Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), the French Emperor (1804-1814, 1815), had ambitions of total control over continental Europe, which meant not only political control over European states, which Napoleon achieved with his victorious military campaigns but also control over the seas and main trading seaports.
1. Napoleon wanted to ‘crush’ Russia
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821) by Jacques-Louis David, 1807In 1807, Emperor Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon signed the Treaty of Tilsit, which ended the War of the Fourth Coalition (Russia, Prussia, Saxony, Sweden, and Great Britain against France) with France winning. According to the second Treaty of Tilsit, signed between France and Prussia, the Prussian king ceded almost half of his pre-war territories to Napoleon. On these territories, Napoleon created the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Free City of Danzig; the other ceded territories were awarded to existing French client states and to Russia.
