On the urging of some, I'm now attempting to do a Frenchwank TL. I've already done a great many Germanwank TLs which have all inevitable seen France getting the tar beaten out of it. I've decided to wank France for my next TL which is a Napoleonic Victory TL 
. I hope you like it. Enjoy
It was 1806 and Emperor Napoleon I of France had once again managed to shake Europe’s old order to its core with yet another victory on his already impressive list. His armies had defeated Russia, Austria, Great Britain, Portugal, Sweden, Naples and Sicily and he could pretty much do as he pleased with the conclusion of three years of hostilities. Ever since the collapse of the Peace of Amiens, Britain had been under the constant threat of invasion, but the Royal Navy retained mastery of the seas and decisively defeated the French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but it would be the land campaigns that would decide this war. Following the provocative actions in Germany and Napoleon crowning himself King of Italy, Austria was convinced into joining the war on the side of Russia and Britain and so the Third Coalition came into full fruition after the summer of 1805, but an Austrian victory was not to be. The French Army commenced with the Ulm Campaign which entailed a massive encircling manoeuvre in which an entire Austrian army was destroyed and the Battle of Austerlitz where a combined Russo-Austrian force under Tsar Alexander I of Russia was defeated by Napoleon. A smaller campaign against Naples culminated in the Battle of Campo Tenese which rounded up Napoleon’s conquests. Peace was made and the so-called Peace of Pressburg was signed by the Austrians who were represented by Johann I Josef, Prince of Liechtenstein, and the Hungarian Ignác Gyulai while the French Empire was represented by Maurice Talleyrand. Besides a clause in which Austria vowed to respect ‘peace and amity’, Vienna was forced to once again recognise the previous treaties of Campo Formio and Lunéville and Austrian territories in Bavaria and Italy were ceded to France. Certain areas in Germany were passed off to French allies – mainly the King of Bavaria, the King of Württemberg and the Elector of Baden. Notable exchanges were the cession of Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Bavaria, Venice, Istria and Dalmatia to the Kingdom of Italy and the return of the Electorate of Salzburg to Austria as a consolation prize since it received a hurting war indemnity of some 40 million francs as well. Napoleon was quick to reform the German states into a more manageable number of sixteen who were united in the Confederation of the Rhine of which Napoleon was the Protector and which provided France with a significant advantage on its eastern front and added a manpower pool of some 15 million souls to France. The Holy Roman Empire was effectively dissolved and Holy Roman Emperor Franz II took the title of Emperor Franz I of Austria. But with the end of the War of the Third Coalition, it wasn’t yet over for Napoleon.
The War of the Fourth Coalition erupted soon thereafter because Prussia was worried about rising French power after the defeat of Austria, especially the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine was seen as a threat and so Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia joined the war, thus forming the Fourth Coalition which was basically a continuation of the previous coalition since many members of it were still fighting Napoleon anyway. It would prove to be a fateful decision by the Prussian King whose troops were massing in Saxony. Napoleon decisively defeated the Prussians after a quick campaign that ended with a crushing defeat for the Prussians in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt which in turn led to the fall of Berlin on October 25th 1806 and a pursuit of the remnants of the Prussian army all the way into East Prussia. Napoleon then focused on the Russians who briefly checked him and they fought the inconclusive Battle of Eylau, but he squashed Russian forces at Friedland in June 1807 after which the Russian Tsar requested peace. Napoleon dominated the European continent. The last strong continental powers of Prussia, Russia and Austria had been defeated although Russia had probably not been defeated decisively considering their enormous size and manpower pool.
The Treaty of Tilsit was made up of two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in the town of Tilsit in July, 1807 in the aftermath of his victory in the Battle of Friedland. The first was signed on July 7th, between the Russian Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon I, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman River. The second was signed with Prussia on July 9th. The treaties ended hostilities between the Russian Empire and France and the two started an alliance between the two empires which rendered the rest of continental Europe almost powerless. The two countries secretly agreed to aid each other in disputes — France pledged to aid Russia against the Ottoman Empire, while Russia agreed to join Napoleon’s Continental System against Britain. Napoleon also convinced Alexander into entering the Anglo-Russian War and to instigate the Finnish War against the Swedes in order to force Sweden to join the Continental System. More specifically, the Tsar agreed to evacuate Wallachia and Moldavia, which had been occupied by Russian forces as part of the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812). The Ionian Islands and Cattaro which had been captured by Russian admirals Ushakov and Senyavin, were to be handed over to the French. In recompense, Napoleon guaranteed the sovereignty of the Duchy of Oldenburg and several other small states ruled by the Tsar's German relatives. With the Prussians, Napoleon was a lot less merciful because he was very unhappy with yet another German state, the other being Austria, fighting his hegemony but also because he wanted to set an example to the rest of the European continent by showing what happened to those who resisted, mainly Sweden and Portugal who were still not part of the Continental System.
