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12 July 1806
Confederation of the Rhine
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Napoleon's establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine leads to the
end of the Holy Roman Empire – by now a loose association of German statelets
with little about it that is holy, Roman or, still less, imperial. The
Confederation initially consists of 10 members, increasing to 30 by 1808
and including virtually all the various German states, with the exceptions
of Austria and Prussia. Napoleon's aim is to create a German state independent
of Austrian or Prussian influence. The short-lived Confederation will
prove to be another stimulus along the long road to eventual German unification.
There is to be no restitution of the Holy Roman Empire after the collapse
of the Confederation in 1813. Instead, the Congress
of Vienna in 1815 establishes a new German Confederation, the Deutsches
Bund. Over the next half century, a series of successful wars sees
Prussia rise to a pre-eminence, eventually unifying the various German
states in the German Empire, or Deutsches Reich, in 1871.
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