In Northern European historiography, the term French period (French: Période française, German: Franzosenzeit, Dutch: Franse tijd) refers to the period between 1794 and 1815 during which most of Northern Europe was controlled by Republican or Napoleonic France.[1] The exact duration of the period varies by the location concerned.[2]
In German historiography, the term emerged in the 19th century and developed nationalist connotations. It entered Low German usage with Fritz Reuter's popular work Ut de Franzosentid (1860). It was used alongside the concept of Erbfeind ("hereditary enmity") to express anti-French feeling as part of the formation of a German national identity and as such was used in a non-neutral way under the German Empire and Third Reich. In Germany, the term has thus been shunned since the Bonn Republic, with "French Revolutionary Wars" and "Napoleonic Wars" more commonly used today.
In Dutch historiography, the period of the Kingdom of Holland, when Emperor Napoleon placed his younger brother Louis on the newly created throne following the overthrow of the Batavian Republic is not well studied.[3]
- ^ Eduard Rothert: Rheinland-Westfalen im Wechsel der Zeiten. Düsseldorf 1900; Online-Präsentation der Universitätsbibliothek der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, retrieved 21 March 2011.
- ^ Das Rheinland unter den Franzosen 1794–1815. Archived 2010-10-11 at the Wayback Machine Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR), retrieved 18 March 2011.
- ^ Lok, Matthijs, and Martijn van der Burg. "The Dutch case: the Kingdom of Holland and the imperial departments." The Napoleonic Empire and the New European Political Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2012. 100-111.