War of the First Coalition#1796

{{main|French Revolution}}

As early as 1791, other monarchies in Europe were watching the developments in France with alarm, and considered intervening, either in support of Louis XVI or to take advantage of the chaos in France. The key figure, Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, brother of the French Queen Marie Antoinette, had initially looked on the Revolution calmly. He became increasingly concerned as the Revolution grew more radical, although he still hoped to avoid war.

On 27 August 1791, Leopold and King Frederick William II of Prussia, in consultation with émigré French nobles, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which declared the concern of the monarchs of Europe for the well-being of Louis and his family, and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them. Although Leopold saw the Pillnitz Declaration as a way of taking action that would enable him to avoid actually doing anything about France, at least for the moment, Paris saw the Declaration as a serious threat and the revolutionary leaders denounced it.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=The king and the nonjurors}}

In addition to the ideological differences between the French revolutionaries and the European monarchics, disputes continued over the status of Imperial estates in Alsace,{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=The king and the nonjurors}} and the French authorities became concerned about the agitation of émigré nobles abroad, especially in the Austrian Netherlands and in the minor states of Germany. In the end, France declared war on Austria first, with the Assembly voting for war on 20 April 1792, after the presentation of a long list of grievances by the newly appointed foreign minister Charles François Dumouriez, who sought a war which might restore some popularity and authority to the King.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=War declared against Austria}}

{{See also|Campaigns of 1792 of the French Revolutionary Wars}}

{{Further|Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition#1792 campaign}}

Dumouriez prepared an invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, where he expected the local population to rise against Austrian rule. However, the revolution had thoroughly disorganized the French army, which had insufficient forces for the invasion. Its soldiers fled at the first sign of battle, deserting en masse, in one case murdering General Théobald Dillon.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=War declared against Austria}} The French soldiers were insulted, hissed, even assaulted. The situation of the "Flanders Campaign" was alarming.{{Cite book |last=Howe |first=Patricia Chastain |title=Foreign Policy and the French Revolution |date=2008 |chapter=Endgame, March–December 1793 |language=en |location=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |pages=171–186 |doi=10.1057/9780230616882_11 |isbn=978-1-349-37213-3}}

While the revolutionary government frantically raised fresh troops and reorganized its armies, an allied army under Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick assembled at Koblenz on the Rhine. The invasion commenced in July 1792. The Duke then issued a declaration on 25 July 1792, which had been written by the brothers of Louis XVI, that declared his [Brunswick's] intent to restore the King of France to his full powers, and to treat any person or town who opposed him as rebels to be condemned to death by martial law.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=War declared against Austria}} This motivated the revolutionary army and government to oppose the Prussian invaders by any means necessary,{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=War declared against Austria}} and led almost immediately to the overthrow of the King by a crowd which stormed the Tuileries Palace.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Rising of the 10th of August}}

File:Léon Cogniet - La Garde nationale de Paris.jpg by Léon Cogniet]]

Brunswick's army, composed mostly of Prussian veterans, crossed into French territory on 19 August and easily took the fortresses of Longwy and Verdun.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=The revolutionary Commune of Paris}} But at the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792 they came to a stalemate against Dumouriez and Kellermann in which the highly professional French artillery distinguished itself. Although the battle was a tactical draw, it bought time for the revolutionaries and gave a great boost to French morale. Furthermore, the Prussians, facing a campaign longer and more costly than predicted, decided against the cost and risk of continued fighting and determined to retreat from France to preserve their army.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Battle of Valmy}}

Meanwhile, the French had been successful on several other fronts, occupying the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice until the Massif de l'Authion, while General Custine invaded Germany, capturing Speyer, Worms and Mainz along the Rhine, and reaching as far as Frankfurt. Dumouriez went on the offensive in the Austrian Netherlands once again, winning a great victory over the Austrians at Jemappes on 6 November 1792, and occupying the entire country by the beginning of winter.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Battle of Valmy}}

{{See also|Campaigns of 1793 of the French Revolutionary Wars}}

File:Les coalises evacuent Toulon en decembre 1793.jpg in December 1793]]

