[9][11][12] The military victory of Napoleon's Grande Armée at Austerlitz brought the War of the Third Coalition to an end, with the Peace of Pressburg signed by the French and Austrians later in the month.

Napoleon gave every indication in the days preceding the engagement that the French army was in a pitiful state, even abandoning the dominant Pratzen Heights near Austerlitz.

It also imposed an indemnity of 40 million francs on the Habsburgs and allowed the fleeing Russian troops free passage through hostile territories and back to their home soil.

Critically, victory at Austerlitz permitted the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of German states intended as a buffer zone between France and the eastern powers, Austria, Prussia and Russia.

[15] In 1797, after five years of war, the French Republic subdued the First Coalition, an alliance of Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, and various Italian states.

[16] A Second Coalition, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and the Kingdom of Naples,[17] was formed in 1798, but by 1801, this too had been defeated, leaving the British the only opponent of the new French Consulate.

[27] British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger spent 1804 and 1805 in a flurry of diplomatic activity geared towards forming a new coalition against France, and by April 1805, Britain and Russia had signed an alliance.

[28] Before the formation of the Third Coalition, Napoleon had assembled an invasion force called the Armée d'Angleterre (Army of England) around six camps at Boulogne in Northern France.

He intended to use this force, amounting to 150,000 men,[30] to strike at England and was so confident of success that he had commemorative medals struck to celebrate the conquest of the English.

[45] In August 1805, Napoleon, Emperor of the French since December of the previous year,[46] turned his sights from the English Channel to the Rhine to deal with the new Austrian and Russian threats.

[51] Although this spectacular victory was soured by the defeat of a Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar[54] the following day, French success on land continued as Vienna fell in November.

Prussian intentions were unknown and could be hostile; the Russian and Austrian armies had converged, and French lines of communication were extremely long, requiring strong garrisons to keep them open.

Although the Tsar and his immediate entourage pushed hard for a battle, Emperor Francis of Austria was more cautious, and, as mentioned, he was seconded by Kutuzov, the Commander-in-chief of the Russians and the Allied troops.

[58][71] If the Russian force leaves the Pratzen Heights in order to go to the right side, they will certainly be defeated.The massive thrust through the Allied centre was conducted by 16,000 troops of Soult's IV Corps.

This battlefield sector witnessed heavy fighting in this early action as several ferocious Allied charges evicted the French from the town and forced them onto the other side of the Goldbach.

[58] At about 8:45 a.m., satisfied at the weakness in the enemy center, Napoleon asked Soult how long it would take for his men to reach the Pratzen Heights, to which the Marshal replied, "Less than twenty minutes, sire."

"[77] A dense fog helped to cloud the advance of St. Hilaire's French division, but as they ascended the slope, the legendary 'Sun of Austerlitz' ripped the mist apart and encouraged them forward.

To the north, General Vandamme's division attacked an area called Staré Vinohrady ("Old Vineyards") and, through talented skirmishing and deadly volleys, broke several Allied battalions.

Napoleon ordered Bernadotte's I Corps to support Vandamme's left and moved his command center from Žuráň Hill to St. Anthony's Chapel on the Pratzen Heights.

The Russians had a numerical advantage; however, the tide soon swung as Drouet's Division, the 2nd of Bernadotte's I Corps, deployed on the flank of the action and allowed French cavalry to seek refuge behind their lines.

The fighting initially went well for the French, but Kellerman's forces took cover behind General Caffarelli's infantry division once it became clear that Russian numbers were too great.

In an effective double-pronged assault, St. Hilaire's division and part of Davout's III Corps smashed through the enemy at Sokolnitz, which persuaded the commanders of the first two columns, Generals Kienmayer and Langeron, to flee as fast as they could.

A famous, albeit disputed, episode occurred during this retreat: defeated Russian forces withdrew south towards Vienna via the frozen Satschan ponds.

[7] However, local evidence later made public suggests that Napoleon's account of the catastrophe may have been exaggerated; on his instructions, the lakes were drained a few days after the battle and the corpses of only two or three men, with some 150 horses, were found.

Napoleon wrote to his victorious army on the night of Austerlitz with his customary rhetoric: "Even at this hour, before this great day shall pass and be lost in the ocean of eternity, your emperor just address you, and say how satisfied he is with the conduct of all those who had the good fortune to fight in this memorable battle.

Thousands of ages hereafter, as long as the events of the universe continue to be relate, will it be told that a Russian army of 76,000 men, hired by the gold of England, was annihilated by you on the plains of Olmütz.

[90]Leo Tolstoy dramatized the battle as the conclusion of Book 3 and Volume 1 of War and Peace, making it a crucial moment in the lives of both Andrei Bolkonsky, who is badly wounded, and of Nikolai Rostov.

[91]: 118, 152–169 Archibald Alison in his History of Europe (1836) offers the first recorded telling of the apocryphal story that when the Allies descended the Pratzen Heights to attack Napoleon's supposedly weak flank, The marshals who surrounded Napoleon saw the advantage, and eagerly besought him to give the signal for action; but he restrained their ardour ... "when the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him.

"[93] Napoleon did not succeed in defeating the Allied army as thoroughly as he wanted,[3] but historians and enthusiasts alike recognize that the original plan provided a significant victory, comparable to other great tactical battles such as Cannae.

[96] In the 2005 bicentennial, however, controversy erupted when neither French President Jacques Chirac nor Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin attended any functions commemorating the battle.