Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte), 1808–73, emperor of the French (1852–70), son of Louis Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, family), king of Holland. The nephew of Napoleon I, Louis Napole...

Napoleon I, 1769–1821, emperor of the French, b. Ajaccio, Corsica, known as the Little Corporal. The son of Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte (or Buonaparte; see under Bonaparte, family), young Napo...

Algerine War, early 19th-century conflict between Algiers and the United States. The Tripolitan War (1801–5) had brought a temporary halt to the pirate activities of the Barbary States. Howeve...

War, armed conflict between states or nations (international war) or between factions within a state (civil war), prosecuted by force and having the purpose of compelling the defeated side to ...

Peninsular War, 1808–14, fought by France against Great Britain, Portugal, Spanish regulars, and Spanish guerrillas in the Iberian Peninsula. The conflict was precipitated when Portugal refuse...

Tripolitan War, 1800–1815, conflict between the United States and the Barbary States. Piracy had become a normal source of income in the N African Barbary States long before the United States ...

French Revolutionary Wars, wars occurring in the era of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, the decade of 1792–1802. The wars began as an effort to defend the Revolu...

Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, 1870–71, conflict between France and Prussia that signaled the rise of German military power and imperialism. It was provoked by Otto von Bismarck (th...

War of 1812, armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain, 1812–15. It followed a period of great stress between the two nations as a result of the treatment of neutral countries...

Austro-Prussian War or Seven Weeks War, June 15–Aug. 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, seconded by Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, Hanover, Baden, and several smaller Ge...