Holland was annexed in 1810 when Napoleon felt his brother became more loyal to the Dutch than to him. While his subjects expected yet another French puppet, Louis served his country with integrity and honor – to the Emperor’s frustration. Kingdom of Holland (1806-1810) The Crown of Holland was gifted to Napoleon’s brother, Louis Bonaparte. But whether the eye of the beholder perceives a tyrant or a liberator, the Europe Napoleon left in his wake was one radically changed Bismarck, Monet, and Charles Darwin. Despite his nepotism and his Francocentrism, or, alternatively, due to it, Napoleon’s legacy remains a subject of controversy today. On the other hand, he crippled them under quotas for men and grain and empowered his own bloodline across Europe like the Bourbons and Habsburgs of old (the Bonapartes themselves would rather be compared to the Carolingians and Julii Caesares). Napoleon required the states in his collection to implement the social and economic reforms of the revolution and encouraged the modernization of infostructure and public services.
In another, he tore the Prussian realm asunder and enforced a continental boycott of Britain that spanned from Corunna to St. In one fell sweep, he ended the Holy Roman Empire for his own Confederation of the Rhine, stealing the German states from Austria’s orbit and adding them to his own hegemony. He found ways to gain ground on the defensive.
Yet with each coalition, each united offensive, each calculated effort to apprehend their antithetical nemesis, Napoleon’s tactical genius prevailed. There would be an abdication, or there would be no peace at all. As their betrayals of treaties and ceasefires accumulated into an expectation, it became clear that the European leaders viewed his regime as an existential threat to theirs. Still, he aligned himself in opposition to the conservative absolute monarchies that surrounded his fledgling French Empire. With a laurel crown upon his head and the Grande Armee at his command, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, led his sovereign proto-nation down a path diverging from the Republican principles it fought so long to uphold, espousing devotion to the spirit of the revolution under autocratic rule – his rule.
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