Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I) was a French military general who became the first Emperor of France in 1804 as a result of the French Revolution.

In 1802 Britain and France signed the Treaty of Amiens. This brought to an end the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802), a series of conflicts across Europe that France fought against Britain and other European states. Peace was short-lived.

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of major global conflicts pitting the Napoleonic French Empire and its allies against an array of European states formed into various coalitions. The conflicts were a consequence of unresolved disputes resulting from the French Revolution and French Revolutionary Wars.

The Napoleonic Wars are often categorised into five periods: the Third Coalition (1805), the Fourth Coalition (1806-07), the Fifth Coalition (1809), the Sixth Coalition (1813-14), and the Seventh Coalition (1815).

The Wars conclude with the Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon’s second abdication on 22^nd June 1815.

In 1803 Britain declared war on France. Napoleon responded by assembling an invasion fleet against Britain. This poster is a call to arms and a declaration for British men to defend their country against the French. The poster shows us how fearful Britain was of a French invasion, and their will to fight back by claiming that one million men were ready to take up arms. The population of Britain in 1801 was 10.5 million people.

The poster references two alleged insults against the British made by Napoleon – that Britain was a nation of shopkeepers and that the British were ‘too fond of our Ease to engage in the Hardship’s of a Soldier’s Life…’. The reference to shopkeepers suggested that Britain was a commercial nation rather than a military one. Britain’s military power at this time lay with the Royal Navy. During the periods of the French Revolutionary Wars (1793-1802) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) the power of the Royal Navy was at its height and exceeded that of other European nations.

The poster refers to Napoleon as the Corsican usurper – Napoleon was born in Corsica in 1769. This is an attack upon Napoleon personally rather than the French as a nation.

The production of posters and handbills was an important method of circulating information in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Newspapers were expensive and taxed by the government. Posters, public notes, and handbills could be produced and circulated cheaply and were therefore an effective form of communication.

Tar – the term Tar or Jack Tar was used to describe a sailor. The term is thought to derive from the fact that tar was used by sailors to pitch or waterproof the ship.