History of germany

Napoleon against Russia and Austria: 1805

When Russia and Austria declare war on Napoleon in 1805 (in the Third Coalition), he is able to find allies in Germany who are eager to see Austria's power reduced. Prussia remains neutral, but Bavaria and two other territories in southwest Germany come in on France's side. Their region sees the first encounter in this new phase of the war. Moving fast along the Danube, Napoleon gets between the Austrians and their approaching Russian allies. In October 1805 he surrounds the Austrians at Ulm. More than 50,000 troops are captured with minimal French losses.

The French reach Vienna on November 12 and enter the city unopposed. They quickly move on, pursuing a joint Russian and Austrian army into Moravia. 
The eventual encounter takes place on December 2 at Austerlitz. The allied army, under the command of the Russian general Kutuzov, outnumbers the French by a wide margin (90,000 men to 68,000). In spite of this, the day goes decisively to the French.The victory ends any immediate threat to Napoleon from the Third Coalition. The Russians limp back home after agreeing a truce. The Austrian emperor, Francis I, signs a peace treaty with Napoleon at Pressburg on December 26. He cedes to Napoleon the entire northern coast of the Adriatic, consisting of the provinces of Venetia (meaning Venice and its surrounding region), Istria and Dalmatia. 
At Pressburg Francis I is also forced to recognize a new status for Napoleon's three German allies in the recent campaign, Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg. Their rulers receive marked increases in status (as kings now of Bavaria and Württemberg, and grand duke of Baden), but the improvement is more nominal than real.
A few months later, in July 1806, Napoleon merges the two new kingdoms and the grand duchy, together with several smaller principalities, into a single Confederation of the Rhine - a vassal state under the protection of France. 


Confederation of the Rhine: 1806-1807

The simplifying of Germany's feudal patchwork, to France's advantage, has begun in 1801 after the peace of Lunéville cedes the left bank of the Rhine to France. The understanding is that German rulers with lands west of the Rhine will receive compensation elsewhere. This is to be provided from the many ecclesiastical territories and small imperial cities in the fragmented Holy Roman empire, too weak to resist their forcible redistribution among the larger players. A commission is set up to consider the precise allocations. Its proposals, distributing to new owners 112 previously independent territories, are presented and accepted in 1803. 

This unifying process, carried through under duress, is further advanced after Napoleon's defeat of the Austrians in 1805. His German allies in that war are rewarded by enlargement of their realms at the expense of weaker neighbours (and also by nominalincreases in rank).But the greatest act of rationalization comes in 1806 when Napoleon merges the whole of Germany east of the Rhine, with the exception of Prussia and Saxony, into the Confederation of the Rhine. Saxony joins this Francophile family a year later, in 1807, with its elector raised to the status of king. 
The members of the Confederation continue to regulate their own internal affairs, but they acknowledge Napoleon's superior status as 'protector' of their union. They are banned from pursuing an independent foreign policy, and they must place troops at his disposal when required.

They have in effect exchanged an ancient feudal commitment for something identical in modern guise, shifting their allegiance from one emperor to another. But this yoke will last only as long as the new emperor. A much more coherent Germany emerges from the Napoleonic era. And the example inspires many with an increasingly important dream of the 19th century - that of a single German nation.