Initially, Napoleon had wanted to create a small Kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jérộme consisting of Duchy of Magdeburg, the formerly Brunswick-Lunenburgian Electorate of Hannover, the Principality of Wolfenbüttel also formerly of Brunswick-Lunenburg, and the Electorate of Hesse, carving off half of Prussia. But now he fomented the desire to wipe Prussia off the map which deeply alienated him from his diplomat Talleyrand who was much more moderate. The Russians were initially opposed too, but Napoleon offered Tsar Alexander I a piece of the pie and after a good night’s sleep, the Tsar changed his mind as greed overtook him. Prussia’s armies were gone and thus Prussia was completely left to Napoleon’s tender mercies. The Kingdom of Westphalia was founded including the aforementioned territories with Napoleon’s brother as King Jérộme I. Napoleon divided Prussia as followed: East Prussia was given to Russia, West Prussia to the newly created Duchy of Warsaw, Silesia to Westphalia, Brandenburg to Westphalia as well and Pomerania was added to Swedish Pomerania in an attempt to woo them into the Continental System although it would take the Finnish War to do that ultimately. Prussia had ceased to exist. Saxony was spared the sorry fate of Prussia and was declared kingdom itself with elector Friedrich Augustus III crowned King Friedrich Augustus I who would remain a loyal ally of Napoleon since the Prussian example had scared him horribly and because he received the Duchy of Warsaw. In Germany, some hopes arose since there were two clearly dominant German states now, Westphalia and Bavaria. Nationalist Germans looked to France now in the hopes that a closer federal system could be realized and possible German unity and due to the influence of Napoleon’s brother Jérộme some sort of pan-German lobby was forming in Paris although it was internally divided between Catholics and Protestants, Klein Deutschland and Grossdeutschland supporters, Westphalia and Bavaria supporters and lastly a handful of Prussia restorationists. It was too divided to present Napoleon with a German Solution. Jérộme would continue to pressure his brother although the latter seemed wary of a united German state which could potentially challenge his power in the Continental System. With the Confederation of the Rhine, of which Westphalia and Bavaria were the dominant members, the framework was there.
The division of Prussia, however, had wider ranging consequences outside of the German speaking world. In Vienna, Emperor Franz I was outraged and terrified at the same time with the fate of Prussia whose kings were now reduced to nothing but local Brandenburg nobles in the greater Kingdom of Westphalia which was now the dominant state in northern Germany while France’s puppet of Bavaria dominated the Catholic south instead of Austria. Moreover, the Kingdom of Westphalia was ruled by Napoleon’s brother Jérộme Bonaparte, tying it by dynastic ties to France. Napoleon had hereby effectively put his two ploys to dominate Germany forward. To the Austrian Emperor this was an outrage since he considered himself ruler of the German-speaking world and he was terrified because he believed Napoleon would so the same to the Austrian Empire when he had the opportunity to do so. He shifted his foreign policy to Britain while Spain did the opposite. King Charles IV of Spain changed his foreign police to appeasement of France and his country was firmly entrenched into the Continental System since he feared that France would carve Catalonia and the Basque territories off of his country if he didn’t. Britain responded by starting a fierce naval campaign against Spanish trade routes to South America.
France and Spain were quick to respond by invading Portugal, Britain’s last continental ally. General Jean-Androch Junot and some 50.000 Frenchmen and 75.000 more Spaniards invaded Portugal for its refusal to join the Continental System in 1808. Queen regnant Maria I fled to Brazil under heavy Royal Navy escort along with the rest of the Braganza royal family of Portugal while Portugal was divided between France and Spain. Maria proclaimed herself Empress regnant of Brazil, Portugal and the Algarve in a move to outdo Napoleon although it was quite telling of her belief in the future restoration of her rule over Portugal that she placed Brazil first in her new title. She hereby founded the Empire of Brazil, Portugal and the Algarve and most of the old Portuguese aristocracy moved with her to Rio de Janeiro where they formed her imperial court and government and also caused strong tensions with the younger Brazilian-born Portuguese elites although Maria managed to balance the old Portuguese aristocracy and the Brazilian-Portuguese elites out. In the meantime, everything south of the Tagus river was annexed by Spain (except for Lisbon) and Charles IV added the title King of the Algarve to his other titles and the remaining rump Portugal was awarded to Lucien Bonaparte as a compensation for the loss of his Italian territories after the annexation of the Papal States by his brother Napoleon and also because his brothers Jérộme and Joseph already had their realms, Westphalia and Naples respectively.
