A History of Germany Part 35

The end of the year, and of the century, brought a great change in the destinies of France. Bonaparte had returned from Egypt, and on the 9th of November, by force of arms, he overthrew the Government and established the Consulate in the place of the Republic, with himself as First Consul for ten years. Being now practically Dictator, he took matters into his own hands, and his first measure was to propose peace to the Coalition, on the basis of the Treaty of Campo Formio. This was rejected by England and Austria, who stubbornly believed that the fortune of the war was at last turning to their side. In Prussia, Frederick William II. had died in November, 1797, and was succeeded by his son, Frederick William III., who was a man of excellent personal qualities, but without either energy, ambition or clear intelligence.

Bonaparte's policy was simply to keep Prussia neutral, and he found no difficulty in maintaining the peace which had been concluded at Basel nearly five years before. England chiefly took part in the war by means of her navy, and by contributions of money, so that France, with the best generals in the world and soldiers flushed with victory, was only called upon to meet Austria in the field.

[Sidenote: 1799. BONAPARTE FIRST CONSUL.]

At this crisis, the Archduke Karl, Austria's single good general, threw up his command, on account of the interference of the Court of Vienna with his plans. His place was filled by the Archduke John, a boy of nineteen, under whom was an army of 100,000 men, scattered in a long line from the Alps to Frankfort. Moreau easily broke through this barrier, overran Baden and Wurtemberg, and was only arrested for a short time by the fortifications of Ulm. While these events were occurring, another Austrian army under Melas besieged Ma.s.sena in Genoa. Bonaparte collected a new force, with such rapidity and secrecy that his plan was not discovered, made a heroic march over the St. Bernard pa.s.s of the Alps in May, and came down upon Italy like an avalanche. Genoa, thousands of whose citizens perished with hunger during the siege, had already surrendered to the Austrians; but, when the latter turned to repel Bonaparte, they were cut to pieces on the field of Marengo, on the 14th of June, 1800. This magnificent victory gave all Northern Italy, as far as the river Mincio, into the hands of the French.

Again Bonaparte offered peace to Austria, on the same basis as before.

An armistice was concluded, and Francis II. made signs of accepting the offer of peace, but only that he might quietly recruit his armies. When, therefore, the armistice expired, on the 25th of November, Moreau immediately advanced to attack the new Austrian army of nearly 90,000 men, which occupied a position along the river Inn. On the 3d of December, the two met at Hohenlinden, and the French, after a b.l.o.o.d.y struggle, were completely victorious. There was now, apparently, nothing to prevent Moreau from marching upon Vienna, and the Archduke Karl, who had been sent in all haste to take command of the demoralized Austrians, was compelled to ask for an armistice upon terms very humiliating to the Hapsburg pride.

[Sidenote: 1801.]

After all its combined haughtiness and incompetency, the Court of Vienna gratefully accepted such terms as it could get. Francis II. sent one of his ministers, Cobenzl, who met Joseph Bonaparte at Luneville (in Lorraine), and there, on the 9th of February, 1801, peace was concluded.

Its chief provisions were those of the Treaty of Campo Formio: all the territory west of the Rhine, from Basel to the sea, was given to France, together with all Northern Italy west of the Adige. The Duke of Modena received part of Baden, and the Duke of Tuscany Salzburg. Other temporal princes of Germany, who lost part or the whole of their territory by the treaty, were compensated by secularizing the dominions of the priestly rulers, and dividing them among the former. Thus the States governed by Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots or other clerical dignitaries, nearly one hundred in number, were abolished at one blow, and what little was left of the fabric of the old German Empire fell to pieces. The division of all this territory among the other States gave rise to new difficulties and disputes, which were not settled for two years longer. The Diet appointed a special Commission to arrange the matter; but, inasmuch as Bonaparte, through his Minister Talleyrand, and Alexander I. of Russia (the Emperor Paul having been murdered in 1801), intrigued in every possible way to enlarge the smaller German States and prevent the increase of Austria, the final arrangements were made quite as much by the two foreign powers as by the Commission of the German Diet.

