By 1806 Napoleon had conquered or formed alliances with every country that mattered on the continent. Napoleon dominated the land; Britain dominated the sea. Lacking the forces to invade Britain, and unable to conquer Britain’s formidable Navy, Napoleon resorted to economic sanctions to cripple Britain’s trade. It was known as Napoleon’s Continental System.
Napoleon’s Berlin Decree of 1806 outlawed trade with Great Britain to his allies and the countries he had conquered. Britain retaliated with the Order in Council of 1807. It prevented French trade with Britain, neutrals such as the United States, and Britain’s allies. The British Navy was also ordered to enforce a blockade of French ports and European ports under French control.
Napoleon’s response was to up the ante with the Milan Decree in 1807. All neutral shipping, such as America’s merchant marine, that used a British port, or paid a tariff to Britain, was subject to seizure. His objective was to sever Britain’s trading ties with the United States, the West Indies, and other colonies.
Portugal refused to comply with Napoleon, causing the Peninsular War. Napoleon invaded Portugal in 1807 and Spain in 1808. He tried to wage a naval war by capturing the Portuguese fleet, and occupying Portugal’s ports. With the help of the British navy, the King of Portugal eluded him, sailing with his fleet to Brazil, where he set up his court. The Portuguese revolted, and the British intervened in their defense. Napoleon pressured the Spanish King and his family to resign. He installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as the new king of Spain.
After repealing the Embargo, Congress once again passed a non-intercourse act, with a pledge the United States would resume trade with the first nation to repeal its harmful policies toward American commerce. Jefferson’s successor, James Madison, tried diplomacy, working with the British minister in Washington to draft a treaty, but the British foreign minister rejected both the diplomat and the treaty.
Both Congress and Madison were at wit’s end. Madison failed to provide leadership. Congress then passed Macon’s Bill No. 2, which allowed merchants to resume trade with France and Britain, pledging the United States would stop intercourse with enemy of the first power that recognized its rights to neutrality. Once again, shipping in New England boomed.
Napoleon realized that he had an opportunity to lure Madison and the United States into his Continental System. In 1810 Napoleon revoked his economic sanctions, with a lie that the British were repealing their Order in Council. The United States’ savvy ambassador to Russia, John Quincy Adams, advised Madison that Napoleon was setting a trap forcing the United States into war with Britain. Nevertheless, Madison fell for Napoleon’s ploy. Despite many reports of French depredations on American shipping, Madison stubbornly resisted resuming trade with Britain.[1]
How a delay in communications affected the United States, and how New Englanders reacted.
Look for it Monday, January 21
[1] Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, The Growth of the American Republic Vol 1 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1962), 401.
