The Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik (English " Royal Württemberg Gun Factory ") was a state owned firearms manufacturer from 1812 to 1874 and the predecessor of the Mauser arms manufacturer.
94-672: The armoury was created when Württemberg, as part of the Confederation of the Rhine , needed to outfit troops for Napoleon Bonaparte . Workshops to get independent from foreign weapon shipments were first created 1805 in the steel mills of Christophsthal near Freudenstadt ( Black forest ); stocks were added in the Württemberg arsenal in Ludwigsburg . The king of Württemberg ordered those independent workshops to be merged in
188-875: A Prince-Primate of the confederation. As such, he was President of the College of Kings and presided over the Diet of the Confederation, designed to be a parliament-like body although it never actually assembled. The President of the Council of the Princes was the Prince of Nassau-Usingen. In return for their support of Napoleon, some rulers were given higher statuses: Baden , Hesse, Cleves , and Berg were made into grand duchies , and Württemberg and Bavaria became kingdoms. Several member states were also enlarged with
282-516: A Danish declaration that they would hold the city for Napoleon, irrevocably binding Denmark to France, an action that would guarantee full Swedish cooperation in North Germany. The Swedish occupation of Hamburg came as welcome news to the Allies, insofar as holding a wealthy center of finance was a blow against Napoleon. However, Bernadotte's initial misgivings at extending his troops so far from
376-625: A French general as well as his familiarity with Napoleon. The result was the Trachenberg Plan , authored primarily by Carl Johan of Sweden and the Austrian Chief of Staff, Field-Marshal Lieutenant Joseph Radetzky , that sought to wear down the French using a Fabian strategy , avoiding direct combat with Napoleon, engaging and defeating his marshals whenever possible and slowly encircling the French with three independent armies until
470-527: A breakdown of communications, MacDonald's several corps found themselves isolated from one another with many bridges over the Katzback and Neisse rivers destroyed by surging waters. 200,000 Prussians and French collided in a confused battle that degenerated into hand-to-hand combat. However, Blücher and the Prussians rallied their scattered units and attacked an isolated French corps and pinned it against
564-750: A call to arms to his subjects, An Mein Volk . Prussia had declared war on France on 13 March, which was received by the French on 16 March. The first armed conflict occurred on 5 April in the Battle of Möckern , where combined Prusso-Russian forces defeated French troops. Meanwhile, Napoleon withdrew some 20,000 troops from the ongoing Peninsular War to reinforce his position in Central Europe, which left his Iberian forces weakened and vulnerable to Anglo–Spanish–Portuguese attacks. On 17 March 1813, his brother King Joseph Bonaparte of Spain withdrew from Madrid,
658-596: A clear sign of losing control. Wellington led a 123,000-strong army across northern Spain, taking Burgos in late May, and decisively defeating Jourdan at the Battle of Vitoria on 21 June. Marshal Soult failed to turn the tide in his large-scale Battle of the Pyrenees (25 July to 2 August). In June, the United Kingdom formally entered the coalition. Initially, Austria remained loyal to France, and foreign minister Metternich aimed to mediate in good faith
752-480: A former monastery in Oberndorf am Neckar the 31-JUL-1811. This newly created factory began production the 6-NOV-1812 with approx. 100 employees. The first weapons were variants of the flintlock muskets Modèle 1777 , caliber .69". In April 1856, Baden , Hesse and Württemberg were to adopt a new rifle using percussion locks and Minié balls for their troops of the 8th Bundesarmee corps . This led to
846-597: A loose confederation of sovereign states (the treaty called it the États confédérés du Rhin . The " Protector of the Confederation " was a hereditary office of the Emperor of the French, Napoleon. On 1 August, as the treaty compelled them to do, the members of the confederation formally seceded from the Holy Roman Empire, and on 6 August, following an ultimatum by Napoleon, Francis II , who had already proclaimed himself Emperor of Austria in 1804, declared
940-582: A member of the Coalition. Napoleon withdrew with around 175,000 troops to Leipzig in Saxony where he thought he could fight a defensive action against the Allied armies converging on him. There, at the so-called Battle of Nations (16–19 October 1813) a French army, ultimately reinforced to 191,000, found itself faced by three Allied armies converging on it, ultimately totalling more than 430,000 troops. Over
1034-646: A million Allied troops (not including the strategic reserve being formed in Germany). During the armistice, three Allied sovereigns, Alexander of Russia, Frederick William of Prussia, and Carl Johan of Sweden (by then Regent of the kingdom due to his adoptive father's illness) met at Trachenberg Castle in Silesia to coordinate the war effort. Allied staffs began creating a plan for the campaign wherein Bernadotte once again put to use his fifteen years of experience as
