ABSTRACT
In 1792 the French Assembly began the war which, with brief interruptions, was to devastate Europe for two decades and opened to Napoleon the path to supreme power. The admiration which Hegel and many other German intellectuals felt for Napoleon stemmed from the fact that they considered him to be the man who was trying to translate into reality those sensible aims of the French Revolution. Austria was the first power to attempt to stir up a national war against Napoleon, although her mixture of nationalities as well as the personality of Emperor Francis and the outlook of the court party which backed him made this difficult. After the defeats of 1806-7, Prussia was at Napoleon’s feet, but he was unable to destroy the Hohenzollern monarchy, for he could not disregard the wishes of the Tsar, whose help he needed for his plans against England. Prussia’s collapse sprang from serious defects in her political, military and social organisation.
