As his conquests added state after state to the territory in
which his word was law, Napoleon developed new tactics against
England. He conceived it practicable to crush that commercial and
manufacturing power by excluding her goods from the markets of
Europe. This "continental system" was inaugurated in November,
1806, by the Berlin Decree which closed the ports of Europe to
British vessels, and declared a paper blockade against the
British Isles. This policy he forced upon nation after nation, to
which his conquests extended. England retaliated by the "Orders
in Council," which declared a blockade against the French ports,
and authorized the seizure of neutral vessels found trading with
them. By a naval raid in September, 1807, the British swooped
down on Denmark and carried off the Danish fleet to keep that
weapon from falling into the Emperor's hands. Two months later,
in anticipation of a British descent, French armies seized
Portugal and entered Spain.

Up to the entrance of the French into the Spanish Peninsula, the
protracted hostilities had brought little advantage to the
British arms except on the sea. It was the Peninsular War,
precipitated by this fresh encroachment of Napoleon, which first
gave a laurel to the English arms and prepared Wellington for
Waterloo. Napoleon and the soldier who was to overthrow him were
born in the same year. The babe whom the world was to know as the
Duke of Wellington was christened in Dublin in May, 1769, by the
name of Arthur Wesley. (In 1798 the older spelling of the family
name, Wellesley, was resumed.) He was descended from English
ancestors long resident in Ireland, and was himself the fourth
son of the Earl of Mornington. The death of the Earl when Arthur