The Bee and the Eagle: Napoleonic France and the End of the Holy Roman Empire, 1806 (War, Culture and Society, 1750 –1850)

This volume's juxtaposition of the empires of Germany and France in 1806, at the dissolution of The Holy Roman Empire, allows a comparison of their transition towards modernity, explored through the themes of Empire, monarchy, political cultures, feudalism, war and military institutions, nationalism and identity, and everyday experience. The year 2006 marked the bicentenary of two seminal events in German and French history: the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire that had encompassed much of Europe for over a millennium, and its replacement by a new, French-sponsored political order. The juxtaposition of the two empires in 1806 offers an ideal opportunity for a comparative approach to the transition towards modernity and the role of France and Germany in the construction of Europe. The rapidity of these changes suggests a major turning point, to some even the birth of modernity itself, as Napoleon, the inheritor of the dynamic, rationalising traditions of the French Revolution, triumphed over a socio-political order that had its roots in the early middle ages and claimed direct descent from the ancient Roman Empire. This volume indicates that the contrast is considerably more complex than is commonly assumed, and offers the first comparative treatment of the key themes of Empire, monarchy, political cultures, feudalism, war and military institutions, nationalism and identity, and everyday experience Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction....Pages 1-21 The Meaning of Empire in Central Europe around 1800....Pages 22-41 The Political Culture of the Holy Roman Empire on the Eve of its Destruction....Pages 42-64 The Napoleonic Empire....Pages 65-82 The Political Culture of the Napoleonic Empire....Pages 83-93 A Matter of Survival: Bavaria Becomes a Kingdom....Pages 94-111 Napoleon as Monarch: A Political Evolution....Pages 112-130 Napoleon and the Abolition of Feudalism....Pages 131-154 The Prussian Army in the Jena Campaign....Pages 155-171 Napoleon’s Second Sacre? Iéna and the Ceremonial Translation of Frederick the Great’s Insignia in 1807....Pages 172-190 ‘Desperation to the Utmost’: The Defeat of 1806 and the French Occupation in Prussian Experience and Perception....Pages 191-213 Legends of the Allied Invasions and Occupations of Eastern France, 1792–1815....Pages 214-233 ‘The Germans are Hydrophobes’: Germany and the Germans in the Shaping of French Identity....Pages 234-255 The Response to Napoleon and German Nationalism....Pages 256-283 Back Matter....Pages 285-295 'This collection does a fine job of conveying recent scholarly trends on Napoleonic France and the Napoleonic Empire as well as on the late Holy Roman Empire and its immediate successor states in German-speaking lands. Far more than just surveying or synthesizing, however, these essays mark important and original contributions to understanding the conception, practice and experience of empire in their respective areas. In both respects this volume should prove of interest to students of any and all of these fields, and should help stimulate future comparative studies across the Franco-German divide.' - Brian E. Vick, University of Colorado at Boulder