Continental System Decreed

November 21, 1806

From Berlin, Napoleon ordered Europe to close its ports to British ships. No tea, no sugar, no Manchester cotton. The blockade was meant to strangle London and instead starved French allies, spawned smugglers from Hamburg to Salonika, and gave Britain a useful grievance against Russia. The system's enforcement eventually drew Napoleon into the disastrous Spanish and Russian campaigns that would destroy his empire.