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Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814

Adriatic campaign
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
La Pomone contre les fregates Alceste et Active.jpg
La Pomone contre les frégates HMS Alceste et Active
Pierre Julien Gilbert
Date 1807–1814
Location Adriatic Sea in the Mediterranean Sea
Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom United Kingdom
 Austria (1813–1814)
Greek Revolution flag.svg Irregular Greek forces
Flag of the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro2.svg Montenegro
France French Empire
 Italy
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Kingdom of Naples
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Thomas Fremantle
United Kingdom William Hoste
United Kingdom John Oswald
United Kingdom Murray Maxwell
Flag of the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro2.svg Petar I Petrović-Njegoš
France Bernard Dubourdieu

The Adriatic campaign was a minor theatre of war during the Napoleonic Wars in which a succession of small British Royal Navy squadrons and independent cruisers harried the combined naval forces of the First French Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Illyrian Provinces and the Kingdom of Naples between 1807 and 1814 in the Adriatic Sea. Italy, Naples and Illyria were all controlled either directly or via proxy by the French Emperor Napoleon I, who had seized them at the Treaty of Pressburg in the aftermath of the War of the Third Coalition.

Control of the Adriatic brought numerous advantages to the French Navy, allowing rapid transit of troops from Italy to the Balkans and Austria for campaigning in the east and giving France possession of numerous shipbuilding facilities, particularly the large naval yards of Venice. From 1807, when the Treaty of Tilsit precipitated a Russian withdrawal from the Septinsular Republic, the French Navy held naval supremacy in the region. The Treaty of Tilsit also contained a secret clause that guaranteed French assistance in any war fought between the Russians and the Ottoman Empire. To fulfil this clause, Napoleon would have to secure his supply lines to the east by developing the French armies in Illyria. This required control of the Adriatic against increasingly aggressive British raiders. The Royal Navy determined to stop these troop convoys from reaching Illyria and sought to break French hegemony in the region, resulting in a six-year naval campaign.


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