Confederation of the Rhine — 12 July 1806

Sixteen German princes left the Holy Roman Empire to unite under Napoleon's protectorate, undertaking to supply sixty-three thousand men. The Confederation, which would grow to thirty-six states, served as a military glacis and a market closed to the British. It completed the recomposition of Germany begun in 1803 and, against its own purpose, nurtured German national feeling.

What was left of the Holy Roman Empire

The Imperial Recess of 1803 had already wiped the ecclesiastical principalities and most of the free cities off the map, to the profit of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse. After Austerlitz, the Peace of Pressburg had made Bavaria and Württemberg kingdoms. The Holy Roman Empire was no more than a legal shell.

The treaty signed in Paris on 12 July 1806 united sixteen German princes under Napoleon's protectorate. On 1 August they formally declared their withdrawal from the Empire; on 6 August Francis II abdicated its crown and the thousand-year Reich ceased to exist.

A military protectorate

The Confederation had neither parliament nor common administration: Dalberg, prince-primate, presided over a diet that would never really meet. What worked was the military clause: the confederated states had to furnish a contingent, initially fixed at sixty-three thousand men.

The territory served as a glacis against Austria and Prussia and as a market closed to English goods. Enlarged after Jena and again after Wagram, the Confederation would count more than thirty states and nearly fifteen million subjects.

Reform and rupture

The member states received, in very unequal degrees, the Napoleonic Code, civil equality, the end of feudal dues — the kingdom of Westphalia being meant as the showcase. They also received conscription, contributions and campaigns: in 1812 the German contingents were among the most heavily bled.

After Leipzig, in October 1813, the Confederation broke up within weeks, each prince joining the coalition to keep his crown. The Congress of Vienna would not restore the Holy Roman Empire: in 1815 it replaced it with the German Confederation.