Confederation of the Rhine

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Confederated States of the Rhine Rheinische Bundesstaaten (German) États confédérés du Rhin (French)
1806–1813
Commemorative medal
The Confederation of the Rhine in 1812
Status	Confederation of client states of the French Empire
Capital	Frankfurt
Common languages	German, French
Religion	Catholicism Protestantism
Demonym(s)	Rhenish
Government	Confederated French client states
Protector
• 1806–1813	Napoleon I
Prince-Primate
• 1806–1813	Karl von Dalberg
• 1813	E. de Beauharnais
Legislature	Diet
Historical era	Napoleonic Wars
• Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine	12 July 1806
• Holy Roman Empire dissolved	6 August 1806
• Dissolved after Battle of Leipzig	4 November 1813
Preceded by Succeeded by Holy Roman Empire German Confederation
Today part of	Germany Liechtenstein Austria

The Confederated States of the Rhine,^[a] simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine^[b] or Rhine Confederation, 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. Its creation brought about the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire shortly afterward. The Confederation of the Rhine lasted for only seven years, from 1806 to 1813, dissolving after Napoleon's defeat in the War of the Sixth Coalition.^[1]

The founding members of the confederation were German princes of the Holy Roman Empire. They were later joined by 19 others, altogether ruling a total of over 15 million people. This granted a significant strategic advantage to the French Empire on its eastern frontier by providing a buffer between France and the two largest German states, Prussia and Austria (which also controlled substantial non-German lands).

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