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Who is Napoleon's biggest enemy?

Asked by Anonymous Oct 03, 2026 5 views 1 answers
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Answered Oct 06, 2026
Napoleon's biggest enemy changed over time, but overall his most persistent and ultimately successful enemy was Great Britain, led politically by figures like William Pitt and later Lord Castlereagh and militarily by the Duke of Wellington. Britain was the only major power that fought against France continuously from 1793 to 1815 without ever making a lasting peace, except for the brief Peace of Amiens in 1802-1803. Britain financed almost every coalition against Napoleon, paying millions of pounds in subsidies to Austria, Prussia, and Russia to keep them fighting, and its Royal Navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed French naval power at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and Trafalgar in 1805, ensuring Britain could not be invaded and could blockade French trade. On land, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, became Napoleon's most famous direct battlefield nemesis, defeating Napoleon's marshals in the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal from 1808 to 1814 and then defeating Napoleon himself at Waterloo in 1815 alongside the Prussian Field Marshal Blucher. Other major enemies included Tsar Alexander I of Russia whose decision to continue the war after 1812 destroyed Napoleon's army, and Austrian Foreign Minister Metternich who organized coalitions. However, because Britain never surrendered, funded the resistance, and delivered the final land defeat at Waterloo, historians generally consider Great Britain and Wellington as Napoleon's biggest and most decisive enemy.
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