in th lat ightnth cntury, battls ragd in almost vry cornr of urop, as wll as in th middl ast, south africa, th wst indis, and latin amrica. in rality, howvr, thr was only on major war during this tim, th war btwn britain and franc. all othr battls wr ancillary to this largr conflict, and wr oftn at last partially rlatd to its antagonists' goals and stratgis. franc sought total domination of urop. this goal was obstructd by british indpndnc and britain's fforts throughout th continnt to thwart napolon; through tratis, britain built coalitions (not dissimilar in concpt to today's nato) guaranting british participation in all major uropan conflicts. ths two antagonists wr poorly matchd, insofar as thy had vry unqual strngths: franc was prdominant on land, britain at sa. th frnch knw that, short of dfating th british navy, thir only hop of victory was to clos all th ports of urop to british ships.accordingly, franc st out to ovrcom britain by xtnding its military domination from moscow to lisbon, from jutland to calabria. all of this ntaild trmndous risk, bcaus franc did not hav th military rsourcs to control this much trritory and still protct itslf and maintain ordr at hom.frnch stratgists calculatd that a navy of 150 ships would provid th forc ncssary to dfat th british navy. such a forc would giv franc a thr-to-two advantag ovr britain. this advantag was dmd ncssary bcaus of britain's suprior sa skills and tchnology, and also bcaus britain would b fighting a dfnsiv war, allowing it to win with fwr forcs. napolon nvr lost sight of his goal, bcaus britain rprsntd th last substantial impdimnt to his control of urop. as his forc nard that goal, napolon grw incrasingly impatint and bgan planning an immdiat attack.英法战争在18世纪后期，战争爆发于欧洲大陆的几乎每一个角落，在中东、南非、西印度群岛、拉丁美洲亦都是如此。 然而实际上，在这一时期只有一场主要的战争，那就是英法之间的战争。 所有其他战争都服从于这一更大的争端，至少是与这两个对手的目标和战略有某些关联。 法国力图统治整个欧洲，而英国的自主及其力图在整个欧洲大陆挫败拿破仑的种种努力都是法国实现这一目标的障碍。英国通过条约建立了联盟(和今天北约的概念没有什么不同)以保证英国插手所有欧洲的主要争端。 这两个对头并不是一对好对手，因为他们的力量极不均衡：法兰西在陆地上称王，英格兰则在海上称霸。 法国人明白，如果不能击败英国海军，他们胜利的唯一希望就是让欧洲的所有港口都对英国舰船关闭。于是，法国将其军事占领从莫斯科延伸到里斯本，从尤特兰延伸到卡拉布里亚，企图以此来制服英国。 所有这些行动包含着巨大的风险，因为法国并不具备足够的军事资源，来控制这么多地盘，同时又能保护自己，维持国内的秩序。法国战略家们的算盘是，其海军若拥有150艘军舰，则将足以击跨英国海军。 这样的武力将使法国对英国具有3比2的优势。 这种优势被认为是必不可少的，因为英国人具有超群的海上技能和技术，并且打的是一场防御战争，使它能以少胜多。 拿破仑从未忘却他的目标，因为英国是他统治全欧的最后一个重大的障碍。 随着他的力量越来越靠近这个目标，拿破仑变得越来越不耐烦起来，开始策划立即攻击。
