To relate in detail the campaigns of Napoleon from Austerlitz to Waterloo would require the space of volumes. We shall simply indicate in a few brief paragraphs the successive steps by which he mounted to the highest pitch of power and fame, and then trace rapidly the decline and fall of his astonishing fortunes.
Austerlitz (1805): End of the Holy Roman Empire (1806).—The year following his coronation, Napoleon made a gigantic effort to break the coalition which England, Russia, Austria, and Sweden had formed against him. He massed an immense army at Boulogne, on the Channel, preparatory to an invasion of England; but the failure of his fleet to carry out its part of the plan, and intelligence of the approach of the Austrians and Russians towards the Rhenish frontier, caused him suddenly to transfer his troops to the opposite side of France.
Without waiting for the attack of the allies, Napoleon flung his Grand Army, as it was called, across the Rhine, defeated the Austrians in the battle of Ulm, and marched in triumph through Vienna to the field of Austerlitz beyond, where he gained one of his most memorable victories over the combined armies of Austria and Russia, numbering more than 100,000 men (Dec. 2, 1805).
This battle completely changed the map of Europe. Austria was forced to give up Venetia and other provinces about the head of the Adriatic, this territory being now added to the kingdom of Italy. Sixteen of the German states, declaring themselves independent of the empire, were formed into a league, called the Confederation of the Rhine, with Napoleon as Protector. Furthermore, the Emperor Francis II. was obliged to surrender the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, and thereafter to content himself with the title of Emperor of Austria.
Thus did the Holy Roman Empire come to an end (1806), after having maintained an existence, since its revival by Otto the Great, of more than eight hundred years. The Kingdom of Germany, which was created by the partition of the empire of Charlemagne (see p. 408), now also passed out of existence, even in name.
