Day of Decision: The Battle of Trafalgar

Background

The Peace of Amiens, signed on March 25th, 1802, ended the French Revolutionary War that had been raging between France and Britain and her continental allies for nearly nine years. The treaty, beyond confirming "peace, friendship, and good understanding" arranged for the restoration of prisoners and hostages. Britain gave up much of the West Indies to the Batavian Republic and also withdrew from Egypt but was granted Trinidad and Tobago and Ceylon. France withdrew from the Papal States. The treaty fixed the borders of French Guiana. Malta, Gozo, and Comino were restored to the Order of St. John and the islands were declared neutral. 

Much of the Royal Navy was disbanded, its ships laid up, the crews paid off. But the Treaty of Amiens only gave a fourteen month respite in hostilities. The fragile peace collapsed and Britain hastily reassembled her fleet to blockade French ports while Napoleon, now Emperor of the French, assembled a Grande Armee along with 2000 sailing craft with which to cross the English Channel for the invasion of Britain. All Napoleon needed was control of the channel for a few hours to allow him to sail his army across.

In order to secure the naval superiority that he needed, Napoleon ordered the commander of the Toulon Squadron, Admiral Villeneuvel, to break out of the British blockade, make his way to the Atlantic, break the blockades of Brest, Rochefort, and Ferrol, freeing the fleets in those ports, and then, with the combined fleet, secure naval superiority in the channel at Boulogne to allow the passage of the Grande Armee to Britain. Instead, Villeneuvel picked up the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, passed through the straits of Gibraltar, and headed for the West Indies.

Admiral Horatio Nelson