Treaties of Tilsit
Napoleon and Alexander I met on a raft moored in the middle of the Niemen in June 1807 and divided Europe. The circumstances were a Russian defeat. Friedland on 14 June had destroyed a Russian army, and Alexander had no allies left in the field — Prussia had been broken at Jena the previous autumn and Austria was out of the war. The raft was Napoleon's staging. A pavilion was built on it so that neither emperor would have to cross to the other's bank, and Frederick William III of Prussia was left standing in the rain on the shore while the two of them talked for two hours. Alexander is reported to have opened by saying that he hated the English as much as Napoleon did, and Napoleon to have replied that in that case peace was made. The treaties gave Russia a free hand against Sweden and the Ottomans and cost it nothing in territory; Prussia lost half of its lands, its Polish provinces becoming the Duchy of Warsaw and its western ones the Kingdom of Westphalia under Napoleon's brother. Russia joined the Continental System, which was the price and the flaw. Closing Russian ports to British trade cut off the market for Russian timber, hemp and grain and the source of its manufactures, and the nobility's incomes fell sharply. Alexander began licensing neutral shipping in 1810, and Napoleon invaded in 1812. Prussia spent the five years reforming its army. The meeting on the raft is the high point of the empire. Napoleon held or controlled territory from Portugal to Poland, had an emperor as a friend and the other continental powers as clients, and every subsequent year cost him more than it gained.
- Year: 1807 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
