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Prussian Line Infantry: 1. Grenadier, 13th Regiment 1805 2. Musketeer, 25th Regiment 1806 3. Grenadier, 15th Regiment 1806 4. Officer, 23th Regiment 1806 5. Grenadier, 26th Regiment 1806 6. Musketeer, 4th Regiment 1807
By 1804, Napoleon was on the road to mastery of Europe. He had proclaimed himself emperor of France in the wake of the French Republic, and with his personal genius and his well-trained, experienced army, he had humbled Austria and taken control of Italy and Spain. The powers of Europe, stymied by Napoleon’s devious diplomacy, could not cooperate against him. Prussia was the only power that remained neutral through Napoleon’s rise. Prussia was the possessor of a rich military heritage via Frederick the Great, but its victories were 50 years in the past, and its army had lost its quality leadership and training. Prussian King William III lusted after the state of Hanover, home of the English royal family but currently under Napoleon’s control. William remained neutral until he could determine whether England or France would be the best ally to satisfy his territorial ambitions. His vacillation provoked Napoleon’s contempt.
In May 1804, William got off the fence by joining the Third Coalition, allying Prussia with Austria, Russia, and England. Though Austria went on the offensive into Bavaria in September, William remained a passive partner. He would not commit his troops, even when French troops crossed the Prussian principality of Ansbach. William signed the Convention of Potsdam, 122 wherein the Russian tsar called for the commitment of Prussian troops to the coalition’s defense, but still he would not honor the treaty. Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz was therefore gained at the expense of Austrian and Russian troops only.
William sent an envoy to Vienna after Austerlitz to try to convince Napoleon that Prussia had not been a member of the coalition. Napoleon was not fooled, and proposed a treaty in which Prussia would cede some of its territory to France and sever all ties with the former coalition members, allying itself only with France. In return, Hanover would become Prussia’s possession, only because Napoleon knew it would act as a point of contention between Prussia and England. As William vacillated over signing this Treaty of Vienna, Napoleon added more conditions: All North Sea ports had to be closed, and all English ships and goods seized. William signed.
Unsatisfied with his humiliation of Prussia thus far, Napoleon established the Confederation of the Rhine, an organization of smaller German states, which threatened traditional Prussian influence in northern Germany. Prussia was further hurt by English actions; England declared war on Prussia over Hanover and seized hundreds of German ships in English ports. When William learned that private peace feelers were extending from London and Moscow toward Paris, his wife Louise convinced him to stand firm and avenge his country’s honor.
Prussia’s army was in no condition to face Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Though it retained its reputation and numbered a quarter million strong, the Prussian army had not been tested in battle for decades. Its weaponry, tactics, and organization were long out-of-date, and its youngest high commanders were in their sixties. They completely failed to grasp any of Napoleon’s past strategies, and predicted he would assume a defensive position when they approached him. Their mobilization program was slow and had poor security, so Napoleon learned of their moves and embarked with his traditional speed to beat the Prussians to the punch. On 7 October 1807, Prussia declared war on France, but Napoleon’s armies were already on Prussia’s frontiers.
The first battle took place the following day, and Napoleon was victorious at Rudolstadt, killing Prussia’s Prince Louis in the process. A week later, at Jena, Napoleon scored yet another of his impressive victories. He slaughtered a Prussian corps while his subordinate, Marshal Davout, in a diversionary attack, actually found the bulk of the Prussian army at Auerstadt. Though outnumbered, Davout’s aggressive handling of his forces forced a Prussian retreat. By 24 October, Prussia was crushed, and Napoleon was in Berlin. He levied heavy reparations on Prussia but, rather than collect them quickly, Napoleon decided to stay in Prussia and use it as a base for possible operations against Russia.
After the French victory at Friedland in 1807, Tsar Alexander signed the Treaty of Tilsit with Napoleon, promising to make common cause against England. In return, Napoleon forced Prussia to cede its possessions in Poland to Russia. With his eastern flank secured, Napoleon now collected the remainder of Prussian reparations. French humiliation of Prussia caused a groundswell of popular feeling against Napoleon. The Prussians ached for vengeance, and the army learned that it could not rest on the laurels won by Frederick the Great.
Napoleon’s occupation of Prussia planted the seeds of his destruction. Though the people came to hate him, Napoleon brought to Prussia the lessons of the French Revolution. The nationalism that saved France from European enemies became the same force that motivated Prussia, which joined with the remainder of Europe to take advantage of Napoleon’s weakness in 1813 and was involved with his ultimate defeat at Leipzig in 1814 and Waterloo in 1815. The Prussian General Staff was re-formed to modernize the military and focus on learning the lessons of this and every other war. It became a military organization the world would model in the late nineteenth century. This reconstituted military became the symbol of national power and pride, leading to German unification in 1871 and the German Empire shortly thereafter.