Britain continued to fight the French Empire which now dominated the European continent, using the Royal Navy’s continued mastery of the seas although this British naval dominance was coming increasingly under threat. In 1807, Britain had tried to pressure King Christian VII of Denmark into surrendering his navy so France wouldn’t capture it and potentially tip the balance in favour of the French while Napoleon had been pressuring him to not do this. King Christian VII reluctantly turned to the Continental System for protection after British threats of war and messages of the Royal Navy setting sail. And so his naval forces were effectively put to use by Napoleon who sorely needed the new ships and crews after his defeat at Trafalgar.
At the same time, the British coaxed Austria by means of promises of money and aid against Napoleon into another war known as the War of the Fifth Coalition in which the United Kingdom and the Austrian Empire fought side by side once more. The Austrian army had seen reforms after the Peace of Pressburg under Franz I’s brother Charles such as the introduction of the Levée en masse system that the French had previously used and also the reintroduction of the six-companies-per-battalion model that had only just been replaced by the four-companies-per-battalion model in 1805 on the eve of war. In spite of the reforms, however, the Austrian army still had quite a number of problems. For example, it lacked the numbers of skirmishers needed to really contend with the French army and moreover its cavalry was spread out over a number small units in the army which prevented them from using the shock and hitting power the French could bring to bear. Austrian commanders also largely feared taking the initiative and preferred to receive handwritten orders from their superiors before doing anything. Also, ironically, France had just abolished the Levée en masse system, instead preferring an army made up of a core of battle hardened veterans, creating a kind of role reversal because now France was the one with the professional war veterans while Austria fielded an enormous mass of inexperienced, young conscripts. There was a lot of campaigning in the Danube region and this bloody struggle would end with the Battle of Wagram. The two-day struggle saw an Imperial French-German-Italian army under the command of Napoleon himself defeat an Austrian army of the under the command of Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen.
The French knew of the Austrian reforms although Napoleon wasn’t completely certain of Austria’s intention. In spite of foreknowledge, the French Imperial Army would still suffer quite some casualties. At the end of May, following an initial setback, Napoleon remained with his army on the southern bank of the Danube and concentrated significant resources on the great island of Lobau, northeast of the occupied Austrian capital of Vienna. Using the island as a staging ground for another crossing, the French and their German and Italian allies began moving to the northern bank of the river, as night fell, on July 4th 1809. During the next morning, they had successfully deployed on the Marchfeld, pushing back all Austrian opposition in that area. The evening saw a series of violent French and Allied attacks on the strong Austrian positions with the latter managing to hold their ground. On July 6th, at dawn, the Austrians moved forward and launched a series of aggressive attacks, seeking to take the opposing army in a double envelopment. Despite the fact that this offensive nearly shattered the French and Allied centre and left flanks, Napoleon masterfully redeployed his forces to counter the Austrian plan. Then, by setting up a Grand Battery and ordering a violent counterattack on the Austrian left and centre, the Emperor of the French managed to push back Archduke Charles' line and the latter immediately organised a phased retreat. Hostilities ended at about eight o’clock in the evening, with the Austrians retreating in relatively good order, while the exhausted French and Allies were unable to launch a proper pursuit. Commanding a secondary army, Archduke John of Austria was in the vicinity of the battlefield on July 6th, but was unable to join the main Austrian force and thus played no part in the battle of Wagram. After the battle, Archduke Charles remained in command of a significant and still cohesive force and decided to retreat to Bohemia, where he fought against and was defeated by French Imperial forces again. Although this was not a crushing defeat, Austrian morale was shattered and they didn’t want to fight on. Austria was forced to surrender again. Britain launched the Walcheren Campaign to capture or destroy the French navy which was believed to be building up near Flushing and to open up a new front, but Austria had already decisively been defeated at Wagram and it was of little use.
