Germany now seemed fairly in the grip of Napoleon. Early in November
1806 he had contemptuously deposed the elector of Hesse and added his
dominions to Jerome's kingdom of Westphalia; on the 21st of the same
month he issued from Berlin the famous decree establishing the
"continental system," which, by forbidding all trade with England,
threatened German commerce with ruin. His triumph seemed complete when,
on the 11th of October 1807, Metternich signed at Fontainebleau, on
behalf of Austria, a convention that conceded all his outstanding
claims, and seemed to range the Habsburg monarchy definitely on his
side. There was, however, to be one final struggle before Napoleon's
supremacy was established. The submission of Austria had been but an
expedient for gaining time; under Count Stadion's auspices she set to
work increasing and reorganizing her forces; and when it became clear
from Napoleon's resentment that he was meditating fresh designs against
her she declared war (1809). The campaign ended in the crushing defeat
of Wagram (July 6) and the humiliating treaty of peace dictated by
Napoleon at the palace of Schönbrunn in Vienna (October 14). Austria,
shorn of her fairest provinces, robbed of her oversea commerce, bankrupt
and surrounded on all sides by the territories of the French emperor and
his allies, seemed to exist only on sufferance, and had ceased to have
any effective authority in Germany--now absolutely in the power of
Napoleon, who proved this in 1810 by annexing the whole of the northern
coast as far as the Elbe to his empire.
Revival of Germany.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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