On the 27th of April, 1803, the decree of part.i.tion was issued, suddenly changing the map of Germany. Only six free cities were left out of fifty-two,--Frankfort, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, Nuremberg and Augsburg: Prussia received three bishoprics (Hildesheim, Munster and Paderborn), and a number of abbeys and cities, including Erfurt, amounting to four times as much as she had lost on the left bank of the Rhine. Baden was increased to double its former size by the remains of the Palatinate (including Heidelberg and Mannheim), the city of Constance, and a number of abbeys and monasteries: a great part of Franconia, with Wurzburg and Bamberg, was added to Bavaria. Wurtemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt and Na.s.sau were much enlarged, and most of the other States received smaller additions. At the same time the rulers of Baden, Wurtemberg, Hesse-Ca.s.sel and Salzburg were dignified by the new t.i.tle of "Electors"--when they never would be called upon to elect another German Emperor!

[Sidenote: 1803. FRENCH INVASION OF HANNOVER.]

An impartial study of these events will show that they were caused by the indifference of Prussia to the general interests of Germany, and the utter lack of the commonest political wisdom in Francis II. of Austria and his ministers. The war with France was wantonly undertaken, in the first place; it was then continued with stupid obstinacy after two offers of peace. But except the loss of the left bank of the Rhine, with more than three millions of German inhabitants, Germany, though humiliated, was not yet seriously damaged. The complete overthrow of priestly rule, the extinction of a mult.i.tude of petty States, and the abolition of the special privileges of nearly a thousand "Imperial"

n.o.ble families, was an immense gain to the whole country. The influence which Bonaparte exercised in the part.i.tion of 1803, though made solely with a view to the political interests of France, produced some very beneficial changes in Germany. In regard to religion, the Chief Electors were now equally divided, five being Catholic and five Protestant; while the Diet of Princes, instead of having a Catholic majority of twelve, as heretofore, acquired a Protestant majority of twenty-two.

France was now the ruling power on the Continent of Europe. Prussia preserved a timid neutrality, Austria was powerless, the new Republics in Holland, Switzerland and Italy were wholly subjected to French influence, Spain, Denmark and Russia were friendly, and even England, after the overthrow of Pitt's ministry, was persuaded to make peace with Bonaparte in 1802. The same year, the latter had himself declared First Consul for life, and became absolute master of the destinies of France.

A new quarrel with England soon broke out, and this gave him a pretext for invading Hannover. In May, 1803, General Mortier marched from Holland with only 12,000 men, while Hannover, alone, had an excellent army of 15,000. But the Council of n.o.bles, who governed in the name of George III. of England, gave orders that "the troops should not be allowed to fire, and might only use the bayonet _moderately_, in extreme necessity!" Of course no battle was fought; the country was overrun by the French in a few days, and plundered to the amount of 26,000,000 thalers. Prussia and the other German States quietly looked on, and--did nothing.

[Sidenote: 1804.]

In March, 1804, the First Consul sent a force across the Rhine into Baden, seized the Duke d'Enghien, a fugitive Bourbon Prince, carried him into France and there had him shot. This outrage provoked a general cry of indignation throughout Europe. Two months afterwards, on the 18th of May, Bonaparte a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Napoleon, Emperor of the French: the Italian Republics were changed into a Kingdom of Italy, and that period of arrogant and selfish personal government commenced which brought monarchs and nations to his feet, and finally made him a fugitive and a prisoner. On the 11th of August, 1804, Francis II. imitated him, by taking the t.i.tle of "Emperor of Austria," in order to preserve his existing rank, whatever changes might afterwards come.

England, Austria and Russia were now more than ever determined to cripple the increasing power of Napoleon. Much time was spent in endeavoring to persuade Prussia to join the movement, but Frederick William III. not only refused, but sent an army to prevent the Russian troops from crossing Prussian territory, on their way to join the Austrians. By the summer of 1805, the THIRD COALITION, composed of the three powers already named and Sweden, was formed, and a plan adopted for bringing nearly 400,000 soldiers into the field against France.

Although the secret had been well kept, it was revealed before the Coalition was quite prepared; and Napoleon was ready for the emergency.

He had collected an army of 200,000 men at Boulogne for the invasion of England: giving up the latter design, he marched rapidly into Southern Germany, procured the alliance of Baden, Wurtemberg and Bavaria, with 40,000 more troops, and thus gained the first advantage before the Russian and Austrian armies had united.

