Although Reubell and several other directors opposed "revolutionizing" Italy for fear that it would prolong the war, Bonaparte had ignored their ob-
jections
and set up a number of "republican" governments in the wake of his victorious army.
Revolution and War_nodrm
Unlike in past upheavals, however, the demonstrators were quickly suppressed by government troops.
176 Even more important, the end of the Terror allowed royalists, Girondins, emigres, and loyal Catholics to reenter political life.
Given the enduring divisions within French society (which had been exacerbated by the revolution and the Terror), it was now nearly impossible for any gov- ernment to gain broad popular support.
The political weakness of the Thermidorean regime was institutionalized by the Constitution of the Year III. Enacted in September 1795, the new con- stitution established a bicameral Assembly chosen by indirect elections, with suffrage restricted to males over twenty-one and participation in the
174 The ouster of the Hebertists and Dantonists is described in Thompson, French Revolution, 452-60. For Robespierre's vision of the ideal republic, see Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled, 275-77; and Thompson, Robespierre, 45<r-55, 485-96. On the magnitude of the Terror, see Donald Greer, The Incidence ofthe Terror in the French Revolution: A Statistical Interpretation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935); and Schama, Citizens, 836-37.
175 The Convention quickly repealed the law of 22 Prairial, curtailed the use of terror, abol- ished price controls, suspended the levee en masse, and abandoned reliance on the represen- tants en mission. Several Girondin deputies were readmitted to the Convention, and the CPS also offered an amnesty to the rebels in the Vendee and partially restored freedom of religion. See Lefebvre, French Revolution, 2:137-42; Stewart, Documentary Survey, 538-552; and Denis Woronoff, The Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 1 794-1 799, trans. Julian Jackson (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 1-10, 2<r-22.
176 According to Lefebvre, the government's victory over the popular forces in Paris on 3 Prairial marks "the date which should be taken as the end of the Revolution. Its mainspring was now broken. " French Revolution, 2:144-45.
? [991
? ? second electoral stage limited by strict property qualifications. Executive powers were assigned to a five-man Directory chosen by the two legislative Councils, and one-third of each Council and one of the five directors were to be replaced each year. 177 Intended as a safeguard against dictatorship, these measures deprived the executive of stability and authority. Not only was the executive vulnerable to disputes among the directors, but its membership was constantly changing owing to the rotation of deputies in the Councils. 178 Moreover, by seeking to restore the moderate order envisioned in the Con- stitution of 1791 (minus the monarchy, of course}, the Directory guaranteed its own unpopularity. Royalists rejected it because there was no king, die- hard republicans opposed the property restrictions and preferred the more egalitarian Constitution of 1793, and both groups remained fearful that the other might regain power. Thus, the Directory rested on an extremely nar- row political base and faced repeated challenges from resurgent royalists and unrepentant republicans alike. 179 Even before the constitution was com- pleted, evidence of increasing royalist strength led the leaders of the Con- vention to decree that two-thirds of the seats in the new Councils would be chosen from among their own ranks. This measure, which guaranteed that moderate republicans would control the new Councils, provoked a two-day
uprising by Parisian royalists on 12-13 Vendemiaire , Year IV (October 4-5, 1795). Hardly an auspicious beginning, this turmoil was a clear indication of the Directory's shaky foundation. 180
These problems were compounded by irregular food supplies, growing disparities of income, alternating periods of inflation and deflation, and en- during budgetary problems. Recurrent counterrevolutionary disturbances did nothing to help the French economy, and although the Directory ex- ploited its foreign conquests relentlessly, these gains were negated by the
m For the text of the new Constitution, see Stewart, Documentary Survey, 571-612; for analyses of its provisions, see Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and Directory, 29-31; Martyn Lyons, France under the Directory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 18-20; Sutherland,France,272-'75;andLefebvre,FrenchRevolution,2:16o-4-6 .
178 The director to be replaced each year was chosen by drawing lots. For the changing composition of the Directory, see Jones, Longman Companion to the French Revolution, 82-83; Albert Goodwin, "The French Executive Directory-ARevaluation," in The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations, ed. Frank Kafker and James M. Laux, 2d ed. (Malabar, Fla. : Krieger, 1989); and M. J. Sydenham, The First French Republic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), J2J-41.
179 According to Sutherland, "the Directory has a totally justified reputation as one of the most chaotic periods in modem French history. " France, 279? For a dissenting view, see Good- win, "French Executive Directory. "
180 The Vendemiaire uprising marked the political debut of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose troops fired the "whiff of grapeshot" that helped defeat the royalist groups. See Rude, Crowd in the French Revolution, chap. n; Jacques Godechot, The Counterrevolution: Doctrine and Ac- tion, 1789-1804, trans. Salvator Attanasio (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), 26o-62; Sydenham, First French Republic, 76-82; and Harvey Mitchell, "Vendemiaire: A Reval- uation," Journal ofModern History JO, no. 3 (1958), 191-202.
Revolution and War
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? The French Revolution
damage done to French foreign trade. The Directory did much to stabilize French fiscal policy over the longer term, but the short-term costs were se- vere and contributed greatly to the country's political weakness. 181
The Foreign Policy of the Directory. The political divisions within France and the weakness of the new regime had important effects on French foreign policy and its conduct of the war. To begin with, there was no con- sensus on what France's war aims should be. 182 Royalists favored the re- nunciation of prior French conquests, seeing that as the swiftest route to peace and a restoration of the monarchy. Moderates within the Directory sought only limited territorial acquisitions, on the grounds that further ex- pansion would undermine French power and lead to incessant warfare. 183
The dominant position, however, was held by the advocates of "natural borders," whose ranks included most of the leading figures of the Thermi- dorean period and the first Directory. According to this view, France's bor- ders had been "ordained by nature" and consisted of the Atlantic, the Pyrenees, the Alps, and most importantly, the Rhine. To obtain these limits, France would have to annex Belgium and the entire left bank of the Rhine, including German states belonging to Prussia and Austria or falling under Francis II's protection in his capacity as head of the Holy Roman Empire.
To justify prolonging the war, supporters of "les grandes limites" argued that expansion to the Rhine would greatly enhance French security. As Mer- lin de Douai told the Convention in December 1794: "We want [a peace] guaranteed by our own power and the powerlessness of our enemies ever to harm us. " Another member of the CPS, Fran\ois-Antoine Boissy d'Anglas, told the Convention that the borders designated by nature would protect France from "all invasion . . . for a long series of centuries," and Jean-Jacques Cambaceres, a prominent Thermidorean, declared, "When a nation has risen in arms against invasion, . . . it should use its power to ensure that [its rights] will be respected forever. " Others suggested that France required additional territory in order to counter the Prussian and Austrian gains in Poland and
181 Economic conditions and policies under the Directory are summarized in Sydenham, First French Republic, 96-100, 182-86; Goodwin, "French Executive Directory," 326-32; Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, chap. 4; Lyons, France under the Directory, chaps. 4-5, 12; and Michel Bruguiere, "Assignats," in Furet and Ozouf, Critical Dictionary, 426-)6.
182 On the different positions, see Ross, European Diplomatic History, no-112; Lyons, France under the Directon;, 19<>-91; Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 27, 61-63; and Biro, German Policy, 2:488-<)8, 5oo-5o6.
