The period of conflict beginning on April 20, 1792 and continuing until November 20, 1815. This conflict was begun when France declared war on Austria following a gradual increase in tensions following the French Revolution in 1789. The wars continued through several régime changes in France (beginning with the deposition of King Louis XVI in 1792 and continuing through the Terror instigated by the Jacobins under Maximilien de Robespierre. The Jacobins were in turn overthrown and an Executive Director set up, eventually also giving way to the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. The period of the war prior to the seizure of power by Bonaparte in 1799 is generally refered to as the Revolutionary Wars and the period afterward is known as the Napoleonic Wars.

In total the war claimed between 4 million and 6.5 million lives (including civilian casualties) and involved between 6 and 10 million combatants. It was fought principally in Europe, but conflcit did occur in both north Africa and south Africa as well as in South America, North America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, India and throughout much of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

See: Revolutionary Wars; Napoleonic Wars; War of 1812; Second and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars.