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Continental System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The French Empire in 1812
  Continental System

The Continental Blockade (French: Blocus continental), or Continental System, was the foreign policy of Napoleon Bonaparte against the British Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. As a response to the naval blockade of the French coasts enacted by the British government on 16 May 1806, Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree on 21 November 1806, which brought into effect a large-scale embargo against British trade.[1][2] The embargo was applied intermittently, ending on 11 April 1814 after Napoleon's first abdication. The blockade did not cause significant economic damage to the British, although British exports to the continent (as a proportion of the country’s total trade) dropped from 55% to 25% between 1802 and 1806.[3] As Napoleon realized that extensive trade was going through Spain and Russia, he invaded those two countries. His forces were tied down in Spain—in which the Spanish War of Independence was occurring simultaneously—and suffered severely in, and ultimately retreated from, Russia in 1812.

The Berlin Decree forbade the import of British goods into any European countries allied with or dependent upon France, and it installed the Continental System in Europe. All connections with Britain were to be cut, even the mail. However, British merchants smuggled in many goods and the Continental System was not a powerful weapon of economic war.[4][clarification needed] There was some damage to British trade, especially in 1808 and 1812, but British control of the oceans led to replacement trade with North and South America, as well as large scale smuggling in Europe particularly from Malta which was used by the British to sell their goods to southern Italy. The loss of Britain as a trading partner also hit the economies of France and its allies.[5] Angry governments gained an incentive to ignore the Continental System, which led to the weakening of Napoleon's coalition.[6]


The British government was the central force in encouraging and financing alliances against Napoleonic France. Napoleon was frustrated in his repeated attempts to defeat Britain. Attacks that involved naval power had all failed, with the systematic defeats of the combined French and Spanish navies. After the decisive defeat at Trafalgar, Napoleon made no attempt to rebuild his Navy. He turned instead to economic warfare, planning to ruin the British economy. It was thought that Britain depended completely upon trade with Europe for its prosperity, so cutting off trade with continental Europe would ruin the British economy and force it to sue for peace. A blockade was impossible because the Royal Navy controlled the seas, but if Napoleon controlled the ports of Europe, he could prevent British products from landing.[7]


In November 1806, having recently conquered or allied with every major power on the European continent, Napoleon, in retaliation to the British Order-in-Council of 17 May 1806 blockading all ports from Brest to the Elbe, issued the Berlin Decree forbidding his allies and conquests from trading with the British.[8] Britain responded with further Orders in Council issued on 10 January and 11 November 1807.[9] These forbade French trade with Britain, its allies or neutrals, and instructed the Royal Navy to blockade all French and allied ports, and to prevent all shipping whether neutral or not. Napoleon responded again with the Milan Decree of 1807, declaring that all neutral shipping using British ports or paying British tariffs were to be regarded as British and seized.



British Empire

The System had mixed effects on British trade. The embargo encouraged British merchants to seek out new markets aggressively and to engage in smuggling with continental Europe. Napoleon's exclusively land-based customs enforcers could not stop British smugglers, especially as these operated with the connivance of Napoleon's chosen rulers of Spain, Westphalia, and other German states.[11][12] British exports to the Continent fell between 25% to 55% compared to pre-1806 levels. However, trade sharply increased with the rest of the world, covering much of the decline.[13][14]

Britain, by Orders in Council, prohibited other countries (that is, its trade partners) from trading with France. The British countered the Continental system by threatening to sink any ship that did not come to a British port or chose to comply with France. This double threat created a difficult time for neutral nations like the United States. In response to this prohibition, the U.S. government adopted the Embargo Act of 1807 and eventually Macon's Bill No. 2. This embargo was designed as an economic counterattack to hurt Britain, but it proved even more damaging to American merchants. Together with the issues of the impressment of foreign seamen, and British support for Indian raids in the American west, tensions led to a declaration of war by the U.S. in the War of 1812. This war, not Napoleon's blockade, sharply reduced British trade with the United States.[15]

The British economy suffered greatly in 1810 to 1812, especially in terms of high unemployment and inflation. This led to widespread protest and violence, but the middle classes and upper classes strongly supported the government, which used the army to suppress the working class unrest, especially the Luddite movement.[16][17]

France and Continental Europe



In Italy, the agricultural sector flourished;[20] but the Dutch economy, predicated on trade, suffered greatly as a result of the embargo. Napoleon's economic warfare was much to the chagrin of his own brother, King Louis I of Holland.

