CHAPTER XXIX.
ERFURT "At bottom the great question is--who shall have Constantinople ?"--NAPOLEON, May 31st, 1808.
The Spanish Rising made an immense rent in Napoleon's plans.

It opened valuable markets for British goods both in the Peninsula and in South and Central America, and that too at the very time when the Continental System was about to enfold us in its deadly grip.[195] And finally it disarranged schemes that reached far beyond Europe.

To these we must now briefly recur.
Even amidst his greatest military triumphs Napoleon's gaze turned longingly towards the East; and no sooner did he force peace on the conquered than his thoughts centred once more on his navy and colonies, on Egypt and India.

The Treaty of Tilsit gave him leisure to renew these designs.

The publication in 1807 of his official Atlas of Australia, in which he claimed nearly half that continent for France, proves that he never accepted Trafalgar as a death-blow to his maritime and colonial aspirations.