French invasion and partial annexation of Italy
The
Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars
(1792?1801) were a series of conflicts fought principally in
Northern Italy
between the
French Revolutionary Army
and a Coalition of
Austria
,
Russia
,
Piedmont-Sardinia
, and a number of other
Italian states
.
The campaign of 1796-1797 brought prominence to
Napoleon Bonaparte
, a young, largely unknown commander, who led French forces to victory over numerically superior Austrian and Sardinian armies.
[1]
First Coalition (1792?1797)
[
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]
The
War of the First Coalition
broke out in autumn 1792, when several European powers formed an alliance against
Republican France
. The first major operation was the annexation of the
County of Nice
and the
Duchy of Savoy
(both states of the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia
) by 30,000 French troops. This was reversed in mid-1793, when the Republican forces were withdrawn to deal with a
revolt in Lyon
, triggering a counter-invasion of Savoy by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (a member of the
First Coalition
). After the revolt in Lyon had been suppressed, the French under General
Kellermann
managed to push back the Piedmontese with just 12,000 troops, winning engagements at
Argentines
and
St Maurice
in September and October 1793.
The conflict soon escalated with
Austrian
and
Neapolitan
forces being mobilised for an invasion of southern France to recover Nice and strike into
Provence
. The Allied forces were bolstered by some 45,000 Austrians, Piedmontese, and Neapolitans, with additional support from the British
Royal Navy
. Before the Allies could launch this assault the French, under tactical command of
Andre Massena
, launched the
Saorgio Offensive
(April, 1794), which was planned by the army's artillery commander, General
Napoleon Bonaparte
. This two-pronged French offensive drove back the Allied force, despite their strong positions, and firmly captured the mountain passes that led into Piedmont.
A further offensive, also designed by General Bonaparte to exploit the victory at Saorgio, was called off under orders from war minister
Carnot
, who was concerned about supply lines being cut by rebels behind the front. The commanders in the field were unhappy about this decision, but appeals were interrupted by the overthrow of the
Committee of Public Safety
and its leader,
Maximilien de Robespierre
(28 July 1794). During the political chaos that ensued in the French army, the Allies launched an
assault on Savona
. Ignoring Carnot's orders, the commander of the French
Army of Italy
,
Andre Massena
, launched a counter-offensive and secured supply routes to Genoa following victory at the
First Battle of Dego
. Following this the French consolidated the front and awaited further opportunities.
The main focus of the war then shifted north to the Rhine, until 29 June 1795, when the Austrians launched an attack against the depleted and poorly supplied Army of Italy. Nominally 107,000-strong, the Army of Italy could only manage to field an effective force of about 30,000. Kellermann, who had resumed command, appealed to Carnot for reinforcements. Instead, General Bonaparte was appointed to the general staff where he devised a third plan for an attack towards
Vado
and
Ceva
. Kellermann was replaced by General Scherer soon after and he carried out the attacks, gaining victory at
Loano
.
Bonaparte's war
[
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]
Bonaparte was appointed commander-in-chief on 2 March 1796. The motives for Bonaparte's appointment were most likely political. On 9 March, Bonaparte had married
Josephine de Beauharnais
, who had shared her imprisonment (under
Robespierre
) with the woman who had become wife to
Tallien
, one of the then
Directors of the French Republic
. Josephine's letters claim Barras had promised the command to Bonaparte, before she'd consented to marry him.
[2]
Barras is cited by his colleagues as saying of Bonaparte, "Advance this man or he will advance himself without you."
[2]
Bonaparte had shown himself to be highly ambitious and had made a name for himself following
13 Vendemiaire
in 1795.
[3]
By placing him in command of the Army of Italy, Bonaparte was being assigned to an obscure front: of the Republic's thirteen principal field armies, the Italian force was the most neglected and was in terrible condition when Bonaparte arrived.
Bonaparte launched attacks almost immediately after he arrived on the front on 27 March. His 37,000 men and 60 guns were facing more than 50,000 Allied troops in the theatre. His only chance of support came from Kellermann's Army of the Alps, which was faced by a further 20,000 Allied troops. Bonaparte had no chance of gaining reinforcements as the Republican war effort was being concentrated on the massive offensives planned on the Rhine.