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#17327807414481128-405: A new army as large as that he had sent into Russia, and quickly built up his forces in the east from 30,000 to 130,000 and eventually to 400,000. Napoleon inflicted 40,000 casualties on the Allies at Lützen (near Leipzig, 2 May) and Bautzen (20–21 May 1813) but his army lost about the same number of men during those encounters. Both battles involved total forces of over 250,000 – making them among
1222-611: A peace between France and its continental enemies, but it became apparent that the price was to be the dismantling of the Confederation of the Rhine , the Napoleon-controlled union of all German states aside from Prussia and Austria, and the return to France's pre-Revolutionary borders. Napoleon was not interested in any such compromise that would in effect end his empire, so Austria joined the allies and declared war on France in August 1813. Napoleon vowed that he would create
1316-483: A period of reconstruction and recuperation" and Napoleon needed time to acquire horses for his depleted cavalry and bring up more reinforcements. Therefore, Napoleon was amiable to the armistice offered by the Allies despite the Allies being in a grave condition. During the armistice, a disastrous interview with Austrian Chancellor Metternich , in which Napoleon heaped recriminations on the Austrians and threw his hat to
1410-546: A proclamation by the Swedish Crown Prince urging the Saxon Army (Bernadotte had commanded the Saxon Army at the Battle of Wagram and was well liked by them) to come over to the Allied cause, Saxon generals could no longer answer for the fidelity of their troops and the French now considered their remaining German allies unreliable. Later, on 8 October 1813, Bavaria officially ranged itself against Napoleon as
1504-423: A soldier his duty was to break through, but as a Prussian patriot his position was more difficult. He had to judge whether the moment was favorable for starting a war of liberation; and, whatever might be the enthusiasm of his junior staff-officers, Yorck had no illusions as to the safety of his own head, and negotiated with Clausewitz. The Convention of Tauroggen armistice, signed by Diebitsch and Yorck, "neutralized"
1598-462: A voluntary option for its future member states. Negotiations between France and the princes who had been selected by Napoleon to be members of the future alliance had been dragging on for the first six months of 1806 when Napoleon decided to rush things. On 12 July, the Paris envoys of the various princes were summoned to the ministry of Foreign Affairs to find themselves instructed by Talleyrand to sign
1692-460: The Battle of Kulm (29–30 August 1813), losing 13,000 men further weakening his army. Realizing that the Allies would continue to defeat his subordinates, Napoleon began to consolidate his troops to force a decisive battle. The French then suffered another grievous loss at the hands of Bernadotte's army on 6 September at Dennewitz where Ney was now in command, with Oudinot now as his deputy. The French were once again attempting to capture Berlin,
1786-580: The Berezina river. Napoleon now left his army to return to Paris and prepare a defence of the Duchy of Warsaw against the advancing Russians. The situation was not as dire as it might at first have seemed; the Russians had also lost around 400,000 men, and their army was similarly depleted. However, they had the advantage of shorter supply lines and were able to replenish their armies with greater speed than
1880-678: The Congress of Vienna redrew the continent's political map. Napoleonic creations such as the huge Kingdom of Westphalia, the Grand Duchy of Berg and the Duchy of Würzburg were abolished; suppressed states, including Hanover, the Brunswick duchies, Hesse-Kassel and Oldenburg, were reinstated. On the other hand, most members of the Confederation of the Rhine located in central and southern Germany survived with minor border changes. They, along with
1974-656: The Continental System . The Grande Armée , consisting of as many as 650,000 men (roughly half of whom were French, with the remainder coming from allies or subject areas), crossed the Neman river on 24 June 1812. Russia proclaimed a Patriotic War, while Napoleon proclaimed a " Second Polish War ". But against the expectations of the Poles, who supplied almost 100,000 troops for the invasion force, and having in mind further negotiations with Russia, he avoided restoring
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#17327807414482068-621: The Electorate of Baden and the Duchy of Württemberg benefited the most from these changes. The disappearance of ecclesiastical territories meant the emperor lost important political support. The end of the crippled Holy Roman Empire was foreseeable. Francis II took the title of Emperor of Austria in 1804 to counter the loss of prestige. When the War of the Third Coalition broke out in 1805, with Russia, Austria and Great Britain on
2162-527: The Imperial Russian Army . According to the Treaty of Tilsit (9 July 1807), Prussia had to support Napoleon's invasion of Russia. This resulted in some Prussians leaving their army to avoid serving the French, like Carl von Clausewitz , who joined Russian service. When Yorck's immediate French superior Marshal MacDonald , retreated before the corps of Diebitsch, Yorck found himself isolated. As