This ended the War of the Fifth Coalition and Austrian Emperor Franz I signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn which was perhaps the harshest treaty Napoleon had ever imposed on Austria saying: these Habsburgs have upset my plans for the last time. The cooperation of most of Europe and the example set by Prussia – a warning that Austria had failed to heed – had notably lowered his tolerance for resistance and he set out to follow a harsh but consistent foreign policy and ignoring naysayers who desired to offer Vienna a moderate peace to make them allies of France willingly even if the Austrians felt they did so out of pragmatic reasons and not for their own good which many believed would change. Firstly, Napoleon forced the Austrians to reiterate the Peace of Pressburg. West Galicia was given to the Duchy of Warsaw and Russia was given Tarnopol district as well as parts of East Galicia to satisfy them because they were growing increasingly unhappy with the growing Duchy of Warsaw on their western border. Croatia south of the Sava River and Trieste were ceded to France and as a final territorial punishment for Austria, the Sudetenland was awarded to the Kingdom of Westphalia which greatly diminished Austria in its great power status and its capacity to wage war effectively. Emperor Franz I was shocked when he was presented the French demands and initially didn’t want to sign, but Napoleon threatened to continue the war and dismember Austria if he didn’t. This was bluff since Napoleon had expressed to his generals he didn’t want to enforce an occupation of such an enormous area. With the example set by Prussia still in mind, however, Franz I quickly signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn, thereby relinquishing approximately 3 million or about one fifth of all of his subjects to Emperor Napoleon of the French. To close the deal for Austria, France added another 50 million francs in war indemnities to the peace treaty. Napoleon divorced from his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais with the latter’s acquiescence as she couldn’t bear him an heir and, with the intent of tying the weakened Habsburg Empire to him, married Marie Louise of Austria, then eighteen years old and the daughter of Franz I and so she became Empress Marie Louise of the French. She would bear him an heir in 1811, Prince Napoleon, later known as Emperor Napoleon II of the French. This marriage was not so much good or bad for Austria, but the marriage of his beloved, young daughter to Napoleon of all people was a personal blow in the face for Franz I, assuredly his greatest defeat, much greater than the loss of so much territory and men. His daughter would live in Paris from now on. Now only one great power remained to oppose the French Empire. This power was Britain since Russia was still digesting its territorial gains although the first estrangement was beginning to show. Russia was distrusting about the Duchy of Warsaw, thinking the Poles might want to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and suspecting Napoleon was prepared to support these ambitions. The very harsh Treaty of Schönbrunn also shocked and frightened St. Petersburg since such a peace was not usually imposed on a fellow Christian Emperor, certainly not by taking his Homeland. France’s control of Russian markets in Europe through the Continental System also caused friction. Russia’s estrangement, unfortunately for Britain was not yet complete and Austria’s fate had temporarily shocked them. Austria, in the meantime, was experiencing internal instability with a number of its subject peoples stirring and an economic malaise setting in. They were too busy licking their wounds and suppressing internal dissent to be of assistance to Britain.
France had been building up a new war fleet around the remnants of the old one and the addition of the Danish-Norwegian Navy and by utilizing the resources of almost an entire continent. By now France was ready, or that was how Napoleon felt. In the meantime Napoleon had annexed the Netherlands because he wanted to reduce the debts France had to Dutch investors by two thirds which would hurt the Dutch economy. He met with opposition from his brother Louis over this who had gained some measure of popularity because of his relief efforts after the explosion of a gunpowder ship in Leiden and a flood in Holland, earning him the nickname Louis the Good. In the end he gave in to his brother and retired to Saint-Lieu of which he was Count. The addition of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to France added another 2 million inhabitants or so to the French Empire as well as a number of ports for the French navy. Napoleon had greatly expanded his navy over the past few years by building new ships and getting the assistance from the Danes as well as the Spaniards. France started moving ships to the Atlantic coast, mostly to Brest and Calais. The British witnessed French naval movements with anguish and recalled a number of their ships from other parts of the world. Napoleon’s navy, the Spanish navy and Danish ships totalled sixty ships of the line and a historical battle ensued which would be a bloodbath for both sides. In 1814, the Royal Navy fought a legendary battle to prevent the invasion of the British Isles. The Royal navy fielded only thirty-five ships of the line in the Channel at this time with reinforcements underway, but the Royal Navy had the benefit of experienced crews and better technology. The rebuilt Franco-Spanish fleet mostly had rookies for crews, although that didn’t diminish their patriotic fervour, and bigger less manoeuvrable ships. Very soon both sides dropped all tactics and engaged in brutal artillery duels. In the end no side came out on top due to French numbers and British experience, skill and better ships balancing each other out. The battle lasted for much of June 18th 1814, from early morning to the late afternoon before both sides disengaged with burning ships littering the sea after the Battle of the Channel which inflicted severe casualties and losses of ships on both sides. The invasion had been foiled, but the Royal Navy was not in any shape to do this again even with reinforcements from possessions abroad. Napoleon, at this time, was angered and disappointed and knew rebuilding his navy would take him another three years or so and with the Russians distancing themselves from him and sometimes even openly opposing him in continental matters he couldn’t risk Russia stabbing him in the back. He couldn’t use a two-front war with Great Britain and Russia. He offered Britain a white peace in the Treaty of Brussels which the British reluctantly accepted on July 1st 1814 after this serious defeat. Emperor Napoleon I of the French, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine and King of Italy stood triumphant.
