The History:
Napoleon's mind was occupied - as always - by many, many problems that he needed to think through. For instance, the American affair. The Americans were needed as allies against Britain, and they also wanted Louisiana. That is, they supposedly wanted New Orleans, but Napoleon knew that, well, there would hardly be any point to keeping the rest of Louisiana after selling its most important city. The most obvious solution would be to sell Louisiana to USA and to cement the alliance, to persuade the USA to attack the British...
...but there was another solution, less obvious perhaps, but with great potential. Much of the American concern was about the rights of deposit. These rights would be granted. Napoleon had no illusions about his chances of holding on to Louisiana; the British would certainly capture them. But that would be encircling the USA, which will make its ruling elite - and no matter their democracy and whatnot, the Americans DID have a certain ruling elite, which incidentally was largely anglophobic - panic. Thus USA will have to go to war with Britain... Distracting British attention from the French. And while Britain and USA fought it out in Louisiana and Canada, France will be free to deal with other problems. If not with Britain itself...
The year was 1803.
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Napoleon's ploy failed, sort of. The Americans were temporarily satisfied with the deposit rights, but the British were cautious about it, as the war with France resumed. In 1805, the battle of Trafalgar (slightly different from OTL due to less British ships there, and with two British ships actually sunk for butterfly reasons) ruined all possible plans Napoleon might have had for an invasion of Britain. In 1806, the Americans again resumed LOTS of pressure on France to acquire Lousiana, but before Napoleon could give them any real reply...
...On June 20th 1806, British forces landed in New Orleans. Recently, there was concern over a possible Franco-American alliance; also, there was some fear of Napoleon's agents, acting from Louisiana, instigating some border accidents or somesuch. Generally, it was decided that better be safe then sorry, especially if being safe involved isolating USA. While the Senate was filled with debates, the British, though some clever negotiations with the various small local towns and forts, as well as the natives, established control over Louisiana.
The War of 1806 was on. The British, by now sure of their safety from Napoleon, could commit to it in full. The Americans pushed into Louisiana, but in the Battle at New Orleans, a Dublin-born minor aristocrat whose star first shined in India, at Assaye, back then known as Arthur Wellesly (but later and better known as 1st Duke of New-Orleans), stopped American forces dead in their tracks using the naval support and the local topography with great success.
The war went on. American forces were gradually defeated by the well-led, if smaller (but augmented by the natives, one might add) British forces, but the (rather rare) British attacks on original American territory faced determined milita resistance. In the sea, the British, after some early shortcomings, brought in their full force (or most of it, anyway) to the battle, and the American fleet lost at Cheasepeake Bay in 1807. American economy was collapsing, especially in New England, where increasingly, the Jeffersonian American government was viewed as a warmongering slaveholding southerner imperialist gang of thieves (that's a stretch!) who sent off young New Englander men (well, some of them anyway) to die in the name of conquest of new territories to where they would extend slavery. And, what hurt even more, they ruined all chances of reconciliation with Britain! The New Englander economy was in near-ruins without the British trade! They are all lackeys of that damned Napoleon! Etc! And the British were quite happy at this. As happy as to burn down Washington in 1807 and also in the same year to land forces led by the same Duke of New-Orleans (after all, not much was happening in South Louisiana now) in North Massachussets (aka Maine). Linking up with the British forces in Canada, New-Orleans advanced along the coast. The British contaced the New Englander separatists, and, after some very very prolonged negotiations, worked out a deal. New England would become a British dominion, but a one with a great degree of autonomy. The economic situation was desperate; it was certain to get worse; the American army was definitely losing (it certainly didn't look as if it was winning or... um... "drawing"), and the fleet already lost (not strictly true, but rather close to it). And besides, the British weren't all that bad... And think of the prosperity that will come with this "autonomous dominion" status! After arguing on some minor clauses, the separatists - led by Timothy Pickering - agreed. The Dominion of New England came into existance on August 9th 1807.