At the
Battle of Montenotte
Bonaparte defeated the Austrians and fought a second engagement around
Dego
soon after. Following these battles he launched an all-out invasion of
Piedmont
and won a further victory at
Mondovi
. Sardinia was forced to accept the
Armistice of Cherasco
on 28 April, knocking it out of the war and the First Coalition. It had taken Bonaparte just a month to defeat Sardinia (between his arrival and the armistice), a country which had resisted the French armies for over three years. Total losses during the lightning campaign were 6,000 French troops and over 25,000 Allied.
Bonaparte reorganised his newly enthused army following the short let-up in operations that followed Sardinia's defeat. Following this he manoeuvred his army into more opportune positions along the
Po River
. A small French victory at
Codogno
led to a retreat by Coalition forces across the Adda River. At the river, the Austrian army of General
Beaulieu
was defeated in the
Battle of Lodi
on 10 May.
The Army of Italy was now reinforced to almost 50,000 men and Bonaparte continued on the offensive, striking at Austrian forces mobilising in the vicinity of the fortress of
Mantua
. A series of minor Coalition defeats resulted in the garrison at Mantua being reinforced to 12,000. Placing
Mantua under siege
, Bonaparte then led a French division south to invade and occupy the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
and the
Papal States
, defeating
Papal
forces at
Fort Urban
.
Next he turned north and with 20,000 men defeated some 50,000 Austrians under
Field Marshal
Wurmser
at the battles of
Lonato
and
Castiglione
. The Austrian commander was forced back into the
Alps
.
Wurmser was reinforced once again to compensate for some 20,000 losses sustained in the past two months and made an attempt to relieve the siege of Mantua. Some 45,000 Austrian troops were left behind to guard against any new French offensive whilst the main body of the Austrian army moved on Mantua. At
Rovereto
on 4 September, Bonaparte inflicted a heavy defeat on the Austrians and was then well-placed to strike at the rear of Wurmser's army. Reacting slowly to this new threat, the Austrians were again defeated at the
Battle of Bassano
, where their army was reduced to just 12,000. The remaining troops marched rapidly towards Mantua, but became trapped there by General
Massena
's advance party.
Additional Austrian forces arrived whilst Bonaparte's army was weakened by disease and his supply lines threatened by rebellion. Government political commissars, especially
Cristoforo Saliceti
, brutally put down the uprisings, but the French position was weakened. To stabilise the situation Bonaparte created the
client states
of the
Transpadane Republic
and the
Cispadane Republic
.
Following this a new Austrian commander,
Joseph Alvinczy
, arrived and made another attempt to relieve Mantua. Bonaparte halted and drove Alvinczy back across the Brenta river, but his counter-offensive was seriously hampered by
Vaubois
’ defeat over five days in the villages of Cembra and Calliano under Alvinczy's lieutenant,
Paul Davidovitch
and he was forced to retreat to Verona.
[4]
Alvinczy, following Bonaparte, held off a French attack at
Caldiero
on 12 November and Bonaparte was forced to withdraw. In the following three-day
Battle of Arcole
, Bonaparte, fighting outnumbered and faced with the failure of his repeated efforts to capture a pivotal bridge at Arcole, won an important and hard-fought victory against Alvinczy.
Both sides were reinforced before Alvinczy launched another attack in January. Bonaparte defeated this renewed assault at the
Battle of Rivoli
, inflicting some 14,000 casualties. Then he surrounded and captured a second Austrian relief column near Mantua. Soon after, Mantua finally surrendered to the French, making it possible for the French to continue their advance eastwards towards Austria. After a brief campaign during which the Austrian army was commanded by the Emperor's brother, the
Archduke Charles
, the French advanced to within 100 miles of Vienna, and the Austrians
sued for peace
. Bonaparte's campaign, by threatening Vienna directly, was the trigger that led to Austria sending negotiators to Leoben to ask Bonaparte for peace with France. The peace treaty that resulted, the treaty of
Campo Formio
, also effectively ended the
War of the First Coalition
, as Austria was the main combatant remaining in continental Europe still fighting the French at that time. On 5 December 1797 Napoleon arrived in Paris.