. I hope you like it. EnjoyVive l’Empereur, Vive la France, Vive l’Empire
Chapter I: Napoleon’s Triumph, 1806 – 1814.
It was 1806 and Emperor Napoleon I of France had once again managed to shake Europe’s old order to its core with yet another victory on his already impressive list. His armies had defeated Russia, Austria, Great Britain, Portugal, Sweden, Naples and Sicily and he could pretty much do as he pleased with the conclusion of three years of hostilities. Ever since the collapse of the Peace of Amiens, Britain had been under the constant threat of invasion, but the Royal Navy retained mastery of the seas and decisively defeated the French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but it would be the land campaigns that would decide this war. Following the provocative actions in Germany and Napoleon crowning himself King of Italy, Austria was convinced into joining the war on the side of Russia and Britain and so the Third Coalition came into full fruition after the summer of 1805, but an Austrian victory was not to be. The French Army commenced with the Ulm Campaign which entailed a massive encircling manoeuvre in which an entire Austrian army was destroyed and the Battle of Austerlitz where a combined Russo-Austrian force under Tsar Alexander I of Russia was defeated by Napoleon. A smaller campaign against Naples culminated in the Battle of Campo Tenese which rounded up Napoleon’s conquests. Peace was made and the so-called Peace of Pressburg was signed by the Austrians who were represented by Johann I Josef, Prince of Liechtenstein, and the Hungarian Ignác Gyulai while the French Empire was represented by Maurice Talleyrand. Besides a clause in which Austria vowed to respect ‘peace and amity’, Vienna was forced to once again recognise the previous treaties of Campo Formio and Lunéville and Austrian territories in Bavaria and Italy were ceded to France. Certain areas in Germany were passed off to French allies – mainly the King of Bavaria, the King of Württemberg and the Elector of Baden. Notable exchanges were the cession of Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Bavaria, Venice, Istria and Dalmatia to the Kingdom of Italy and the return of the Electorate of Salzburg to Austria as a consolation prize since it received a hurting war indemnity of some 40 million francs as well. Napoleon was quick to reform the German states into a more manageable number of sixteen who were united in the Confederation of the Rhine of which Napoleon was the Protector and which provided France with a significant advantage on its eastern front and added a manpower pool of some 15 million souls to France. The Holy Roman Empire was effectively dissolved and Holy Roman Emperor Franz II took the title of Emperor Franz I of Austria. But with the end of the War of the Third Coalition, it wasn’t yet over for Napoleon.
The War of the Fourth Coalition erupted soon thereafter because Prussia was worried about rising French power after the defeat of Austria, especially the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine was seen as a threat and so Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia joined the war, thus forming the Fourth Coalition which was basically a continuation of the previous coalition since many members of it were still fighting Napoleon anyway. It would prove to be a fateful decision by the Prussian King whose troops were massing in Saxony. Napoleon decisively defeated the Prussians after a quick campaign that ended with a crushing defeat for the Prussians in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt which in turn led to the fall of Berlin on October 25th 1806 and a pursuit of the remnants of the Prussian army all the way into East Prussia. Napoleon then focused on the Russians who briefly checked him and they fought the inconclusive Battle of Eylau, but he squashed Russian forces at Friedland in June 1807 after which the Russian Tsar requested peace. Napoleon dominated the European continent. The last strong continental powers of Prussia, Russia and Austria had been defeated although Russia had probably not been defeated decisively considering their enormous size and manpower pool.
The Treaty of Tilsit was made up of two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in the town of Tilsit in July, 1807 in the aftermath of his victory in the Battle of Friedland. The first was signed on July 7th, between the Russian Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon I, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman River. The second was signed with Prussia on July 9th. The treaties ended hostilities between the Russian Empire and France and the two started an alliance between the two empires which rendered the rest of continental Europe almost powerless. The two countries secretly agreed to aid each other in disputes — France pledged to aid Russia against the Ottoman Empire, while Russia agreed to join Napoleon’s Continental System against Britain. Napoleon also convinced Alexander into entering the Anglo-Russian War and to instigate the Finnish War against the Swedes in order to force Sweden to join the Continental System. More specifically, the Tsar agreed to evacuate Wallachia and Moldavia, which had been occupied by Russian forces as part of the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812). The Ionian Islands and Cattaro which had been captured by Russian admirals Ushakov and Senyavin, were to be handed over to the French. In recompense, Napoleon guaranteed the sovereignty of the Duchy of Oldenburg and several other small states ruled by the Tsar's German relatives. With the Prussians, Napoleon was a lot less merciful because he was very unhappy with yet another German state, the other being Austria, fighting his hegemony but also because he wanted to set an example to the rest of the European continent by showing what happened to those who resisted, mainly Sweden and Portugal who were still not part of the Continental System.
