Part 65 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Francis II a.s.sumes the t.i.tle of 'Emperor of Austria.']

Francis II did not, however, lose his t.i.tle of Emperor. Shortly after the First Consul had received that t.i.tle, Francis adopted the formula ”Emperor of Austria,” to designate him as the ruler of all the possessions of his house. Hitherto he had been officially known as King of Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Galicia, and Laodomeria, Duke of Lorraine, Venice, Salzburg, etc., Grand Duke of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia, etc.

[Sidenote: The Confederation of the Rhine.]

Meanwhile Napoleon had organized a union of the southern German states, called the Confederation of the Rhine, and had a.s.sumed its heads.h.i.+p as ”Protector.” This he had done, he a.s.sured Europe, ”in the dearest interests of his people and of his neighbors,” adding the pious hope that the French armies had crossed the Rhine for the last time, and that the people of Germany would witness no longer, ”except in the annals of the past, the horrible pictures of disorder, devastation, and slaughter that war invariably brings with it.”[423]

Immediately after the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon proclaimed that the king of Naples, who had allied himself with the English, had ceased to reign, and French generals were ordered to occupy Naples. In March, 1806, he made his brother Joseph king of Naples and Sicily, his brother Louis king of Holland, and his brother-in-law, Murat, duke of Cleves and Berg. These states and those of his German allies const.i.tuted what he called ”the real French Empire.”

[Sidenote: Prussia forced into war with France.]

249. One of the most important of the continental states, it will have been noticed, had taken no part as yet in the opposition to the extension of Napoleon's power. Prussia, the first power to conclude peace with the new French republic in 1795, had since that time maintained a strict neutrality. Had it yielded to Tsar Alexander's persuasions and joined the coalition in 1805, it might have turned the tide at Austerlitz, or at any rate have encouraged further resistance to the conqueror. The hesitation of Frederick William III cost him dear, for Napoleon now forced him into war at a time when he could look for no efficient a.s.sistance from Russia or the other powers. The immediate cause of the declaration of war was the disposal of Hanover. This electorate Frederick William had consented to hold provisionally, pending its possible transfer to him should the English king give his a.s.sent. Prussia was anxious to get possession of Hanover because it lay just between her older possessions and the territory which she had gained in the redistribution of 1803.[424]

[Sidenote: Napoleon's insolent behavior toward Prussia.]

Napoleon, as usual, did not fail either to see or to use his advantage.

His conduct toward Prussia was most insolent. After setting her at enmity with England and promising that she should have Hanover, he unblus.h.i.+ngly offered to restore the electorate to George III. His insults now began to arouse the national spirit in Prussia, and the reluctant Frederick William was forced by the party in favor of war, which included his beautiful queen Louise, and the great statesman Stein, to break with Napoleon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EUROPE AT THE HEIGHT OF NAPOLEON'S POWER]

[Sidenote: Decisive defeat of the Prussian army at Jena, 1806.]

Her army was, however, as has been well said, ”only that of Frederick the Great grown twenty years older”; one of Frederick's generals, the aged duke of Brunswick, who had issued the famous manifesto in 1792,[425] was its leader. A single defeat, near Jena (October 14, 1806), put Prussia completely in the hands of her enemy. This one disaster produced complete demoralization throughout the country.

Fortresses were surrendered without resistance, and the king fled to the uttermost parts of his realm on the Russian boundary.

[Sidenote: The campaign in Poland.]

[Sidenote: Territorial changes of the treaties of Tilsit, July, 1807.]

[Sidenote: Creation of the grand duchy of Warsaw and the kingdom of Westphalia.]

Napoleon now led his army into Poland, where he spent the winter in operations against Russia and her feeble Prussian ally. He closed an arduous campaign by a signal victory at Friedland (June 14, 1807), which was followed by the treaties of Tilsit with Russia and Prussia (July 7 and 9). Napoleon had no mercy on Prussia. Frederick William III lost all his possessions to the west of the Elbe and all that Prussia had gained in the second and third part.i.tions of Poland. The Polish territory Napoleon made into a new subject kingdom called the grand duchy of Warsaw, and chose his friend, the king of Saxony, as its ruler. Out of the western lands of Prussia, which he later united with Hanover, he created the kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jerome. Russia, on the other hand, was treated with marked consideration. The Tsar finally consented to recognize all the sweeping territorial changes that Napoleon had made, and secretly agreed to enforce the blockade against England should that country refuse to make peace.

[Sidenote: The continental blockade.]

250. Napoleon's most persevering enemy still remained unconquered and inaccessible. Just as Napoleon was undertaking his successful campaign against Austria in 1805, Nelson had annihilated the French fleet for the second time in the renowned naval engagement of Trafalgar, off the coast of Spain. It seemed more than ever necessary, therefore, to ruin England commercially and industrially, since there was obviously no likelihood of subduing it by arms.

[Sidenote: The Berlin Decree and Napoleon's 'paper' blockade.]

In May, 1806, England had declared the coast from the Elbe to Brest to be blockaded. Napoleon replied to this with the Berlin Decree (November 21, 1806), in which he proclaimed it a monstrous abuse of the right for England to declare great stretches of coast in a state of blockade which her whole fleet would be unable to enforce. He retaliated with a ”paper”[426] blockade of the British Isles, which forbade all commerce with them. Letters or packages directed to England or to an Englishman or written in the English language were not to be permitted to pa.s.s through the mails in the countries he controlled. Every English subject in countries occupied by French troops or in the territory of Napoleon's allies was to be regarded as a prisoner of war and his property as a lawful prize. All trade in English goods was forbidden.

[Sidenote: Disastrous effects of the blockades on the commerce of the United States.]

A year later England established a similar paper blockade of the ports of the French empire and its allies, but permitted the s.h.i.+ps of neutral powers to proceed, provided that they touched at an English port, secured a license from the English government, and paid a heavy export duty. Napoleon promptly declared all s.h.i.+ps that submitted to these humiliating regulations to be lawful prizes of French privateers. The s.h.i.+ps of the United States were at this time the most numerous and important of the neutral carriers. The disastrous results of these restrictions led to the various embargo acts (the first of which was pa.s.sed by Congress in December, 1807), and ultimately to the destruction of the flouris.h.i.+ng carrying trade of the United States.

[Sidenote: Napoleon's attempt to make the continent independent of English colonial products.]

Napoleon tried to render Europe permanently independent of the colonial productions brought from English colonies and by English s.h.i.+ps. He encouraged the subst.i.tution of chicory for coffee, the cultivation of the sugar beet, and the discovery of new dyes to replace those coming from the tropics. But the distress caused by the disturbance in trade produced great discontent, especially in Russia; it rendered the domination of Napoleon more and more distasteful, and finally contributed to his downfall.[427]

[Sidenote: Napoleon's policy in France.]