SIEGE OF TOULON
AUGUST– DECEMBER 1793
An audacious raid that announced Napoleon Bonaparte to the world
It may not be as celebrated as the likes of Austerlitz or Friedland (see page 37). Yet when it comes to evaluating Napoleon's greatest victories, the Siege of Toulon cannot be overlooked. It was here, after all, that he first revealed his genius.
The Siege of Toulon took place from August to December 1793 at the height of the French Revolutionary Wars. French royalist forces, supported by an Anglo-Spanish fleet, had seized the Mediterranean port, and French republican efforts to dislodge them initially failed.
Napoleon changed all that. He masterminded an attack that, in the early hours of 17 December, ejected the allies from a series of forts along Toulon's anchorage. Napoleon lost blood in the assault, courtesy of a wound to the thigh inflicted by a British bayonet. But he gained a lot more.
THE NILE
1–3 AUGUST 1798
When Napoleon's aims of dominating the Mediterranean sank without trace
By the end of the 1790s, Napoleon was rapidly establishing himself as a dominant figure across much of continental Europe. It was a different story on water, however. For more than a decade, the Royal Navy foiled Napoleon's attempts to dominate the high seas – thanks, to a considerable extent,
