Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
Part of the Gunboat War and Napoleonic Wars / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) (16 August – 7 September 1807) was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in order to capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. The incident led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War of 1807, which ended with the Treaty of Örebro in 1812. The attack on Denmark, a neutral country, was heavily criticized internationally.[2]
Battle of Copenhagen 1807 | |||||||
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Part of the Gunboat War and the Napoleonic Wars | |||||||
A painting of the British bombardment by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom | Denmark–Norway | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
James Gambier Lord Cathcart | Ernst Peymann | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
25,000 | 10,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
42 killed 145 wounded 24 missing[1] |
3,000 Entire fleet surrendered[1] | ||||||
195 civilians killed and 768 wounded |
Britain's first response to Napoleon's Continental System was to launch a major naval attack on Denmark. Although neutral, Denmark was under French pressure to pledge its fleet to Napoleon. In September 1807, the Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen, seizing the Danish fleet and assured use of the sea lanes in the North Sea and Baltic Sea for the British merchant fleet. A consequence of the attack was that Denmark did join the Continental System and the war on the side of France, but without a fleet it had little to offer.[3]
The attack gave rise to the term to Copenhagenize.