The Confederation of the Rhine, 1806-1813



In 1806, the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE was dissolved; Emperor FRANZ II. laid down the crown and assumed the title Emperor of Austria instead. The territories of southern and western Germany, most of them greatly enlarged by Napoleon (at the expense of secularized ecclesiastic states and dissolved principalities), joined the CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE in 1806. It was presided by KARL THEODOR FREIHERR VON DALBERG, Prince-Archbishop of Mainz, since 1810 Grand Duke of Frankfurt. The Rhenian Confederation avoided the label 'German' and pursued a pro-French policy; von Dalberg was branded by German patriots as the traitor from the Rhine. In 1807 the Rhenian confederation expanded north- and eastward, now uniting all German states except Prussia, Austria, Holstein-Lauenburg (Danish) and the stretch of territory in the northwest resp. on the left bank of the Rhine, annexed by France.
The confederation was not a state, the political reforms implemented by it thus being of a limited scope. In 1808 the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE at Frankfurt was founded by von Dalberg. In 1809 the Theutonic Order was suppressed.
The Confederation of the Rhine was a French satellite organization; it's member states were perceived as French creations. When Germany was liberated in 1813, German borders were redrawn once again, and many of the statelets that had formed the Rhenian Confederation disappeared from the map.





EXTERNAL
FILES 		Rhenian Confederation : the Army, from Histofig; Uniforms, from Histofig
Confederation of the Rhine, from infoplease
Mediatized houses, from Brigitte's pages
Biography of Karl Theodor, Freiherr von Dalberg, from infoplease , very brief
The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, in : Eugene de Beauharnais and his titles, from French Heraldry Page, scroll down
Upper Rhine, from Catholic Encyclopedia, very detailed on the early 19th century; Pope Pius VII., from Pax et Veritas, on Dalberg's church policy, scroll down
The Napoleonic Germany : the Confederation of the Rhine, from The German Reigning Houses, lists members
DOCUMENTS Standard of the Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, from FOTW
The Treaty of 16 Feb. 1810 between France and the Prince-Primate (Excerpt), and related correspondence, from French Heraldry Page (in French)
Rheinbund Statistics from 1810, from napoleon-net.de
Map : Confederation of the Rhine, 1812, from IEG Maps
Documents pertaining to the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, 1805-1806, from napoleonseries.org
Medal : Confederation du Rhin 1806, from Laskey's Napoleonic Medals; also from Napoleonic Medals : the Prussian Campaign, by Fortiter, scroll down
Rheinbundakte vom 12. Juli 1806, from PSM - Data Geschichte
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 12th 2004

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