On 21 January the revolutionary government executed Louis XVI after a trial.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Trial and execution of Louis XVI}} This united all European governments, including Spain, Naples & Sicily, and the Netherlands against the Revolution. France declared war against Britain and the Netherlands on 1 February 1793 and soon afterwards against Spain. In the course of the year 1793 the Holy Roman Empire (on 23 March), the kings of Portugal and Naples, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany declared war against France. Thus the First Coalition was formed.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Battle of Valmy}}

France introduced a new levy of hundreds of thousands of men, beginning a French policy of using levée en masse (mass conscription) to deploy more of its manpower than the other states could,{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Battle of Valmy}} and remaining on the offensive so that these mass armies could commandeer war material from the territory of their enemies. The Girondin faction of the French government sent Citizen Genet to the United States to encourage them to enter the war on France's side. The newly formed nation refused, and the Washington administration's 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality threatened legal action against any citizen providing assistance to any side in the conflict.

After a victory in the Battle of Neerwinden in March, the Austrians suffered twin defeats at the battles of Wattignies and Wissembourg.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=The Revolutionary War. Republican successes.}} British land forces were defeated at the Battle of Hondschoote in September.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=The Revolutionary War. Republican successes.}}

{{See also|Campaigns of 1794 of the French Revolutionary Wars}}

File:Loutherbourg-La Victoire de Lord Howe.jpg. Oil painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg (1795), National Maritime Museum.]]

{{Further|Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition#Battle of Fleurus}}

1794 brought increased success to the revolutionary armies. A major victory against combined coalition forces at the Battle of Fleurus gained all of the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhineland for France.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=The Revolutionary War. Republican successes.}} Although the British navy maintained its supremacy at sea, it was unable to support effectively any land operations after the fall of the Belgian provinces.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Progress of the war.}} The Prussians were slowly driven out of the eastern provinces{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=The Revolutionary War. Republican successes.}} and by the end of the year they had retired from any active part in the war.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Progress of the war.}} Against Spain, the French made successful incursions into both Catalonia and Navarre{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Progress of the war.}} in the War of the Pyrenees.

Action extended into the French colonies in the West Indies. A British fleet occupied Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe, although a French fleet arrived later in the year and recovered the latter by ousting the invaders.{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=204}}

{{See also|Campaigns of 1795 of the French Revolutionary Wars}}

{{main|Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition#Fall of the Dutch Republic}}

After seizing the Low Countries in a surprise winter attack, France established the Batavian Republic as a puppet state. Even before the close of 1794 Prussia retired from any active part in the war, and on 5 April 1795 King Frederick William II concluded with France the Peace of Basel, which recognized France's occupation of the left bank of the Rhine. The new French-dominated Dutch government bought peace by surrendering Dutch territory to the south of that river. A treaty of peace between France and Spain followed in July. The grand duke of Tuscany had been admitted to terms in February. The coalition thus fell into ruin and France proper would be free from invasion for many years.One of more of the preceding sentences text from a publication now in the public domain: {{harvnb|Holland|1911|loc=Progress of the war}}

Britain attempted to reinforce the rebels in the Vendée by landing French Royalist troops at Quiberon, but failed,{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Progress of the war}} and attempts to overthrow the government in Paris by force were foiled by the military garrison led by Napoleon Bonaparte, leading to the establishment of the Directory.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire}}{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Character of the Directory}}

{{main|Battle of Mainz}}

On the Rhine frontier, General Pichegru, negotiating with the exiled Royalists, betrayed his army and forced the evacuation of Mannheim and the failure of the siege of Mainz by Jourdan.{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=182}}

{{See also|Campaigns of 1796 in the French Revolutionary Wars|Italian Campaign of 1796–1797}}

File:Strategic Situation of Europe 1796.jpg

The French prepared a great advance on three fronts, with Jourdan and Jean Victor Marie Moreau on the Rhine and the newly promoted Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy. The three armies were to link up in Tyrol and march on Vienna.