183 Thus, Camot told the CPS in July 1794- "We could, if we so wished, plant the liberty tree on the banks of the Rhine and unite to France all the former territory of the Gauls, but how- ever seductive this system might be, . . . France can only weaken herself and sow the seeds of an endless war by expanding her territory in this way. " It should be noted that Camot's views on this issue fluctuated greatly. See Richet, "Natural Borders," 76o-61; Biro, German Policy, 1 :235, 263, 2:504-505; and Blanning, French Revolution in Germany, 75?
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preserve the balance of power; as Jean-Fran<<;ois Reubell put it, "The object of the pacification of France should be not so much to acquire indemnities, as to restore that equilibrium on which its safety depends. " Supporters of expan- sion also emphasized the wealth of the neighboring regions and argued that
annexation would redeem France's inflated currency, bolster the French economy, and sustain its military effort. And to combat the assertion that oc- cupation or annexation would be unpopular, advocates claimed that the local populations believed "they have all to gain by being French. "184
The advocates of expansion lacked the political power to impose their preferences arbitrarily, and obtaining the "natural borders" would in any case require additional military successes. So long as Reubell was the dom- inant figure in the Directory, however, this group had the greatest influence over French war aims. Reubell was especially interested in protecting the French position in his native Alsace, and his control over foreign policy en- sured that the goal of les grandes limites was never entirely abandoned. 185
Several other factors strengthened the expansionist thrust of French for- eign policy and reduced the prospects for peace. The first was economic: be- cause the ravaged French economy could not keep the army supplied, it had become reliant on requisitions and levies from the occupied territories. Thus, the Directory told General Moreau that he should "nourish the Army with the fruit of its courage" and reminded General Jourdan that "the great art of war is to live at the expense of the enemy. "186
France's dependence on the lands it occupied was compounded by the in- dependence of local representatives and military commanders and also by the opportunities for personal enrichment that occupation afforded. The Di- rectory had abandoned the Jacobin system of central supply and given pri- vate contractors the task of supplying the army. This policy allowed the generals even greater freedom of action and created a powerful domestic constituency whose financial well-being was sustained by war. 187 To make
184 These quotations are from Biro, German Policy, 1:263, 335, 427-38, 2:513; and Blanning, French Revolu tion in Germany, 74?
? ? 185 See Gerlof D. Homan, ]ean-Franfois Reubell: French Revolutionary, Patriot, and Director (1747-1807) (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1971), esp. 89.
186 As Blanning notes, "neither in nature, scope, nor intensity was the exploitation of the Rhineland exceptional. The conditions which dictated exploitation-the penury of the gov- ernment, the size of the armies, the scale of the war-applied with roughly equal force to all other parts of French-occupied Europe. " See his French Revolution in Germany, chap. 3, esp. 127-28; and Biro, German Policy, 2:65o-6o.
181 Thus, one French official admitted, "Our expedition [across) the Rhine . . . was due en- tirely to pecuniary considerations. . . . Our incursion into a rich and defenseless country was to proaire us the money of which we were in such dire need. " Quoted in Geoffrey Best, War and Society in Revolutionary Europe, 177o-187o (London: Oxford University Press, 1982), 92-93. On the growing independence of the army, see lyons, France under the Directory, 155-58. Ac- cording to Woronoff, by 1796 "the war was no longer concerned with national defense, but with conquest-or even merely plunder. " Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 64? 7, 74?
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matters worse, the deep divisions within French society and the lack of broad popular support forced the Directory to rely on the army to keep it- self in power. Bonaparte's "whiff of grapeshot" had halted the Vendemiaire uprising, and military support would be needed to defuse the royalist chal- lenge in Fructidor, Year V (September 1797) and the neo-Jacobin resurgence
of Floreal, Year VI (April 1798). Thus, the Directory had become dependent on the goodwill of its generals, and the army and its suppliers had become addicted to expansion, a combination wholly fatal to any serious effort to make peace.
. There is also evidence that the directors feared that peace would bring ad- verse domestic consequences-and greater royalist influence-unless they obtained tangible gains from the war. Abbe Sieyes told a Prussian diplomat in May 1795, "We need to obtain a glorious peace," and he later warned that the Directory "would be lost if peace were made. " Other directors feared that peace would expose them to charges of corruption, force the discharge of proroyalist troops, and reveal that economic hardship in France was due to their own mistakes rather than the war. The danger of direct military in- terference was equally worrisome; as one of the directors put it, "Make peace! And what will you do with the generals? Would they cultivate greens? "188
In short, although several directors recognized that a negotiated settle- ment was desirable, six years of revolution and war had created a formida- ble engine of expansion. Some of the directors now opposed further expansion, and in the words of Martyn Lyons, the foreign policy of the Di- rectory "oscillated between the defence of [the] natural frontiers, . . . and the creation of semi-independent sister republics," depending on shifts of mili- tary fortune and which faction enjoyed the dominant position in the execu- tive. 189 Despite the growing desire for peace and several promising diplomatic opportunities, therefore, the Directory was unable to take France out of the war.
TheCollapseoftheFirstCoalition. France'sinabilitytomakepeacewases- pecially tragic in light of its favorable military position. Amsterdam had fallen to the French in January 1795, and Dutch sympathizers quickly pro- claimed a "Batavian Republic" and signed a one-sided treaty of alliance in May. 190 Tuscany made peace in February, and peace talks between Prussia
? 188 Quoted in Biro, German Policy, 1:375, 2:509-10; and see also Rothenburg, "Wars of the French Revolution," 214-15.
189 See Lyons, France under the Directory, 190--<)l; and also Blanning, French Revolution in Ger- many, 75?
190 ThetextofthetreatyisinStewart,DocumentarySurvey,567-71. Fordetailsontheoccu- pation and negotiations, see Scharna, Patriots and Liberators, 178-210; and Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:18<>-92.
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and France took on new life. Frederick William, whose finances were dwin- dling rapidly, had no reason to continue fighting now that his ambitions in Poland had been satisfied. 191 His decision was simplified by England's re- luctance to grant additional subsidies and Vienna's collusion with Russia in a third partition of Poland, and Prussia and France signed a peace treaty in Basel in April. The German princes of the Holy Roman Empire accepted Prussian mediation in their own negotiations with France, and Spain signed a peace treaty with France at the end of July. 192
England's efforts to hold the Coalition together were undermined by mil- itary setbacks of its own. Although England had seized several French and Dutch colonies, the occupation of Toulon had to be abandoned at the end of
1793 and the expedition to Santo Domingo had turned into a costly quag- mire. 193 The French conquest of Holland had confined English forces on the continent to Hanover, and an amphibious landing in Brittany in June 1795 was a total failure. Convinced by French emigres that the expedition would spark a large counterrevolutionary uprising, the English landed an army of some thirty-three hundred emigres at Camac on June 27, where they were joined by several thousand members of the local resistance. But the quarrel- some emigres failed to coordinate their actions with their local allies, and the expedition was quickly "trapped like rats" (as the French commander put it) on the narrow Quiberon Peninsula. Efforts to evacuate them were only partially successful, and more than six hundred emigres were captured and executed. The fiasco marked the emigres' last major effort to spark an armed counterrevolution in France. 194
By the fall of 1795, therefore, the main counterrevolutionary efforts in France had been quelled and the coalition against France had been re- duced to England, Austria, and a handful of German and Italian states. The fate of the Rhineland awaited a final peace settlement with Austria and the lesser German states, but the Convention had already voted to annex Belgium and Liege on 9 Vendemiaire, Year III. The decision not to annex the left bank outright also reflected France's reluctance to antago- nize Prussia (which it hoped to draw into an alliance at a later date), and
191 Frederick William told an English envoy in February that despite his "invariable abhor- rence of the Fre111ch principles, . . . it was necessity alone that governed his conduct, and . . . another campaign would completely exhaust his treasure. " Quoted in Biro, German Policy, 1:340.
