At the end of the eighteenth century and up to 1814, Germany was under the power of Napoleon's French empire. Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, a conglomeration of the fractured north German states. This was the first time that these states had been brought together and as a result a rise in German nationalism began in all the northern states. When Napoleon was defeated in the battle of Leipzig by a coalition of Russia, Prussia, Britain and Austria, the Confederation collapsed. The defeat of Napoleon brought about the beginning ....