In Northern European historiography, the term French period (french: Période française, german: Franzosenzeit, nl, Franse tijd) refers to the period between 1794 and 1815 during which most of Northern Europe was controlled by

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Napoleonic France The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental ...

.Eduard Rothert
''Rheinland-Westfalen im Wechsel der Zeiten''.
Düsseldorf 1900; Online-Präsentation der Universitätsbibliothek der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, retrieved 21 March 2011. The exact duration of the period varies by the location concerned.
Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR), retrieved 18 March 2011. In German historiography, the term emerged in the 19th century and developed nationalist connotations. It entered

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle ...

usage with Fritz Reuter's popular work ''Ut de Franzosentid'' (1860). It was used alongside the concept of '' Erbfeind'' ("hereditary enmity") to express anti-French feeling as part of the formation of a German national identity and as such was used in a non-neutral way under the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

and

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. In Germany, the term has thus been shunned since the

Bonn Republic West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, with "

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Pruss ...

" and "

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

" more commonly used today. In Dutch historiography, the period of the

Kingdom of Holland The Kingdom of Holland ( nl, Holland (contemporary), (modern); french: Royaume de Hollande) was created by Napoleon Bonaparte, overthrowing the Batavian Republic in March 1806 in order to better control the Netherlands. Since becoming Empero ...

, when Emperor Napoleon placed his younger brother Louis on the newly created throne following the overthrow of the

Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bon ...

is not well studied.Lok, Matthijs, and Martijn van der Burg. "The Dutch case: the Kingdom of Holland and the imperial departments." ''The Napoleonic Empire and the New European Political Culture''. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2012. 100-111.

History

Following the

Battle of Austerlitz The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz ...

and the

War of the Third Coalition The War of the Third Coalition) * In French historiography, it is known as the Austrian campaign of 1805 (french: Campagne d'Autriche de 1805) or the German campaign of 1805 (french: Campagne d'Allemagne de 1805) was a European conflict spanni ...

, Napoleon dissolved the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

, annexed parts of Austria and certain German states to France, and formed the German states into the Confederation of the Rhine. Napoleon was their "protector," but as the Confederation was above all a military alliance, their foreign policy was utterly dominated by France, and the states had to supply France with large numbers of military troops. Disquiet about mass-conscription (the ''

levée en masse ''Levée en masse'' ( or, in English, "mass levy") is a French term used for a policy of mass national conscription, often in the face of invasion. The concept originated during the French Revolutionary Wars, particularly for the period follo ...

'') also trigged an uprising, known as the Peasants' War, in 1798 within modern-day Belgium and Luxembourg. In Germany, Napoleon formed two new states, the Grand Duchy of Berg and the Kingdom of Westphalia, which he gave to his general Joachim Murat and his brother Jerome Bonaparte, respectively. The

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The pe ...

and

Prince-Bishopric of Liège The Prince-Bishopric of Liège or Principality of Liège was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was situated for the most part in present-day Belgium. It was an Imperial Estate, so the bishop of Liège, as its prince, ...

were annexed and became '' départements'' of France. During the French occupation, the Napoleonic Code was introduced, during which the German people came into contact with the ideals of the French Revolution, including nationalism. In

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

, which was not part of the French-dominated

Confederation of the Rhine The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine, also known as Napoleonic Germany, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austria a ...

, but still occupied by France, this created a dynamic towards constitutional, political, social, and military reform which would prove critical during the

Liberation War Wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separat ...

. In the Confederation itself, there were already riots against the French rule, and after the devastation of the French army during the

French invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...

, the commander of the Prussian Corps, Yorck, signed a ceasefire with Russia. This was to be the decisive trigger of the Liberation War.

Results

The French period contributed significantly to the emergence of the idea of unity and national consciousness in Germany. The many regions with their various dialects found in the struggle against the French occupation "German" as a common definition of anti-French sentiment or freedom. After the

Vormärz ' (; English: ''pre-March'') was a period in the history of Germany preceding the 1848 March Revolution in the states of the German Confederation. The beginning of the period is less well-defined. Some place the starting point directly after the ...

period, the desire for freedom from the government was suppressed, until the March Revolution in 1848 and the formation of the first German parliament, though not all German-speaking territories were involved. In the Prussian War of Liberation conscription modeled after the levée en masse of General Gerhard von Scharnhorst was introduced and the Prussian army reforms introduced. The Prussian reforms (1807-1812) during the French period include not only the formal abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 but also the largest political and social upheavals between the Early Modern Period and the

Modern Period The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...

in Germany. With the abandonment of Francis II from the Holy Roman Empire to the Austrian Empire, there was also created a political split between Prussia and Austria, which laid the ground for Austrian exclusion from the

German Question The "German question" was a debate in the 19th century, especially during the Revolutions of 1848, over the best way to achieve a unification of all or most lands inhabited by Germans. From 1815 to 1866, about 37 independent German-speaking sta ...

References

{{Reflist France–Germany relations First French Empire French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars 1790s in the Holy Roman Empire 1800s in Germany 1810s in Germany fr:Période française de l'histoire de Belgique nl:Franse tijd rm:Istorgia da la Svizra#Il «temp franzos»: Helvetica e mediaziun dal 1798 fin il 1814