After his Navy was
destroyed at Trafalgar in 1805, Napoleon realized that if his empire was ever
going to be secure, he would have to defeat Britain. With his navy gone,
Napoleon knew a direct assault on island was for the time impossible, so he
decided to wage economic war against the "nation of shopkeepers", as
he called the British. His plan to bring Britain to its knees was called the
Continental System. British goods were to be restricted from entering Europe.
Napoleon demanded that his empire close its ports from British goods, and he
got the Russians, Austrians, and Prussians to cooperate in the Continental
System. Without having the European market to buy up its manufactures, Napoleon
hoped Britain would undergo a severe depression, hurting the nation's economy
and ability to maintain such a powerful navy. Meanwhile, Napoleon was building
ships of his own. Napoleon wanted to hobble the British economy and give France
a chance to build up its own manufacturing and industry.
The Continental System began in 1806 with Napoleon's Berlin
Decree, which banned British ships from entering European ports. Britain, full
of savvy traders, made a concerted effort to undermine the Continental System
by contracting out its shipments to neutral vessels. Napoleon next issued the
Milan Decree in December 1807. This harsh decree, aimed against smuggling,
stated that neutral ships that stopped in Britain before landing in Europe were
subject to confiscation.
Britain's retaliated through sea power, creating a blockade
of all European ships. If Europe wouldn't allow British ships to dock at
European ports, Britain wouldn't allow European ships to sail on what was then Britain's ocean.
Commentary
The other nations of Europe were willing to side with
Napoleon in the Continental system because for the most part they did dislike
Britain. Britain was wealthy, rapidly industrialized, and isolationist.
Cranking out textiles on their small island, the British rapidly became the
wealthiest nation in Europe. Using its naval dominance, England built up
colonies and trade networks for its manufactures that were the envy of all of
Europe. So when Napoleon demanded that a Europe- wide boycott of British goods
take place under his Continental System, there were many who were glad for a
chance to cut Britain down to size.
The British blockade preventing European ships from sailing
was not intended to "starve" Europe or make it suffer in any direct
sense. Europe was capable of producing its own food and its own weapons without
British help. Britain's real goal was to stop France and its allies from
trading throughout Europe using shipping. In these days, there were no
railways, so most transfer of goods from city to city and country-to-country
was accomplished by boat. Unable to trade by sea routes, goods had to be moved
about in Europe by wagons, a slower, more difficult means of transport use that
were particularly poor for crossing mountainous areas. The British blockade
thus severely handicapped internal European trading, which needed sea-shipping
to operate at full capacity.
It is interesting to think of Napoleon's Continental System
as an early kind of European Economic Community (EEC), where the nations of
Europe banded together to strengthen their economy against underselling by an
outside force (in Napoleon's period, Britain). The major goal of the
Continental System, like the EEC, was to improve Europe's economy and give it
more leverage in trading.
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