In the Rhine campaign of 1796, Jourdan and Moreau crossed the Rhine river and advanced into Germany. Jourdan advanced as far as Amberg in late August while Moreau reached Bavaria and the edge of Tyrol by September. However Jourdan was defeated by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and both armies were forced to retreat back across the Rhine.{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=182}}{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Military triumphs under the Directory. Bonaparte}}

Napoleon, on the other hand, was successful in a daring invasion of Italy. In the Montenotte Campaign, he separated the armies of Sardinia and Austria, defeating each one in turn, and then forced a peace on Sardinia. Following this, his army captured Milan and started the Siege of Mantua. Bonaparte defeated successive Austrian armies sent against him under Johann Peter Beaulieu, Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser and József Alvinczi while continuing the siege.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Military triumphs under the Directory. Bonaparte}}{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=182}}

The rebellion in the Vendée was also crushed in 1796 by Louis Lazare Hoche.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Military triumphs under the Directory. Bonaparte}} Hoche's subsequent attempt to land a large invasion force in Munster to aid the United Irishmen was unsuccessful.{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=204}}

{{See also|Campaigns of 1797 in the French Revolutionary Wars|Italian Campaign of 1796–1797}}

File:Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli.jpg, 14 January 1797. Oil painting by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux (1844), Palace of Versailles.]]

On 2 February Napoleon finally captured Mantua,{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=193}} with the Austrians surrendering 18,000 men. Archduke Charles of Austria was unable to stop Napoleon from invading the Tyrol, and the Austrian government sued for peace in April. At the same time, there was a new French invasion of Germany under Moreau and Hoche.{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=193}}

On 22 February, a French invasion force consisting of 1,400 troops from the La Legion Noire (The Black Legion) under the command of Irish American Colonel William Tate landed near Fishguard in Wales. They were met by a quickly assembled group of around 500 British reservists, militia and sailors under the command of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor. After brief clashes with the local civilian population and Lord Cawdor's forces on 23 February, Tate was forced into an unconditional surrender by 24 February. This would be the only battle fought on British soil during the Revolutionary Wars.

Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio in October,{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=193}} ceding Belgium to France and recognizing French control of the Rhineland and much of Italy.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Military triumphs under the Directory. Bonaparte}} The ancient Republic of Venice was partitioned between Austria and France. This ended the War of the First Coalition, although Great Britain and France remained at war.

• List of battles of the War of the First Coalition
• War of the Second Coalition

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite EB1911 |first=David |last=Hannay |wstitle=French Revolutionary Wars}}
• {{Cite EB1911 |first=Arthur William |last=Holland |wstitle=French Revolution, The}}

• {{Cite book |last=Clausewitz |first=Carl von |author-link=Carl von Clausewitz |title=Napoleon's 1796 Italian campaign |last2=Murray |first2=Nicholas |last3=Pringle |first3=Christopher |last4=Showalter |first4=Dennis E. |date=2018 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-2676-2 |location=Lawrence, Kansas}}
• {{Cite book |last=Fremont-Barnes |first=Gregory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n5mE6gUHlEQC |title=The French Revolutionary Wars |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-97741-2 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |title=Fleet battle and blockade: the French Revolutionary War, 1793–1797 |date=1996 |publisher=Chatham |isbn=978-1-86176-018-0 |editor-last=Gardiner |editor-first=Robert |series=Chatham pictorial histories |location=London}}
• {{Cite book |last=Lefebvre |first=Georges |author-link=Georges Lefebvre |title=The French Revolution |volume=2: From 1793 to 1799 |location=New York |date=1964 |publisher=Columbia University Press |language=en |translator-first=John Hall |translator-last=Stewart |translator-first2=James |translator-last2=Friguglietti}}
• {{Cite book |last=Ross |first=Steven T. |author-link=Steven T. Ross |title=Quest for Victory: French Military Strategy, 1792–1799 |date=1973 |publisher=A.S. Barnes |isbn=978-0-498-07490-5 |language=en}}

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{{Sequence

| prev = Siege of Namur (1792)

| list = French Revolution: Revolutionary campaigns

| curr = War of the First Coalition

| next = War in the Vendée

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{{French Revolution}}

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