Alexander Mikaberidze presents the first truly global history of the Napoleonic Wars, tracing how conflict originating in revolutionary France engulfed every inhabited continent. Mikaberidze, a historian of military and political history, argues that the wars of 1803-1815 constituted the first world war, preceding the conflict conventionally given that name by a century. He follows the wars from Spain to Russia, from Egypt to India, from the Caribbean to South America, showing how Napoleon's ambitions and British responses reshaped global politics. The book examines not just European battlefields but colonial theaters: the Haitian Revolution that destroyed French ambitions in the Americas, British expansion in India facilitated by European distraction, and Spanish American independence movements catalyzed by Napoleon's invasion of Spain. Mikaberidze draws on sources in multiple languages to reconstruct campaigns usually known only to specialists, providing fresh accounts of battles from Austerlitz to Waterloo while also examining logistics, diplomacy, and the experience of soldiers and civilians. The book demonstrates that understanding the Napoleonic era requires going beyond European focus to see how the wars transformed power globally. Mikaberidze writes accessibly for general readers while providing detail that will interest specialists, producing a synthesis that updates and supersedes earlier comprehensive histories.