A map exhibiting the Retreat of the french army from Mocow to Paris

Title

A map exhibiting the Retreat of the french army from Mocow to Paris

Description

Map shows 3 inset maps showing Russia with Moscow, Witebsk, Minsk and Wilna, Tchechoslovakia with Prag and Germany with Danzig and France and Germany witht Paris, Straßburg and Leipzig.

dated 1815

Artist

Bowyer (1758-1834)

Robert Bowyer (1758 Portsmouth - 1834 Byfleet). English watercolor and miniature painter and publisher. Probably a pupil of the miniature painter John Smart. Exhibited first works at the Society of Artists in 1782 and at the Royal Academy in 1783. In 1789 he was appointed miniature painter to Queen Sophie Charlotte. In the 1790s he began to publish his own prints.

Historical Description

The concept of Germany as a distinct region in central Europe can be traced to Roman commander Julius Caesar, who referred to the unconquered area east of the Rhine as Germania, thus distinguishing it from Gaul (France), which he had conquered. In the High Middle Ages, the regional dukes, princes and bishops gained power at the expense of the emperors. Martin Luther led the Protestant Reformationagainst the Catholic Church after 1517, as the northern states became Protestant, while the southern states remained Catholic. The two parts of the Holy Roman Empire clashed in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). 1648 marked the effective end of the Holy Roman Empire and the beginning of the modern nation-state system, with Germany divided into numerous independent states, such as Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony.