Page 30 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

napoleonic empire 1331

Norway Sweden EMPIRE at 1812
NAPOLEONIC

North Baltic Sea Moscow
Sea
Ireland Denmark
Prussia
Great Netherlands Russia
Britain Amsterdam Berlin Grand
London Warsaw
Belgium Duchy of
Antwerp
Cologne Confederation Dresden Warsaw
Atlantic Frankfurt
of the Prague
Ocean Paris Rhine
Vienna
Nantes France Munich Austrian Empire
Switz. Illyrian
Lyons
Kingdom Milan Provinces
of Italy
Genoa
Elba Ottoman Black Sea
Portugal Spain Rome Naples Empire Napoleon’s empire, 1810
Corsica
Madrid
Papal
N Sardinia States Controlled by Napoleon
Allied with Napoleon
Sicily
Mediterranean Sea Kingdom 0 400 mi
of Naples
0 400 km
the third is still the official name of the Swiss Confeder- By 1805, the Napoleonic empire is best expressed as
ation. Until a series of military reverses in 1799, France a power bloc, a hegemony, over most of western and
effectively controlled most of western Europe. southern Europe.This hegemony was exercised in three
different ways. The left bank of the Rhine, modern Bel-
gium, and northwestern Italy were annexed directly to
The Creation of the Inner France; satellite states were re-created in the Netherlands
Empire, 1800–1805 and north central Italy; the rest of western Germany was
Napoleon’s first task was to recapture these territories the preserve of states closely allied to France: Nassau,
from the Austro-Russian coalition and reestablish French Baden, Bavaria, and Württemberg chief among them.
hegemony in one form or another.This he did in a series These territories became deeply imbued with core French
of well-coordinated military campaigns, 1799–1800. institutions, either by their direct imposition or through
By 1801, a general peace had been concluded with all free but conscious imitation. These were principally the
the major powers, culminating in the Peace of Amiens Civil Code, which guaranteed open trials and equality
with Great Britain in March 1802.Although Britain and before the law, and the centralized state based on prefects
France were soon at war again, France did not return to —civil servants appointed by the central government—
war with the continental powers until 1805, allowing and departments, the units they administered.The satel-
Napoleon time to consolidate his rule in France itself, in lite states received constitutions modeled directly on that
northern and central Italy, and in the Low Countries. of France, which created a strong executive and a cen-
Simultaneously, Napoleon cultivated the larger states of tralized bureaucracy; everywhere, local laws, weights
western and central Germany within the Holy Roman and measures, currency, and administrative structures
Empire, winning them over from their traditional alle- were replaced by those developed by the French revolu-
giance to the Hapsburg emperors with promises of ter- tionaries since 1789.This also meant the abolition of the
ritorial growth at the expense of the tiny imperial states vestiges of feudalism, of provincial and noble privileges,
and greater control over their states if freed from Haps- and the confiscation of the properties of the church. To
burg domination. be within the French empire meant joining a uniform,