Sold – Napoleon Completes the “Definitive Union” of the Kingdom of Italy, Approving the Occupation of Former Austrian Possessions Being Added to His Realm After Austerlitz

These Venetian Provinces Included Dalmatia, Istria, and Venice Itself.

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The Kingdom of Italy was born on March 17, 1805, when the Italian Republic, whose president was Napoleon, became the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy, and the 24-year-old Eugène de Beauharnais his viceroy. Austria still held much territory in Italy and its adjacent provinces. But events in late...

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Sold – Napoleon Completes the “Definitive Union” of the Kingdom of Italy, Approving the Occupation of Former Austrian Possessions Being Added to His Realm After Austerlitz

These Venetian Provinces Included Dalmatia, Istria, and Venice Itself.

The Kingdom of Italy was born on March 17, 1805, when the Italian Republic, whose president was Napoleon, became the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy, and the 24-year-old Eugène de Beauharnais his viceroy. Austria still held much territory in Italy and its adjacent provinces. But events in late 1805-early 1806 would change all that. In December 1805, after Austrian defeats at Ulm and at Austerlitz, France and Austria signed the Treaty of Pressburg, which took Austria out of the Third Coalition and the war. More importantly, the treaty ceded territory to Napoleon, the most consequential of which was Venetia, Istria and Dalmatia, which would be incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. This was the northeast portion of Italy and major parts of what would become Yugoslavia. At the same time victories in Calabria and elsewhere in southern Italy gave France uncontested control of land and sea in the Adriatic region. So in just three months, the French had occupied Vienna, decimated two opposing armies, and humbled the Austrian empire. It also altered the map of Europe and gave Napoleon whole armies worth of new soldiers for his conquests. These soldiers would serve all over Europe, with some 27,000 of them amongst those marching into Russia in 1812.

On May 1, 1806, these new conquests were formally united into the Kingdom of Italy, under the rule of Napoleon and Beauharnais.  However, accomplishing this unification would be no easy task, as the French would need to occupy the territory and house, supply and provide for their troops. More than anything this military apparatus would be necessary to unite the Kingdom.  This document, dated only one day before the two territories would become one, contains the formal report on the unification by the Secretary of War, General Dejean, and the authorization by Napoleon to enact it.  In the unedited book of Napoleon's decrees, this very order is featured, with the editor noting its essential role in consolidating rule in the formerly Austrian territory, also known as the Venetian provinces. Dejean also deals with the goods and supplies seized from the Austrians and the Venetians, which to use, which to sell, and what to do with the funds.

Report Signed, by Dejean, April 30, 1806, to Napoleon.  "Sire, From the first of May [tomorrow], the ex-Venetian provinces must be definitively united to your Royal Kingdom of Italy.  The resulting consequence is that there must be lodging and provisioning of barracks for the French troops in this part of the Kingdom … as is provided for French troops South of the Adige [in Northwestern Italy]. 

"The supplier in chief of your French army in Italy has received orders to submit an estimate to the agents indicated by your Minister of War in Italy, the effects of occupation and lodging which exist in the ex-Venetian provinces, which come either from the prizes taken from the Austrians or from the armories of Venice ceded by the evacuation of this town. 

"It belongs to the Italian Administration to propose to his Majesty the appropriate steps for the conservation, use and re-fitting of these effects.  These measures have obtained the approval of the Viceroy and I have the honor to propose to your Majesty to sanction them.

"I also await orders on the question of whether any estimated value of some of these effects will devolve to your Treasury or whether it will be poured into the coffers of the Army in order to further compensate your soldiers.  In the first case, I think the amount will need to be added to the Sinking Fund in Paris [established to service the debt], as with other funds generated from military effects no longer in service."

Order Signed by Napoleon, St. Cloud, May 1806.  "The troops are to be in the care of the Kingdom of Italy, to which all seized effects will be given."

Previously we had and sold an order to invade and occupy a country, being the order to invade the Iberian Peninsula. This is therefore the second such piece we have carried of great import relating to territorial expansion.

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