Congress of Erfurt

The Congress of Erfurt was the meeting between Emperor Napoleon I of France and Tsar Alexander I of Russia in 1808 intended to reaffirm the alliance concluded the previous year with the Treaty of Tilsit which followed the end of the War of the Fourth Coalition. At Tilsit Napoleon had turned the impressionable Alexander into an avid admirer, but by the following year anti-French sentiment at the Russian court was beginning to threaten the newly forged alliance. Napoleon and his foreign minister Talleyrand sought to strengthen the alliance once more and at Erfurt Napoleon attempted to awe Alexander with the glories of the French Empire. Whether or not Napoleon succeeded in delaying the decay of the alliance is impossible to tell, but Erfurt was the last meeting between the two leaders.

Related Topics:
Napoleon I - France - Alexander I - Russia - 1808 - Treaty of Tilsit - War of the Fourth Coalition - Talleyrand

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In 1812 Russia was no longer complying with Napoleon's Continental System of economic warfare against the United Kingdom and anti-French sentiment in the Russian court had reached a new height. Russian defence spending had increased and troops were deployed to the border in preparation for an invasion of Poland. Napoleon pre-empted this by attacking first and with greater force.

Related Topics:
1812 - Continental System - United Kingdom - Poland

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From the beginning at Tilsit few onlookers believed that Europe's two most powerful nations could peacefully exist side by side (the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, a French satellite state, neighboured Russia). Erfurt may have delayed the eventual outbreak of war, but it was unlikely that anything would have stopped the two giants coming into conflict eventually.

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