French Revolutionary Wars  

French Revolutionary Wars

In the last decade of the 18th century the French Republic waged war against almost every other Europan great power. During these conflicts Napoleon Bonaparte emerged as an influential figure.

No comments | April 1792 - August 1799

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French Revolutionary Wars

13 events | No comments | April 1792 - August 1799

1792-04

First declaration of war

In the first year or two of the French Revolution the other European powers observed from a distance what was clearly, however dramatic, an internal upheaval. Moreover, the three leading continental powers, Prussia, Austria and Russia, were...

April 1792

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1792-09

Republican victories

The allies took Verdun on September 2 and advanced unopposed until confronted by a republican army at Valmy on September 20. The engagement consisted of a massive exchange of cannon fire (40,000 rounds were fired, with the total casualties on both...

September 1792

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1793-02

Mass conscription

The French military euphoria of 1792-93 derived to a large extent from the unprecedented nature of the nation's armies. The volunteers signing up for the regional National Guards were both more numerous and more passionate than the professionals who...

February 1793

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1793-07

The First Coalition

Lazare Carnot's inspirational tone in mobilising the French was a political necessity. In the previous few months virtually the whole of Europe has followed Austria's lead in waging war against republican France...

July 1793

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1794-03

War on land

Depite being faced by an overwhelming number of enemies, the new policy of conscription enabled France to keep large armies in the field, facing in every hostile direction. They became known by their regions - the armies of the North, of the Ardennes,...

March 1794

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1794-06

War at sea

The renewal of war between Britain and France in 1793 was a continuation of a century-long conflict between the two most aggressive imperial powers. In recent engagements the results had favoured Britain, particularly in Canada and India during the...

June 1794

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1796-02

Offensive against Austria

By 1796, most of the allies of 1793 had either changed to France's side (the United Provinces and Spain) or lapsed into neutrality (Russia and Prussia). Even before the close of 1794 the king of Prussia had retired from any active part in the war, and...

February 1796

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1796-03

Napoleon in Italy

By contrast to the German campaign, the armies of the Alps and of Italy were weak, under-equipped and expected to achieve little. But on 2 March 1796 the command of the army of Italy was given to the 26-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte...

March 1796

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1797-10

Napoleon's triumpf in Italy

By April 28 1796, in the armistice of Cherasco, the king of Sardinia was ready to make peace with France and to cede his territories of Savoy and Nice - both in practice already occupied, since 1792, by French republican forces...

October 1797

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1798-02

Plans to invade England

The terms agreed by Napoleon at Campo Formio were displeasing to the Directory in one important respect - they failed to secure conclusive French possession of the German areas west of the Rhine...

February 1798

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1798-07

The Egyptian campaign

The voyage to Egypt was dangerous because the British prime minister, William Pitt, aware that something other than the invasion of Britain was being planned, had sent a strong naval squadron under admiral Horatio Nelson into the Mediterranean...

July 1798

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1799-02

The Syrian Campaign

Napoleon's Syrian campaign was the first unmitigated disaster in his career. Marching north in February 1799, Napoleon was irritated by the resistance put up by ancient garrison towns along the coast...

February 1799

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1799-08

The Second Coalition

In the peace after the agreement of Campo Formio the behaviour of the French republic was well calculated to alarm the other powers. In the follow-up congress at Rastatt, the French demanded more of the Rhineland than has been previously discussed; and...

August 1799

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