486 Ch. 13 • Napoleon and Europe
more tyrannical. He made up his own mind, and that mind invariably
chose war.
Wars of Conquest and Empire
Napoleon had brought stability to France, but France was still at war with
the Second Coalition: Great Britain, Austria, and Russia. In February 1800,
when Austria turned down his overtures for peace on the basis of the Treaty
of Campo Formio (1797), Napoleon returned to the battlefield, retaking
Milan and defeating an Austrian army in June 1800. With the Treaty of
Luneville (February 1801), Austria reaffirmed the conditions of the Treaty
of Campo Formio, accepting French gains in Italy, as well as French control
over the Southern Netherlands (Belgium).
With Austria defeated and Russia tied up by a war against the Ottoman
Empire, the British government signed the Peace of Amiens in March
- France kept all of its significant gains on the continent, and Britain
returned all of the French colonies it had captured. Great Britain gained
only the end of hostilities.
In Central Europe, Napoleon was now free to dismember the Holy
Roman Empire and to dictate the territorial reorganization of the small Ger
man states. France had absorbed the left bank of the Rhine River, fulfilling
the nationalistic dreams of a France extending to its “natural frontiers/’
Since this expansion came at the expense of Prussia and Austria, these two
powers had to be compensated. By the oddly named Imperial Recess of
1803, the two most powerful German states absorbed a number of small, in
dependent German states, ecclesiastical territories, and most of the free
cities. The rulers of Baden, Bavaria, Hesse-Kassel, and Wiirttemberg, the
other largest German states, also added to their domains. France’s position
in Italy also was solidified. Piedmont remained a French possession, with
Napoleon naming himself president of the Italian Cisalpine Republic. After
imposing a Federal Constitution on the cantons of Switzerland that trans
formed them into the Helvetic Republic, Napoleon forced a defensive
alliance on that strategically important country. By 1802, France was at
peace for the first time in a decade. Napoleon had brought his nation to a
position of dominance in Europe not seen since the time of Charlemagne a
thousand years earlier.
No longer satisfied with the title “first consul,” in 1802 Napoleon became
“consul for life,” a change approved by another plebiscite. Napoleon then
prepared the establishment of a hereditary empire in France. Although thou
sands of emigres took advantage of a declared amnesty to return to France,
an alleged conspiracy against Napoleon’s life by a group of royalists in 1804
led him to act against the Bourbons and to expedite his plan to become
emperor. Napoleon accused Louis de Bourbon-Conde, the duke of Enghien
(1772-1804)—a member of the Bourbon family who had emigrated to
Baden—of involvement in the conspiracy. French troops moved into Baden