Initially, Napoleon had wanted to create a small Kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jérộme consisting of Duchy of Magdeburg, the formerly Brunswick-Lunenburgian Electorate of Hannover, the Principality of Wolfenbüttel also formerly of Brunswick-Lunenburg, and the Electorate of Hesse, carving off half of Prussia. But now he fomented the desire to wipe Prussia off the map which deeply alienated him from his diplomat Talleyrand who was much more moderate. The Russians were initially opposed too, but Napoleon offered Tsar Alexander I a piece of the pie and after a good night’s sleep, the Tsar changed his mind as greed overtook him. Prussia’s armies were gone and thus Prussia was completely left to Napoleon’s tender mercies. The Kingdom of Westphalia was founded including the aforementioned territories with Napoleon’s brother as King Jérộme I. Napoleon divided Prussia as followed: East Prussia was given to Russia, West Prussia to the newly created Duchy of Warsaw, Silesia to Westphalia, Brandenburg to Westphalia as well and Pomerania was added to Swedish Pomerania in an attempt to woo them into the Continental System although it would take the Finnish War to do that ultimately. Prussia had ceased to exist. Saxony was spared the sorry fate of Prussia and was declared kingdom itself with elector Friedrich Augustus III crowned King Friedrich Augustus I who would remain a loyal ally of Napoleon since the Prussian example had scared him horribly and because he received the Duchy of Warsaw. In Germany, some hopes arose since there were two clearly dominant German states now, Westphalia and Bavaria. Nationalist Germans looked to France now in the hopes that a closer federal system could be realized and possible German unity and due to the influence of Napoleon’s brother Jérộme some sort of pan-German lobby was forming in Paris although it was internally divided between Catholics and Protestants, Klein Deutschland and Grossdeutschland supporters, Westphalia and Bavaria supporters and lastly a handful of Prussia restorationists. It was too divided to present Napoleon with a German Solution. Jérộme would continue to pressure his brother although the latter seemed wary of a united German state which could potentially challenge his power in the Continental System. With the Confederation of the Rhine, of which Westphalia and Bavaria were the dominant members, the framework was there.
The division of Prussia, however, had wider ranging consequences outside of the German speaking world. In Vienna, Emperor Franz I was outraged and terrified at the same time with the fate of Prussia whose kings were now reduced to nothing but local Brandenburg nobles in the greater Kingdom of Westphalia which was now the dominant state in northern Germany while France’s puppet of Bavaria dominated the Catholic south instead of Austria. Moreover, the Kingdom of Westphalia was ruled by Napoleon’s brother Jérộme Bonaparte, tying it by dynastic ties to France. Napoleon had hereby effectively put his two ploys to dominate Germany forward. To the Austrian Emperor this was an outrage since he considered himself ruler of the German-speaking world and he was terrified because he believed Napoleon would so the same to the Austrian Empire when he had the opportunity to do so. He shifted his foreign policy to Britain while Spain did the opposite. King Charles IV of Spain changed his foreign police to appeasement of France and his country was firmly entrenched into the Continental System since he feared that France would carve Catalonia and the Basque territories off of his country if he didn’t. Britain responded by starting a fierce naval campaign against Spanish trade routes to South America.
France and Spain were quick to respond by invading Portugal, Britain’s last continental ally. General Jean-Androch Junot and some 50.000 Frenchmen and 75.000 more Spaniards invaded Portugal for its refusal to join the Continental System in 1808. Queen regnant Maria I fled to Brazil under heavy Royal Navy escort along with the rest of the Braganza royal family of Portugal while Portugal was divided between France and Spain. Maria proclaimed herself Empress regnant of Brazil, Portugal and the Algarve in a move to outdo Napoleon although it was quite telling of her belief in the future restoration of her rule over Portugal that she placed Brazil first in her new title. She hereby founded the Empire of Brazil, Portugal and the Algarve and most of the old Portuguese aristocracy moved with her to Rio de Janeiro where they formed her imperial court and government and also caused strong tensions with the younger Brazilian-born Portuguese elites although Maria managed to balance the old Portuguese aristocracy and the Brazilian-Portuguese elites out. In the meantime, everything south of the Tagus river was annexed by Spain (except for Lisbon) and Charles IV added the title King of the Algarve to his other titles and the remaining rump Portugal was awarded to Lucien Bonaparte as a compensation for the loss of his Italian territories after the annexation of the Papal States by his brother Napoleon and also because his brothers Jérộme and Joseph already had their realms, Westphalia and Naples respectively.
