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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Eidolon, post: 4525200, member: 102103&quot;]Day 66:&nbsp; Bavaria, 1814, 6 Kreuzer, King Maximillian I Joseph, 0.333 Billon</p><p><br /></p><p>Another Napoleonic Era billion German states coin.&nbsp; I did a little reading on Bavaria in the Napoleonic Wars this morning.&nbsp; Turns out they changed sides multiple times.&nbsp; Bavaria was squeezed between Revolutionary France and the Austrian Empire, both of which had designs on its territory.&nbsp; In spite of this precarious position, Bavaria actually did quite well for itself by changing sides at opportune times.&nbsp; (See maps below)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1121046[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Here are 2 maps of Germany in 1789 and 1815.&nbsp; Bavaria is light green, just west of Austria, first as an electorate (until 1805) and then as a kingdom (&quot;Königreich Bayern&quot; on the lower map).</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1121047[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1121048[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>As a member of the Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria was compelled to side with Austria against Revolutionary France in 1800.&nbsp; Austria lost, and Bavaria had to give some of its western lands to France.&nbsp; Maximilian was reluctantly convinced by his minister, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_von_Montgelas" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_von_Montgelas" rel="nofollow">Maximilian von Montgelas</a>, to ally with France.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Napoleon encouraged a policy of consolidation among the German States.&nbsp; He seized territories for France in the west, and paid off the states losing territory by giving them land from smaller states and bishoprics.&nbsp; This process of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_mediatisation" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_mediatisation" rel="nofollow">mediatisation</a> (placing an intermediate authority between smaller states and the Holy Roman Emperor) and secularization (placing church lands under temporal control) had winners and losers.&nbsp; But the winners were usually the larger and more powerful states, who were happy to be bought off with territorial gains.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Bavaria was one of these winners, being elevated to a kingdom from an electorate.&nbsp; Austria was defeated by France with Bavarian aid in the Battle of Austerlitz on 1805.&nbsp; As a reward, Bavaria received Austrian territory in Tyrol and Voralberg in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Pressburg_(1805)" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Pressburg_(1805)" rel="nofollow">Treaty of Pressburg</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp; Bavaria sent troops for Napoleon&#039;s disastrous Russian invasion of 1812, losing thirty thousand of them.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Souring on its alliance with France, Bavaria switched sides to join the Sixth Coalition in return for guarantees of its independence and territorial integrity.&nbsp; After Napoleon&#039;s loss at the Battle of Leipzig, Bavaria was rewarded with the former bishopric of Würzburg in exchange for returning Tyrol to Austria.&nbsp; It also exchanged Salzburg to Austria for the parts of The Palatinate which it had earlier lost to France.&nbsp; This would have been in 1814, the same year as the coin above, as part of the Treaty of Paris.&nbsp; As the maps show, Bavaria came out of the whole debacle significantly larger and more powerful than it was at the start.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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