A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

The Tide Turns against Napoleon 501

Francisco Goya’s The Third of May; 1808 depicts the execution of citizens of

Madrid by French soldiers after the fall of the city during the Peninsular War.

seemed blind to the fact that the exportation of the principles of the French
Revolution might encourage resentment and even nationalist feeling against
the French in those countries conquered by his armies. Gradually the
French discovered that nationalism was a double-edged sword. Some people
in states conquered by French armies not only resented the occupation of
their lands but they also began to long for the existence of a territorial state
organized around their own nationality.
In any case, Napoleon sought to curry favor in each conquered state in
exchange for support against his enemies. Napoleon may indeed have
intended that Westphalia, created by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) out of for­
mer Prussian territories and other smaller states that had fought against
him, would become a model state. He ended serfdom and gave peasants the
right to own land, to move through the kingdom as they pleased, and to
send their children to school. But his principal goal was to bolster the Con­
federation of the Rhine’s north flank against possible attacks against his
interests.
Napoleon considered conquered territories sources for military conscripts
and raw materials, or as potential markets for French goods. In Italy, French
authorities forbade the importation of textile machinery and imposed disad­
vantageous tariffs, fearful of competition with their own industries. With