The Duchy of Warsaw, also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnically Polish lands ceded to France by Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit, and was augmented in 1809 with territory ceded by Austria in the Treaty of Schönbrunn. It was the first attempt to re-establish Poland as a sovereign state after the 18th-century partitions and covered the central and southeastern parts of present-day Poland.
Prince Józef Poniatowski, Commander in Chief of the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, by Josef Grassi
Polish uhlans from the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, 1807–1815. Painting by January Suchodolski
Napoleon conferring the Constitution in 1807
The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire after 1809 and also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from 18 May 1804 to 3 May 1814 and again briefly from 20 March 1815 to 7 July 1815, when Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena.
Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1806
The Battle of Austerlitz, 2nd December 1805, by François Gérard
The Arc de Triomphe, ordered by Napoleon in honour of the Grande Armée, is one of several landmarks whose construction was started in Paris during the First French Empire.
Napoleon reviewing the Imperial Guard before the Battle of Jena, 1806