Revisiting Napoleon's Continental System Local, Regional and European Experiences

by Aaslestad, Katherine B.; Joor, Johan

• ISBN13: 9781137345561
• ISBN10: 113734556X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-10-31
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Napoleonic warfare spread to the high seas, harbors and marketplaces across Europe and the Atlantic through the Continental System. This volume addresses the illicit commerce, new merchant networks, 'daily life', and tensions with neutral states generated by Anglo-French economic warfare. It also reveals the contradictions inherent in the Napoleonic Empire - at once rational and progressive, but also coercive and exploitative. Regional and urban case studies offer a more complete understanding of the significance of economic warfare during the Napoleonic era, and explore the experiences and consequences of the conflict through several key themes: a re-evaluation of the historiography of the Continental System, the uneven power triangle of the French, British and neutral powers, and the strategies of merchants and smugglers to adapt to or circumvent the system. Transnational case studies underscore the vulnerability and ingenuity of Europeans as they faced transformative social and economic challenges.

Author Biography

Katherine B. Aaslestad is a Professor of History at West Virginia University, USA. A specialist on nineteenth century Germany, she is the author of Place and Politics: Local Identity, Civic Culture, and German Nationalism in North Germany during the Revolutionary Era (2005) and numerous articles and book chapters.
 
Johan Joor is an historian and honorary fellow of the International Institute of Social History at Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He worked inter alia at the University of Amsterdam and as independent historical researcher for various Dutch and international institutions. His research on the Dutch Napoleonic experience has been published in Dutch, French, English and Russian.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Revisiting Napoleon's Continental System: New Directions; Katherine B. Aaslestad
PART I: LOOKING FORWARD AND BACKWARD: HISTORIOGRAPHY OF AND ORIGINS OF THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM
1. The Continental System Revisited; Geoffrey Ellis
2. French Representations of the Continental Blockade; Annie Jourdan
3. Russia and the Continental System: Trends in Russian Historiography; Alexandre Tchoudinov
4. Speculations and Embargoes on the Grain Trade at the Time of the Revolutionary Wars (1792-1795); Pierrick Pourchasse
PART II: REGIONAL APPROACHES TO THE PRACTICE AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM
5. The Continental System: A View from the Sea; Silvia Marzagalli
6. The Kingdom of Italy and the Continental Blockade; Alexander Grab
7. Rhine River Commerce and the Continental System; Robert Mark Spaulding
PART III: ADAPTING TO ECONOMIC WARFARE: NEW NETWORKS AND ILLICIT TRADE
8. Trading Networks across the Blockades; Margrit Schulte Beerbühl
9. Smuggling and Blockade-Running During the Anglo-Danish War 1807-1814; Jann M. Witt
10. Defying the Continental System in the Periphery: Political Strategies and Protests by Norwegian Magnates; Bård Frydenlund
11. Economic Warfare, Organised Crime, and the Collapse of Napoleon's Empire; Michael Rowe
PART IV: URBAN EXPERIENCES AND THE NAPOLEONIC CONTINENTAL SYSTEM
12. Experiencing the Continental System in the Cities of French Atlantic; Alan Forrest
13. Choices and Opportunities amidst Economic Warfare;
14. Riga Export Trade at the Time of the Continental System, 1807-1812; Anita Cerpinska
15. Significance and Consequences of the Continental System for Napoleonic Holland, especially for Amsterdam; Johan Joor
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