192 The Treaty of Basel established a neutral zone along the northeastern border and per- mitted French troops to remain in Prussian territory on the left bank of the Rhine pending "the general pacification between France and the Germanic Empire. " See Stewart, Documen- tary Survey, 563-67; and Biro, German Policy, vol. 1, chaps. 8--c). On the negotiations between France and Spain, see Von Sybel, French Revolu tion, 4:357-66.
193 See Duffy, Sugar, Soldiers, and Seapower, pt. 1 .
'94 A detailed account of the Quiberon raid is in Hutt, Chouannerie and Counterrevolution, 2:269-325.
? ? ? The French Revolution
the Directory made delicate inquiries regarding peace with Austria at about this time as well.
Unfortunately for France, the dismantling of the Jacobin dictatorship had undermined its capacity to mobilize the nation for war, and its mili- tary forces fell to fewer than 450,000 men by the fall of 1795. 195 Russia joined the Coalition in September (though it did not participate in the fighting), and the final partition of Poland allowed Austria to devote greater attention to France. England granted Austria another loan in May, and Austria won a series of important victories in September and October and were threatening the French positions by November. 196 Convinced that more favorable terms would be forthcoming, the Austrians now re- jected the French peace offers. England's response was similar: although Pitt had beg\Jln secret peace negotiations following the passage of the new French constitution in September, the talks foundered over the Direc-
tory's refusal to relinquish Belgium. 197
The campaigns of 179fHj7 struck the final blow against the First Coali- tion. The Directory intended the brunt to fall on Germany while the Army of Italy tied up Austrian forces and acquired "bargaining chips" for subse- quent negotiation. The French armies resumed the offensive in May, took Frankfurt and Nuremburg by the end of July, and occupied Munich and Ulm in August. Combined with Bonaparte's victories in Italy (see below), these successes led to renewed peace talks with Austria and a series of armistices with the lesser German states. The prospect of a Franco-Austrian settlement convinced Prussia to cede its territories on the left bank in ex- change for territorial concessions elsewhere, and the new understanding was enshrined in the Treaty of Berlin in July. Although it remained contin- gent on the Imperial Diet's consent, the agreement brought France closer to formal annexation of the Rhimiland. 198 Military reversals soon undermined these diplomatic achievements, however; Austrian forces under Charles V defeated the French forces at Altenkirchen in September and drove another French army back across the Rhine shortly thereafter.
195 Alan Forrest reports that France had 750,000 men in arms in September 1794, fewer than 500,000 a year later, only 400,000 in July 1796, and roughly 325,000 by September 1798. Con- scripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society during the Revolution and Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 34?
196 Austria's victories were facilitated by the dilatory conduct of the commander of the French Army of the Rhine, Jean-Charles Pichegru, who was collaborating with a group of royalist emigres and receiving bribes from English intelligence agents in Switzerland. See Mitchell, Underground War, 6o-6J, 1 1 8-24; Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 53-54; Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:227.
197 In addition to retaining Belgium, the French insisted that England relinquish its colonial conquests, and Pitt concluded that England would have to wait "for the return of reason in our deluded enemy. " Quoted in Ehrman, Reluctant Transition, 6o7; see also Rose, "Struggle with Revolutionary France," 261-65; and Ross, European Diplomatic History, 1 15-16.
198 On the Treaty of Berlin, see Biro, German Policy, 615-19.
? ? ? ? Revolution and War
In Italy, by contrast, the French armies won a series of stunning victories that eventually forced Austria to negotiate in earnest. Under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Army of Italy took Piedmont in April, forced Sardinia to make peace in May, and followed up these victories with a suc- cessful invasion of Lombardy. Milan fell on May 15. Venice, Verona, and the papacy had agreed to armistices by the end of June. The French then de- feated a detachment of Austrian reinforcements in August and trapped them at Mantua, which fell after a long siege in February 1797.
Although Reubell and several other directors opposed "revolutionizing" Italy for fear that it would prolong the war, Bonaparte had ignored their ob- jections and set up a number of "republican" governments in the wake of his victorious army. 199 After establishing a new regime in Lombardy and proclaiming a "Cispadane Republic" in December 1796, he created "Vene- tian" and "Ligurian" republics in May and June and, in July, combined Lombardy and the Cispadane Republic into the "Cisalpine Republic. " To- gether with the Batavian Republic in Holland, these new states comprised the "sister republics" of revolutionary France. Nominally independent and equipped with constitutions similar to the French, they endured the same
"benefits" of French occupation that Belgium and the Rhineland had. The systematic looting of the conquered regions sustained the French troops in the field and swelled the personal fortunes of French commanders, but the policy cost the French whatever local support they initially enjoyed and left the sister republics entirely dependent on French backing. 200
Bonaparte renewed his attacks in March, and the Austrians were now willing to negotiate. Eager to seal his triumph, Bonaparte ignored the Di- rectory's preference for territory on the Rhine and negotiated a preliminary peace that gave Belgium and Lombardy to France and compensated Austria with Venice and its Adriatic provinces, but deferred the status of the Rhineland to a later congress. The Directory, in no position to oppose France's most successful general, quickly ratified his fait accompli. Bona- parte then raised the stakes by demanding the left bank of the Rhine and several other concessions, and Austria was forced to accede. After six months of negotiations, the state of war between Austria and France was formally ended in October 1797 by the Treaty of Campo Formio. 201
England's deteriorating military position had brought it back to the ne- gotiating table as well, but a peace agreement remained elusive. England faced a serious fiscal crisis and rising public discontent. In addition, Spain
199 On the directors' reservations, see Homan, Jean-Francais Reubell, 135.
200 Godechot estimates that the French conquests in Italy paid 45 million livres to France during 1796 alone and even more in subsequent years. Grande nation, 439-41.
201 For the text of the treaty, see Stewart, Documentary Survey, 702-709; for insightful analy-
ses of the negotiations, see Schroeder, Transformation ofEuropean Politics, 166-72; and Roider,
? Thugut and Austria's Response, 24? 1.
?
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? The French Revolution
had realigned with France in 1796, and its cabinet was increasingly alarmed by French support for the Irish independence movement (including an at- tempted invasion by a French expeditionary force in December 1796). Talks between Lord Malmesbury and French foreign minister Delacroix began in October 1796, but the English terms were too one-sided and the negotiations soon broke down. 202 Although a victory over the Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent in February stiffened English resolve temporarily, the pressure for
peace resumed after Austria signed the preliminary agreement at Leoben and the Royal Navy was rocked by a series of mutinies in April.
