Granduchy of Berg

This article is about the specific polity Granduchy of Berg and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.

If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics

Was a territorial Grand Duchy established in 1806 by Emperor Napoleon after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz (1805) on territories between the French Empire at the Rhine river and the German Kingdom of Westphalia.

Establishment

February 1806: The assignment treaties of Paris in 1806 involved the transfer of territory to the Grand Duchy of Berg.

March 1806: On 15 March 1806, the French emperor created the Granduchy of Berg and put it under the rule of his brother-in-law Joachim Murat. The Grand Duchy was a Napoleonic creation on territories formally part of several German states. Its capital was Düsseldorf.

Chronology

Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation

1. French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Were a series of conflicts between France and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars against the newly declared French Republic and from 1803 onwards the Napoleonic Wars against First Consul and later Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. They include the Coalition Wars as a subset: seven wars waged by various military alliances of great European powers, known as Coalitions, against Revolutionary France - later the First French Empire - and its allies.

January 1807: The Homburg Lordship is acquired by the Granduchy of Berg.

January 1807: Several scattered territories of other German polities were added to the Grand Duchy of Berg, including Berg, Dortmund, Steinfurd, Werden, and Wildenburg.

January 1807: In 1806 the rule of Gimborn-Neustadt passed to the Grand Duchy of Berg.

January 1807: In 1806, in the reorganization of Germany occasioned by the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Maximilian I Joseph, now King of Bavaria, ceded Berg to Napoleon in return for the Principality of Ansbach.

January 1808: Bentheim was mediatized to the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1808.

January 1809: The Abbey of Werden is annexed by Westphalia.

January 1809: The Rheda Lordship is acquired by the Granduchy of Berg.

January 1811: In 1810, the Duchy of Arenberg was mediatised, leading to France annexing Dülmen and Meppen, while the Grand Duchy of Berg annexed Recklinghausen.

April 1811: French annexation of the part of Berg north of the Lippe.

1.1.War of the Third Coalition

Was a European conflict spanning the years 1805 to 1806. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I opposed an alliance, the Third Coalition, made up of the United Kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian Empire, Naples, Sicily, and Sweden. Prussia remained neutral during the war.

1.2.War of the Fourth Coalition

Was a war between the French Empire and a coalition of European monarchies, mainly Prussia and Russia.

1.2.1.Peace of Tilsit

Were a series of treaties that ended the War of the Fourth Coalition.

July 1807: The treaty signed between Prussia and France at Tilsit, following the War of the Fourth Coalition, was highly disadvantageous to Prussia. As a result of this agreement, the Kingdom lost most of its Polish territories to the newly created Duchy of Warsaw. Additionally, it ceded most of its territories in central Germany and the Rhineland to France, the Grand Duchy of Berg, and the Kingdom of Westphalia. The remnant territories occupied by France in Germany were evacuated.

1.3.War of the Sixth Coalition

Was a war between France and a a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, and a number of German States. The coalition emerged after the decimation of the French army in the French invasion of Russia. The coalition ultimately invaded France and forced Napoleon to abdicate and go into exile.

October 1813: The Grand Duchy's short existence came to an end when the French forces pulled back in the course of the 1813 Battle of Leipzig. The territory was then administered by Prussia, which officially incorporated the former Grand Duchy according to the Final Act of the 1815 Congress of Vienna.