The fortress of Ulm, held by the Austrian General Mack, with 25,000 men, surrendered on the 17th of October. The French pressed forwards, overcame the opposition of a portion of the allied armies along the Danube, and on the 13th of November entered Vienna. Francis II. and his family had fled to Presburg: the Archduke Karl, hastening from Italy, was in Styria with a small force, and a combined Russian and Austrian army of nearly 100,000 men was in Moravia. Prussia threatened to join the Coalition, because the neutrality of her territory had been violated by Bernadotte in marching from Hannover to join Napoleon: the allies, although surprised and disgracefully defeated, were far from appreciating the courage and skill of their enemy, and still believed they could overcome him. Napoleon pretended to avoid a battle and thereby drew them on to meet him in the field: on the 2d of December at Austerlitz, the "Battle of the Three Emperors" (as the Germans call it) occurred, and by the close of that day the allies had lost 15,000 killed and wounded, 20,000 prisoners and 200 cannon.

[Sidenote: 1806. END OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE.]

Two days after the battle Francis II. came personally to Napoleon and begged for an armistice, which was granted. The latter took up his quarters in the Palace of the Hapsburgs, at Schonbrunn, as a conqueror, and waited for the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which was signed at Presburg on the 26th of December. Austria was forced to give up Venice to France, Tyrol to Bavaria, and some smaller territory to Baden and Wurtemberg; to accept the policy of France in Italy, Holland and Switzerland, and to recognize Bavaria and Wurtemberg as independent kingdoms of Napoleon's creation. All that she received in return was the archbishopric of Salzburg. She also agreed to pay one hundred millions of francs to France, and to permit the formation of a new Confederation of the smaller German States, which should be placed under the protectors.h.i.+p of Napoleon. The latter lost no time in carrying out his plan: by July, 1806, the _Rheinbund_ (Confederation of the Rhine) was entered into by seventeen States, which formed, in combination, a third power, independent of either Austria or Prussia.

Immediately afterwards, on the 6th of August, 1806, Francis II. laid down his t.i.tle of "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation," and the political corpse, long since dead, was finally buried.

Just a thousand years had elapsed since the time of Charlemagne: the power and influence of the Empire had reached their culmination under the Hohenstaufens, but even then the smaller rulers were undermining its foundations. It existed for a few centuries longer as a system which was one-fourth fact and three-fourths tradition: during the Thirty Years'

War it perished, and the Hapsburgs, after that, only wore the ornaments and trappings it left behind. The German people were never further from being a nation than at the commencement of this century; but the most of them still clung to the superst.i.tion of an Empire, until the compulsory act of Francis II. showed them, at last, that there was none.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

GERMANY UNDER NAPOLEON.

(1806--1814.)

Napoleon's personal Policy. --The "Rhine-Bund." --French Tyranny.

--Prussia declares War. --Battles of Jena and Auerstadt. --Napoleon in Berlin. --Prussia and Russia allied. --Battle of Friedland.

--Interviews of the Sovereigns. --Losses of Prussia. --Kingdom of Westphalia. --Frederick William III.'s Weakness. --Congress at Erfurt. --Patriotic Movements. --Revolt of the Tyrolese. --Napoleon marches on Vienna. --Schill's Movement in Prussia. --Battles of Aspera and Wagram. --The Peace of Vienna. --Fate of Andreas Hofer.

--The Duke of Brunswick's Attempt. --Napoleon's Rule in Germany.

--Secret Resistance in Prussia. --War with Russia. --The March to Moscow. --The Retreat. --York's Measures. --Rising of Prussia.

--Division of Germany. --Battle of Lutzen. --Napoleon in Dresden.

--The Armistice. --Austria joins the Allies. --Victories of Blucher and Bulow. --Napoleon's Hesitation. --The Battle of Leipzig.

--Napoleon's Retreat from Germany. --Cowardice of the allied Monarchs. --Blucher crosses the Rhine.

[Sidenote: 1806.]

After the peace of Presburg there was nothing to prevent Napoleon from carrying out his plan of dividing the greater part of Europe among the members of his own family, and the Marshals of his armies. He gave the kingdom of Naples to his brother Joseph; appointed his step-son Eugene Beauharnais Viceroy of Italy, and married him to the daughter of Maximilian I. (formerly Elector, now King) of Bavaria; made a Kingdom of Holland, and gave it to his brother Louis; gave the Duchy of Julich, Cleves and Berg to Murat, and married Stephanie Beauharnais, the niece of the Empress Josephine, to the son of the Grand-Duke of Baden. There was no longer any thought of disputing his will in any of the smaller German States: the princes were as submissive as he could have desired, and the people had been too long powerless to dream of resistance.