2256-526: The Mauser Model 1871 . The Regal Württemberg Rifle Factory, between the end of the Napoleonic wars and 1850, had only 50 employees and an output of about 200 weapons per year; even in the decades 1850-1870, when the smooth-bore muskets were replaced by rifles and 1868–1871, when 200 employees built the needle-ignition rifles, the factory was in deficit. When the brothers Mauser made an offer for
2350-581: The Rhineland (the west bank of the Rhine river), while giving up control of all the rest, including all of Poland, Spain and the Netherlands, and most of Italy and Germany. Metternich told Napoleon these were the best terms the Allies were likely to offer; after further victories, the terms would be harsher and harsher. Metternich aimed to maintain France as a balance against Russian threats, while ending
2444-677: The Treaty of Lunéville , which saw the annexation of the German territories of the left bank of the Rhine occupied by France, a new order of Central European states was established. The Final Imperial Recess of 1803 led to a radical transformation within the Holy Roman Empire . Some 112 immediate territories east of the Rhine were absorbed by larger states. Over three million people were affected by this change. All ecclesiastical territories save one were secularized and most free imperial cities underwent mediatisation . Besides Prussia,
2538-561: The Vereinsgewehr 1857 (union rifle, M/1857) in cal. .547". The rifle for the line infantry was, with minor modifications in the sights, adopted by all three states; pistols and carbines for the cavalry and sharpshooter rifles for the Jäger were, however, developed by each state on its own. In the war against Denmark in 1864, the superiourity of Breech-loading weapons became apparent; so, starting 1865, experiments began to adapt
2632-573: The War of the Sixth Coalition ( French : Guerre de la Sixième Coalition ) (December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation ( German : Befreiungskriege ), a coalition of Austria , Prussia , Russia , Spain , Great Britain , Portugal , Sweden , Sardinia , and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba . After
2726-527: The War of the Sixth Coalition . The founding members of the confederation were German princes of the Holy Roman Empire . They were later joined by 19 others, altogether ruling a total of over 15 million people. This granted a significant strategic advantage to the French Empire on its eastern frontier by providing a buffer between France and the two largest German states, Prussia and Austria (which also controlled substantial non-German lands). After
2820-469: The trade embargo with Great Britain , the Continental System . The Confederation of the Rhine collapsed in 1813, in the aftermath of Napoleon's failed invasion of the Russian Empire . Many of its members changed sides after the Battle of Leipzig , when it became apparent Napoleon would lose the War of the Sixth Coalition . Both French influence and internal autonomy varied greatly throughout
2914-750: The 100,000 French troops still garrisoned in fortresses throughout northern Germany. Despite several attempts by the Russian General Bennigsen to storm the city, Marshal Davout held Hamburg for France until after Napoleon's abdication in April 1814. However, whilst Bernadotte cleared the Low Countries of the French in Spring 1814, the people of Norway objected to being bartered between kings, declared independence and adopted their own constitution on 17 May 1814. Even as fighting between
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3008-556: The Allied armies. In total the Allies now had around 800,000 frontline troops in the German theatre, with a strategic reserve of 350,000. As a consequence of the armistice, the French lost their initial advantage in numbers as the Austrians, and Russia's huge manpower reserves, were brought to the front. Napoleon succeeded in bringing the total imperial forces in the region up to around 650,000 (although only 250,000 were under his direct command, with another 120,000 under Nicolas Charles Oudinot and 30,000 under Davout). The Confederation of
3102-405: The Allied lines, with British General Hope calling Döbeln, who was later court-martialed for disobeying orders "the mad Swedish General," were validated when Marshal Davout approached Hamburg with a French force of 34,000, intent on retaking the city. The Swedes quietly withdrew on 26 May and Davout would occupy the city until after Napoleon's abdication in 1814. It would be the last major action of
3196-449: The Allies narrowly slipped the noose. So while Napoleon had struck a heavy blow against the Allies, several tactical errors had allowed the Allies to withdraw, thus ruining Napoleon's best chance at ending the war in a single battle. Nonetheless, Napoleon had once again inflicted a heavy loss on the primary Allied Army despite being outnumbered and for some weeks after Dresden Schwarzenberg declined to take offensive action. However at about
3290-545: The Allies. Napoleon turned the Allied Left Flank, and in skilful use of terrain, pinned it against the flooded Weißeritz river and isolated it from the rest of the Coalition Army. He then gave his famed cavalry commander, and King of Naples, Joachim Murat leave to destroy the surrounded Austrians. The day's torrential rain had dampened gunpowder, rendering the Austrians' muskets and cannon useless against
