WI: No Continental System?

In an attempt to strike back at the British blockading France, Napoleon forbade all trade with Britain by the French and their allies/protectorates. This did far more damage to his empire than to Britains, turning states against him, damaging the economy, and eventually drawing France into its most disastrous campaigns in Iberia and Russia.

Was not issuing his Berlin and Milan decrees just not an option? The embargo was largely ineffective against the British, so would Napoleon have been better served just securing his position on the Continent post Fourth Coalition than trying to strike back at the British?
 
If there's no abridgment of sovereignty and economic damage from the Continental System, where does the next war come from? Austria wasn't subject to it, and wanted to avenge its defeat in the War of the Third Coalition, but would they still have gone for it if so much of Napoleon's men and officers were tied down in Spain?
 
If there's no abridgment of sovereignty and economic damage from the Continental System, where does the next war come from? Austria wasn't subject to it, and wanted to avenge its defeat in the War of the Third Coalition, but would they still have gone for it if so much of Napoleon's men and officers were tied down in Spain?
They went in Spain originally because Portugal broke the Continental System.
 
If there's no abridgment of sovereignty and economic damage from the Continental System, where does the next war come from? Austria wasn't subject to it, and wanted to avenge its defeat in the War of the Third Coalition, but would they still have gone for it if so much of Napoleon's men and officers were tied down in Spain?

Britain will throw money at everyone and anyone who's willing to have a pop at Napoleon. They won't rest until he's defeated. And the ancien regimes consider him an existential threat. Someone, somewhere will eventually find a reason to have a go and the Brits will back them.
 
Britain will throw money at everyone and anyone who's willing to have a pop at Napoleon. They won't rest until he's defeated. And the ancien regimes consider him an existential threat. Someone, somewhere will eventually find a reason to have a go and the Brits will back them.

British funding isn't enough to push anyone to war, though, and philosophical concerns re monarchies weren't the drive to war for anyone after the Fourth Coalition; it was because Napoleon invaded, or because they wanted revenge for previous losses, or for national liberation.

Furthermore, even if a war still happens despite Napoleon not giving any reason for it, as in Iberia and Russia re the Continental system, without those massive bloodlettings, the Empire will be much better equipped to handle the threat, and it may strengthen the French position even further. Prussia is too weak with its treaty limitations, Alexander I is enamored with Napoleon, and Spain is an ally until it was invaded. Without the Spanish ulcer tying down so many troops, Austria would be whipped even faster if they went to war, and after that, the conflict only continued with the invasion of Russia, which wouldn't happen without the Continental system.
 
the continental system was just the ultimate of Napoleon dictating terms to his 'allies' and ensured that they would turn on him as soon as possible.

the CS was one of Napoleon's biggest blunders. the other two were attempting to take Spain and his prosecution of the war in Russia. the war in Russia was a direct result of the CS. Spain was independent of the CS, but the CS made for a good excuse for the Portuguese invasion, which in turn was an excuse to place lots of French troops in the heartland of Spain (who then failed to take over the country)
 

TFSmith121

Banned
The nation of shopkeepers makes plenty of money;

In an attempt to strike back at the British blockading France, Napoleon forbade all trade with Britain by the French and their allies/protectorates. This did far more damage to his empire than to Britains, turning states against him, damaging the economy, and eventually drawing France into its most disastrous campaigns in Iberia and Russia. Was not issuing his Berlin and Milan decrees just not an option? The embargo was largely ineffective against the British, so would Napoleon have been better served just securing his position on the Continent post Fourth Coalition than trying to strike back at the British?

The nation of shopkeepers makes plenty of money; the nation of la gloire remakes the Continent in its image. Austria and Prussia presumably get along to go along in 1806, given that after the 2nd Coalition, they were anyway (Treaty of Luneville was signed in 1801, and Amiens followed in 1802, so even the British were on-board with peace for a time).

At some point later in the decade or the next, when the French rub up against the Russians (and/or possibly the Turks), or vice versa, there's another war and the British fund the Russians.

At that point, however, the French may have had enough time to recover from the Revolutionary period's instability and be able to muster the economic and demographic strength to hold off the Russians in the east while striking decisively at Britain in the west - the adoption of steam technology will have a great deal to do with that, of course.

With luck (for the French) the British collapse and France reasserts its primacy over the eastern Atlantic; with luck (for the British), it turns into another grinding stalemate, except with more advanced technology.

The biggest impact may be in the rest of the world; if the Iberian powers hold it together that would have an impact on Latin America, although the swing towards independence among the "American" elites was well underway by the beginning of the Nineteenth Century.

The same holds true for the Turks, Africa, and Asia. A more multipolar world in the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century, absent Europe's economic relative prominence, is an interesting one.

Best,
 
France had pledged support for Russia's war with the Ottomans; is there any chance of this support materializing without the Continental System and the Spanish Ulcer?
 
I presume Napoleon is still going to divorce Josephine at some point; he got Marie-Louise out of the war with Austria. Would he still marry her without the war and the Continental System more generally, and if not, who else was on the list?
 
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