The Continental System
The Continental System
America traded a lot with France and with the conquered Netherlands . The English wanted to stop America from trading with France . This was because they were in a war with France . America traded a lot with England too . In 1807 an Embargo Act prevented America from having trade with Europe and Great Britain . The still neutral America still tried to trade , but most of the time they were blocked by the English .
A new Act was passed in Great Britain , called the Non-intercourse act . These acts become more and more efficient , and in 1810 America started to have neutral trade again , because Great Britain said they stopped blocking the ships . But in fact , the English still went on blocking the trade , and after 2 years America was sick and tired of their trade being blocked , and declared war to Great Britain . This was the beginning of the War of 1812
The Sixth Coalition
After the Peace of Tilsit in 1807 Russia became an ally of France and declared war on Great Britain . Russia also joined the Continental System . The Russians however were not happy with their part in the economic blockade . This is why they had less and less to do with France and eventually switched to the other side , the side of the British . In 1812 Russia made a secret anti-French ally with the British and Sweden . This ally later grew out to the sixth coalition . The sixth Coalition war was a military conflict between Napoleon ’ s French empire and the sixth coalition of all the other European superpowers . Those were Russia , Austria , Great Britain and Prussia . The Netherlands was taking part in the sixth coalition as well . After a failed campaign to Russia and also one to Leipzig the sixth coalition was finally able to defeat Napoleon . The sixth coalition war was fought over whole Europe . There were approximately 2 , 5 million people fighting in the war from which 2 million people died .
In order to force the Russian Tsar Alexander 1 to remain within the continental system and prevent a Russian invasion to a conquered piece of Warsaw by the French . Napoleon decided to declare war on Russia and begin a large invasion .