3384-593: The Coalition and France ended with Napoleon's abdication, codified in the Treaty of Fontainbleau on 11 April 1814, Bernadotte found himself planning and leading yet another campaign to see the results of the Treaty of Kiel fully realized. It would be the final campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition. On 27 July 1814, Bernadotte, supported by the Swedish and British fleets, invaded Norway on two fronts, intending to envelop
3478-564: The Danish Auxiliary Corps scored a minor victory at Sehested . However, while the Danish victory managed to ensure the retreat of the main Danish army from immediate destruction, and brought about a three-week armistice, it could not change the course of war. Following a breakdown of negotiations, the armistice concluded and on 14 January 1814 Bernadotte invaded Schleswig , swiftly invested and reduced its fortresses and occupied
3572-635: The French Emperor could be cornered and brought to battle against vastly superior numbers. Following the conference, the Allies stood up their three armies: The Army of Silesia, with 95,000 Prussians and Russians, commanded by Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher ; the Army of the North, 120,000 Swedes, Russians, Prussians, and German troops from Mecklenburg , the Hanseatic cities and North Germany, under
3666-423: The French Empire. Thus, as either emperor of the French or protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon was now the overlord of all of Germany except Austria, Prussia , Danish Holstein , and Swedish Pomerania , plus previously independent Switzerland, which were not included in the Confederation. In 1810 large parts of what is now northwest Germany were quickly annexed to France in order to better monitor
3760-430: The French had occupied Moscow but found the city practically empty. Alexander I (despite having almost lost the war by Western European standards) refused to capitulate, leaving the French in the abandoned city of Moscow with little food or shelter (large parts of Moscow had burned down ) and winter approaching. In these circumstances, and with no clear path to victory, Napoleon was forced to withdraw from Moscow. So began
3854-690: The French, especially because Napoleon's losses of cavalry and wagons were irreplaceable. At the beginning of 1812 Britain had already been at war with France for eight years, and had been fighting alongside the Portuguese and Spanish in the Peninsular War for more than three years. Russia and Sweden, which had opposed Napoleon up to 1807 and 1810 respectively, had been forced to join his Continental System against Britain, but continued to trade secretly with her. On 9 January 1812, French troops suddenly occupied Swedish Pomerania , ostensibly to end
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3948-718: The Habsburgs when they were within the Holy Roman Empire. In order to add luster to his newly-founded dynasty, the French Emperor pressed hard to arrange a marriage between his step-son Eugène de Beauharnais and Augusta of Bavaria . Napoleon had already contemplated marrying Beauharnais to a Wittelsbach princess in 1804 but it’s only in 1806, following his elevation to the status of king, that Max Joseph gave in to Napoleon’s pressure. Other royal marriages were arranged between Stéphanie de Beauharnais and Charles of Baden and Jérôme Bonaparte and Catharina of Württemberg . After Prussia lost to France in 1806, Napoleon cajoled most of
4042-475: The Holy Roman Empire dissolved. According to the treaty, the confederation was to be run by common constitutional bodies, but the individual states (in particular the larger ones) wanted unlimited sovereignty . Instead of a monarchical head of state , as the Holy Roman Emperor had been, its highest office was held by Karl Theodor von Dalberg , the former Arch Chancellor, who now bore the title of
4136-520: The Katzbach, annihilating it; forcing the French into the raging waters where many drowned. The French suffered 13,000 killed and wounded and 20,000 captured. The Prussians lost but 4,000 men. Napoleon himself, lacking reliable and numerous cavalry, was unable to prevent the destruction of a whole army corps, which had isolated itself pursuing the enemy following the Battle of Dresden without support, at
4230-595: The Kingdom of Norway was to be ceded to the King of Sweden. Believing his primary goal of detaching Norway from Denmark and binding it with Sweden had been fully achieved, Bernadotte and the Swedish and Russian corps of his Army of the North advanced into and occupied the Low Countries. Other elements of the Army of the North were also tasked with besieging Marshal Davout's 40,000 French and Danish troops in Hamburg, as well as
4324-509: The Norwegian forces with a combined Swedish army of 40,000 well-trained, well-equipped men, many of whom were veterans of the recent Leipzig and Danish Campaigns. Facing them were 30,000 Norwegian militia, who were short on equipment, training and munitions, but full of patriotic ardor and acquitted themselves well in the face of overwhelming odds. The Norwegians fought well, winning defensive battles at Lier and Matrand , but could not stop
