It was set up on 18 October 1811 by Napoleon I,[1] on his first visit to the Paleis op de Dam in Amsterdam after his 1810 annexation of the Kingdom of Holland to France.

"[This quote needs a citation] Napoleon eventually occupied large territories in north-west Germany and the Illyrian provinces on the Dalmatian coast - the name of the order he founded referred to the fact that (for the first time since the Roman Empire) all access points to the sea were under the same authority.

Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance and Napoleon's representative in Amsterdam as "Prins-stadhouder", oversaw the order and its membership numbers.

The Dutch statesmen Godert van der Capellen, Anton Reinhard Falck and Vischer did not accept the Order of the Reunion, thinking it humiliating to the Netherlands.

Van Capellen noted that "the [Order's] oath was of such a nature to me that I forever refused it, with better opportunities to cooperate in restoring our independence.

On 28 July 1815 Louis XVIII of France abolished it, asking its knights to return their gold and silver badges to the chancellery of the Legion d’Honneur.

Those returned included few from the Netherlands since the cross was the replacement for the Order of the Union and the Dutch – having seen their country looted and drained of manpower for so long by the French – were unwilling to send their gold and silver awards back to Paris.

On the front the medal was suspended from a closed crown and on the back by a diadem and blue ring bearing the words ‘FONDATEUR’ (founder) and ‘NAPOLEON’.