Three models of warships from the late eighteenth century. Two large ships of the line, left, and a brig, right The general rise of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Directory, the national Government of the French Republic since 1795, was the beginning of a period of expansion of the Gallic country which brought together the ambition of the future emperor with his extraordinary military and strategic skills. Some of its more ambitious goals was the invasion of England. Since the triumph of the French Revolution, the English monarchy had acted like a belligerent enemy of the Republic, which had provoked the war of 1793. The siege of Toulon by the British that summer and the Battle of the First of June 1794 had made clear to the French that it was imperative to subdue England dominate first the sea. And in this respect, France was not easy. Despite the theoretical superiority of their ships, more modern, the Royal Navy had more units. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, England had 135 ships of the line and about 100 frigates compared to 88 ships and 73 French frigates. England, however, the fleet had scattered its distant colonies and the independence of the United States had meant the loss of an important motivation for the engagement of seamen. However, the English, as already demonstrated in the battle of June, still had a clear tactical superiority and its gunners fired more quickly and accurately than their enemies. Napoleon Bonaparte had been so good skills as a strategist during the siege of Toulon had been promoted to general, and began to gestate the idea that the war against England had to win at sea, but through a strategy that avoided a direct confrontation, boat against boat.
The French landing in Ireland failed
This first phase of the revolutionary wars had shown the alarming situation of the French fleet. During 1795, new problems were added to the Navy. 16 ships and 11 frigates were captured by the English or wrecked, stranded or lost. Despite the shipbuilding effort being carried out the 88 available ships and 73 frigates in 1791, were reduced to 65 and 64 respectively. The French Navy in 1796 made a failed attempt to invade Ireland which meant another major setback. Lazare Hoche Admiral planned a landing at Bantry Bay with twenty thousand men. The intention was to break the connection of Ireland with England, drawing on ancient Irish hostility towards its eastern neighbors. The French squadron at Brest carefully prepared during the summer of that year, but the December 16, 1796, when the operation began, a huge storm and poor coordination of signals scattered the fleet at the entrance of the Channel. The French ships were grouped with difficulty, but the storm had caused the disappearance of the frigate training of staff of the expedition. At the gates of Bantry Bay was total chaos and boats, damaged, overloaded and poorly led troops were unable to enter the bay in the midst of another strong storm. French ships eventually returned to Brest without making a single soldier landed in Ireland. During the return is lost due to the storm, two ships and two frigates.
The strategic assets of the Royal Navy
This failure made it clear that the French Navy, like its Army Earth needed a thorough reorganization. During the same time, the Royal Navy was also undergoing a period of crisis, with serious riots caused by the rigid and often despotic discipline. These uprisings were repressed with decision by the Admiralty. In the battle of June, the Royal Navy had officially abandoned the tactics of the battle line and the guidelines of the High Command called for a strike perpendicular to the enemy line to achieve break through and reach the center and rear. The success of this tactic was based on the effectiveness of fire of the ships that put into practice. And to this end, the British gunners were trained to exhaustion in intense periods of training, to achieve an improvement in their, already, an excellent shot and excellent rate of fire.
Moreover, among the control panels were young officers who revolutionized sticking with their ideas and attitudes in the fight against traditional methods. The highlights were the components of the so-called "band of brothers"-Nelson, Cornwallis and Jervis, which began to get wins and firmly defended the idea that to preserve the strength and survival of England had to defeat by sea any potential invader and, of course, halt the impending expansion of the French Republic. Of these talented officers, especially Horatio Nelson was breaking as the most daring, courageous and creative. Nelson often repeated the phrase coined by Captain William Locker, one of his masters in the art of naval warfare, which had to summarize the objective of the new tactics: "Stay close to a Frenchman and conquer." Nelson had shown great courage and skills as a strategist in the battle of Cape St. Vincent against the English and the attack on Tenerife, but failed and cost him the loss of his right arm, was the beginning of his enormous fame strategist to reach the status of myth, a myth that finished shape in his fight against French expansion, After the victories of Napoleon Bonaparte, seemed unstoppable
Oil representing Napoleon and his generals in Egypt. Bonaparte did not want to colonize the country for France, he was planning it as a basis to control the Mediterranean and attack the interests of England in India. Napoleon against England
General Bonaparte, who in 1796 the Board had assigned the command of the Army in Italy, had led to success the military campaign that had enriched the Republic, to strengthen it also politically . Napoleon had succeeded in revitalizing the impoverished French army, organizing it and providing it with an irresistible performance. The name of Bonaparte in Paris was synonymous with success, but Napoleon returned to France but from Italy began to shape their expansionist plans. The "small" general knew that if France wanted to take command in Europe had to confront and defeat the English starting or neutralize wrest control of their colonies in the world. Among these, India was the most wealth provided the British Empire, his great rival. In 1790, Britain had decided to nationalize the East India Company, an economic potential achieved thanks to the extraordinary military power that exercised its influence on a nation of over 155 million inhabitants, of whom 30 million were directly under the control of the London government.
Napoleon, rose to major general in 1798, convinced the Board, through its representatives in Toulon, the desirability of conquering Egypt and the coast of Syria to cut off British trade routes in the area, then to India from and conquer it, thus giving the coup de grace to the main source of wealth in Britain. Napoleon's plans were, however, beyond this strategy against the English, fell squarely the megalomaniac dream of reviving a Mediterranean empire style of ancient Rome, including the march towards Istanbul and Russia via Syria. Establish, in short, a "French peace" which recalls the Roman pax of antiquity.
To achieve this, Napoleon needed to control the sea, and had to do immediately to begin his campaign in Asia and in the medium term, to defeat England. It was the beginning of a maritime adventure that led to France to face the British Army in a uncertain struggle that resulted in three spectacular and bloody naval battles: the Battle of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. The latter, which was Spain directly involved, it meant one of the greatest battles of sailing history, Trafalgar meant the final defeat of Napoleon maritime and early English maritime hegemony, which spread during the nineteenth century.