The feud between the French and the Great Britain over European supremacy began long before the Napoleonic Wars officially began. The Napoleonic Wars took place amid the years of 1803 and 1815 between the French—under Napoleon—and English nations. The seven Napoleonic wars spawned from the political problems from the French Revolutionary wars from 1789-1802 (“Napoleonic Wars”). This war left many families in poverty and unemployed due to the high taxes, food prices, and wartime trade restrictions. Monetary struggles left many men to be forced to enter war in order to save their families financial conditions. It finally came to an end with the Second Treaty of Paris on November 20^th, 1815. After Napoleon’s loss at the Battle of Waterloo (“The Napoleonic Wars”).

From 1792 to the conclusion of the war, England was involved in the war. Being born in 1775 and raise during the war can have its effects on people, but Jane Austen kept her thoughts on war to herself. Although Austen rarely included politics or war in her novels, there are underlying aspects that can be tied back to these cultural impacts. Austen lived almost the entirety of her life in the shadow of the Napoleon’s oppression, and to not directly mention this fact in a novel can be understood—and criticized—by many. She was still connected to the war; two of her brothers were serving in the Royal Navy, and one in the militia. This can be tied into many of her novels, such as in Sense and Sensibility when the Dashwood sisters must leave their brother, Mr. John Dashwood (Everett). She also mentions in other novels war ships that may allude to that of her brother’s ships. Many researchers also found that when writing about a man in uniform, Austen characterized them as “handsome officers, but they appear less as fighting men than as gentlemen in uniform whose principal, maneuvers of French garrisons” (Nattress). Austen may have never directly stated the impact the war had on her and her family, or those families in her fictional novels, but many connections can be made between the two.

Works Cited

Jason, R. Everett. “Jane Austen & the Wars.” http://www.theloiterer.org/essays/warsintro.html.

“Napoleonic Wars.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars.

Nattress, Laurel Ann. “Jane Austen and The Battle of Waterloo.” Austenprose, 18 June 2008, https://austenprose.com/2008/06/18/jane-austen-and-the-battle-of-waterloo/.

“The Napoleonic Wars.” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/Gladstone-and-Disraeli.

Worsley, Lucy. “The Napoleonic Wars’ Impact on Jane Austen.” The History Reader, 31 July 2017. https://www.thehistoryreader.com/military-history/napoleonic-wars/.