This shocked the American government. At first, they hoped to rally the people of New England against "that new Benedict Arnold" Pickering who "sold New England to the red-shirts", but, though this did get some support in New England, and in fact a lot initially, after the first two weeks Timothy Pickering succesfully persuaded a fair majority of New England's population that this was the way to go. The great extent of autonomy was stressed upon; it was commented, if unofficially, that USA was probably going to cede New England to the British anyway. It was losing, wasn't it? And the southern imperialists etc etc would be only glad to get rid of the honest, industrious, etc, etc people of New England...
USA still resisted, great battles were fought throughout New England, but only rarely - like at Gettysberg in 1809, when Andrew Jackson defeated the British contingent plus the newly-formed New English army - did the Americans actually win. Sure, no invasions into the southern states were succesful, but the status quo could be maintained by the British indefinitely... the time was not on USA's side. And so, with a heavy heart, Thomas Jefferson agreed for negotiations. In Richmond, the new American capital, on April 11th 1810, the War of "1806" was over. The treaty was definitely a treaty signed by the winners; indeed, Thomas Jefferson was so outraged by it (he only agreed to it due to the fact that otherwise it could only get worse) that he soon after resigned from public life. America recognized Louisiana as British; Dominion of New England spanned (includingly) from Pennsylvania to North Massachussets, all includingly. And USA also lost Michigan territory, plus some more land around the Great Lakes, to Britain directly.
But what of Europe? Britain was doing not quite as well here. It had not much forces to spend in late 1807, when the French invaded and occupied Portugal; thus, no great success. Indeed, no success at all, as the French forces ruled supreme in the Iberian Peninsula after the Spanish Campaign of 1808-9, where Napoleon himself led his forces to victory against the Spanish and the British (led by Sir John Moore) alike, outside of Gibraltar that is. Napoleon knew the futility of assaulting the Rock any time soon, so he simply focused on the Continental System instead. Oh, and Joseph Bonaparte got crowned in Madrid; after the British grabbed up all Portuguese colonies and after rebels killed general Andoche Junot in Lisbon, Joseph was also crowned in Lisbon, and Portugal, as in late 16th century, became a part of Spain. After that, resistance was succesfully stomped out in most of Spain and Portugal by early 1810, thus the British abandoned all hopes of renewing the war in Iberia.
Peace reigned until June 1st, 1812. It was then that British diplomacy persuaded Russia, Austria and Prussia to join into the "Fourth Coalition"... against you-know-who. Austrian forces plunged into Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Bavaria and (North) Italy; Prussians too attacked Warsaw, but also the French garrisons in Prussia and Saxony; the British, sensing a new opportunity, landed in Hannover (the electorate). And the Russian armies, led by Kutuzov and Bagration, help crush Warsaw within two weeks. Indeed, it was not hard to imagine Napoleonic France collapsing at the hands of its multiple opponents... Surely not even Napoleon's genius could ward off such a grand coalition!