4418-604: The Prussian corps without consent of their king. The news was received with the wildest enthusiasm in Prussia, but the Prussian Court dared not yet throw off the mask, and an order was despatched suspending Yorck from his command pending a court-martial. Diebitsch refused to let the bearer pass through his lines, and the general was finally absolved when the Treaty of Kalisch (28 February 1813) definitely ranged Prussia on
4512-435: The Prussians and Russians, French losses had been heavy and a chronic lack of horses for his cavalry meant that Napoleon could not fully exploit his victories and inflict a decisive defeat in the same vein as Austerlitz or Friedland . Napoleon's new army was filled with fresh conscripts, lacked many necessities and was exhausted from their long march from France and Napoleon's rapid maneuvering. The French were "in dire need of
4606-509: The Rhine furnished Napoleon with the bulk of the remainder of the forces, with Saxony and Bavaria as principal contributors. In addition, to the south, Murat's Kingdom of Naples and Eugène de Beauharnais 's Kingdom of Italy had a combined total of 100,000 men under arms. In Spain an additional 150–200,000 French troops were being steadily beaten back by Spanish and British forces numbering around 150,000. Thus in total around 900,000 French troops were opposed in all theatres by somewhere around
4700-466: The Rhine , simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation , was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austria and Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz . Its creation brought about the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire shortly afterward. The Confederation of the Rhine lasted for only seven years, from 1806 to 1813, dissolving after Napoleon's defeat in
4794-756: The Russian war effort while Charles John had struck up a friendship with Alexander, and gave him moral support, strategic and tactical advice on how to defeat the French, as well as valuable insights on Napoleon himself (having had much contact with Napoleon as a member of the extended Imperial Family). However Russia bore the brunt of the French onslaught on her territory alone. After the French Grande Armée retreated from Moscow on 18/19 October 1812 and suffered heavy casualties due to extreme cold, food shortages and repeated Russian attacks, Napoleon did not seem to be as invincible as before. On 14 December,
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#17327807414484888-643: The Spring before the Armistice of Pläswitz . The belligerents declared an armistice from 4 June 1813 which lasted until 13 August, during which time both sides attempted to recover from approximately a quarter of a million losses since April. During this time Allied negotiations finally brought Austria out in open opposition to France (like Prussia, Austria had moved from nominal ally of France in 1812 to armed neutral in 1813). Two principal Austrian armies deployed in Bohemia and Northern Italy, adding 300,000 troops to
4982-533: The Vereinsgewehr to a breech-loading rifle; amongst these, a trapdoor rifle -construction (system Milbank-Amsler), which should have been adopted. In joint developments with Bavaria , a variant of the Dreyse needle gun was proposed and adopted as in 1867, the danger of a Prussian-French conflict arose. The system Dreyse was adopted on 5 May 1867; 6,000 rifles were delivered by Prussia . While instruction on
5076-477: The absorption of the territories of Imperial counts and knights who were mediatized at that time. They had to pay a very high price for their new status, however. The Confederation was above all a military alliance; the member states had to maintain substantial armies for mutual defense and supply France with large numbers of military personnel. As events played out, the members of the confederation found themselves more subordinated to Napoleon than they had been to
5170-441: The advancing Swedish columns. As a consequence, an armistice (the Convention of Moss ) was concluded on 14 August followed by swift negotiations. The terms of Union were generous to the Norwegians as Bernadotte and the Swedes had no wish to inaugurate the union of Sweden and Norway with further bloodshed. Norway agreed to enter into a personal union with Sweden as a separate state with its own constitution and institutions, except for
5264-431: The central position. Having lost the initiative, he was now forced to concentrate his army and seek a decisive battle at Leipzig . Compounding the heavy military losses suffered at Dennewitz, the French were now losing the support of their German vassal states as well. News of Bernadotte's victory at Dennewitz sent shock waves across Germany, where French rule had become unpopular, inducing Tyrol to rise in rebellion and
5358-418: The confederations' existence. There was also a great variation between the power and influence of the individual states. There are three basic types: The following table shows the members of the confederation, with their date of joining, as well as the number of troops provided, listed in parentheses. The allies opposing Napoleon dissolved the Confederation of the Rhine on 4 November 1813. After its demise,
5452-401: The disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812 in which they had been forced to support France, Prussia and Austria joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Portugal, and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France. The War of the Sixth Coalition saw battles at Lützen , Bautzen , and Dresden . The even larger Battle of Leipzig (also known as the Battle of Nations) was
