Napoleon’s Gamble, and a US Diplomat’s Effort to Avoid War With Britain

In this installment of ‘This Week in History,’ a seasoned diplomat falls prey to Napoleon’s statecraft and risks his life to avoid war with Britain and France.

Prime Minister William Pitt (standing center) addressing the Commons on the outbreak of the war with France (1793), 1798, by Anton Hickel. Public Domain

When British Prime Minister William Pitt heard the news of Napoleon Bonaparte’s victory at Austerlitz on Dec. 2, 1805, he famously predicted, “Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years.”

Timothy Pickering, 1792, by Charles Willson Peale. Public Domain