But it so happened that by the time Warsaw was crushed, Duke New-Orleans, though advancing as far as Hannover, was stopped short at Brunswick. Austrians and Prussians expected that Napoleon would now try to crush the British; wrong. On June 22nd, Frederick Wilhelm III was most surprised to notice Napoleon's standards outside of Berlin. The city was assaulted and burned down, as a lesson to all traitors; Frederick Wilhelm III disappeared, according to the rumors either becoming a hermit, either commiting suicide. Some Prussian forces, under Blucher and York, fought on even after that, but they were demoralized and essentially subservient to the Russian emperor during the war. A few days later, New-Orleans was defeated in the Second Battle of Brunswick, and was forced to withdraw rather then be cut off from Bremen by Napoleon's cavalry. And meanwhile, Joachim Murat engaged and defeated Austrians at Padua. Then things developped quickly. Schwarzenberg and Erzherzog Karl were defeated in July, at Leipzig and Augsburg respectively. Still, for a moment not all seemed lost for the Coalition; Kutuzov defeated a French force under Massena at Hirschberg on July 9th. But the Russo-Austrian forces, led by Bagration and the Erzherzog were defeated on July 27th at Krems. It was hard to envy the fate of Berlin; thus, Kaiser Franz I soon signed peace with Napoleon, ceding the Illyrian Provinces to France (note: due to a shorter Peninsular War, no 1809 Austrian Campaign) and entire Galicia to the enlarged Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Oh, and Franz I was essentially turned into a puppet ruler. Alexander I was outraged; he declared war on Austria, and only Napoleon's timely intervention prevented the regroupped Russian forces from burning down Vienna. On August 8th, in a great battle at Liegnitz, the Russian forces under Kutuzov were crushed. Alexander I soon after took command personally, against the best advice of his advisors. It was at Poznan, on August 20th, that two great armies - one under Napoleon, other under Alexander - met. In a huge, long, bloody battle, even Napoleon's Grand Armee was bloodied. But in the end, it was Napoleon who triumphed; Alexander I died in battle. Napoleon soon after stood poised to invade Russia. To add to Russia's troubles, Bernadotte's Sweden sided with the winners and invaded Finland again. The new Tsar, Constantine I, reacted quickly after seeing the casualty lists and the reports on the state of his army - he signed peace, reinstated the Continental System and promised that he never shall conspire against Napoleon. He also ceded Finland to Sweden and Lithuania to Warsaw, and paid reparations to France. Prussia was also dismantled: while Pommerania was gained by Sweden, Silesia, East Prussia and Danzig went to Grand Duchy of Warsaw, while Brandenburg became part of the Rhenish Confederation.
Realizing that all of their potential allies were now crushed, the British were forced to minimize hostilities; but they knew that as long as Napoleon was still in charge, negotiations were impossible. The military war, for all purposes, was over; but the economic war of attrition was only beginning.
This was Napoleon's finest hour. By a series of treaties, he united almost all of Europe; at the Versailles Congress, he enforced the "Napoleonic System".
Napoleon's mind was occupied - as always - by many, many problems that he needed to think through. For instance, the American affair. The Americans were needed as allies against Britain, and they also wanted Louisiana. That is, they supposedly wanted New Orleans, but Napoleon knew that, well, there would hardly be any point to keeping the rest of Louisiana after selling its most important city. The most obvious solution would be to sell Louisiana to USA and to cement the alliance, to persuade the USA to attack the British...
...but there was another solution, less obvious perhaps, but with great potential. Much of the American concern was about the rights of deposit. These rights would be granted. Napoleon had no illusions about his chances of holding on to Louisiana; the British would certainly capture them. But that would be encircling the USA, which will make its ruling elite - and no matter their democracy and whatnot, the Americans DID have a certain ruling elite, which incidentally was largely anglophobic - panic. Thus USA will have to go to war with Britain... Distracting British attention from the French. And while Britain and USA fought it out in Louisiana and Canada, France will be free to deal with other problems. If not with Britain itself...
The year was 1803.
---
Napoleon's ploy failed, sort of. The Americans were temporarily satisfied with the deposit rights, but the British were cautious about it, as the war with France resumed. In 1805, the battle of Trafalgar (slightly different from OTL due to less British ships there, and with two British ships actually sunk for butterfly reasons) ruined all possible plans Napoleon might have had for an invasion of Britain. In 1806, the Americans again resumed LOTS of pressure on France to acquire Lousiana, but before Napoleon could give them any real reply...
...On June 20th 1806, British forces landed in New Orleans. Recently, there was concern over a possible Franco-American alliance; also, there was some fear of Napoleon's agents, acting from Louisiana, instigating some border accidents or somesuch. Generally, it was decided that better be safe then sorry, especially if being safe involved isolating USA. While the Senate was filled with debates, the British, though some clever negotiations with the various small local towns and forts, as well as the natives, established control over Louisiana.