5546-493: The disastrous Great Retreat , during which the retreating army came under increasing pressure due to lack of food, desertions, and increasingly harsh winter weather, all while under continual attack by the Russian army led by Commander-in-Chief Mikhail Kutuzov , and other militias. Total losses of the Grand Army were at least 370,000 casualties as a result of fighting, starvation and the freezing weather conditions, and 200,000 captured. By November, only 27,000 fit soldiers re-crossed
5640-400: The east and from Prussian recruiting depots. Many Russian officers yearned to return to Russia having achieved their goal of ridding Russia of the French. Frederick William of Prussia had always viewed a renewed war with France as dubious, and the two defeats at Lützen and Bautzen had led him to reconsider peace. Moreover, the Prussians and the Russians were hopeful of bringing the Austrians into
5734-402: The elevation of both Bavaria and Württemberg to the rank of kingdom and Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt and Berg to that of grand duchy. With French encouragement, the vestiges of small Imperial estates in the region were annexed. This reorganisation of the right bank of the Rhine laid the groundwork for the Confederation of the Rhine. The formation of the Confederation of the Rhine was not altogether
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#17327807414485828-402: The entire province. The Danes, heavily outnumbered, could not prevent an Allied advance on Jutland or Copenhagen , and sued for peace. It would be the final chapter in the long and bloody history of conflicts between Sweden and Denmark with the former definitively victorious. On 14 January 1814, the Treaty of Kiel was concluded between Sweden and Denmark–Norway . By the terms of the treaty,
5922-445: The exact parameters of a military alliance remained in negotiation throughout the winter of 1812-1813. When Napoleon marched on Moscow in June 1812, neither Britain nor Sweden was able to give direct military support to Russia, though that same month the British and Spanish armies had advanced into central Spain , defeating the French at Salamanca and capturing Madrid , tying down a French army of 230,000. Britain also helped subsidize
6016-437: The factory, as the Rifle M/71 was adopted by most of the armies in the German Empire , Württemberg sold them the factory on 20-FEB-1874. Mauser then became one of the most important firearms manufacturers in the first half of the 20th century until it was sold in 1995. Confederation of the Rhine 50°07′N 8°41′E / 50.117°N 8.683°E / 50.117; 8.683 The Confederated States of
6110-403: The field. Further losses occurred during the pursuit that evening, and into the following day, as the Swedish and Prussian cavalry took a further 13,000–14,000 French prisoners. Ney retreated to Wittenberg with the remains of his command and made no further attempt at capturing Berlin. Napoleon's bid to knock Prussia out of the war had failed; as had his operational plan to fight the battle of
6204-442: The following days the battle resulted in a defeat for Napoleon, who however was still able to manage a relatively orderly retreat westwards. However, as the French forces were pulling across the White Elster , the bridge was prematurely blown and 30,000 troops were stranded to be taken prisoner by the Allied forces. Napoleon defeated an army of his former ally Bavaria at the Battle of Hanau (30–31 October 1813) before pulling what
6298-421: The ground and stamped it with his foot, ensured that Austria would join the coalition against France. Napoleon did not know it at the time, but the armistice would turn out to be a grave mistake as the Allies gained far more from the suspension of hostilities than he did. Meanwhile, on 21 May 1813, a Swedish corps of 15,000 commanded by General Döbeln occupied Hamburg without orders from Bernadotte, following
6392-409: The highly destabilizing series of wars. Napoleon, expecting to win the war, delayed too long and lost this opportunity; by December the Allies had withdrawn the offer. When his back was to the wall in 1814 he tried to reopen peace negotiations on the basis of accepting the Frankfurt proposals. The Allies now had new, harsher terms that included the retreat of France to its 1791 boundaries, which meant
6486-401: The illegal trade with the United Kingdom from Sweden, which was in violation of the Continental System. Swedish estates were confiscated and Swedish officers and soldiers were taken as prisoners. In response, Charles John, formerly French Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte , now the Crown Prince and Regent of Sweden, declared neutrality, and though Sweden was still at war with Britain, and Russia
6580-468: The independent command of Sweden's Crown Prince Carl Johan; and the Army of Bohemia , the primary Allied force in the field, with which the Allied sovereigns Alexander, Francis and Frederick William oversaw the Campaign, numbering 225,000 Austrians, Russians, and Prussians commanded by Prince Karl von Schwarzenberg . Following the end of the armistice, Napoleon seemed to have regained the initiative at Dresden (26–27 August 1813), where he inflicted one of