When negotiations between England and France resumed in July, En- gland now indicated it would accept the annexation of Belgium in exchange for the French and Dutch colonies at Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and Martinique. Unfortunately, this promising initiative was soon derailed by political divisions within France and England's renewed hopes for a royal. - ist restoration. Although some emigre leaders continued to insist that the old regime be restored in its entirety, other prominent royalists had begun to downplay these ambitions to attract popular support. 203 The result was a stunning defeat for the Directory in the elections of Germinal, Year V (April 1797), which left the two Councils divided between republicans who fa- vored a harsh peace and the moderates and royalists who were willing to offer more generous terms in order to end thewar quickly. 204 The Directory was itself divided by this time, and the royalist leaders assured their English patrons that better peace terms would be available once they gained control. Thus, internal divisions within France both prevented the Directory from offering acceptable terms and encouraged England to stand firm in the hope of obtaining a better deal.
With their positions in jeopardy, a triumvirate of Barras, Reubell, and La Revelliere-Lepeaux turned to the army once again. Backed by the minister of war, General Hoche, and by Bonaparte (whose prestige was now un- matched), the triumvirs launched a coup on 17 Fructidor, Year V (September
202 On French support for the Irish rebels, see Elliott, Partners in Revolution; the 1796 inva- sion is analyzed in chapter 4? See also E. H. Stuart Jones, An Invasion That Failed (Oxford: Ox- ford University Press, 1950). On the Anglo-French peace talks, see Ehrman, Reluctant Transition, 641-50.
203 According to Martyn Lyons, "the story of [royalist) attempts to seize power is one of consistent self-delusion and failure. " France under the Directory, chap. 3, esp. 37? Counterrev- olutionary activities are described in Godechot, Counter-revolution; Sutherland, France 1789-1815, 286-92; Doyle, History ofthe French Revolution, chap. 13 and 127-31; Jones, Long- man Companion, 194-200; Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:225-28, 244-55; and Massimo Boffa, "Emigres" and "Counterrevolution," in Furet and Ozouf, Critical Dictionary, 324-36, 64o-48. English support for the royalists is described in detail in Hutt, Chouannerie and Counterrevolu- tion; and Mitchell, Underground War, 124-35, 15o-{)1.
204 Only 11 out of 216 deputies were reelected at this time, reducing support for the current directors from roughly two-thirds of the Councils to about one-third. Sydenham, First French Republic, 121-27.
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3, 1797). The main royalist leaders were arrested, and Carnot and Barthelemy were ousted from the Directory, while 198 royalist deputies were removed from the Councils. Royalist newspapers were closed, former emigres were given ten days to leave French soil, and a number of anticlerical measures were restored. The Fructidor coup ended the danger of a royalist restoration, but it also showed that the Directory could not survive without violating its own constitution. The coup also brought the peace talks with England to an end; when the French representative declared that France would neither grant colonial concessions nor relinquish its prior annexations, his English counterpart broke off the negotiations. 205
The First Coalition lay in ruins by the end of 1797. Prussia was firmly neu- tral, Austria had made peace, and Spain, Sardinia, and the sister republics in Holland and! Italy were formally allied with France. England was France's sole remaining opponent, but it could do little without a strong continental ally.
The story of the War of the First Coalition illustrates the difficulties that revolutionary states and other powers face when attempting to gauge the balance of threats. The war expanded in part because England and France saw each other as both threatening and vulnerable, and it continued be- cause France could not sustain its military effort and because the Coalition was divided by conflicting interests and ambitions. Since the leading mem- bers of the Coalition had trouble assessing the true level of threat, they failed either to muster sufficient power to overthrow the revolutionary regime, on one hand, or to offer sufficient concessions to persuade it to make peace, on the other. The problem was compounded by a lack of infor- mation on each side and a concomitant tendency to rely on biased sources. As a result, Lebrun and the Convention exaggerated the prospects for a rev- olution in England in 1792-93, and the Directory felt emboldened to sup- port an uprising in Ireland. Similarly, the Coalition's war effort was partly sustained by the belief that the revolutionary government was unpopular and by exaggerated hopes of a counterrevolutionary restoration. In each case, incomplete or biased information reinforced expectations of victory and discouraged efforts to make peace.
'Domestic politics within France contributed to the expansion and contin- uation of the war as well. Under the CPS, negotiations were inhibited by the danger of appearing disloyal, while the Directory's efforts to pursue peace were hampered by several factors: disagreements among the directors, their fragile hold on power, and the army's growing interest in expansion. These internal divisions also helped sustain the Coalition's hopes, at least until the republic's victories in 1796-97 forced all save England to make peace.
205 On the coup of FructidorV, see Sutherland, France 1789-1815, 305-o7; Sydenham, French Republic, 14o-48; and Lefebvre, French Revolution, 2:197-2o6.
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? The French Revolution
Finally, the course of the war also illustrates how a revolutionary state will modify its initial goals in the face of external pressure. The goal of spreading liberty had been abandoned by 1795, and though the directors continued to offer lip service to republican ideals by giving the sister re- publics French-style constitutions, they treated these areas as assets to be ex- ploited rather than as fraternal associates in an idealistic campaign for liberty. 206 The war also bore an increasing resemblance to a traditional strug- gle for power, with the contenders wrangling over colonial possessions and territorial compensations rather than rival ideological visions.
THE WAR OF THE SECOND COALITION
The Armed Truce
The peace that followed the collapse of the First Coalition was little more than an intermission. The Directory was unhappy with the Treaty of Campo Fonnio (because it deferred acquisition of the left bank of the Rhine), and it faced a new challenge to its authority at home, this time from the left. Ja- cobinism had made a brief resurgence after the royalist uprising in Vendemi- aire III, when the Councils had relaxed the existing anti-Jacobin measures in order to suppress the royalists. Support for the Jacobins was further en- hanced by such factors as chronic economic problems, growing disparities of wealth, and the military setbacks of 1795? 6, which recalled the dangers of
1793 and cast doubt on the Directory's ability to lead the nation in war.
The Directory had responded by closing the remaining Jacobin political clubs and banning former Montagnards from Paris, but Jacobin influence began to reemerge after the antiroyalist coup of Fructidor, Year V. 207 Left- wing newspapers and political associations became increasingly active, and with nearly 6o percent of the deputies due for replacement in the next elec- tion, the danger of a Jacobin victory began to eclipse the fear of a royalist restoration. 208 The directors imposed new restrictions on the Jacobin clubs,
206 Thus, a French general argued that "Holland has done nothing to avoid being classed among the general order of our conquests. It was the ice, the indefatigable courage of our troops and the talents of our generals that delivered her and not any revolution. It follows from this that there can be no reason to treat her differently from any conquered country. " Quoted in Schama, Patriots and Liberators, 201.
207 The first <Challenge had come not from the Jacobins but from the even more radical Con- spiracy of the Equals, Jed by Fran\ois-Noel ("Gracchus") Babeuf. Babeuf tried to launch an insurrection against the Directory by organizing a clandestine party and infiltrating the army, but the plot was betrayed by an informer and Babeuf was executed in May 1797. See R. B. Rose, Gracchus Babeuf The First Revolutionary Communist (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1978); Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:231-44; and James H. Billington, Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins ofthe Revolutionary Faith (New York: Basic Books, 1980), 72-78.
