Although ideology did matter, the conflict was largely driven by geopolitical considerations that were similar to those existing during the wars waged by Louis XIV. Ideological aspects of the Napoleonic Wars are often emphasized as a main source of the conflict, but Europe was not divided along ideological lines. The French Revolutionary Wars were undertaken to defend, and then to spread, the effects of the French Revolution. Never before had European states resorted to a mobilization of civilian and military resources as total as during this period, which resulted in fundamental changes for the societies and armies in question. The French Revolution unleashed a torrent of political, social, cultural, and military changes. These wars constitute a continuation of the French Revolutionary Wars that broke out in 1792 and ranged France against shifting alliances of other European powers. The starting point for the Napoleonic Wars is usually considered the signing of the Peace of Amiens between France and Britain in 1802, while the end point is set in the wake of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and his exile from France in 1815. The Napoleonic Wars represent a turning point in European affairs and a major break with the past.
