Reform and Resistance Across Europe

Napoleon's empire provoked very different responses across Europe. In some regions, such as parts of the Rhineland and northern Italy, French rule brought legal equality, the end of feudal dues and efficient administration, which some local elites welcomed. Elsewhere, conscription, heavy taxes and the requisition of goods bred hostility.

Defeated states often reformed to compete: after 1807 Prussian ministers such as Stein and Hardenberg abolished serfdom, modernised government and, with generals Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, rebuilt the army, while Wilhelm von Humboldt founded the University of Berlin in 1810.

In 1807–08 the philosopher Fichte gave his 'Addresses to the German Nation', calling for national renewal. Popular revolts erupted, as in Tyrol in 1809 under Andreas Hofer. The empire thus spread revolutionary reforms but also stirred nationalism directed against France, an irony that helped bring about Napoleon's defeat.