This map shows the territory of the Holy Roman Empire and of Northern Italy in 1803, at the beginning of a period of French domination over Continental Europe. Beginning in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte successfully led four coalition wars (1799-1802, 1805, 1806/07, and 1809), known as the Napoleonic Wars, which contributed to the territorial reorganization of Central Europe.

In Germany, the Principal Decree of the Imperial Deputation [Reichsdeputationshauptschluß] in 1803 stipulated that the secular princes were to be compensated for their loss of territory on the left bank of the Rhine to France. The compensation was to be made through the secularization of ecclesiastical dominions and the mediatization of smaller secular dominions of the former imperial estates on the right bank of the Rhine. The decree eliminated almost all secular territories as well as most free cities. Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria, and Prussia profited from the division of the territories in particular. Bavaria and Württemberg were elevated to kingdoms in 1805, and in the summer of 1806 their leaders openly violated imperial law by uniting with other, elevated southern and western German sovereigns in the Confederation of the Rhine [Rheinbund]. The Confederation of the Rhine was obliged to provide military support to Napoleon. After the states of the Confederation of the Rhine formally seceded, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation ended on August 6, 1806.

The Italian Republic, created by Napoleon Bonaparte, was short-lived and only existed from 1802-1805. In 1805 the Italian Republic became the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon, now Emperor of France Napoleon I, as the new King of Italy.