Confederation of the Rhine

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History of Germany

The Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation (Rheinbund in German; in French officially États confédérés du Rhin but in practice Confédération du Rhin) lasted from 1806 to 1813 and was formed initially from sixteen German states by Napoleon after he defeated Habsburg's Francis II and Russia's Alexander I in the Battle of Austerlitz.

The members of the confederation were German princes (Fürsten) from the Holy Roman Empire, technically not their states as such. They were later joined by 19 others, a total of over 15 million subjects providing a significant strategic advantage to France on its eastern front.

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Formation

On 12 July 1806, on signing the Rheinbundakte' — the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine — sixteen states in present Germany formally left the Holy Roman Empire and joined together in a confederation (the treaty called it the états confédérés du Rhin). Napoleon was its "protector". On 6 August, following an ultimatum by Napoleon, Francis II gave up his title of Emperor and declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved. In the years that followed, twenty-three more German states joined the Confederation; his Habsburg dynasty would rule the remainder of the empire as Austria. Only Austria, Prussia, Danish Holstein and Swedish Pomerania stayed outside, not counting the left bank of the Rhine which was annexed by the French empire.

According to the treaty (only official version in French; Rheinbundsakte in German), the confederation was to be run by common constitutional bodies, but the individual states (in particular the larger ones) wanted unlimited sovereignty.

The Confederation was above all a military alliance; the members had to supply France with large numbers of military personnel.

In return the state rulers were given higher statuses: Baden, Hessen, Cleves and Berg were made into grand duchies and Württemberg and Bavaria became kingdoms. For their cooperation states could also be made larger by incorporating smaller imperial estates.

After Prussia lost to France in 1806, many medium-sized and small states joined the Rheinbund. It was at its largest in 1808, including four kingdoms, five grand duchies, thirteen duchies, seventeen principalities and the Hansa towns of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen.

In 1810 large parts of northwest Germany were quickly incorporated into the Napoleonic Empire in order to better monitor the embargo on trade with Britain, the Continental System.

In 1813, when Napoleon's campaign in Russia failed and some of its members changed sides, the Confederation of the Rhine collapsed.

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Member monarchies (alphabetically)

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Aftermath

After the dissolution of the Rhine Confederation, the only attempt at coordination (no actual central authority) in Germany until the creation on 21 October 1813 of the German Confederation was headed by a body called Central Administration Council (Zentralverwaltungsrat); its President was Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom und zum Stein (b. 1757 - d. 1831); it was dissolved on 20 June 1815.

On 30 May 1814 the Treaty of Paris declared the German states independent.

In 1815 the Congress of Vienna redrew the continent's political map. In fact, only minor changes were made to inner-German borders, and the resulting German Confederation consisted more or less of the same members as the Confederation of the Rhine.

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See also

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Sources, References and External links

de:Rheinbund es:Confederación del Rin fr:Confédération du Rhin lt:Reino konfederacija nl:Rijnbond (1806) ja:ライン同盟 no:Rhinforbundet pl:Związek Reński pt:Confederação do Reno sv:Rhenförbundet zh:萊茵聯邦

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