Scandinavia and the Baltic region


Britain's first response to the Continental system was to launch a major naval attack on the weakest link in Napoleon's coalition, Denmark. Although ostensibly neutral, Denmark was under heavy French and Russian pressure to pledge its fleet to Napoleon. London could not take the chance of ignoring the Danish threat. In the Second Battle of Copenhagen in August–September 1807, the Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen, seized the Danish fleet, and assured control of the sea lanes in the North Sea and Baltic Sea for the British merchant fleet.[21][22] The island of Heligoland off the west coast of Denmark was occupied in September 1807. This base made it easier for Britain to control trade to North Sea ports and to facilitate smuggling. The attacks against Copenhagen and Heligoland started the Gunboat War against Denmark, which lasted until 1814.



Portugal and Spain

Portugal openly refused to join the Continental System. In 1793, Portugal signed a treaty of mutual assistance with Britain.[23] After the Treaty of Tilsit of July 1807, Napoleon attempted to capture the Portuguese Fleet and the House of Braganza, and to occupy the Portuguese ports. He failed, as Queen Maria I of Portugal took her fleet and transferred the Portuguese court to Brazil with a Royal Navy escort. The Portuguese population rose in revolt against the French invaders, with the help of the British Army under Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon intervened, and the Peninsular War began in 1808. Napoleon also forced the Spanish royal family to abdicate their throne in favor of Napoleon's brother, Joseph.


  3. ^ Alfred Fierro; André Palluel-Guillard; Jean Tulard (1995). Histoire et dictionnaire du Consulat et de l'Empire. Robert Laffont. ISBN 2-221-05858-5.
  7. ^ Louis R. Gottschalk, The Era of the French Revolution. (1715–1815) (1929) p. 373.
  8. ^ "Documents upon the ContinentaI System 1806".
  10. ^ Society, National Geographic (2020-04-06). "Napoleon Invades Russia". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  11. ^ On smuggling see Roger Knight, Britain against Napoleon (2013) pp. 402–03.[ISBN missing]
  12. ^ Gavin Daly, "Napoleon and the ‘City of Smugglers’, 1810–1814." Historical Journal 50.2 (2007): 333–52.
  14. ^ François Crouzet, "A serious cause of social and economic dislocation," Frank Kafter and James Laux, eds., Napoleon and his times (1989) pp. 179–92.[ISBN missing]
  15. ^ Knight, Britain against Napoleon (2013) pp. 433–36.
  16. ^ Knight, pp. 410–12.
  17. ^ Francois Crouzet, Britain Ascendant (1990) pp. 277–79.
  18. ^ Eli Heckscher, The continental system: an economic interpretation (1922) pp. 266–94.

Further reading

  • Breunig, Charles. The Age of Revolution and Reaction 1789–1850 (1970), Chapter 2[ISBN missing]
  • Broers, Michael. Europe Under Napoleon (IB Tauris, 2014).[ISBN missing]
  • Godechot, Jacques, et al. The Napoleonic era in Europe (1971) pp. 126–39, 156–59.[ISBN missing]
  • Gottschalk, Louis R. The Era of the French Revolution. (1715–1815) (1929) pp. 373–99. online
  • Knight, Roger. Britain against Napoleon (2013) pp. 386–416.[ISBN missing]
  • Mowat, R. B. The Diplomacy of Napoleon (1924) pp. 190–206 online
  • O’Rourke, Kevin H. "War and welfare: Britain, France, and the United States 1807–14." Oxford Economic Papers 59.suppl 1 (2007): i8–i30, uses econometrics to argue Britain fared better than either France or the United States.
  • Rose, J. H. "Napoleon and English Commerce." English Historical Review 8#32 (1893): 704–25. online.
  • Sloane, William M."The Continental System of Napoleon" Political Science Quarterly (1898) 12#2 213–

External links

This page was last edited on 25 June 2022, at 18:43