alliance with the upstart Frenchman (Treaty of Schonbrunn). His payoff was the territory of Hanover, which Napoleon had wrested from King George III of England, its hereditary monarch. Alas for Prussian cupidity and stupidity. Napoleon offered to return Hanover to George III if the latter would recognize Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon's older brother) as King of Naples. Enraged at this double-faced policy, the Prussian king declared war on the perfidious Napoleon in September 1806. Frederick William was rash as well as avaricious and stupid. Within a month Napoleon overwhelmed the famed Prussian Army at Jena. French troops held a victory parade down Unter den Linden in Berlin and the pitiful Prussian monarch fled eastward to Memel, where he was given refuge by the Russians. Continuing his triumphant march to the east, Napoleon defeated the Russians at Eylau in East Prussia (February 1807) and drove them out of the war in a decisive battle at Friedland (June 1807).

Tolstoy mentions Eylau and Friedland in his novel but does not describe them in detail. However, he pays considerable attention to the meeting of Napoleon and Alexander I at Tilsit, where the conqueror forced a humiliating peace on Prussia and Russia. By the Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon took all the Prussian territory west of the Elbe River and created the Kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jerome. He also forced Prussia to disgorge its Polish conquests of the preceding century, forming the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, under one of his Polish generals, Prince Poniatowski. By comparison, Napoleon let Alexander off easily, merely forcing him to recognize Napoleon's changes in the European map in return for vague promises to Russia of a free hand in the Turkish sphere of influence. Despite the humiliation, Alexander liked Napoleon, who appealed to his own strange nature, a nature in which liberalism and mysticism struggled with pragmatism and authoritarianism. During this period (1807-1812), the Russian court became very pro-French.

Except for Britain, his implacable foe, Napoleon was virtual master of Europe. He changed its political makeup to suit his needs. He organized the Confederation of the Rhine, which eventually included all the German states except Austria, Prussia, Brunswick, and Hesse. For all practical purposes, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist and Emperor Francis II laid down his imperial crown. His new title was Francis I, Emperor of Austria. Napoleon was unable to rule his "Kingdom of Italy" in person, so