Napoleon Makes Peace, in 1806

[Faeelin]

In August of 1806, Talleyrand and the Earl of Yarmouth (Lord Lauderdale replaced him) negotiated a peace. thanks to Fox, the British basically caved in. They agreed to recognize Joseph as the King of Naples, Louis as the King of Holland, the Kingdom of Etruria, enlarged Bavaria, Wurttemberg, the grand duke of Baden, and presumably the confederation of the rhine. I say presumably because it doesn't mention it, but it happened in 1805, a year before the treaty.

The Dutch colonies, except for the Cape, would be returned to holland,
and the British would withdraw from Sicily. Talleyrand promised that England coud keep Malta, and that the King of Naples would receive the balearic islands. The British would also get back Hannover.

Napoleon threw the treaty away.

However, what would happen if Napoleon hadn't? He could be reasonable at times, and his personality was sufficiently erratic that I could see him accepting it.

Prussia, for starters, will be pissed. They gave up Cleves and Mark for Hanover, which Napoleon just gave to Britain. They'll probably still go to war.

So this results in Bonaparte going to war with Prussia and Russia, and crushing them. Tilsit likely still happens; but do the British change how it looks?

Any other thoughts?

[fhaessig]

Without British support and, especially, Gold, I am not sure Prussia will go to war. Sure they will be pissed, but they have seen the grand army in action.

As for the Tsar, if there is peace between France and Uk, the continental blocus is not in action any more, and that removes one of the big stumbling block to peace with france, as Russia NEEDED to sell its grain to Uk. So I imagine Russia being willing to treat with Napoleon without a 4th coalition war. I imagine the treaty will be more favorable to Russia than Tilsit, with Turkey being recognised as part of the Russian sphere of influance.

Indeed, there may well be a Franco-russian alliance against Prussia if the later still goes to war, with Russia trying to get more polish lands.

As for the 1806 treaty, I imagine it also countained the recognition by Uk of Napoleon's imperial treaty?

[Redbeard]

Without British support and, especially, Gold, I am not sure Prussia will go to war. Sure they will be pissed, but they have seen the grand army in action.

As for the Tsar, if there is peace between France and Uk, the continental blocus is not in action any more, and that removes one of the big stumbling block to peace with france, as Russia NEEDED to sell its grain to Uk. So I imagine Russia being willing to treat with Napoleon without a 4th coalition war. I imagine the treaty will be more favorable to Russia than Tilsit, with Turkey being recognised as part of the Russian sphere of influance.

Indeed, there may well be a Franco-russian alliance against Prussia if the later still goes to war, with Russia trying to get more polish lands.

As for the 1806 treaty, I imagine it also countained the recognition by Uk of Napoleon's imperial treaty?

Good points.

But I'm not sure peace will necessarily last much longer. Austria will still look for possibilities to avenge the defeat and losses in 1805 and I'm not sure the Zar will actively support France. Anyway, without the 1806-7 war, there is a chance that the next coalition will include both Prussia and Austria. Imagine the 1809 campaign with 100.000+ Prussian troops added!

The biggest problem for this TL is, that without British involvement, it is unlikely that Napoleon and the Grande Armee ever gets entangled in Spain, which was the starting basis for the 1809 war.

On the side-show, things will evolve quite differently in Scandinavia. Now it is Sweden that is threatened on its exsistence, with Russia looking hungrily on Finland and Denmark-Norway on territories in the west and south. I could imagine a secret point in a French-Russian agreement being French acceptance of Russia taking Finland and Russian acceptance of Denmark-Norway with French support having a go at Swedish territories in the west and south. Probably combined with a 1852 like treaty guaranteeing passage of the Baltic straits. The Danes and Norwegians would probably prefer the old situation (pre-1656) of putting duty on passage of the straits, but Napoleon would have an interest in letting the Russians out on the oceans - to theaten the British.

Regards

Steffen Redbeard