In northern European and German historiography, the French period (French: Période française, German: Franzosenzeit, Dutch: Franse tijd, Luxembourgish: Fransousenzäit) was a late 19th-century term for the era between 1794 and 1815, during which most of Northern Europe was directly under French rule or within the French sphere of influence. It is often confused with Napoleon I's rule, although, in the states west of the river Rhine, it began with their occupation by troops of the French Revolutionary Army in 1794. However, in some parts of Germany it lasted roughly from 1804 to 1813 or (used in a stricter sense) from the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 to the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.