German Mediatisation - Mediatisation

Mediatisation

Although the number of German states had been steadily decreasing since the Thirty Years' War, there still remained approximately 200 states by the advent of the French republic. The defeat of the First Coalition resulted in the secularisation of the ecclesiastical states and the annexation by France of all lands west of the Rhine.

Allies of Napoleon obtained gains in both territory and status on a number of occasions in the following years.

Mediatisation transferred the sovereignty of small secular states to their larger neighbours. In addition to about 100 principalities, all but a handful of the Imperial cities would also be annexed to their neighbours.

In 1803, most of the free cities in Germany were mediatised. On 12 June 1806, Napoleon established the Confederation of the Rhine to extend and help secure the eastern border of France. In reluctant recognition of Napoleon's dismemberment of imperial territory, on 6 August 1806, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II declared the Empire abolished, and claimed as much power as he could retain as ruler of the Habsburg realms. To gain support from the more powerful German states, the former Holy Roman Emperor accepted, and Napoleon encouraged, those that remained to mediatise minor neighbouring states.

Before the Battle of Waterloo and the final abdication of Napoleon in 1815, the Congress of Vienna was held from 1814 to 1815 by the Great Powers to redraw the borders of Europe. It was decided the mediatised principalities, free cities and secularised states would not be recreated. Instead their former rulers were to enjoy an improved aristocratic status, being deemed equal to the still-reigning monarchs for marital purposes, and entitled to claim compensation for their losses. But it was left to each of the annexing states to compensate mediatised dynasties, and the latter had no international right to redress if dissatisfied with the new regime's reimbursement decisions.