Napoleonic Wars,Camp Followers


Each French regiment had women authorized to accompany it on campaign. Designated cantinières or vivandières,they wore clothes of at least partly military design. Their official function within the regiment was to sell tobacco and refreshments such as cognac from their carts and care for the wounded. Camp followers could be among the most determined scavengers and looters after battles and on the march. The Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) were a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies,led by Napoleon I,against a fluctuating array of European powers formed into various coalitions,primarily led and financed by the United Kingdom. The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars,which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. The resumption of hostilities the following year paved the way for more than a decade of constant warfare. The Congress of Vienna,which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815,established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms and conditions that ended the wars.


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