The Continental Blockade and Smuggling



Napoleon, in an attempt to harm Britain, in 1804 declared the CONTINENTAL BLOCKADE of British trade. He tried to enforce it from the Algarve to Archangelsk, by order or by diplomatic pressure.
The British Navy ruled the sea, at least after the BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (1805). As a consequence, the countries of Europe were separated from their overseas colonies - Spain from all of Latin America, France from their sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean, the Dutch from the East and West Indies, the Danes from the Danish West Indies.
As a result there was a significant shortage in colonial products. A German chemist had found sugar in beets, and a method how to extract sugar from beets had been developed. The early 1800es saw the spread of beet sugar factories in continental Europe.

The blockade did have an affect on the British economy, but not exactly the one intended by Napoleon. Along the coasts of Spain, the Netherlands, Germany a smuggling trade went on; British trade with Sweden and Russia was carried out in the open. There were even French smugglers. The British occupied the most valuable enemy colonies, and supplied Latin America (cut off from Spanish supplies) with the goods it required.


EXTERNAL
FILES
DOCUMENTS Napoleon et le blocus continental, from cliotexte, decree of the continental blockade 1806



This page is part of World History at KMLA
Last revised on February 16th 2002

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