Ireland in the Coalition Wars The revolt was over quickly. Robert Emmet was arrested and later executed. After Emmet's abortive rising, there were no instances of unrest in Ireland until after 1815, when the Napoleonic Wars ended with Bonaparte's final defeat, the Battle of Waterloo. Some Irishmen, including Robert Emmet's brother Thomas, actually had become hostile to the French, embittered toward them for failing to offer greater assistance in the revolts and for refusing to plan any more invasions after 1803. Ireland in the Coalition Wars Ireland was involved in the Coalition Wars, also known as the French Revolutionary (1792–1802) and Napoleonic (1804–1815) Wars. The
Napoleonic Wars positions before the Battle of Fleurus, on 26 June 1794. Historians have explored how the Napoleonic wars became total wars. Most historians argue that the escalation in size and scope came from two sources. First was the ideological clash between revolutionary/egalitarian and conservative/hierarchical belief systems. Second was the emerging nationalism in France, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere that made these "people's wars" instead of contests between monarchs. Bell has argued that even more important than ideology and nationalism were the intellectual transformations in the culture of war that came about through the Enlightenment. One factor, he says, is that war was