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Napoleon after a string of brilliant victories had made himself Emperor of the French. By 1805, his armies had proven victorious in Germany, Spain, and Italy and he was the most powerful man in Europe. This prompted the other powers in Europe to form the Third Coalition in order to defeat the French. This Coalition included England, Russia, Prussia and Austria. The formation of this alliance caught Napoleon off guard. He had been planning for the invasion of England and had amassed a large army in northern France, known as the Army of England. However, he learned that Austria, Prussia, and the Russians were mobilizing and planned to attack the French and their allies. Napoleon abandoned his plans to invade England and decided to attack his enemies before they could have united their forces. This was typical of Napoleon who was always willing to go on the attack and believed that the key to success was never to let the enemy to settle and attack them before they were in a position to attack the French <ref> David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (Longman, N.Y., 2000) p. 407</ref>.

Moving with great speed he took his army of over 200,000 French and allied troops from their encampments near Boulogne and crossed into Germany on September the 25th. The army was divided into several corps. They were independent units with attachments of artillery and each corps commander had a great deal of autonomy in their decision making. The army had also two cavalry divisions of approximately 20,000. The Austrians with their German allies decided to meet Napoleon in Bavaria in Germany. They intended to slow down his army and to defend Austria from a French invasion until the arrival of the huge Russian army. The Prussians because of internal politics had been very slow in mobilizing and the Austrians were forced to meet Napoleon almost on their own. The Austrian General Mack established a line of defense near Ulm in Bavaria. However, Napoleon’s army was very quick and after a feint attack, he was able to appear at the rear of the Austrian army and inflicted a decisive defeat on Mack. In this battle, the French captured Mack and some 23,000 of his men. Napoleon was free to march into Central Europe <ref> Chandler, p. 401</ref>. In November of 1805, the French marched on Vienna and occupied it. The Austrian army knew it could not defeat Napoleon so it retreated to an area in modern-day the Czech Republic, here they met the Russian army under General Kutsov. Here they were waiting for the Prussian army. Napoleon did not stay long in Vienna and march forward to meet the allies before they were joined by the Prussians. He had swept aside all opposition but he was faced with many problems, his men had marched across Europe and needed rest, while worryingly his logistics were breaking down. His men were reliant up confiscating food from the locals, then there was the fact that the snows of winter were due and the French army had not established any winter quarters. Napoleon was eager for a quick battle or else he would have to retreat because of the weather and a shortage of supplies.