This book seeks to explore two working hypotheses: Firstly that Napoleon s alleged military
superiority in terms of skill and battlefield competence over his peers can be empirically
quantified and proven. Secondly that the results of Napoleonic warfare can be predicted by
applying the theory of Contest Success Functions to these battles. To address these claims this
book is organized into four sections: Theory: The first of the conceptual sections summarizes
the theoretical underpinning behind the economical understanding of conflict. This so called
second approach and its merits are outlined and the history of these theoretical concepts is
explained. Chapter three introduces the Ratio Contest Success Function (RCSF) put forth by
Tullock and the Difference Contest Success Function (DCSF) employed by Hirshleifer the
concepts for predicting probabilities of success in conflict theory. History: The fourth
chapter gives a brief report on warfare during the Napoleonic ages. A special emphasis lies on
an analysis that evaluates if the key parameters have been homogenous over the time and what
kind of technology was employed during these battles. The results are then compared with the
demands of conflict theory. The fifth chapter then explicates the data set. The different
variables that could be obtained are introduced and at last the scope of the further analysis
is specified. This is done by picking the variables that can actually be used for an in-depth
quantitative. Modelling: In the four chapters that deal with the actual modelling the theory
is applied to the historical data to yield the results we need to verify the working
hypotheses. After the two different estimators used have been introduced in chapter six the
chapters seven and eight deal with utilising each of the estimators to answer these questions.
The results from the estimates are interpreted and are compared in chapter nine. In addition
chapter nine attempts to weigh the explanatory value of the two approaches and places them in
the historical perspective. Résumé: Chapter ten answers comments on Napoleon s personal worth
on the battlefield and applies the findings of the empirical work to three short case studies.
The subsequent summary then merges the results of the whole study and concludes with follow-up
questions for future research.
