The Fall of Napoleon 1
During the period from the renewal of war between France and Britain in May 1803 to the end of 1807 Napoleon reached the height of his power. Although Britain's naval victory at Trafalgar in October 1805 gave her control of the seas, Napoleon became supreme on land. Later that year he defeated the Austrians at Ulm and Austerlitz, in 1806 he crushed the Prussians at Jena and Auerstedt, and in June 1807 he triumphed over the Russians at Friedland. The settlements he imposed as a result of these victories gave him control of much of Europe, and a position of immense power.
Since 1803 the map of Europe had been redrawn. At the beginning of 1805 Napoleon created the kingdom of Italy with himself as its monarch, and after Austerlitz Austria had been forced to enlarge the new kingdom by ceding Venetia to it; at the same time she had lost the Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Bavaria as well as a number of smaller possessions. In the summer of 1806 Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, of which the main members were Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Berg. In the same year Emperor Francis of Austria dissolved the Holy Roman Empire which was founded by Charlemagne a thousand years before but now without meaning or purpose. In 1807 a further reconstruction of Germany took place with the establishment of the Kingdom of Westphalia.
By 1807 both Italy and Germany were for the most part organised to suit Napoleon, and after defeating the Russians at Friedland in June 1807 the French emperor met with Tsar Alexander of Russia to allocate spheres of influence in Europe. They signed the treaties of Tilsit on a raft in the River Niemen. Apart from Alexander's recognition of the Duchy of Warsaw and other territorial changes, the basic agreement was made in secret: Alexander promised to ally himself with Napoleon against Great Britain if the British did not agree to make peace.
Napoleon had resolved that if Great Britain controlled the seas and was invulnerable to invasion, then he would defeat her by commercial means. By closing the ports of Europe to British shipping and goods, Napoleon believed that he would bring about the collapse of Great Britain's commercial and financial prosperity. In enforcing this system Napoleon alienated influential opinion within the areas he already ruled, and he embarked on dangerous campaigns to force other regions to exclude British trade.
In November 1807 French troops conquered Portugal, causing the Portuguese royal family to flee to their colony of Brazil, and in March 1808, when the French force marched on Madrid, an internal revolt forced the Bourbon king, Charles IV, to abdicate. Napoleon soon gave the Spanish throne to his brother Joseph.
In 1810 Napoleon still ruled a great empire and had satellites throughout Europe, but weak spots were becoming apparent. The war in the Iberian peninsula continued, costing French lives and giving the British a foothold on the continent. Throughout Europe, and even in France, there was discontent both at the enforcement of the Continental System - Napoleon's attempt to exclude British trade in Europe, and at Napoleonic exactions. The French emperor himself was becoming more tyrannical. He was less willing to accept advice, made more arbitrary decisions, and showed little willingness to appease any groups within his empire. If Napoleon hoped to establish a dynasty, and to create a Europe under French leadership, then the time had come for consolidation and accommodation, not fresh adventures, more requisitions, more fighting, and more deaths. Yet Napoleon could not be satisfied, and the cracks in the empire that appeared in Spain and in the enforcement of the Continental System were soon to broaden and undermine the foundations of the precarious and ramshackle structure that he had built from military victory.
