From the very first, the French Revolution riveted the attention of Europe. Kings and queens throughout the continent trembled at the thought of popular uprisings in their own countries. The Revolution was a popular force to be feared. Even the constitutionalist English, who detested French absolutism, were unable to stomach the Revolution's thirst for blood and contempt for tradition. It was for the radicals and would-be revolutionaries around Europe that the French Revolution served as a beacon and a glorious example of the power of the populace. An extended period of large-scale war between France and the rest of Europe was to make the Revolution more than a French political event. Under Napoleon, who embodied many of the Revolution's ideals, many European countries would eventually fall to Imperial France. The institutions and mindset of the Revolution were to indelibly influence the politics of these countries. Even those countries that managed to withstand the French onslaught were marked by the measures necessary for defense. The ideas of the Revolution, spread on the points of French bayonets, had a lasting effect on Europe, and indeed, the entire world.
For over two decades, from 1792 to 1815, France was at war with various coalitions of European states. In that period, there were some twelve months of peace in total. The French Revolution and Napoleon polarized European politics, both within countries and between them. The containment of the French Revolution became the single goal of the military and foreign policy of France's enemies, many of whom buried ancient enmities to unite against the spread of revolution. Nevertheless, in the countries bordering France, pro-Revolution parties arose, seeking reform or revolution. Established authorities and conservatives moved to crush them. The English politician and thinker Edmund Burke developed an ideology of counter-revolution (or, as some would have it, a reasoned defense of tradition) in his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). According to Burke, societies were the result of gradual, historical growth and should not be changed suddenly according to a revolutionary plan, but only slowly and organically. Burke's ideas strongly influenced those opponents of the Revolution who, repulsed by the Terror, sought reform through more moderate means. (Were the principles of the French Revolution consistent or inconsistent with a respect for historical tradition?)
At the center of the French Revolution's territorial and ideological expansion stood one of history's greatest conquerors - Napoleon Bonaparte.
To fully understand the period of Revolutionary expansion, one must look back to before Napoleon took the stage. The success of the French Revolution depended upon war and aggressive expansion from the very beginning. By the spring of 1792, the Revolution was already in full bloom. The Estates General had become the National Assembly, the Church had been subordinated to the state, and the Constitution of 1791 had been passed. The future of the Revolution, however, was by no means ensured. In the summer of that year, open resistance erupted throughout the more remote provinces. Even more troubling were the foreign powers that seemed to be mustering their strength to invade France. The king's escape from Paris (recall that he was later stopped at Varennes) was meant to clear the way for a foreign assault on Paris that would restore him to power. French exiles also continued to press Austria and Prussia to intervene. Marie-Antoinette was very influential in this regard, since she herself was the Austrian Emperor's sister. The crowned heads of Europe were naturally very disturbed by the events in Paris, fearing that they themselves might suffer the same fate as the French royalty, who at this point were prisoners of the populace. In August of 1791, the Austrian emperor Leopold II and the Prussian king Frederick William II, two of France's most bitter enemies, issued the Declaration of Pilnitz, which expressed profound dismay about the confinement of France's king and queen.
In the face of domestic instability and threatening foreign enemies on all sides, the leading faction in the French Legislative Assembly (the Girondins) declared that the Revolution would only be secure if it were allowed to spread to the rest of Europe. Strength is in numbers, and the Girondins believed that the common people of other nations would embrace their Revolutionary ideas with open hearts and minds. Moreover, the very experience of defending France would unify all of France's citizens, even those who were beginning to turn against the Revolution. Military service became a political act: "Each citizen should be a solider," it was declared, "and each solider a citizen, or we shall never have a constitution" (the revolutionary concept of "nation in arms"). In April, France declared war on Austria. Prussia immediately sided with Austria. In July, the Prussian commander, the Duke of Brunswick, issued the Brunswick Manifesto, promising to raze Paris completely if the royal family were harmed. This threat soon proved to be ill advised. A furious Assembly deposed Louis XVI without any regard for Brunswick's bombast. (How are revolutions spread in modern times?)
In France, the war was idealized as a "crusade for universal liberty." But although the French soldiers believed in their cause, it seemed for a time that they lacked the means to win battles. Their aristocratic officer corps had been decimated, and the army was in shambles, lacking uniforms, weapons, and the most basic supplies. Money to pay the troops was scarce, and disorganization prevailed. France barely survived the first two years of war. On September 2, 1792, Prussia struck a telling blow, invading France and capturing the key fortress of Verdun. It was at this crucial moment, when Paris seemed to lie open to invasion and plunder, and the fate of the Revolution itself seemed to hang in the balance, that the French Revolutionary army struck back:
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An improbable victory at Valmy on September 20, 1792, stopped the Allied invasion of France and paved the way for a French counter-invasion of Germany. French forces crossed the Rhine into Germany and captured Mainz in October. In November, the French achieved a stunning victory over the Austrians at Jemappes, near Brussels. Soon all of the Austrian Netherlands was in French hands. |
Now the "crusade" could be proclaimed. The National Convention declared that its aim was to assist "all peoples who want to recover their liberty." The province of Savoy in northern Italy and the town of Nice were annexed and were proclaimed the "natural frontiers" of France. These successes stunned the rest of Europe. Britain and the Dutch Republic began to seriously consider joining the Allies. France preempted them by declaring war on both. Spain, Sardinia, and Naples soon joined Austria, Prussia, Britain, and the Dutch. This gigantic coalition was known as the "First Coalition," and was led and subsidized by Britain (as would be the case in all future coalitions against Napoleon). As had happened during the reign of Louis XIV, all of Europe was in arms to contain French power. This time, however, the contest was not over dynastic interests but the very survival of Europe's traditional monarchies.
