Continental System was France’s attempt to choke off the United Kingdom’s trade with the rest of Europe in the early 1800’s. Emperor Napoleon I adopted it as a means of destroying the United Kingdom financially. Napoleon began the system with his Berlin Decree of Nov. 21, 1806, which declared the United Kingdom to be in a state of blockade. His Milan Decree of 1807 extended the blockade to neutral ships that stopped in the United Kingdom. Between 1808 and 1814, Napoleon tried to enforce the system by fighting the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal and by invading Russia. The efforts failed and helped cause Napoleon’s final defeat in 1815.
See also Napoleon I (Fall from power).