Campaigns in Central Italy (1797?1799)
[
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]
Napoleon
's invasion of
Northern Italy
caused disorder in the
Papal States
. Under the
Treaty of Tolentino
,
Pope Pius VI
was forced to cede the
Romagna
region to the newly founded
Cisalpine Republic
, and recognize
Joseph Bonaparte
as the ambassador to
Rome
.
[5]
Following the dissolution of the
First Coalition
, a Republican Revolt staged by General Bonaparte and Brigadier General
Mathurin-Leonard Duphot
led to the killing of Duphot at Joseph's palace by Papal State troops.
An apology was issued by the Pope on December 29, 1797, however it was rejected by the Republic soon after. Napoleon then declared war on the Papal States for a second time, sending 9,000 troops under General
Louis-Alexandre Berthier
to occupy Rome and dissolve the state.
Refusing to renounce his temporal authority, Pius VI was exiled from Rome, and later died in
Valence, France
. Napoleon officially dissolved the Papal States in February 1798, at which the
Anconine Republic
and the
Tiberina Republic
were recognized as sister republics. In Rome, Berthier declared the establishment of a
Roman Republic
, overthrowing the previous
Elective monarchy
. However, shortly after, coalition forces intervened, causing internal struggles within the so-called "
Roman Council
", which lasted until the
Neapolitan
invasion in 1799. Governor
Jacques Macdonald
defended the city with a small army of 9,000 troops on 19 November, and the Battles of
Ferentino
,
Otricoli
, and
Civita Castellana
, together with an affair at
Calvi Risorta
and
Capua
pushed King
Ferdinand IV
into
Castel Sant'Elmo
, and led to the declaration of the
Parthenopean Republic
at
Naples
, incurring some 8,000 Neapolitan casualties and 1,000 French.
In April, Cardinal
Fabrizio Ruffo
marched into
Calabria
with an
army
of 17,000 soldiers and reinstated the Monarchy, initiating a siege of Naples in June. With
British
assistance, the Parthenopeans collapsed soon after. A Neapolitan invasion in September led to the dissolution of the Roman Republic which was subsequently replaced by the Papacy until the
Napoleonic Wars
.
Second Coalition (1799?1800)
[
edit
]
The second phase of the war in Italy began in 1799 as part of the
War of the Second Coalition
and was different from the first in that
Russian
forces participated in the campaign. However, at the beginning of the conflict the Russians were yet to arrive. Bonaparte, meanwhile, was away from the continent, as from May, 1798 to September, 1799 he was leading the
Egyptian Campaign
.
Some 60,000 French troops under
Scherer
faced off against an equal number of Austrians. An additional 50,000 Russians were expected to arrive shortly. The French were occupied with the pacification of
Naples
and this halved their effective strength to face the Austrians. In order to avoid a completely untenable situation arising, Scherer attacked as soon as possible in an attempt to preempt Austrian attacks.
Austrian commander
Pal Kray
defeated the French at
Verona
and
Magnano
in late March and early April. Scherer retreated back and left a small detachment of 8,000 in several forts. The Austrian commander,
Michael von Melas
, was slow to pursue the retreating French and was soon replaced as overall Coalition commander in the theatre by the brilliant Field Marshal
Alexander Suvorov
.
Scherer too was soon replaced by General
Moreau
, a man of greater fame and prestige. The French defeats at
Lecco and Cassano
on 26?28 April were followed by withdrawal from
Lombardy
and an overall unfavourable situation for the French. General
Macdonald's
army returned from Naples to support Moreau.
An initial Allied attack across the Po failed on 11 May. Moreau's army was in tatters with just 9,000 men remaining. An attempted counter-attack was beaten back by Russian General
Petr Bagration
. Suvorov soon occupied
Turin
and proclaimed the restoration of Piedmont to its
king
.