6674-415: The largest battle in European history before World War I . Ultimately, Napoleon's earlier setbacks in Spain, Portugal and Russia proved to be the seeds of his undoing. With their armies reorganized, the allies drove Napoleon out of Germany in 1813 and invaded France in 1814. The Allies defeated the remaining French armies, occupied Paris, and forced Napoleon to abdicate and go into exile. The French monarchy
6768-547: The largest battles of the Napoleonic Wars to that point in time. The lack of horses for Napoleon's cavalry did not allow him to follow up his victories with a vigorous pursuit, robbing him of decisive results. Despite losing as many men as the Allies, Napoleon's victories had greatly demoralized the Prussians and Russians. Losses were heavy, and the Russian and Prussian forces were a shambles. Both Allied armies were in dire need of substantial reinforcements en route from
6862-541: The last French troops had left Russian soil, and Paris' allies were seriously considering rebellion and joining the Tsar's side. The Convention of Tauroggen was a truce signed 30 December 1812 at Tauroggen between Generalleutnant Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg on behalf of his Prussian troops (who had been compelled to augment the Grande Armée during the invasion of Russia), and by General Hans Karl von Diebitsch of
6956-493: The loss of Belgium and the Rhineland. Napoleon adamantly refused. Following the Battle of Leipzig , Bernadotte and his Army of the North parted ways with the rest of the Coalition armies, and liberated Bremen and Lübeck in late November 1813. In early December, Bernadotte launched his long projected invasion of Denmark to secure the Coalition's northern flank prior to the invasion of France scheduled for early 1814 and to see
7050-477: The loss of which Napoleon believed would knock Prussia out of the War. However, Ney blundered into a trap set by Bernadotte and was stopped cold by the Prussians, and then routed when the Crown Prince arrived with his Swedes and a Russian corps on their open flank. This second defeat at the hands of Napoleon's ex-Marshal was catastrophic for the French, with them losing 50 cannon, four Eagles and 10,000 men on
7144-585: The most lop-sided losses of the era on the Prussian-Russian-Austrian forces. On 26 August, the Allies under Prince von Schwarzenberg attacked the French garrison in Dresden. Napoleon arrived on the battlefield in the early hours of 27 August with the Guard and other reinforcements and despite being severely outnumbered having only 135,000 men to the Coalition's 215,000, Napoleon chose to attack
7238-537: The needle-ignition rifles was completed at the end of 1867, weapons for the 33,000 Württemberg troops lacked. So, muzzle-loading rifles were adapted to needle-ignition systems, as well as new rifles, a variant of the prussian M/1862 with the short lock of the M/65 were built. 1873, after the Franco-Prussian War , those rifles were adapted to the new standard (system Beck); in 1875, the rifles were replaced by
7332-400: The old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . Russian forces fell back, destroying everything potentially of use to the invaders until giving battle at Borodino (7 September) where the two armies fought a devastating battle. Despite the fact that France won a tactical victory, the battle was inconclusive. Following the battle the Russians withdrew, thus opening the road to Moscow . By 14 September,
7426-567: The one side and France on the other, Bavaria, Baden and Wurttemberg allied with Napoleon. After the victory at Austerlitz and the resultant Peace of Pressburg in 1805, Napoleon could significantly reassert his position in the German states. Furthermore, Austria had to concede territory and Napoleon named his brothers Joseph and Louis kings of Naples and Holland , respectively, and his brother-in-law Joachim Murat , Grand Duke of Berg . He also worked toward establishing an alliance with Baden, Bavaria and Württemberg. Francis II had to assent to
7520-581: The only attempt at political coordination in Germany until the creation on 8 June 1815 of the German Confederation was a body called the Central Administration Council (German: Zentralverwaltungsrat ); its president was Heinrich Friedrich Karl Reichsfreiherr vom und zum Stein (1757–1831). It was dissolved on 20 June 1815. On 30 May 1814 the Treaty of Paris declared the German states independent. In 1814–1815,
7614-493: The princes had been sent a copy of the proposed treaty, was aghast. Among other things, Bavaria would lose control of its foreign policy which would now be in the hands of Napoleon, the " Protector of the Confederation " . He hurriedly sent Baron Karl von Gravenreuth to Paris with instructions to reject a confederation which he said gave to the Protector a power "more extensive than the Emperor of Germany ever had". Von Gravenreuth
7708-604: The reinstated states, Prussia, and Austria, formed the German Confederation . War of the Sixth Coalition After the Armistice of Pläswitz After the Battle of Leipzig After 20 November 1813 [REDACTED] Netherlands After January 1814 [REDACTED] Denmark [REDACTED] France Until January 1814 ( 1813–1814 ) 526,000 610,000 In
