Francis and his Habsburg dynasty continued as emperors of Austria.Īccording to the treaty, the confederation was to be run by common constitutional bodies, but the individual states (in particular the larger ones) wanted unlimited sovereignty. On 1 August, the members of the confederation formally seceded from the Holy Roman Empire, and on 6 August, following an ultimatum by Napoleon, Francis II declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved. The ' Protector of the Confederation' was a hereditary office of the Emperor of the French, Napoleon. On 12 July 1806, on signing the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine ( German: Rheinbundakte ) in Paris, 16 German states joined together in a confederation (the treaty called it the états confédérés du Rhinelande, with a precursor in the League of the Rhine). This granted a significant strategic advantage to the French Empire on its eastern frontier by providing a separation between France and the two largest German states, Prussia and Austria (which also controlled substantial non-German lands). They were later joined by 19 others, altogether ruling a total of over 15 million subjects.

The founding members of the confederation were German princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

Types of states within the Confederation.

The Confederation of the Rhine lasted from 1806 to 1813. Its creation brought about the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire shortly afterward. The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austria and Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz.

Confederation of the rhine flag