Page 32 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

napoleonic empire 1333

Roman Emperor, the Hapsburg emperor, Francis I, dis- under its control up to 1804. Feudalism was much more
solved this ancient institution, and henceforth styled powerful in northern Germany, southern Italy and, espe-
himself Emperor of Austria. In the same spirit of suspi- cially, in Poland, than elsewhere in Europe, nor was the
cion about Napoleon’s ambitions, Austria soon joined principle of religious toleration readily accepted in many
with Britain and Russia in a new coalition against of these regions. Thus, the Civil Code was never fully
Napoleon. They were crushed by the French in a light- implemented in many of these areas. Although they
ning campaign in 1805, and when Prussia and Russia became important sources of conscripts for the armies
attempted to fight on, they were defeated in a series of and for supplies, these regions came to represent an
campaigns in 1806–1807 that took French armies into outer empire, which never properly absorbed the essence
Russia itself. of Napoleonic rule, although the Grand Duchy of War-
saw remained politically very loyal to Napoleon, per-
The “Grand Empire,” sonally, for having restored its independence. Spain was
1805–1814 never really under Napoleonic control, and its resistance
This round of victories altered the shape of the empire proved an important springboard for the British to
and of Europe as a whole in dramatic, unexpected ways. relaunch the war against Napoleon effectively in 1808,
In 1805, Napoleon seized the southern Italian Kingdom several years before Napoleon’s military power was
of Naples, placing his brother Joseph on the throne in smashed in the 1812 campaign against Russia. By 1814,
place of the Bourbons.The states of western and south- the “Napoleonic adventure” was effectively over.
ern Germany were linked together in the Confederation The empire’s administrative and legal uniformity was
of the Rhine, with Napoleon as its “Protector,” thus pro- not mirrored in Napoleon’s economic policies.To defeat
viding a new kind of political “umbrella” to replace that Britain by economic means, Napoleon imposed a block-
of the Holy Roman Empire; territory seized from Prussia ade along the imperial coastlines, which proved largely
and Hesse-Cassel in north central Germany became a ineffective. His “Continental System” was a series of
new Kingdom of Westphalia, under Napoleon’s young- treaties erecting customs barriers protecting France from
est brother, Jerome. Further east, following the Treaty of all European competition, even within the empire, cre-
Tilist, with Czar Alexander I, a new state, the Grand ating a “one-way common market.”
Duchy of Warsaw, was created from the Prussian parts of
Poland. Napoleon annexed Tuscany and the Papal The Napoleonic Legacy
States, in central Italy, in 1809, and the North Sea coast Napoleon’s hegemony over Europe was brief; in some
of Germany, between the Kingdom of Holland and regions, it lasted only three years. Nevertheless, his re-
Denmark, in 1811. After 1805, the Napoleonic empire forms exerted a lasting influence on how the states of
was no longer a purely West European state system, but western Europe were governed henceforth.Although the
a pan-European empire. Territorially, the Napoleonic Congress of Vienna, which reorganized Europe after
empire reached its height in 1811. Its own departments, Napoleon’s fall, reordered the borders of states to a con-
ruled directly from Paris, numbered 130, embracing 44 siderable degree, Napoleonic administrative institutions
million inhabitants; when the satellite kingdoms and the and, above all, the Civil Code reemerged sooner, rather
Confederation of the Rhine are added, the “Napoleonic than later, as basis for civil government in what had been
hegemony” contained over 80 million people. Appear- the inner empire, and would become the historic core of
ances are deceptive, however.The territories acquired in the modern European Union. Later, the centralized, cul-
this second phase of expansion proved less ready to ac- turally uniform model established under Napoleon be-
cept the set of laws and administrative institutions that came the guiding principle of French overseas imperial-
defined the Napoleonic imperium than those regions ism, starting with Algeria in 1829 and spreading across