But to
bring all Continental states into line with his economic campaign
against Great Britain was a colossal task, to the performance of which
he subordinated all his subsequent policies.
[Sidenote: Subordination of Napoleon's Foreign Policies to the
Enforcement of the Continental System]
We have seen how by the treaty of Tilsit (1807) Napoleon extorted
promises from the tsar of Russia and the king of Prussia to exclude
British goods from their respective countries. He himself saw to the
enforcement of the decrees in the French Empire, in the kingdom of
Italy, in the Confederation of the Rhine, and in the grand-duchy of
Warsaw. Brother Joseph did his will in Naples, Brother Jerome in
Westphalia, Sister Elise in Tuscany, and Brother Louis was expected to
do his will in Holland. The outcome of the war with Sweden in 1808 was
the completion of the closure of all Scandinavian ports to the British.
Napoleon's determination to have his decrees executed in the Papal
States, as well as his high-handed treatment of matters affecting the
Catholic Church in France, brought him into conflict with Pope Pius
VII, a gentle but courageous man, who in daring to excommunicate the
European taskmaster was summarily deprived of his temporal rule and
carried off a prisoner, first to Grenoble, then to Savona, and finally
to Fontainebleau, where he resided, heaped with disgrace and insults,
until 1814.
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