Progress of absolute power during the four years of the consulate.


THE EMPIRE

CHAPTER XV

FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE, 1804-1814

Character of the empire--Change of the republics created by the directory
into kingdoms--Third coalition; capture of Vienna; victories of Ulm and
Austerlitz; peace of Pressburg; erection of the two kingdoms of Bavaria
and Wurtemberg against Austria--Confederation of the Rhine--Joseph
Napoleon appointed king of Naples; Louis Napoleon, king of Holland--Fourth
coalition; battle of Jena; capture of Berlin; victories of Eylau and
Friedland; peace of Tilsit; the Prussian monarchy is reduced by one half;
the kingdoms of Saxony and Westphalia are instituted against it; that of
Westphalia given to Jerome Napoleon--The grand empire rises with its
secondary kingdoms, its confederation of the Rhine, its Swiss mediation,
its great fiefs; it is modelled on that of Charlemagne--Blockade of the
continent--Napoleon employs the cessation of commerce to reduce England,
as he had employed arms to subdue the continent--Invasion of Spain and
Portugal; Joseph Napoleon appointed to the throne of Spain; Murat replaces
him on the throne of Naples--New order of events: national insurrection of
the peninsula; religious contest with the pope--Commercial opposition of
Holland--Fifth coalition--Victory of Wagram; peace of Vienna; marriage of
Napoleon with the archduchess Marie Louise--Failure of the attempt at
resistance; the pope is dethroned; Holland is again united to the empire,
and the war in Spain prosecuted with vigour--Russia renounces the
continental system; campaign of 1812; capture of Moscow; disastrous