208 Sutherland, France, 309.
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eventually passing a decree that required incumbent deputies to verify the elections of new members. These maneuvers enabled the directors to re- move 127 deputies (most of them suspected Jacobins) in the so-called Coup of Floreal, Year VI. The Directory had managed to cling to power once again, but the episode further underscored its political weakness. 209
Despite its earlier successes, France's strategic position remained prob- lematic. England remained defiant and its fortunes were reviving after the setbacks of the previous year: the naval mutinies had been quelled by mid- summer, a series of fiscal reforms and tax increases had restored the govern- ment's credit, the threat of invasion had made the English public more receptive to patriotic appeals, and the destruction of the Dutch fleet at Camperdown in October had bolstered English morale and preserved its maritime superiority. England had also extricated itself from Santo Domingo by the fall of 1798, freeing resources for new campaigns elsewhere. Although Pitt had been willing to acknowledge French possession of the Low Coun- tries during the peace talks in 1797, England's leaders were increasingly committed to overthrowing the revolutionary regime and restoring the bal- ance of power in Europe. Naval power could not accomplish these objectives unaided, however, so England still needed continental allies. 210
FrenchExpansionism. Therewasnoshortageofcandidatesforconstructing a new coalition. The Austrian government was equally unhappy with the Treaty of Campo Formio, and Baron Thugut of Austria began exploring new alliance possibilities before the ink on the treaty was dry. 211 There were hints that Prussia might join a new coalition and Russia was beginning to take a more active role as well. 212 Yet given the conflicting interests and mistrust
209 The results were ratified by the law of 22 Florea! , which gave a legal veneer to a clear vi- olation of constitutional procedure. See Sydenham, First French Republic, 17<>-75; and Isser Woloch, Jacobin Legacy: The Democratic Movement under the Directory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), chap. 10.
210 See Rose, Life ofPitt, 2:328-33; Ian R. Christie, Wars and Revolutions: Britain, 176o-z8z5 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 241-42; Piers Mackesy, Statesmen at War: The Strategy ofOverthrow, 1798-99 (London: Longman, 1974), 2-9; A. B. Rodger, The War ofthe Sec- ond Coalition, 1798-z8oz (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), 7-8; Duffy, Sugar, Soldiers, and Seapower, 298-311; and John M. Sherwig, "Lord Grenviiie's Plan for a Concert of Europe, 1797--99,'' Journal ofModern History 34, no. 3 (1962).
211 In a note to a confidant, Thugut remarked, "Peace! But where is it? I do not see it in the treaty [of Campo Formio] . . . and the execution of it will perhaps be only a second volume of the preliminaries. " The future foreign minister, Louis Cobenzl, told Thugut, "We are only concluding a truce which wiii allow us to reestablish ourselves in Italy more easily than by means of the most successful military campaign; in any case, settling matters in Germany will give us twenty reasons for beginning the war again if we wish to. " Quoted in Roider, Thugut and Austria's Response, 26o-61; and Mackesy, Statesmen at War, 9?
212 Catherine II had died in 1796, but the new tsar, Paul I, shared her anti-Jacobin senti- ments and was alarmed by the growth of French influence in Italy and the eastern Mediter- ranean. See Norman E. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean, 1797-1807 (Chicago: University of
[uo]
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among the potential members, the formation of a second anti-French coali- tion could have been prevented had the Directory refrained from further ef- forts to expand. But the coup of 18 Fructidor had left the conduct of foreign policy in the hands of Reubell-a consistent advocate of the "natural bor- ders"-and the Jacobin resurgence in 1797 magnified the pressures for an ex- pansionist policy. Taking a hard line at the Congress of Rastatt, the Directory forced the Imperial Diet to acknowledge French sovereignty over the entire left bank of the Rhine (including several territories that had been excluded at
Campo Formio ). Negotiations between Austrian and French representatives accomplished nothing, and Thugut was increasingly convinced that Austria would have to resume the war once conditions favored it. 213
At the same time, the creation of additional sister republics in Italy and Switzerland and the consolidation of French influence in Belgium and Hol- land had reinforced an image of ? imitless French ambition. Although the Di- rectory had not intended to "revolutionize" Rome, struggles between local radicals and conservatives led to the death of a French general, an invasion of the the papal territories, and the establishment of a "Roman Republic" in February 1798. French intervention enabled a group of Swiss sympathizers
to launch their own revolt in January, which led to the establishment of a "Helvetic Republic" in April. The Kingdom of Piedmont was occupied and annexed the following year, confirming France's aggressive reputation. 214
Why was the Directory unable to stop the expansion? In part because the French armies were still dependent on foreign plunder and the Directory on military backing. War had become an economic and political necessity de- spite the widespread desire for peace, and abandoning the sister republics would have entailed dismantling the army in the middle of a war-with un- told domestic and international consequences. As Reubell told a Prussian diplomat in January 1799, "War has become our element . . . the nation has become martial. " Or as Bonaparte later recalled, "To exist [the Directory] needed a state of war as other governments need a state of peace. "215
? Chicago Press, 1970), 32-39, and "The Objectives of Paul's Italian Policy," in Paul l: A Re- assessment ofHis Life and Reign, ed. Hugh Ragsdale (Pittsburgh: Center for International Stud- ies, University of Pittsburgh, 1979), 31-43; and Rodger, War ofthe Second Coalition, 11-12.
213 See Lefebvre, French Revolution, 2:227-28; and Roider, Thugut and Austria's Response, 264, 283, and passim.
214 Thugut concluded, "We must either accept the status quo in Italy and in Switzerland or come to a new rupture with France. " He chose the latter option because he believed that "if the French continue to hold Switzerland, revolution in the Swabian Circle first and then in all of Germany is inevi? able. " Quoted in Roider, Thugut and Austria's Response, 283-84. On these events, see Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:372-80, 402-13; Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 153-54; and Godechot, La Grande nation, 198-202.
? 215 AlbertSoreloffersasimilarverdict:"WaraloneassuredtheexistenceoftheDirectory,and war could only be sustained by war itself. " Europe et Ia revolutionfranfaise, 5:283; and see also Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 167; and Lyons, France under the Directory, 204.
(111]
? In addition to the army's interest in conquest and plunder, further efforts to extend French control were encouraged by the desire to safeguard past con- quests and put additional pressure on England. In the words of one director, France now aimed "to unite Holland, France, Switzerland, [and] the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics by an uninterrupted continuity of territory . . . a nurs- ery of excellent soldiers and a formidable strategic position. " Thus, the Rhineland was sought as a strategic barrier, and the establishment of the Hel- vetic Republic was inspired in part by a desire to control the strategic passes between France and Italy and halt the espionage activities of English and! emigre agents in Switzerland. Similarly, although France's policies toward the Batavian Republic were affected by its own domestic politics, its underlying objective was to strengthen a key ally and guarantee its continued loyalty. 216
The Expedition to Egypt. French expansionism after Campo Forrnio helped! ensure that a Second Coalition would rise to replace the First, despite the many conflicts between France's putative opponents. 217 The decisive event, however, was the French expedition to Egypt in May 1798. Because England's naval supremacy made a cross-Channel invasion problematic, Bonaparte pro- posed an expedition to conquer Egypt instead. 218 In addition to enhancing French control of the eastern Mediterranean, the conquest of Egypt would pose a direct challenge to the British position in India, which was regarded as the key to England's wealth. It would also bring France's military power to bear against England and facilitate French commerce in the eastern Mediter- ranean. Napoleon and Talleyrand assured the Directory that the Egypt's de- fenders were weak and the population "would greet us with rapture. " They
also promised that England's fear of invasion would prevent the Royal Navy from interfering, and that France's expedition would not provoke any ad- verse foreign response. Over the objections of Reubell and La Revelliere- Lepeaux (who favored consolidating the French hold on the Continent), the expedition was approved in March 1798 and set sail from Toulon in May. 219
216 See BlaiiUling, French Revolutionary Wars, 178. Reubell supported the "revolutionizing" of Switzerland as a military necessity, remarking, "I have never deserved better of my coun- try than by pushing this revolution with all my strength. " Swiss wealth was an additional in- centive, and France used the Bern treasury to finance Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt later in the year. See Gerlof D. Homan, "Jean-Francois Reubell, Director," French Historical Studies 1, no. 4 (196o), 431-32; and Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:200.
