The French Wars 1792-1815

Charles Esdaile

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN: 9781134748129
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: French History
• Index: History

A highly original and critical introduction to the revolutionary and napoleonic conflicts. It illuminates the less well-known areas of the subject, such as the changing atttitude of the French people towards Napoleon, as well as providing a balanced account of the campaigns of Wellington and Napoleon. Based on current historiography, this book discusses the expansion of France, the extent to which Napoleon was responsible for this success, and the events leading up to his subsequent exile. It also provides a clear examination of each of the coalitions which fought against France.

Time chart 1: 1792–97

	1792
April	France declares war on Austria and invades the Austrian Netherlands, but is routed at Mons and Tournai. Prussia joins Austria in making -war on France.
August–September	Piedmont declares war on France, the French monarchy is overthrown, and a Prussian invasion is defeated at Valmy.
September–December	France conquers the Rhineland, the Austrian Netherlands and Savoy, and invades central Germany.
	1793
January–March	Foliowing the execution of Louis XVI, the war spreads to Britain, Holland and Spain; in France revolt breaks out in the Vendee.
March–May	The French are expelled from the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhineland, while the British begin to seize France’s colonial territories; meanwhile, much of France is gripped by the so-called federalist revolt.
May–August	Despite considerable success against the federalists and the formation of a radical regime in Paris under Robespierre, the Republic experiences fresh revolt at Toulon, is threatened with invasion in the Pyrenees and Flanders, and only barely contains the Vendeens.
September–December	Thanks to the levée en masse and other factors, the Republic first stabilises the situation both in the interior and on the frontiers, and then crushes the cause of revolt.
November–December	The Vendeen army is destroyed in a series of battles and Toulon recaptured.
	1794
March–April	Poland rises in revolt against Russia and Prussia.
May-July	The French invade Catalonia, the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhineland; Robespierre is overthrown.
August–November	The Polish revolt is crushed, while the French complete the re-conquest of the Rhineland and the Austrian Netherlands.
	1795
January	The French conquer Holland.
April	Prussia signs Treaty of Basel.
July	The Spaniards sign Treaty of Basel.
October	France annexes Belgium.
November	The Directory takes over as government of France.
	1796
April–May	The French invade northern Italy under Napoleon Bonaparte and establish Batavian Republic in Holland.
June–September	While Napoleon continues to win victories in Italy, a French invasion of Germany is defeated.
October	Spain declares war on Britain.
November–December	Napoleon wins further victories in Italy.
	1797
January–February	Napoleon completes conquest of northern Italy.
April	Austria agrees an armistice.

1
The War of the First Coalition

On 20 April 1792 France declared war on Austria; thus began a series of conflicts that for the next twenty-three years were to convulse the whole of Europe. Observers of almost every persuasion had no hesitation in viewing these conflicts as essentially an ideological struggle in which the French Revolution clashed head-on with the ancien régime. However, in the wake of the publication, in particular, of Schroeder’s seminal Transformation of European Politics, it is no longer possible to sustain so simplistic a position.

Nowhere, in fact, is this more visible than in the case of the War of the First Coalition of 1792 to 1797. According to convention, France went to war in 1792 in a bid to save the Revolution by exporting her principles to the rest of Europe. In reality, however, such an explanation is at the very least inadequate. Thus, according to Schroeder, by the 1780s Europe was threatened with an immense conflagration that stemmed from, first, the erosion of most of the constraints that had hitherto kept conflict within manageable bounds, and second, the desperate search for security that this situation provoked among most statesmen.

The inevitable crisis finally exploded on 17 August 1787, when Turkey attacked Russia in a bid to claw back earlier losses. Linked to Russia by treaty, in February 1788 Austria entered the war. Seizing an obvious opportunity to strike a blow against an ever-more dangerous neighbour, in July Sweden attacked Russia, only to be assailed in turn by Denmark. Last but not least, even though Prussia stayed neutral, she embarked upon a series of manoeuvres designed to secure her fresh territory in Poland or Germany, the Russian response being to press Austria to set about her too.

When the French Revolution broke out, Balkans and Baltic were in the grip of a conflict that was monopolising the attention of the powers. However, even had this not been the case, the events that were taking place in France were not seen as being particularly dangerous, and the various princely émigrés who had fled abroad therefore received little help. With France herself disposed to adopt a pacific foreign policy, the pace of events continued to be set elsewhere, most particularly in the Habsburg Empire, where growing opposition to the reformist policies of Joseph II had led to a great wave of unrest whose high point was the expulsion of the Austrians from Belgium in November 1789. Coupled with Joseph’s death in February 1790, these events brought major changes. In brief, the new emperor, Leopold II, was convinced of the need to restore stability to Europe, and all the more so as he realised that Austria’s position was all but hopeless: Prussia was clearly a pressing danger, while both the Tyrol and Hungary seemed poised to follow the example of Belgium. Halting or even reversing domestic reform, Leopold therefore made peace with Turkey on the basis of the status quo ante.

Wise though Leopold’s move had been, it merely sowed the seeds of further trouble. Eager for territorial gain, Prussia had been exploring the possibility of an alliance with France against Austria, but now changed track and pressed Austria to join her in a war against France that would lead to a complicated series of territorial exchanges in which Prussia would expand her frontiers in Germany at the expense of Austria and Bavaria, which would be compensated in Flanders and Alsace. Still opposed to foreign adventures, Leopold would have none of this, however. Egged on by Britain, which for a variety of essentially commercial reasons wanted to put pressure on Russia, the Prussians now turned their attention to Catherine the Great. Despite Austria’s defection, the empress was now in an extremely strong position, for the Swedes had withdrawn from the war, while the Turks had suffered a series of major defeats. In consequence, Russia was faced with the choice of peace on the basis of Turkey’s territorial integrity, or war with Britain and Prussia. However, for Berlin the aim was not just to block Russian expansion. Pressure was also to be exerted on Russia’s position in Poland, where she was empowered by treaty to maintain the archaic social and political structure that had reduced the latter to a de facto Russian protectorate, it being hoped that the Poles would respond to being freed from the Russians by rewarding Prussia with Danzig (Gdansk) and Thorn (Torun).

In the event, however, the scheme fell apart,...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Time charts
• Preface
• Time chart 1: 1792–97
• 1 The War of the First Coalition
• Time chart 2: 1797–1802
• 2 The War of the Second Coalition
• Time chart 3: 1803–6
• 3 The War of the Third Coalition
• Time chart 4: 1806–7
• 4 The War of the Fourth Coalition
• Time chart 5: 1807–11
• 5 The War of the Fifth Coalition
• Time chart 6: 1812–14
• 6 The War of the Sixth Coalition
• Time chart 7: 1815
• 7 The War of the Seventh Coalition
• 8 Issues and conclusions
• Bibliograpical essay