Britain continued to fight the French Empire which now dominated the European continent, using the Royal Navy’s continued mastery of the seas although this British naval dominance was coming increasingly under threat. In 1807, Britain had tried to pressure King Christian VII of Denmark into surrendering his navy so France wouldn’t capture it and potentially tip the balance in favour of the French while Napoleon had been pressuring him to not do this. King Christian VII reluctantly turned to the Continental System for protection after British threats of war and messages of the Royal Navy setting sail. And so his naval forces were effectively put to use by Napoleon who sorely needed the new ships and crews after his defeat at Trafalgar.
At the same time, the British coaxed Austria by means of promises of money and aid against Napoleon into another war known as the War of the Fifth Coalition in which the United Kingdom and the Austrian Empire fought side by side once more. The Austrian army had seen reforms after the Peace of Pressburg under Franz I’s brother Charles such as the introduction of the Levée en masse system that the French had previously used and also the reintroduction of the six-companies-per-battalion model that had only just been replaced by the four-companies-per-battalion model in 1805 on the eve of war. In spite of the reforms, however, the Austrian army still had quite a number of problems. For example, it lacked the numbers of skirmishers needed to really contend with the French army and moreover its cavalry was spread out over a number small units in the army which prevented them from using the shock and hitting power the French could bring to bear. Austrian commanders also largely feared taking the initiative and preferred to receive handwritten orders from their superiors before doing anything. Also, ironically, France had just abolished the Levée en masse system, instead preferring an army made up of a core of battle hardened veterans, creating a kind of role reversal because now France was the one with the professional war veterans while Austria fielded an enormous mass of inexperienced, young conscripts. There was a lot of campaigning in the Danube region and this bloody struggle would end with the Battle of Wagram. The two-day struggle saw an Imperial French-German-Italian army under the command of Napoleon himself defeat an Austrian army of the under the command of Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen.
The French knew of the Austrian reforms although Napoleon wasn’t completely certain of Austria’s intention. In spite of foreknowledge, the French Imperial Army would still suffer quite some casualties. At the end of May, following an initial setback, Napoleon remained with his army on the southern bank of the Danube and concentrated significant resources on the great island of Lobau, northeast of the occupied Austrian capital of Vienna. Using the island as a staging ground for another crossing, the French and their German and Italian allies began moving to the northern bank of the river, as night fell, on July 4th 1809. During the next morning, they had successfully deployed on the Marchfeld, pushing back all Austrian opposition in that area. The evening saw a series of violent French and Allied attacks on the strong Austrian positions with the latter managing to hold their ground. On July 6th, at dawn, the Austrians moved forward and launched a series of aggressive attacks, seeking to take the opposing army in a double envelopment. Despite the fact that this offensive nearly shattered the French and Allied centre and left flanks, Napoleon masterfully redeployed his forces to counter the Austrian plan. Then, by setting up a Grand Battery and ordering a violent counterattack on the Austrian left and centre, the Emperor of the French managed to push back Archduke Charles' line and the latter immediately organised a phased retreat. Hostilities ended at about eight o’clock in the evening, with the Austrians retreating in relatively good order, while the exhausted French and Allies were unable to launch a proper pursuit. Commanding a secondary army, Archduke John of Austria was in the vicinity of the battlefield on July 6th, but was unable to join the main Austrian force and thus played no part in the battle of Wagram. After the battle, Archduke Charles remained in command of a significant and still cohesive force and decided to retreat to Bohemia, where he fought against and was defeated by French Imperial forces again. Although this was not a crushing defeat, Austrian morale was shattered and they didn’t want to fight on. Austria was forced to surrender again. Britain launched the Walcheren Campaign to capture or destroy the French navy which was believed to be building up near Flushing and to open up a new front, but Austria had already decisively been defeated at Wagram and it was of little use.