7802-418: The sabers and lances of Murat's Cuirassiers and Lancers who tore the Austrians to shreds, capturing 15 standards and forcing the balance of three divisions, 13,000 men, to surrender. The Allies were forced to retreat in some disorder having lost nearly 40,000 men to only 10,000 French. However, Napoleon's forces were also hampered by the weather and unable to close the encirclement the Emperor had planned before
7896-549: The same time the French sustained several serious defeats, first at the hands of Bernadotte's Army of the North on 23 August, with Oudinot's thrust towards Berlin beaten back by the Prussians, at Großbeeren . At the Katzbach the Prussians, commanded by Blücher, took advantage of Napoleon's march toward Dresden to attack Marshal MacDonald's Army of the Bober. During a torrential rainstorm on 26 August, and due to conflicting orders and
7990-546: The secondary states of Germany into the Confederation of the Rhine. Eventually, an additional 23 German states joined the Confederation. It was at its largest in 1808, when it included 36 states—four kingdoms, five grand duchies, 13 duchies , seventeen principalities , and the Free Hansa towns of Hamburg , Lübeck , and Bremen . The west bank of the Rhine and the Principality of Erfurt had been annexed outright by
8084-588: The side of the Allies. Meanwhile, Austria's alliance with France ended in February 1813, and Austria then moved to a position of armed neutrality. It would not declare war on France until half a year later, in August 1813. On 3 March 1813, after lengthy negotiations, the United Kingdom agreed to Swedish claims to Norway. Sweden entered a military alliance with the United Kingdom and declared war against France, liberating Swedish Pomerania shortly thereafter. On 17 March, King Frederick William III of Prussia published
8178-688: The treaty guarantees over the Danish cession of Norway to Sweden enforced. Bernadotte's Army, now some 65,000, composed only of Swedish, North German and Russian troops following the secondment of the Prussian troops to Blücher's army, attacked the Royal Danish Army in Holstein . In a lightning campaign of only two weeks the Swedes subdued the Danes. General Anders Skjöldebrand defeated the Danes at Bornhöved on 7 December 1813. Three days later,
8272-456: The treaty of the new alliance, whose terms had been decided between him and Napoleon. This caused consternation among the envoys given that the terms were far more onerous for the princes than what had been expected. They all protested that they were not empowered to sign before their masters authorized them to do so, but Talleyrand compelled them to sign then and there and so they did under duress. King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria , who alone among
8366-406: The war and a break in the fighting would give them time to negotiate with Vienna. Another victory by Napoleon may very well have led to a favorable peace as not only were the Russians and Prussians at their nadir, but the Austrians, with their 150,000 troops would have seen a decisive French victory as ample proof that another war with France would be most undesirable. Despite the two victories over
8460-489: Was detained long enough at the French border so that when he finally arrived in Paris all the other princes had signed. He therefore found it unadvisable to deliver the King’s views on the matter. In the words of Enno E. Kraehe: "Only by such crude methods was Napoleon able at last to found the Confederation of the Rhine". On signing the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine (German: Rheinbundakte ), 16 German states joined in
8554-437: Was its perennial enemy, he dispatched diplomats to London and St. Petersburg to create a new coalition against France. Sweden then signed the secret Treaty of Saint Petersburg with Russia against France and Denmark–Norway on 5 April 1812. On 18 July 1812, the Treaty of Örebro formally ended the wars between Britain and Sweden and Britain and Russia , forming the basis of coalition between Russia, Britain, and Sweden, though
8648-592: Was left of his forces back into France. Meanwhile, Davout's corps continued to hold out in its Siege of Hamburg , where it became the last Imperial field force east of the Rhine . The Allies offered peace terms in the Frankfurt proposals in November 1813. Napoleon would remain as Emperor of France, but it would be reduced to its "natural frontiers". That meant that France could retain control of Belgium , Savoy and
8742-631: Was revived by the allies, who handed rule to the heir of the House of Bourbon in the Bourbon Restoration . The "Hundred Days" War of the Seventh Coalition was triggered in 1815 when Napoleon escaped from his captivity on Elba and returned to power in France. He was defeated again for the final time at Waterloo , ending the Napoleonic Wars . In June 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia to compel Emperor Alexander I to remain in
8836-399: Was the signal for the King of Bavaria to proclaim neutrality and begin negotiations with the Austrians (on the basis of territorial guarantees and Maximilian's retention of his crown) in preparation of joining the Allied cause. A body of Saxon troops had defected to Bernadotte's Army during the battle and Westphalian troops were now deserting King Jérôme 's army in large numbers. Following
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