217 Blaruting, French Revolutionary Wars, 192; Sherwig, Guineas a11d Gunpowder, 101-103; and Mackesy, Statesmen at War, 12-13.
218 After Campo Formio, Bonaparte had advised the Directory "to concentrate all our ac- tivity on the Navy and destroy England. That accomplished, Europe will lie at our feet" (quoted in Rodger, Warofthe Second Coalition, 11). He was ordered to prepare for an invasion but soon realized that the risks were too great.
"9 As Blanning points out, these arguments echo the Girondins' earlier optimism; the French were again choosing to expand the war in the belief that victory would be swift and easy. See his French Revolutionary Wars, 181-83; Rodger, Warofthe Second Coalition, 15-30; and Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and Directory, 146--48.
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The Egyptian expedition was a product of Bonaparte's personal ambition and the desire to end the stalemate with England. The directors' political weakness played a role as well, as they were in no position to defy France's most popular and successful general. Sending him away at his own request may have appeared an ideal solution.
If the solution seemed ideal, its actual consequences were not. 220 Bona- parte's troops seized Malta in June and reached Egypt in July, where they made short work of the Mameluke defenders. However, the situation was reversed when an English squadron destroyed the French fleet at the Bat- tle of the Nile, leaving Napoleon and his army stranded. Not only did this defeat end any possibility of a French challenge in India (where a French- backed uprising was rapidly collapsing), it also brought Russia and Turkey into the war against France. Contrary to Talleyrand's assurances, the invasion of Egypt had encouraged a rapprochement between the two eastern rivals, and the destruction of the French fleet cast doubt on French invincibility. Russia and the Ottoman Empire began joint operations to re- take the Ionian Islands in the fall. The sultan also prepared an army to re- conquer Egypt. In response, Bonaparte led an expedition to Syria in an attempt to disrupt the Ottoman preparations, but his forces were repulsed, with heavy losses, by a combination of Ottoman troops and English seapower.
In addition to squandering some of France's best troops and isolating its most successful general, the results of its expedition to Egypt was to restore England's control of the Mediterranean and bring two new powers into the war against lFrance.
The political weakness of the Thermidorean regime was institutionalized by the Constitution of the Year III. Enacted in September 1795, the new con- stitution established a bicameral Assembly chosen by indirect elections, with suffrage restricted to males over twenty-one and participation in the
174 The ouster of the Hebertists and Dantonists is described in Thompson, French Revolution, 452-60. For Robespierre's vision of the ideal republic, see Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled, 275-77; and Thompson, Robespierre, 45<r-55, 485-96. On the magnitude of the Terror, see Donald Greer, The Incidence ofthe Terror in the French Revolution: A Statistical Interpretation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935); and Schama, Citizens, 836-37.
175 The Convention quickly repealed the law of 22 Prairial, curtailed the use of terror, abol- ished price controls, suspended the levee en masse, and abandoned reliance on the represen- tants en mission. Several Girondin deputies were readmitted to the Convention, and the CPS also offered an amnesty to the rebels in the Vendee and partially restored freedom of religion. See Lefebvre, French Revolution, 2:137-42; Stewart, Documentary Survey, 538-552; and Denis Woronoff, The Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 1 794-1 799, trans. Julian Jackson (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 1-10, 2<r-22.
176 According to Lefebvre, the government's victory over the popular forces in Paris on 3 Prairial marks "the date which should be taken as the end of the Revolution. Its mainspring was now broken. " French Revolution, 2:144-45.
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? ? second electoral stage limited by strict property qualifications. Executive powers were assigned to a five-man Directory chosen by the two legislative Councils, and one-third of each Council and one of the five directors were to be replaced each year. 177 Intended as a safeguard against dictatorship, these measures deprived the executive of stability and authority. Not only was the executive vulnerable to disputes among the directors, but its membership was constantly changing owing to the rotation of deputies in the Councils. 178 Moreover, by seeking to restore the moderate order envisioned in the Con- stitution of 1791 (minus the monarchy, of course}, the Directory guaranteed its own unpopularity. Royalists rejected it because there was no king, die- hard republicans opposed the property restrictions and preferred the more egalitarian Constitution of 1793, and both groups remained fearful that the other might regain power. Thus, the Directory rested on an extremely nar- row political base and faced repeated challenges from resurgent royalists and unrepentant republicans alike. 179 Even before the constitution was com- pleted, evidence of increasing royalist strength led the leaders of the Con- vention to decree that two-thirds of the seats in the new Councils would be chosen from among their own ranks. This measure, which guaranteed that moderate republicans would control the new Councils, provoked a two-day
uprising by Parisian royalists on 12-13 Vendemiaire , Year IV (October 4-5, 1795). Hardly an auspicious beginning, this turmoil was a clear indication of the Directory's shaky foundation. 180
These problems were compounded by irregular food supplies, growing disparities of income, alternating periods of inflation and deflation, and en- during budgetary problems. Recurrent counterrevolutionary disturbances did nothing to help the French economy, and although the Directory ex- ploited its foreign conquests relentlessly, these gains were negated by the
m For the text of the new Constitution, see Stewart, Documentary Survey, 571-612; for analyses of its provisions, see Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and Directory, 29-31; Martyn Lyons, France under the Directory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 18-20; Sutherland,France,272-'75;andLefebvre,FrenchRevolution,2:16o-4-6 .
178 The director to be replaced each year was chosen by drawing lots. For the changing composition of the Directory, see Jones, Longman Companion to the French Revolution, 82-83; Albert Goodwin, "The French Executive Directory-ARevaluation," in The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations, ed. Frank Kafker and James M. Laux, 2d ed. (Malabar, Fla. : Krieger, 1989); and M. J. Sydenham, The First French Republic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), J2J-41.
179 According to Sutherland, "the Directory has a totally justified reputation as one of the most chaotic periods in modem French history. " France, 279? For a dissenting view, see Good- win, "French Executive Directory. "
180 The Vendemiaire uprising marked the political debut of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose troops fired the "whiff of grapeshot" that helped defeat the royalist groups. See Rude, Crowd in the French Revolution, chap. n; Jacques Godechot, The Counterrevolution: Doctrine and Ac- tion, 1789-1804, trans. Salvator Attanasio (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), 26o-62; Sydenham, First French Republic, 76-82; and Harvey Mitchell, "Vendemiaire: A Reval- uation," Journal ofModern History JO, no. 3 (1958), 191-202.
