War of the Sixth Coalition
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In the War of the Sixth Coalition (1813–1814), a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers joined Russia, Britain, Portugal and the rebels in Spain. With their armies reorganized, they drove Napoleon out of Germany in 1813 and invaded France in 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate and restoring the Bourbons.
Two-and-a-half million troops fought in the conflict and the total dead amounted to as many as two million, including the casualties of the 1812 Russian campaign. (Some estimates suggest that over a million died in Russia alone.) The War of the Sixth Coalition included the battles of Lützen, Bautzen, Dresden and the epic Battle of Leipzig (also known as the Battle of Nations), which was the largest battle of the Napoleonic wars, and, indeed, the largest in Western history before the First World War. Ultimately, Napoleon's earlier setbacks in Russia and Germany proved to be the seeds of his undoing, and the Allies occupied Paris, forcing his abdication.
See also
- The Hundred Days or the War of the Seventh Coalition
