The Battle of Jena in Prussian History
by The Battle of Jena Auerstedt fought on 14th October 1806 was in many respects a watershed moment in the history of Prussia. This shattering defeat at the hands of the French was highly traumatic.
King Friedrich Wilhelm III had brought Prussia into the alliance against France expecting to be upon the winning side. After all the Prussians had prided themselves upon the military prowess of their armies, which meant that they had consistently punched above their weight in the numerous European wars of the 18th century. Prussia’s reputation for military excellence had been built upon the stunning victories of Frederick the Great. Unfortunately, nobody had updated Prussian tactics since his death with catastrophic consequences at Jena.
The French under Napoleon had turned their revolutionary armies into a formidable fighting force that had crushed all of its foes on mainland Europe. Britain had persuaded Austria, Prussia, and Russia to form another alliance to defeat the French. Whenever possible Napoleon attempted to prevent the allies from fighting his armies at the same time. At Jena he caught the Prussians alone and destroyed them.
Jena was an undoubted shock for the Prussians as it was a crushing defeat that shattered their army. Instead of been confident of defeating the French the Prussian government was forced to seek peace terms from Napoleon from a position of considerable weakness. With rapid defeats Prussia as well as Austria and Russia were knocked out of the war leaving Britain to fight on alone.
Jena was such a dramatic defeat that it persuaded the Prussian military to conduct a fundamental review of their tactics, training, and weaponry. These reforms were introduced to ensure that such a humiliation would never happen again. In the mean time Prussia had to settle for being a satellite state of France.
However the military domination of France was ended by Napoleon’s rash invasion of Russia. The Prussians had contributed troops to that invasion but several of its senior officers defected to fight for the Russians. The revitalised Prussian armies played their part in the defeat of France in 1814 as well as the victory at Waterloo one year later.
Bibliography
Clarke C, (2006) Iron Kingdom – The Rise and Fall of Prussia 1600 – 1947, Penguin, London
Crystal, D. – The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia 2nd edition (1998) Cambridge
Lenman B, (2004) Chambers Dictionary of World History, Edinburgh
Woodruff W, A Concise History of the Modern World, (2005) Abacus, London
Liked it