The First Coalition enjoyed some immediate successes, retaking the Austrian Netherlands and the Left Bank of the Rhine. To make matters worse, the counter-Revolutionary revolt within France had become full-blown. The Jacobins, in late 1793, finally decided to call for a levée en masse, or conscription. This desperate innovation, in the nick of time, supplied the troops so urgently needed, and pulled the French army back from the brink of destruction. The mobilization of all able-bodied Frenchmen to defend the Revolution and their homeland created an army of 800,000 soldiers by the spring of 1794. At the time, this was the largest army the world had ever seen. This new force, inspired by a patriotic enthusiasm unmatched in the Allied ranks, also had innovative leadership and tactical flexibility that made it a formidable opponent. France invaded Belgium and again crossed the Rhine in the summer of 1794, proclaiming a "liberation" of people who, with the exception of a small radical minority, considered themselves under occupation.
Under the Directory (1795-1799), France continued to triumph.
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In 1795, to the dismay of her allies, Prussia arranged a "separate peace" with France, the Peace of Basel, which permitted France to annex Belgium and Nice/Savoy and which allowed Prussia control of Germany north of the Main River.
In that same year, England withdrew her troops from the continent, thus, to a large degree, disbanding the "First Coalition." In Central Europe and in Italy, however, France and Austria continued to fight. In 1796, the French sent an able young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, to invade Italy, where he was to enjoy a series of remarkable victories. |
Napoleon was his own master in Italy, acting as an independent generalissimo and diplomat, with little regard for his supposed political superiors in Paris. "People of Italy," Napoleon proclaimed, "the French Army comes to break your chains." Stirred by their leader's fiery rhetoric, the French army easily overwhelmed their Austrian adversaries. Although the French army was still very ill-equipped (three officers often had to share a single pair of shoes) Napoleon's remarkable capacity for instilling dedication and patriotic zeal more than made up for it. When the Austrians agreed to peace in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797, they had to cede almost all of northern Italy (including Lombardy and Tuscany) to France. The victories in Italy provided the French government with sorely needed capital and countless pieces of looted Italian art (much of which remains in France to this day). In return, Austria was allowed to annex the previously independent republic of Venice. France, in turn, secured its hold over the Left Bank of the Rhine.
The French saw their victories in Europe not as self-interested conquests, but as a way of passing on the glorious principles of "liberty" and "brotherhood." At first, reform-minded minorities within the conquered territories greeted the French with enthusiasm. Some conquered territories were annexed directly into France, but most were set up as supposedly independent republics that were, in actuality, mere satellites of France.
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Year of establishment |
Territory |
New republic's name |
|
1795 |
Holland |
Batavian Republic |
|
1797 |
Northern Italy (Milan) |
Cisalpine Republic |
|
1797 |
Genoa, Italy |
Ligurian Republic |
|
1798 |
Papal States |
Roman Republic |
|
1798 |
Swiss cantons |
Helvetic Republic |
|
1798 |
Naples, Italy |
Parthenopean Republic |
Although many radicals throughout Europe had originally welcomed the French armies, their enthusiasm soon faded. French domination brought some reform, but it also brought a plundering army, political coercion, and a humiliating subjection to French interests. The subjugated soon rose up against France.
Nobody had played a more important role in the spread of French power across Europe than Napoleon Bonaparte himself. At the height of his power, all of Europe fell under his shadow. His military skills were legendary. By combining Revolutionary principles with military and political prowess, he achieved what had eluded successive Revolutionary governments: a successful consolidation of state power and a restraint of popular radicalism. "I have closed the gaping abyss of anarchy," he is believed to have said. "I have unscrambled chaos." It was under his brilliant leadership that the French Revolution became a truly international struggle.
After his Italian campaigns, Napoleon embarked on an extraordinary (but ultimately unsuccessful) military expedition into the Middle East. He led an army of 35,000 men into Egypt, intent on conquering the important trading routes there. He defeated the Egyptians at the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798, but the British Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed the French fleet at anchor in the harbor at Aboukir Bay at the mouth of the Nile. Napoleon was eventually forced to return to France, where he led the 1799 coup against the Directory.
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