The Confederation of the Rhine (1805-1813) was a confederation of client states of the Napoleonic Empire (France) located along the Rhine River in Germany. With its capital at Frankfurt, the Confederation of the Rhine was led by Karl von Dalberg from 1806 to 1813 and Eugene de Beauharnais in its last year. That year, the Battle of Leipzig crashed all hopes of France holding onto their German allies as they deserted to join Austria and Prussia.
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Although nominally dependent states, the German states along the eastern banks of the river Rhine were but mere pawns of the so called Republic of France. The lords bent their knee to the Grand Empereur, and kissed his boots like any other of his lackeys.
In 1805, there was no time for diplomatic bean-counting between the Confederation and the Coalition; in the great Napoleonic Wars, nations either stood with the Coalition or against them. The Coalition had to, in all aspects, regard the territories as French possessions.
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Map of the Confederation of the Rhine
In 1805, France's allied states of Hessen, Baden-Wurttemberg, and Bavaria joined France as the "Confederation of the Rhine", but they were really French territories and not a protectorate. Garrisoned with French troops, the Confederation was originally a buffer zone between France and the Austrian Empire and Russian Empire, but it became the front lines of the war. The Battle of Ulm and the Battle of Austerlitz were fought in the Rhine Confederation's lands in late 1805.
Used as places where France could gain more conscripts, the Rhine Confederation provided most of Napoleon's army during his campaigns. Soon, German and Polish troops outnumbered Napoleon's French troops, and the Rhine Confederation remained in French hands until they defected to the Coalition after the 1813 Battle of Leipzig.