Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic)

The Free City of Danzig was a semi-independent city-state created by Napoleon in 1807 after the capture of Danzig from Prussia. The Franco-Prussian Treaty of Tilsit detached the city and its rural surroundings at the mouth of the Vistula, together with the Hel Peninsula and part of the Vistula Spit, from the province of West Prussia. The republic was proclaimed on 21 July 1807 and was guaranteed by Prussia and Saxony, though real authority lay with the French governor General Jean Rapp. Its citizens had to supply Napoleon's army and pay heavy contributions before the invasion of Russia in 1812. After the French retreat, Russian forces besieged the city from early 1813 until the remaining French garrison withdrew on 2 January 1814. The Congress of Vienna reincorporated Danzig into the Kingdom of Prussia, and the city later became the capital of West Prussia. The episode is remembered as a brief experiment in municipal autonomy under Napoleonic hegemony.