The War of 1806 was on. The British, by now sure of their safety from Napoleon, could commit to it in full. The Americans pushed into Louisiana, but in the Battle at New Orleans, a Dublin-born minor aristocrat whose star first shined in India, at Assaye, back then known as Arthur Wellesly (but later and better known as 1st Duke of New-Orleans), stopped American forces dead in their tracks using the naval support and the local topography with great success.
The war went on. American forces were gradually defeated by the well-led, if smaller (but augmented by the natives, one might add) British forces, but the (rather rare) British attacks on original American territory faced determined milita resistance. In the sea, the British, after some early shortcomings, brought in their full force (or most of it, anyway) to the battle, and the American fleet lost at Cheasepeake Bay in 1807. American economy was collapsing, especially in New England, where increasingly, the Jeffersonian American government was viewed as a warmongering slaveholding southerner imperialist gang of thieves (that's a stretch!) who sent off young New Englander men (well, some of them anyway) to die in the name of conquest of new territories to where they would extend slavery. And, what hurt even more, they ruined all chances of reconciliation with Britain! The New Englander economy was in near-ruins without the British trade! They are all lackeys of that damned Napoleon! Etc! And the British were quite happy at this. As happy as to burn down Washington in 1807 and also in the same year to land forces led by the same Duke of New-Orleans (after all, not much was happening in South Louisiana now) in North Massachussets (aka Maine). Linking up with the British forces in Canada, New-Orleans advanced along the coast. The British contaced the New Englander separatists, and, after some very very prolonged negotiations, worked out a deal. New England would become a British dominion, but a one with a great degree of autonomy. The economic situation was desperate; it was certain to get worse; the American army was definitely losing (it certainly didn't look as if it was winning or... um... "drawing"), and the fleet already lost (not strictly true, but rather close to it). And besides, the British weren't all that bad... And think of the prosperity that will come with this "autonomous dominion" status! After arguing on some minor clauses, the separatists - led by Timothy Pickering - agreed. The Dominion of New England came into existance on August 9th 1807.
This shocked the American government. At first, they hoped to rally the people of New England against "that new Benedict Arnold" Pickering who "sold New England to the red-shirts", but, though this did get some support in New England, and in fact a lot initially, after the first two weeks Timothy Pickering succesfully persuaded a fair majority of New England's population that this was the way to go. The great extent of autonomy was stressed upon; it was commented, if unofficially, that USA was probably going to cede New England to the British anyway. It was losing, wasn't it? And the southern imperialists etc etc would be only glad to get rid of the honest, industrious, etc, etc people of New England...
USA still resisted, great battles were fought throughout New England, but only rarely - like at Gettysberg in 1809, when Andrew Jackson defeated the British contingent plus the newly-formed New English army - did the Americans actually win. Sure, no invasions into the southern states were succesful, but the status quo could be maintained by the British indefinitely... the time was not on USA's side. And so, with a heavy heart, Thomas Jefferson agreed for negotiations. In Richmond, the new American capital, on April 11th 1810, the War of "1806" was over. The treaty was definitely a treaty signed by the winners; indeed, Thomas Jefferson was so outraged by it (he only agreed to it due to the fact that otherwise it could only get worse) that he soon after resigned from public life. America recognized Louisiana as British; Dominion of New England spanned (includingly) from Pennsylvania to North Massachussets, all includingly. And USA also lost Michigan territory, plus some more land around the Great Lakes, to Britain directly.
But what of Europe? Britain was doing not quite as well here. It had not much forces to spend in late 1807, when the French invaded and occupied Portugal; thus, no great success. Indeed, no success at all, as the French forces ruled supreme in the Iberian Peninsula after the Spanish Campaign of 1808-9, where Napoleon himself led his forces to victory against the Spanish and the British (led by Sir John Moore) alike, outside of Gibraltar that is. Napoleon knew the futility of assaulting the Rock any time soon, so he simply focused on the Continental System instead. Oh, and Joseph Bonaparte got crowned in Madrid; after the British grabbed up all Portuguese colonies and after rebels killed general Andoche Junot in Lisbon, Joseph was also crowned in Lisbon, and Portugal, as in late 16th century, became a part of Spain. After that, resistance was succesfully stomped out in most of Spain and Portugal by early 1810, thus the British abandoned all hopes of renewing the war in Iberia.
