HIST103: World History (1600–Present)

The Treaty of Tilsit established a formal political alliance between Russia and France. European states outside of this continental association were limited to Britain, Portugal, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire.³⁹

Britain's dominance at sea wreaked havoc on the Spanish colonial empire and threatened American commerce with Latin America and Europe. Napoleon's distrust of his Spanish allies led to their overthrow in the spring of 1808. Napoleon replaced the Spanish Bourbons with his older brother Joseph (1768–1844).

The invasion of Spain initiated a six-year war that drained Napoleon of vital manpower resources. It provided Britain with a new continental ally and a base of operations to strike at France. The war in Spain (1808–1814) witnessed the widespread use of guerrilla warfare against French forces in tandem with conventional Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish armies. This new alliance was a formal military agreement between the powers.⁴⁰

There is debate among historians concerning the extent to which ideology played a role in the guerilla war in Spain. Certainly, the anti-clerical policies of Revolutionary France had served to rally the Spanish population against the French invasion in 1794. Napoleon was not anti-clerical and had made amends with the papacy in 1801. Recent arguments place the guerilla war in a traditional context, with soldiers rather than peasants forming the majority of Spanish guerilla forces.⁴¹

Popular unrest and guerilla warfare did not first appear in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars but in Naples in 1799 and again after the French conquest in 1806. The San Fedesti revolt in 1799 swept away the French satellite of the Parthenopean Republic in Naples. After the French returned in 1806, a revolt in Calabria led to an insurgency that lasted five years. In 1809, Andreas Hofer (1767–1810) led a popular revolt in the Tyrol, not against French, but Bavarian rule. Also, in 1809, there were significant attempts in Germany to raise popular revolt against French domination. All but the Spanish insurgency failed.⁴² Each rebellion was shaped by local issues and remained isolated from rebellions elsewhere.

Napoleon's focus on Spain provided Austria with the opportunity to rearm and strike. The Austrians attempted to gain Prussian and Russian support for their war in 1809 but failed on both accounts. Britain provided monetary subsidies, but their military power remained in Iberia. Napoleon managed to secure Russia's commitment to his alliance, and a Russian army invaded Galicia (Austrian Poland) a month after hostilities began.⁴³

The Austrians went to war against Napoleon's coalition of Russia, the Confederation of the Rhine, and the Kingdom of Italy. Austria's inability to garner support from Prussia or Russia undermined its war effort and enabled Napoleon to outmaneuver Austria on the battlefield and in the political arena. The war in 1809 was certainly the greatest test of the newly-structured Grand Empire, but Napoleon's allies held to their agreements despite the opportunity to undermine French hegemony.⁴⁴

Austria's defeat in 1809 led the following year to the dynastic marriage of Marie Louise (1791–1847), the daughter of Francis, to Napoleon. This Habsburg-Bonaparte union can be seen as a restoration of the Austro-French alliance of the 18th century.

From the Austrian perspective, it enabled the Habsburgs to establish themselves above the Prussians and Russians within the context of Napoleon's European empire. It was a way in which the Habsburg dynasty could reassert its influence in the "new Europe" after it was abandoned by Prussia and Russia in 1809.⁴⁵

Anti-French coalitions were virtually impossible to establish between 1810 and 1812. Britain's commitments in Portugal and Spain, and later its war with the United States in 1812, stretched its military and financial resources to the limit.⁴⁶ 

Tsar Alexander I found it increasingly difficult to maintain a solid French alliance after 1809. Napoleon's demand that the Continental System be enforced and his increasingly unilateral actions in Europe, such as the integration of northwest Germany into the French Empire without Russian consultation or compensation, placed Russia on a collision course with Napoleon. In the meantime, Russia was still at war with the Ottoman Empire, and from 1808 to 1809, fought with Sweden for control of Finland. Furthermore, Napoleon had made several overtures to the Persians, seeking to improve relations and compromise Russia's southern frontier.

When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, the armies of Imperial France included troops from every state in the Grand Empire. Austria and Prussia went to war with Russia as allies of France, too. The nature of coalition warfare from 1807 to 1812 favored Napoleon. An Anglo-Russian alliance could do little as each held to the peripheries of Europe. Napoleon's defeat in 1812 offered the first opportunity in years for a new anti-French coalition.