British Army during the Napoleonic Wars led to the Battle of Trafalgar, a French fleet carrying 6,500 troops briefly captured Dominica and other islands but subsequently withdrew. In 1808, once the British were allied to Portugal and Spain, they were able to concentrate their forces and capture the French possessions one by one; Cayenne and Martinique in 1809, and Guadeloupe in 1810. Haiti was left to the insurgent armies. In 1805 news arrived in London that Napoleon had broken up his invasion camp at Boulogne, and was marching across Germany. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom William Pitt immediately equipped an army of 15,000 men,
Battle of Trafalgar employed elsewhere or had fallen from Napoleon's favour. Villeneuve had shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm for facing Nelson and the Royal Navy after the French defeat at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Napoleon's naval plan in 1805 was for the French and Spanish fleets in the Mediterranean and Cádiz to break through the blockade and join forces in the Caribbean. They would then return, assist the fleet in Brest to emerge from the blockade, and together clear the English Channel of Royal Navy ships, ensuring a safe passage for the invasion barges. Early in 1805, Vice Admiral