Napoleon served him up affront after affront. In r8o5 the Grande Armee
blatantly violated the neutrality of the Prussian territory of Ansbach in
violation of a promise France had just made to Berlin. Had the Allies won
at Austerlitz, Prussia would certainly have entered the war on their side.
After Austerlitz Prussia was left out on a limb. Napoleon, knowing the
contingency plans Frederick William had made to mobilize his troops,
decided to cow him. He proposed peace terms to Berlin on a take-it-or
leave-it basis. Prussia was to lose territories which would be reconstituted
as duchies for Berthier and the marshals; all Prussia's treaties were to be
replaced by an exclusive accord with France; and Prussia was to pledge
itself to take any and every economic measure against England that
Napoleon proposed; as a douceur Prussia would receive Hanover.
Frederick William meekly accepted, making himself a laughing stock in
Europe. Then came the twin blows of the Confederation of the Rhine and
the end of the Holy Roman Empire.
This was the moment Napoleon should have adopted Talleyrand's
plan for a Paris-Vienna axis to dominate Europe and keep out Russia.
The time was propitious, for Archduke Charles, restored to favour, was
promoting a policy of military expansion in the east at the expense of
Turkey, leaving Germany and Italy in Bonaparte's sphere of influence.
But the Emperor believed in humiliating those he had defeated, not
conciliating them. Having ensured by his contumacious behaviour that
the spirit of revanchisme would live on in Austria, he then proceeded to
alienate Prussia by three separate actions of gross insensitivity.
First, by insisting that Prussia join his proposed economic blockade
of England, he forced her into war with Britain; seven hundred German
ships were at once impounded in British ports and ruin stared the
mercantile classes in the face. Secondly, he struck out vigorously at
inchoate signs of German nationalism. He ordered Berthier to raid into
neutral territory to seize a subversive Prussian bookseller named Palm. In
a sordid rerun of the d'Enghien affair Palm was kidnapped and executed
by firing squad for disseminating nationalist tracts prejudicial to the
interests of the French Empire. Thirdly, Napoleon made a final attempt
to secure terms with Britain by offering to let her have Hanover back.
The offer was brusquely snubbed, but the proposal soon leaked, and
infuriated the Prussians who realized that Napoleon had been quite
prepared to sell them down the river. Napoleon's hamfisted attempts at
personal diplomacy as usual ended up by securing the worst of both
worlds: hatred and contempt from both Britain and Prussia.
Alarmed at the way the prestige of nation and army were being
impaired by Frederick William's unwillingness to stand up to Bonaparte,
marcin
(Marcin)
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