The Army of the Alps engaged the Austro-Russian forces in a series of minor skirmishes, but did not come to the rescue of the Army of Italy. Suvorov overran a number of French garrisons and continued his relentless advance. Macdonald engaged Suvorov in the
Battle of the Trebbia
and was crushed. Macdonald retreated with the remnant of his army to Genoa whilst Suvorov reached Novi. The
Austrian high command
ordered a halt to Allied offensives whilst the French garrisons of Mantua and Alessandria were overrun (see
siege of Mantua
and
siege of Alessandria
). Soon after this Moreau was dispatched to the Rhine and
Joubert
was sent to command the Army of Italy.
Suvorov, acting under orders from the Coalition high command, paused to gather his strength for an offensive in autumn. On 9 August, the French launched offensive of 38,000 men called the
Battle of Novi
. The offensive was thoroughly defeated by Suvorov, and resulted in the death of Joubert. Moreau, who had yet to depart for the
Rhine
, seized the initiative and led the survivors back to
Genoa
and began preparing a defence of the city.
However at that time the Allied high command in
Vienna
ordered Suvorov to move out of Italy and concentrate on breaking through the
Swiss
front. The respite thus given the reeling Army of Italy led to a turning point in the war. Melas, who resumed command of Coalition forces in Italy, now almost exclusively Austrian, paused the offensive and consolidated his forces, now that the Russians had been removed from Italy.
By the spring of 1800 Russia had withdrawn entirely from the Coalition. The situation in Italy, however, was still very much on the side of the Coalition. Melas had some 100,000 men under his command, opposed by just 50,000 French troops who were thoroughly dispersed. The Allies prepared for a thrust into southern France and across the Rhine, much further north. Melas moved forward slowly, laying siege to Genoa and halting his advance elsewhere.
It was at this time that the
First Consul
of France, Napoleon Bonaparte (who had seized French power in the
Brumaire Coup
of 9 November 1799) led his Reserve Army through the
Great St Bernard
pass with the aim of relieving
Massena
in the
Siege of Genoa
, who was threatened by severe food shortages resulting from the combination of encirclement on land and naval blockade by the British.
Genoa fell before the First Consul could reach it. He concentrated his army and struck at the Austrians in an attempt to beat them before they too concentrated their forces again. The Reserve Army fought a battle at
Montebello
on 9 June before the main confrontation at
Marengo
. The consul was almost defeated here until General
Desaix
made a timely arrival with reinforcements and drove back Melas, thus turning a French rout into a French victory. In this counter-attack Desaix was killed, but Bonaparte later honoured him with monuments commemorating his bravery and his name has the place of honour on the face of the
Arc de Triomphe
, which was erected to celebrate Napoleon's victories.
Marengo was the last major engagement on the Italian front during the
Revolutionary Wars
. Following it the massive
Battle of Hohenlinden
brought the Austrians to the negotiating table (signing the
Armistice of Treviso
) and the war ended shortly after.
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
Schneid, Frederick C. (2023), Mikaberidze, Alexander; Colson, Bruno (eds.),
"Napoleon's Italian Campaigns, 1796?1800"
,
The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars: Volume 2: Fighting the Napoleonic Wars
, vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, pp. 327?354,
doi
:
10.1017/9781108278096.018
,
ISBN
978-1-108-41766-2
- ^
a
b
John Gibson Lockhart
,
Napoleon Buonaparte
, new edition, (London: Bickers & Son, 1927).
- ^
McLynn 1998, p.94
- ^
Dodge, Theodore Ayrault Dodge (1904).
Napoleon: A History of the Art of War. Volume 1: From the beginning of the French Revolution to the end of the eighteenth century, with a detailed account of the wars of the French Revolution
. New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company. p. 351.
- ^
Imperial City: Rome under Napoleon
. Susan Vandiver Nicassio. p. 20.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Clausewitz, Carl von (2018).
Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign.
Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
ISBN
978-0-7006-2676-2
- Clausewitz, Carl von (2020).
Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 1.
Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
ISBN
978-0-7006-3025-7
- Clausewitz, Carl von (2021).
The Coalition Crumbles, Napoleon Returns: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 2.
Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
ISBN
978-0-7006-3034-9
- McLynn, Frank (1998).
Napoleon
. Pimlico.
ISBN
0-7126-6247-2
.
External links
[
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]