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How much power did Napoleonic's Sister Republica have?

posted 10 years ago by KingBrian1
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I know that Napoleon had near absolute power in Europe by crowning himself Emperor and marching into Russia & Egypt,subdued the Austrians as a bonus. In terms of his sister republics though how much power was allowed to them which would have elevated them above mere client status.

Where these states effectively vassals of the French Emperor or are we talking about actual powers being transferred to them? Sovereign states that could operate with a degree of independence.

[–] Ehrgeiz 10 years ago

There are a lot of different models.
In some cases, Napoleon formed new puppet states (like the "Kingom Ouestphalia), often ruled by family members, like, in this case, his brother Jerome.
Prussia or Austria remained as sovereign states, but had to support the war effort and to give up some territories.
There were also states which were allied with him early (one example, the counts of Nassovia), which profited a lot from this and were given much additional territories.
There were several kinds of "neutral states", like some in the Rhine confederation, who were not really neutral and had to contribute to the war in some way.

I do not think, that Napoleon had "absolute power" in Europe except maybe France. The political situation in Spain, Italy and Germany was highly complicated. Napoleon had to rule "with a carrot and a stick" towards that states.

Even in the puppet states, where he totally removed the old administrations and formed new ones, the local non-french-officials could be highly resilient and trying to block the administration in passive resistance.