The Austrian war of 1809 was the natural sequel to the insurrection of the Spanks' h people. Germany was smarting wider thehardships in volved by the French military occupation and the continental blockade; and the deepest re sentment was caused by a decree issued by Na poleon, commanding the banishment of Stein (q.v.), the great reform minister from Prussia. Every German who hoped for better things looked to Austria as the destined liberator; but again the genius of Napoleon overcame all ob stacles. Five brilliant battles (19-23 April) drove the Archduke Charles out of Bavaria.
On 13 May Vienna surrendered to Napoleon. On 6 July he won the hard fought field of Wagram. The English diversion at Walcheren was as ineffective as the gallant raid of Colonel Schill or the march of the Duke of Bruns wick's black legion through northern Germany.
On 14 Oct 1809 Francis of Austria accepted the treaty of Sciifinbrunn, and abandoned the Tyrol, Trieste and the Illyrian littoral to the conqueror. The Tyrolese, who, under the leadership of Andreas Hofer (q.v.), an inn keeper, had made a gallant resistance to the French, were now easily overcome, and while their leader was shot, to the eternal disgrace of Napoleon, their territory was divided the kingdoms of Italy, Bavaria and the Illyrian provinces of the French Empire. Nor was this the last affront to Austrianpride. Divorcing Josephine, Napoleon demanded and obtained the hand of Marie Louise, the daughter of Francis. The French Empire had now reached its zenith, though some further rearrangements of territory were effected, mainly for the pur pose of improving the mechanism of the block ade. Thus Louis, who was considered to be too lenient to the Dutch, was compelled to ab dicate, and the kingdom of Holland was an nexed to the Empire on 9 July 1810; while at the end of the year (December 1810) the north western portion of the Westphalian kingdom, and all the northwest littoral of Germany,. in cluding Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck were simi larly incorporated and organized as French de partments. The rigor of the blockade now reached its height. Heavy duties were placed upon all colonial imports by the Trianon tariff, 5 Aug. 1810. The Fontainebleau decrees (18 and 25 October) ordered that all British manu factured goods found in the Napoleonic states should be seized and publicly burnt, while 51 tribunals were established for the purpose of trying persons accused of contraband. So eager was Napoleon to complete the system that in January 1811, he dethroned the Duke of Oldenburg, the uncle of the Tsar.
The French Empire by this time consisted of 130 departments, stretching from the Ebro to the Trave, and from the Tiber to the Chan nel, and girt with a circle of vassal kingdoms and principalities. Throughout this vast area the valuable principles of social equality, reli gious toleration, and promotion by merit were enforced. Though the codes of the Empire were more perfunctory, more observant of older legal traditions and less liberal than the civil code, which was the work of the consulate_ yet they preserved two valuable conquests of the Revolution, the petty jury and public trial. If the essence of democracy was, as Napoleon contended, Ca career open to then the French Empire was democratic; but in every other respect it violated the principles of lib erty. Special courts were created with sum mary jurisdiction in the disturbed districts.
The censorship of the press (aggravated by the decree of 5 Feb. 1810) annihilated political criticism. Holding that there could be no po litical stability without 'a teaching body actu ated by fixed principles,) Napoleon created 17 March 1808, a University of France, which was intended to include all the educational agencies in the Empire, and to form citizens 'attached to their religion, their prince, their country, and their family.) No one could open a school or teach in public without being a graduate of the university, which was to create and administer the public and to authorize and supervise the private schools. The university was divided into 16 academies, one in Paris and 15 in the provinces, and governed by a grand-master, whose appointment and dismissal lay in the hands of the Emperor. The aim of the whole institution was to inculcate habits of military discipline and blind subservience, and to secure complete educational uniformity throughout his empire. An imperial catechism, drawn up by Napoleon himself and inculcating obedience to his person, was intended to give a similar di rection to the public mind. To fortify the dynasty, Napoleon saw that it was necessary to create an hereditary nobility, but the opposi tion which had been made to the Legipn of Honor in the name of equality warned him to proceed with caution. In the first instance he began by distributing foreign fiefs and titles, carving no less than 17 duchies out of the Venetian states; then (August 1806) license was given to exchange grand ducal fiefs for estates within the territory of the empire, and to transfer to estates so acquired the privilege attaching to noble tenure. Finally, on 1 March 1809, a new nobility was created, the titles to be hereditary and the noble lands to be en tailed. In all, 31 dukes, 388 counts, 1,090 barons and about 1,500 knights were created under the first empire; but Napoleon was un easily conscious that aristocracies were the product of time, and that the nobility of the ancient regime deposed the upstart dignitaries of the empire. "I have made princes and dukes,) he said at Saint Helena, but I could not make real nobles.) In France the burden of the empire was great; but it was still more crushing in the dependencies. It was part of Napoleon's sys tem to reserve half the domains in every vassal state to serve as endowments to generals or favorites, or to help to replenish his imperial treasury. In addition to this, the dependencies were subjected to the conscription and the blockade, compelled to support the French troops who might, from time to time, be quartered on them, and to maintain war estab lishments quite out of proportion to their financial resources. Thus the benefits secured by the introduction of the French legal codes were largely neutralized; and the French rule became detested all over Germany and Italy. The conscription was everywhere abhorrent, while the blockade inflicted great injury where ever, as in Holland or the Grand Duchy of Berg, commerce or industry had been active. If the Italian, Dutch and German merchan dise had been permitted a free entry into the French markets the lot of the mercantile and industrial community might have been allevi ated; but in this; as in other respects, Napoleon sacrificed the interests of the French depend encies to those of France herself.