[Sidenote: 1806. THE "RHINE-BUND."]

The "Rhine-Bund," therefore, was constructed just as France desired.

Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt and Na.s.sau united with twelve small princ.i.p.alities--the whole embracing a population of thirteen millions--in a Confederation, which accepted Napoleon as Protector, and agreed to maintain an army of 63,000 men, at the disposal of France. This arrangement divided the German Empire into three parts, one of which (Austria) had just been conquered, while another (Prussia) had lost all its former prestige by its weak and cowardly policy.

Napoleon was now the recognized master of the third portion, the action of which was regulated by a Diet held at Frankfort. In order to make the Union simpler and more manageable, all the independent counts.h.i.+ps and baronies within its limits were abolished, and the seventeen States were thus increased by an aggregate territory of about 12,000 square miles.

Bavaria took possession, without more ado, of the free cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg.

Prussia, by this time, had agreed with Napoleon to give up Ans.p.a.ch and Bayreuth to Bavaria, and receive Hannover instead. This provoked the enmity of England, the only remaining nation which was friendly to Prussia. The French armies were still quartered in Southern Germany, violating at will not only the laws of the land, but the laws of nations. A bookseller named Palm, in Nuremberg, who had in his possession some pamphlets opposing Napoleon's schemes, was seized by order of the latter, tried by court-martial and shot. This brutal and despotic act was not resented by the German princes, but it aroused the slumbering spirit of the people. The Prussians, especially, began to grow very impatient of their pusillanimous government; but Frederick William III. did nothing, until in August, 1806, he discovered that Napoleon was trying to purchase peace with England and Russia by offering Hannover to the former and Prussian Poland to the latter. Then he decided for war, at the very time when he was compelled to meet the victorious power of France alone!

Napoleon, as usual, was on the march before his enemy was even properly organized. He was already in Franconia, and in a few days stood at the head of an army of 200,000 men, part of whom were furnished by the Rhine-Bund. Prussia, a.s.sisted only by Saxony and Weimar, had 150,000, commanded by Prince Hohenlohe and the Duke of Brunswick, who hardly reached the bases of the Thuringian Mountains when they were met by the French and hurled back. On the table-land near Jena and Auerstadt a double battle was fought on the 14th of October, 1806. In the first (Jena) Napoleon simply crushed and scattered to the winds the army of Prince Hohenlohe; in the second (Auerstadt) Marshal Davoust, after some heavy fighting, defeated the Duke of Brunswick, who was mortally wounded. Then followed a season of panic and cowardice which now seems incredible: the French overwhelmed Prussia, and almost every defence fell without resistance as they approached. The strong fortress of Erfurt, with 10,000 men, surrendered the day after the battle of Jena; the still stronger fortress-city of Magdeburg, with 24,000 men, opened its gates before a gun was fired! Spandau capitulated as soon as asked, on the 24th of October, and Davoust entered Berlin the same day. Only General Blucher, more than sixty years old, cut his way through the French with 10,000 men, and for a time gallantly held them at bay in Lubeck; and the young officers, Gneisenau and Schill, kept the fortress of Colberg, on the Baltic, where they were steadily besieged until the war was over.

[Sidenote: 1806.]

When Napoleon entered Berlin in triumph, on the 27th of November, he found nearly the whole population completely cowed, and ready to acknowledge his authority; seven Ministers of the Prussian Government took the oath of allegiance to him, and agreed, at once, to give up all of the kingdom west of the Elbe for the sake of peace! Frederick William III., who had fled to Konigsberg, refused to confirm their action, and entered into an alliance with Alexander I. of Russia, to continue the war. Napoleon, meanwhile, had made peace with Saxony, which, after paying heavy contributions and joining the Rhine-Bund, was raised by him to the rank of a kingdom. At the same time he encouraged a revolt in Prussian Poland, got possession of Silesia, and kept Austria neutral by skilful diplomacy. England had the power, by prompt and energetic action, of changing the face of affairs, but her government did nothing.