Peace reigned until June 1st, 1812. It was then that British diplomacy persuaded Russia, Austria and Prussia to join into the "Fourth Coalition"... against you-know-who. Austrian forces plunged into Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Bavaria and (North) Italy; Prussians too attacked Warsaw, but also the French garrisons in Prussia and Saxony; the British, sensing a new opportunity, landed in Hannover (the electorate). And the Russian armies, led by Kutuzov and Bagration, help crush Warsaw within two weeks. Indeed, it was not hard to imagine Napoleonic France collapsing at the hands of its multiple opponents... Surely not even Napoleon's genius could ward off such a grand coalition!
But it so happened that by the time Warsaw was crushed, Duke New-Orleans, though advancing as far as Hannover, was stopped short at Brunswick. Austrians and Prussians expected that Napoleon would now try to crush the British; wrong. On June 22nd, Frederick Wilhelm III was most surprised to notice Napoleon's standards outside of Berlin. The city was assaulted and burned down, as a lesson to all traitors; Frederick Wilhelm III disappeared, according to the rumors either becoming a hermit, either commiting suicide. Some Prussian forces, under Blucher and York, fought on even after that, but they were demoralized and essentially subservient to the Russian emperor during the war. A few days later, New-Orleans was defeated in the Second Battle of Brunswick, and was forced to withdraw rather then be cut off from Bremen by Napoleon's cavalry. And meanwhile, Joachim Murat engaged and defeated Austrians at Padua. Then things developped quickly. Schwarzenberg and Erzherzog Karl were defeated in July, at Leipzig and Augsburg respectively. Still, for a moment not all seemed lost for the Coalition; Kutuzov defeated a French force under Massena at Hirschberg on July 9th. But the Russo-Austrian forces, led by Bagration and the Erzherzog were defeated on July 27th at Krems. It was hard to envy the fate of Berlin; thus, Kaiser Franz I soon signed peace with Napoleon, ceding the Illyrian Provinces to France (note: due to a shorter Peninsular War, no 1809 Austrian Campaign) and entire Galicia to the enlarged Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Oh, and Franz I was essentially turned into a puppet ruler. Alexander I was outraged; he declared war on Austria, and only Napoleon's timely intervention prevented the regroupped Russian forces from burning down Vienna. On August 8th, in a great battle at Liegnitz, the Russian forces under Kutuzov were crushed. Alexander I soon after took command personally, against the best advice of his advisors. It was at Poznan, on August 20th, that two great armies - one under Napoleon, other under Alexander - met. In a huge, long, bloody battle, even Napoleon's Grand Armee was bloodied. But in the end, it was Napoleon who triumphed; Alexander I died in battle. Napoleon soon after stood poised to invade Russia. To add to Russia's troubles, Bernadotte's Sweden sided with the winners and invaded Finland again. The new Tsar, Constantine I, reacted quickly after seeing the casualty lists and the reports on the state of his army - he signed peace, reinstated the Continental System and promised that he never shall conspire against Napoleon. He also ceded Finland to Sweden and Lithuania to Warsaw, and paid reparations to France. Prussia was also dismantled: while Pommerania was gained by Sweden, Silesia, East Prussia and Danzig went to Grand Duchy of Warsaw, while Brandenburg became part of the Rhenish Confederation.
Realizing that all of their potential allies were now crushed, the British were forced to minimize hostilities; but they knew that as long as Napoleon was still in charge, negotiations were impossible. The military war, for all purposes, was over; but the economic war of attrition was only beginning.
This was Napoleon's finest hour. By a series of treaties, he united almost all of Europe; at the Versailles Congress, he enforced the "Napoleonic System".
