Question 4

Assess the impact of the Continental System on Europe

• In assessing impact you can discuss the Continental System generally or in relation to specific areas and states, including France.
• Show a good knowledge of the aims of the System and how it was put into operation in order to assess its impact.
• Discussion the role of the Continental System in explaining the Spanish and Russian campaigns.
• Also discuss the System in terms of the Continental blockade (i.e. the attempt to exclude British trade from the Continent), but also show awareness that the System was also an attempt to replace Britain with France and make Europe subordinate to the economic needs of France.
• Argue that the impact was essentially negative in its economic, social and political effects, referring to:
  • depriving the continent of key manufactures and exotic goods;
  • distorting patterns of trade;
  • destroying native industries in the interests of protecting French industries (such as Lyons silk industry);
  • producing attempts to subvert the system through smuggling (and attempts by the French to police this);
  • the growth of anti-French feeling that helps to explain the growth of opposition.