Battle of Trafalgar
- Date
- 21 October 1805
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Atlantic Ocean, off Spain
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
On 21 October 1805, off Cape Trafalgar on the southwest coast of Spain, a British fleet of 27 ships of the line under Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson decisively defeated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 33 ships commanded by Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve.
Abandoning conventional line-of-battle tactics, Nelson drove his fleet in two columns through the enemy line, breaking it into sections that could be overwhelmed in detail. The allied fleet lost some 19 or 20 ships and around 14,000 men killed, wounded or captured, while the Royal Navy lost no vessels. Nelson was mortally wounded by a French sniper and died certain of victory. The battle shattered Napoleon's hopes of invading Britain and confirmed British command of the seas, a maritime supremacy that would underpin Britain's global power and empire for more than a century. With invasion impossible, Napoleon turned to economic warfare against Britain through the Continental System.
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Empires active in 21 October 1805
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Haiti declares independence after a successful slave revolution1 January 1804
- Napoleon's invasion of RussiaJune–December 1812
- Battle of Waterloo18 June 1815
- First Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking1839–1842 (Treaty of Nanking, 29 August 1842)
- The Taiping Rebellion1850–1864
- American Civil War and the abolition of slavery1861–1865 (Emancipation Proclamation 1 January 1863; 13th Amendment ratified 6 December 1865)
Further reading
The wider story
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.
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