Treaties of Tilsit

The Treaties of Tilsit were two agreements signed in July 1807 between France, Russia and Prussia after Napoleon's victory at Friedland, and they marked the height of his power in Europe. The emperors Napoleon and Alexander I met on a raft in the middle of the river Niemen on 25th June, then negotiated the terms: Russia joined Napoleon's Continental System against Britain, withdrew from Wallachia and Moldavia, and recognised the French-sponsored states in Germany, Poland and Italy. Prussia, which had fought on, was treated harshly, losing half its territory and population and paying a huge indemnity; from its lands Napoleon created the Kingdom of Westphalia and the Duchy of Warsaw. The treaties gave Napoleon a free hand against Britain and Austria and left Russia resentful, planting the seeds of the 1812 rupture. Tilsit is remembered as the moment when Napoleon redrew the map of Europe at will. The settlement also redrew Germany and Italy on French lines, and its guarantee of the Ottoman Empire's integrity proved worthless within a year.