This ended the War of the Fifth Coalition and Austrian Emperor Franz I signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn which was perhaps the harshest treaty Napoleon had ever imposed on Austria saying: these Habsburgs have upset my plans for the last time. The cooperation of most of Europe and the example set by Prussia – a warning that Austria had failed to heed – had notably lowered his tolerance for resistance and he set out to follow a harsh but consistent foreign policy and ignoring naysayers who desired to offer Vienna a moderate peace to make them allies of France willingly even if the Austrians felt they did so out of pragmatic reasons and not for their own good which many believed would change. Firstly, Napoleon forced the Austrians to reiterate the Peace of Pressburg. West Galicia was given to the Duchy of Warsaw and Russia was given Tarnopol district as well as parts of East Galicia to satisfy them because they were growing increasingly unhappy with the growing Duchy of Warsaw on their western border. Croatia south of the Sava River and Trieste were ceded to France and as a final territorial punishment for Austria, the Sudetenland was awarded to the Kingdom of Westphalia which greatly diminished Austria in its great power status and its capacity to wage war effectively. Emperor Franz I was shocked when he was presented the French demands and initially didn’t want to sign, but Napoleon threatened to continue the war and dismember Austria if he didn’t. This was bluff since Napoleon had expressed to his generals he didn’t want to enforce an occupation of such an enormous area. With the example set by Prussia still in mind, however, Franz I quickly signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn, thereby relinquishing approximately 3 million or about one fifth of all of his subjects to Emperor Napoleon of the French. To close the deal for Austria, France added another 50 million francs in war indemnities to the peace treaty. Napoleon divorced from his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais with the latter’s acquiescence as she couldn’t bear him an heir and, with the intent of tying the weakened Habsburg Empire to him, married Marie Louise of Austria, then eighteen years old and the daughter of Franz I and so she became Empress Marie Louise of the French. She would bear him an heir in 1811, Prince Napoleon, later known as Emperor Napoleon II of the French. This marriage was not so much good or bad for Austria, but the marriage of his beloved, young daughter to Napoleon of all people was a personal blow in the face for Franz I, assuredly his greatest defeat, much greater than the loss of so much territory and men. His daughter would live in Paris from now on. Now only one great power remained to oppose the French Empire. This power was Britain since Russia was still digesting its territorial gains although the first estrangement was beginning to show. Russia was distrusting about the Duchy of Warsaw, thinking the Poles might want to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and suspecting Napoleon was prepared to support these ambitions. The very harsh Treaty of Schönbrunn also shocked and frightened St. Petersburg since such a peace was not usually imposed on a fellow Christian Emperor, certainly not by taking his Homeland. France’s control of Russian markets in Europe through the Continental System also caused friction. Russia’s estrangement, unfortunately for Britain was not yet complete and Austria’s fate had temporarily shocked them. Austria, in the meantime, was experiencing internal instability with a number of its subject peoples stirring and an economic malaise setting in. They were too busy licking their wounds and suppressing internal dissent to be of assistance to Britain.
France had been building up a new war fleet around the remnants of the old one and the addition of the Danish-Norwegian Navy and by utilizing the resources of almost an entire continent. By now France was ready, or that was how Napoleon felt. In the meantime Napoleon had annexed the Netherlands because he wanted to reduce the debts France had to Dutch investors by two thirds which would hurt the Dutch economy. He met with opposition from his brother Louis over this who had gained some measure of popularity because of his relief efforts after the explosion of a gunpowder ship in Leiden and a flood in Holland, earning him the nickname Louis the Good. In the end he gave in to his brother and retired to Saint-Lieu of which he was Count. The addition of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to France added another 2 million inhabitants or so to the French Empire as well as a number of ports for the French navy. Napoleon had greatly expanded his navy over the past few years by building new ships and getting the assistance from the Danes as well as the Spaniards. France started moving ships to the Atlantic coast, mostly to Brest and Calais. The British witnessed French naval movements with anguish and recalled a number of their ships from other parts of the world. Napoleon’s navy, the Spanish navy and Danish ships totalled sixty ships of the line and a historical battle ensued which would be a bloodbath for both sides. In 1814, the Royal Navy fought a legendary battle to prevent the invasion of the British Isles. The Royal navy fielded only thirty-five ships of the line in the Channel at this time with reinforcements underway, but the Royal Navy had the benefit of experienced crews and better technology. The rebuilt Franco-Spanish fleet mostly had rookies for crews, although that didn’t diminish their patriotic fervour, and bigger less manoeuvrable ships. Very soon both sides dropped all tactics and engaged in brutal artillery duels. In the end no side came out on top due to French numbers and British experience, skill and better ships balancing each other out. The battle lasted for much of June 18th 1814, from early morning to the late afternoon before both sides disengaged with burning ships littering the sea after the Battle of the Channel which inflicted severe casualties and losses of ships on both sides. The invasion had been foiled, but the Royal Navy was not in any shape to do this again even with reinforcements from possessions abroad. Napoleon, at this time, was angered and disappointed and knew rebuilding his navy would take him another three years or so and with the Russians distancing themselves from him and sometimes even openly opposing him in continental matters he couldn’t risk Russia stabbing him in the back. He couldn’t use a two-front war with Great Britain and Russia. He offered Britain a white peace in the Treaty of Brussels which the British reluctantly accepted on July 1st 1814 after this serious defeat. Emperor Napoleon I of the French, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine and King of Italy stood triumphant.
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