Continental System

Napoleon’s economic blockade, imposed from 1806, barred British trade from continental Europe to weaken Britain. Its enforcement reshaped European commerce and strained French alliances.

Berlin Decree: Napoleon’s 1806 decree declared the British Isles under blockade and prohibited trade with Britain across French-controlled Europe. It launched the system by defining British goods and trade as forbidden.
Battle of Trafalgar: The 1805 naval battle in which Britain defeated the French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar. The defeat ruled out Napoleon’s near-term invasion plans and helped prompt economic warfare.
Peninsular War: The 1808–1814 conflict in Spain and Portugal, where French forces faced local resistance and British intervention. Napoleon’s effort to enforce the blockade in Portugal helped trigger the conflict.
British naval blockade: Britain’s use of naval power to restrict enemy ports and maritime commerce during wartime. Unlike Napoleon’s land-based trade bans, Britain could intercept shipping at sea.
Milan Decree: Napoleon’s 1807 decree authorized seizure of neutral ships that submitted to British searches or licensing rules. It extended the blockade to neutral shipping and intensified maritime enforcement.
Napoleonic Wars: A series of European conflicts from 1803 to 1815 involving Napoleonic France and shifting coalitions. The blockade was one instrument in this wider struggle between France and Britain.
French invasion of Russia: Napoleon’s 1812 campaign against Russia, ending in retreat after the Grande Armée suffered catastrophic losses. Russia’s retreat from the blockade was a major reason Napoleon invaded.
Neutrality: The legal status of a state that does not participate in a war between other states. Neutral traders challenged both British restrictions and Napoleon’s attempts to control European commerce.
Orders in Council: British wartime regulations required neutral ships trading with Europe to stop in British ports and obtain licenses. Britain’s countermeasures provoked Napoleon’s decrees against neutral commerce.
Napoleon Bonaparte: French military and political leader who became emperor and dominated much of continental Europe in the early nineteenth century. He imposed the system and relied on allied states to enforce it.

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