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damage done to French foreign trade. The Directory did much to stabilize French fiscal policy over the longer term, but the short-term costs were se- vere and contributed greatly to the country's political weakness. 181
The Foreign Policy of the Directory. The political divisions within France and the weakness of the new regime had important effects on French foreign policy and its conduct of the war. To begin with, there was no con- sensus on what France's war aims should be. 182 Royalists favored the re- nunciation of prior French conquests, seeing that as the swiftest route to peace and a restoration of the monarchy. Moderates within the Directory sought only limited territorial acquisitions, on the grounds that further ex- pansion would undermine French power and lead to incessant warfare. 183
The dominant position, however, was held by the advocates of "natural borders," whose ranks included most of the leading figures of the Thermi- dorean period and the first Directory. According to this view, France's bor- ders had been "ordained by nature" and consisted of the Atlantic, the Pyrenees, the Alps, and most importantly, the Rhine. To obtain these limits, France would have to annex Belgium and the entire left bank of the Rhine, including German states belonging to Prussia and Austria or falling under Francis II's protection in his capacity as head of the Holy Roman Empire.
To justify prolonging the war, supporters of "les grandes limites" argued that expansion to the Rhine would greatly enhance French security. As Mer- lin de Douai told the Convention in December 1794: "We want [a peace] guaranteed by our own power and the powerlessness of our enemies ever to harm us. " Another member of the CPS, Fran\ois-Antoine Boissy d'Anglas, told the Convention that the borders designated by nature would protect France from "all invasion . . . for a long series of centuries," and Jean-Jacques Cambaceres, a prominent Thermidorean, declared, "When a nation has risen in arms against invasion, . . . it should use its power to ensure that [its rights] will be respected forever. " Others suggested that France required additional territory in order to counter the Prussian and Austrian gains in Poland and
181 Economic conditions and policies under the Directory are summarized in Sydenham, First French Republic, 96-100, 182-86; Goodwin, "French Executive Directory," 326-32; Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, chap. 4; Lyons, France under the Directory, chaps. 4-5, 12; and Michel Bruguiere, "Assignats," in Furet and Ozouf, Critical Dictionary, 426-)6.
182 On the different positions, see Ross, European Diplomatic History, no-112; Lyons, France under the Directon;, 19<>-91; Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 27, 61-63; and Biro, German Policy, 2:488-<)8, 5oo-5o6.
183 Thus, Camot told the CPS in July 1794- "We could, if we so wished, plant the liberty tree on the banks of the Rhine and unite to France all the former territory of the Gauls, but how- ever seductive this system might be, . . . France can only weaken herself and sow the seeds of an endless war by expanding her territory in this way. " It should be noted that Camot's views on this issue fluctuated greatly. See Richet, "Natural Borders," 76o-61; Biro, German Policy, 1 :235, 263, 2:504-505; and Blanning, French Revolution in Germany, 75?
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preserve the balance of power; as Jean-Fran<<;ois Reubell put it, "The object of the pacification of France should be not so much to acquire indemnities, as to restore that equilibrium on which its safety depends. " Supporters of expan- sion also emphasized the wealth of the neighboring regions and argued that
annexation would redeem France's inflated currency, bolster the French economy, and sustain its military effort. And to combat the assertion that oc- cupation or annexation would be unpopular, advocates claimed that the local populations believed "they have all to gain by being French. "184
The advocates of expansion lacked the political power to impose their preferences arbitrarily, and obtaining the "natural borders" would in any case require additional military successes. So long as Reubell was the dom- inant figure in the Directory, however, this group had the greatest influence over French war aims. Reubell was especially interested in protecting the French position in his native Alsace, and his control over foreign policy en- sured that the goal of les grandes limites was never entirely abandoned. 185
Several other factors strengthened the expansionist thrust of French for- eign policy and reduced the prospects for peace. The first was economic: be- cause the ravaged French economy could not keep the army supplied, it had become reliant on requisitions and levies from the occupied territories. Thus, the Directory told General Moreau that he should "nourish the Army with the fruit of its courage" and reminded General Jourdan that "the great art of war is to live at the expense of the enemy. "186
France's dependence on the lands it occupied was compounded by the in- dependence of local representatives and military commanders and also by the opportunities for personal enrichment that occupation afforded. The Di- rectory had abandoned the Jacobin system of central supply and given pri- vate contractors the task of supplying the army. This policy allowed the generals even greater freedom of action and created a powerful domestic constituency whose financial well-being was sustained by war. 187 To make
184 These quotations are from Biro, German Policy, 1:263, 335, 427-38, 2:513; and Blanning, French Revolu tion in Germany, 74?
? ? 185 See Gerlof D. Homan, ]ean-Franfois Reubell: French Revolutionary, Patriot, and Director (1747-1807) (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1971), esp. 89.
186 As Blanning notes, "neither in nature, scope, nor intensity was the exploitation of the Rhineland exceptional. The conditions which dictated exploitation-the penury of the gov- ernment, the size of the armies, the scale of the war-applied with roughly equal force to all other parts of French-occupied Europe. " See his French Revolution in Germany, chap. 3, esp. 127-28; and Biro, German Policy, 2:65o-6o.
181 Thus, one French official admitted, "Our expedition [across) the Rhine . . . was due en- tirely to pecuniary considerations. . . . Our incursion into a rich and defenseless country was to proaire us the money of which we were in such dire need. " Quoted in Geoffrey Best, War and Society in Revolutionary Europe, 177o-187o (London: Oxford University Press, 1982), 92-93. On the growing independence of the army, see lyons, France under the Directory, 155-58. Ac- cording to Woronoff, by 1796 "the war was no longer concerned with national defense, but with conquest-or even merely plunder. " Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 64? 7, 74?
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matters worse, the deep divisions within French society and the lack of broad popular support forced the Directory to rely on the army to keep it- self in power. Bonaparte's "whiff of grapeshot" had halted the Vendemiaire uprising, and military support would be needed to defuse the royalist chal- lenge in Fructidor, Year V (September 1797) and the neo-Jacobin resurgence
of Floreal, Year VI (April 1798). Thus, the Directory had become dependent on the goodwill of its generals, and the army and its suppliers had become addicted to expansion, a combination wholly fatal to any serious effort to make peace.
. There is also evidence that the directors feared that peace would bring ad- verse domestic consequences-and greater royalist influence-unless they obtained tangible gains from the war. Abbe Sieyes told a Prussian diplomat in May 1795, "We need to obtain a glorious peace," and he later warned that the Directory "would be lost if peace were made. " Other directors feared that peace would expose them to charges of corruption, force the discharge of proroyalist troops, and reveal that economic hardship in France was due to their own mistakes rather than the war. The danger of direct military in- terference was equally worrisome; as one of the directors put it, "Make peace! And what will you do with the generals? Would they cultivate greens? "188
In short, although several directors recognized that a negotiated settle- ment was desirable, six years of revolution and war had created a formida- ble engine of expansion. Some of the directors now opposed further expansion, and in the words of Martyn Lyons, the foreign policy of the Di- rectory "oscillated between the defence of [the] natural frontiers, . . . and the creation of semi-independent sister republics," depending on shifts of mili- tary fortune and which faction enjoyed the dominant position in the execu- tive. 189 Despite the growing desire for peace and several promising diplomatic opportunities, therefore, the Directory was unable to take France out of the war.
