An impartial study of these events will show that they were caused by the indifference of Prussia to the general interests of Germany, and the utter lack of the commonest political wisdom in Francis II. of Austria and his ministers. The war with France was wantonly undertaken, in the first place; it was then continued with stupid obstinacy after two offers of peace. But except the loss of the left bank of the Rhine, with more than three millions of German inhabitants, Germany, though humiliated, was not yet seriously damaged. The complete overthrow of priestly rule, the extinction of a multitude of petty States, and the abolition of the special privileges of nearly a thousand "Imperial" noble families, was an immense gain to the whole country. The influence which Bonaparte exercised in the partition of 1803, though made solely with a view to the political interests of France, produced some very beneficial changes in Germany. In regard to religion, the Chief Electors were now equally divided, five being Catholic and five Protestant; while the Diet of Princes, instead of having a Catholic majority of twelve, as heretofore, acquired a Protestant majority of twenty-two.
France was now the ruling power on the Continent of Europe. Prussia preserved a timid neutrality, Austria was powerless, the new Republics in Holland, Switzerland and Italy were wholly subjected to French influence, Spain, Denmark and Russia were friendly, and even England, after the overthrow of Pitt's ministry, was persuaded to make peace with Bonaparte in 1802. The same year, the latter had himself declared First Consul for life, and became absolute master of the destinies of France. A new quarrel with England soon broke out, and this gave him a pretext for invading Hannover. In May, 1803, General Mortier marched from Holland with only 12,000 men, while Hannover, alone, had an excellent army of 15,000. But the Council of Nobles, who governed in the name of George III. of England, gave orders that "the troops should not be allowed to fire, and might only use the bayonet moderately, in extreme necessity!" Of course no battle was fought; the country was overrun by the French in a few days, and plundered to the amount of 26,000,000 thalers. Prussia and the other German States quietly looked on, and—did nothing.
1804.
In March, 1804, the First Consul sent a force across the Rhine into Baden, seized the Duke d'Enghien, a fugitive Bourbon Prince, carried him into France and there had him shot. This outrage provoked a general cry of indignation throughout Europe. Two months afterwards, on the 18th of May, Bonaparte assumed the title of Napoleon, Emperor of the French: the Italian Republics were changed into a Kingdom of Italy, and that period of arrogant and selfish personal government commenced which brought monarchs and nations to his feet, and finally made him a fugitive and a prisoner. On the 11th of August, 1804, Francis II. imitated him, by taking the title of "Emperor of Austria," in order to preserve his existing rank, whatever changes might afterwards come.
England, Austria and Russia were now more than ever determined to cripple the increasing power of Napoleon. Much time was spent in endeavoring to persuade Prussia to join the movement, but Frederick William III. not only refused, but sent an army to prevent the Russian troops from crossing Prussian territory, on their way to join the Austrians. By the summer of 1805, the Third Coalition, composed of the three powers already named and Sweden, was formed, and a plan adopted for bringing nearly 400,000 soldiers into the field against France. Although the secret had been well kept, it was revealed before the Coalition was quite prepared; and Napoleon was ready for the emergency. He had collected an army of 200,000 men at Boulogne for the invasion of England: giving up the latter design, he marched rapidly into Southern Germany, procured the alliance of Baden, Würtemberg and Bavaria, with 40,000 more troops, and thus gained the first advantage before the Russian and Austrian armies had united.
The fortress of Ulm, held by the Austrian General Mack, with 25,000 men, surrendered on the 17th of October. The French pressed forwards, overcame the opposition of a portion of the allied armies along the Danube, and on the 13th of November entered Vienna. Francis II. and his family had fled to Presburg: the Archduke Karl, hastening from Italy, was in Styria with a small force, and a combined Russian and Austrian army of nearly 100,000 men was in Moravia. Prussia threatened to join the Coalition, because the neutrality of her territory had been violated by Bernadotte in marching from Hannover to join Napoleon: the allies, although surprised and disgracefully defeated, were far from appreciating the courage and skill of their enemy, and still believed they could overcome him. Napoleon pretended to avoid a battle and thereby drew them on to meet him in the field: on the 2d of December at Austerlitz, the "Battle of the Three Emperors" (as the Germans call it) occurred, and by the close of that day the allies had lost 15,000 killed and wounded, 20,000 prisoners and 200 cannon.
1806. END OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE.
Two days after the battle Francis II. came personally to Napoleon and begged for an armistice, which was granted. The latter took up his quarters in the Palace of the Hapsburgs, at Schönbrunn, as a conqueror, and waited for the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which was signed at Presburg on the 26th of December. Austria was forced to give up Venice to France, Tyrol to Bavaria, and some smaller territory to Baden and Würtemberg; to accept the policy of France in Italy, Holland and Switzerland, and to recognize Bavaria and Würtemberg as independent kingdoms of Napoleon's creation. All that she received in return was the archbishopric of Salzburg. She also agreed to pay one hundred millions of francs to France, and to permit the formation of a new Confederation of the smaller German States, which should be placed under the protectorship of Napoleon. The latter lost no time in carrying out his plan: by July, 1806, the Rheinbund (Confederation of the Rhine) was entered into by seventeen States, which formed, in combination, a third power, independent of either Austria or Prussia.
Immediately afterwards, on the 6th of August, 1806, Francis II. laid down his title of "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation," and the political corpse, long since dead, was finally buried. Just a thousand years had elapsed since the time of Charlemagne: the power and influence of the Empire had reached their culmination under the Hohenstaufens, but even then the smaller rulers were undermining its foundations. It existed for a few centuries longer as a system which was one-fourth fact and three-fourths tradition: during the Thirty Years' War it perished, and the Hapsburgs, after that, only wore the ornaments and trappings it left behind. The German people were never further from being a nation than at the commencement of this century; but the most of them still clung to the superstition of an Empire, until the compulsory act of Francis II. showed them, at last, that there was none.