Pressing eastward during the winter, the French army, 140,000 strong, met the Russians and Prussians on the 8th of February, 1807, in the murderous battle of Eylau, after which, because its result was undecided, Napoleon concluded a truce of several months. Frederick William appointed a new Ministry, with the fearless and patriotic statesmen, Hardenberg and Stein, who formed a fresh alliance with Russia, which was soon joined by England and Sweden. Nevertheless, it was almost impossible to reinforce the Prussian army, and Alexander I.

made no great exertions to increase the Russian, while Napoleon, with all Prussia in his rear, was constantly receiving fresh troops. Early in June he resumed hostilities, and on the 14th, with a much superior force, so completely defeated the Allies in the battle of Friedland, that they were driven over the river Memel into Russian territory.

[Sidenote: 1807. THE PEACE OF TILSIT.]

The Russians immediately concluded an armistice: Napoleon had an interview with Alexander I. on a raft in the river Memel, and acquired such an immediate influence over the enthusiastic, fantastic nature of the latter, that he became a friend and practically an ally. The next day, there was another interview, at which Frederick William III. was also present: the Queen, Louise of Mecklenburg, a woman of n.o.ble and heroic character, whom Napoleon had vilely slandered, was persuaded to accompany him, but only subjected herself to new humiliation. (She died in 1810, during Germany's deepest degradation, but her son, William I., became German Emperor in 1871.) The Peace of Tilsit was declared on the 9th of July, 1807, according to Napoleon's single will. Hardenberg had been dismissed from the Prussian Ministry, and Talleyrand gave his successor a completed doc.u.ment, to be signed without discussion.

Prussia lost very nearly the half of her territory: her population was diminished from 9,743,000 to 4,938,000. A new "Grand-Duchy of Warsaw"

was formed by Napoleon out of her Polish acquisitions. The contributions which had been levied and which Prussia was still forced to pay amounted to a total sum of three hundred million thalers, and she was obliged to maintain a French army in her diminished territory until the last farthing should be paid over. Russia, on the other hand, lost nothing, but received a part of Polish Prussia. A new Kingdom of Westphalia was formed out of Brunswick, and parts of Prussia and Hannover, and Napoleon's brother, Jerome, was made king. The latter, whose wife was an American lady, Miss Patterson of Baltimore, was compelled to renounce her, and marry the daughter of the new king of Wurtemberg, although, as a Catholic, he could not do this without a special dispensation from the Pope, and Pius VII. refused to give one. Thus he became a bigamist, according to the laws of the Roman Church. Jerome was a weak and licentious individual, and made himself heartily hated by his two millions of German subjects during his six years' rule in Ca.s.sel.

[Sidenote: 1808.]

Frederick William III. was at last stung by his misfortunes into the adoption of another and manlier policy. He called Stein to the head of his Ministry, and allowed the latter to introduce reforms for the purpose of a.s.sisting, strengthening and developing the character of the people. But 150,000 French troops still fed like locusts upon the substance of Prussia, and there was an immense amount of poverty and suffering. The French commanders plundered so outrageously and acted with such shameless brutality, that even the slow German nature became heated with a hate so intense that it is not yet wholly extinguished.

But this was not the end of the degradation. Napoleon, at the climax of his power, having (without exaggeration) the whole Continent of Europe under his feet, demanded that Prussia should join the Rhine-Bund, reduce her standing army to 42,000 men, and, in case of necessity, furnish France with troops against Austria. The temporary courage of the king dissolved: he signed a treaty on the 8th of September, 1808, without the knowledge of Stein, granting nearly everything Napoleon claimed,--thus compelling the patriotic statesman to resign, and making what was left of Prussia tributary to the designs of France.

At the same time Napoleon held a so-called Congress at Erfurt, at which all the German rulers (except Austria) were present, but the decisions were made by himself, with the connivance of Alexander I. of Russia. The latter received Finland and the Danubian Princ.i.p.alities. Napoleon simply carried out his own personal policy. He made his brother Joseph king of Spain, gave Naples to his brother-in-law, Murat, and soon afterwards annexed the States of the Church, in Italy, to France, abolis.h.i.+ng the temporal sovereignty of the Pope. Every one of the smaller German States had already joined the Rhine-Bund, and the Diet by which they were governed abjectly obeyed his will. Princes, n.o.bles, officials, and authors vied with each other in doing homage to him. Even the battles of Jena and Friedland were celebrated by popular festivals in the capitals of the other States: the people of Southern Germany, especially, rejoiced over the shame and suffering of their brethren in the North.

Ninety German authors dedicated books to Napoleon, and the newspapers became contemptible in their servile praises of his rule.

[Sidenote: 1809. REVOLT OF THE TYROLESE.]