TheCollapseoftheFirstCoalition. France'sinabilitytomakepeacewases- pecially tragic in light of its favorable military position. Amsterdam had fallen to the French in January 1795, and Dutch sympathizers quickly pro- claimed a "Batavian Republic" and signed a one-sided treaty of alliance in May. 190 Tuscany made peace in February, and peace talks between Prussia
? 188 Quoted in Biro, German Policy, 1:375, 2:509-10; and see also Rothenburg, "Wars of the French Revolution," 214-15.
189 See Lyons, France under the Directory, 190--<)l; and also Blanning, French Revolution in Ger- many, 75?
190 ThetextofthetreatyisinStewart,DocumentarySurvey,567-71. Fordetailsontheoccu- pation and negotiations, see Scharna, Patriots and Liberators, 178-210; and Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:18<>-92.
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and France took on new life. Frederick William, whose finances were dwin- dling rapidly, had no reason to continue fighting now that his ambitions in Poland had been satisfied. 191 His decision was simplified by England's re- luctance to grant additional subsidies and Vienna's collusion with Russia in a third partition of Poland, and Prussia and France signed a peace treaty in Basel in April. The German princes of the Holy Roman Empire accepted Prussian mediation in their own negotiations with France, and Spain signed a peace treaty with France at the end of July. 192
England's efforts to hold the Coalition together were undermined by mil- itary setbacks of its own. Although England had seized several French and Dutch colonies, the occupation of Toulon had to be abandoned at the end of
1793 and the expedition to Santo Domingo had turned into a costly quag- mire. 193 The French conquest of Holland had confined English forces on the continent to Hanover, and an amphibious landing in Brittany in June 1795 was a total failure. Convinced by French emigres that the expedition would spark a large counterrevolutionary uprising, the English landed an army of some thirty-three hundred emigres at Camac on June 27, where they were joined by several thousand members of the local resistance. But the quarrel- some emigres failed to coordinate their actions with their local allies, and the expedition was quickly "trapped like rats" (as the French commander put it) on the narrow Quiberon Peninsula. Efforts to evacuate them were only partially successful, and more than six hundred emigres were captured and executed. The fiasco marked the emigres' last major effort to spark an armed counterrevolution in France. 194
By the fall of 1795, therefore, the main counterrevolutionary efforts in France had been quelled and the coalition against France had been re- duced to England, Austria, and a handful of German and Italian states. The fate of the Rhineland awaited a final peace settlement with Austria and the lesser German states, but the Convention had already voted to annex Belgium and Liege on 9 Vendemiaire, Year III. The decision not to annex the left bank outright also reflected France's reluctance to antago- nize Prussia (which it hoped to draw into an alliance at a later date), and
191 Frederick William told an English envoy in February that despite his "invariable abhor- rence of the Fre111ch principles, . . . it was necessity alone that governed his conduct, and . . . another campaign would completely exhaust his treasure. " Quoted in Biro, German Policy, 1:340.
192 The Treaty of Basel established a neutral zone along the northeastern border and per- mitted French troops to remain in Prussian territory on the left bank of the Rhine pending "the general pacification between France and the Germanic Empire. " See Stewart, Documen- tary Survey, 563-67; and Biro, German Policy, vol. 1, chaps. 8--c). On the negotiations between France and Spain, see Von Sybel, French Revolu tion, 4:357-66.
193 See Duffy, Sugar, Soldiers, and Seapower, pt. 1 .
'94 A detailed account of the Quiberon raid is in Hutt, Chouannerie and Counterrevolution, 2:269-325.
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the Directory made delicate inquiries regarding peace with Austria at about this time as well.
Unfortunately for France, the dismantling of the Jacobin dictatorship had undermined its capacity to mobilize the nation for war, and its mili- tary forces fell to fewer than 450,000 men by the fall of 1795. 195 Russia joined the Coalition in September (though it did not participate in the fighting), and the final partition of Poland allowed Austria to devote greater attention to France. England granted Austria another loan in May, and Austria won a series of important victories in September and October and were threatening the French positions by November. 196 Convinced that more favorable terms would be forthcoming, the Austrians now re- jected the French peace offers. England's response was similar: although Pitt had beg\Jln secret peace negotiations following the passage of the new French constitution in September, the talks foundered over the Direc-
tory's refusal to relinquish Belgium. 197
The campaigns of 179fHj7 struck the final blow against the First Coali- tion. The Directory intended the brunt to fall on Germany while the Army of Italy tied up Austrian forces and acquired "bargaining chips" for subse- quent negotiation. The French armies resumed the offensive in May, took Frankfurt and Nuremburg by the end of July, and occupied Munich and Ulm in August. Combined with Bonaparte's victories in Italy (see below), these successes led to renewed peace talks with Austria and a series of armistices with the lesser German states. The prospect of a Franco-Austrian settlement convinced Prussia to cede its territories on the left bank in ex- change for territorial concessions elsewhere, and the new understanding was enshrined in the Treaty of Berlin in July. Although it remained contin- gent on the Imperial Diet's consent, the agreement brought France closer to formal annexation of the Rhimiland. 198 Military reversals soon undermined these diplomatic achievements, however; Austrian forces under Charles V defeated the French forces at Altenkirchen in September and drove another French army back across the Rhine shortly thereafter.
195 Alan Forrest reports that France had 750,000 men in arms in September 1794, fewer than 500,000 a year later, only 400,000 in July 1796, and roughly 325,000 by September 1798. Con- scripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society during the Revolution and Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 34?
196 Austria's victories were facilitated by the dilatory conduct of the commander of the French Army of the Rhine, Jean-Charles Pichegru, who was collaborating with a group of royalist emigres and receiving bribes from English intelligence agents in Switzerland. See Mitchell, Underground War, 6o-6J, 1 1 8-24; Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 53-54; Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:227.
197 In addition to retaining Belgium, the French insisted that England relinquish its colonial conquests, and Pitt concluded that England would have to wait "for the return of reason in our deluded enemy. " Quoted in Ehrman, Reluctant Transition, 6o7; see also Rose, "Struggle with Revolutionary France," 261-65; and Ross, European Diplomatic History, 1 15-16.
198 On the Treaty of Berlin, see Biro, German Policy, 615-19.
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In Italy, by contrast, the French armies won a series of stunning victories that eventually forced Austria to negotiate in earnest. Under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Army of Italy took Piedmont in April, forced Sardinia to make peace in May, and followed up these victories with a suc- cessful invasion of Lombardy. Milan fell on May 15. Venice, Verona, and the papacy had agreed to armistices by the end of June. The French then de- feated a detachment of Austrian reinforcements in August and trapped them at Mantua, which fell after a long siege in February 1797.
Although Reubell and several other directors opposed "revolutionizing" Italy for fear that it would prolong the war, Bonaparte had ignored their ob- jections and set up a number of "republican" governments in the wake of his victorious army. 199 After establishing a new regime in Lombardy and proclaiming a "Cispadane Republic" in December 1796, he created "Vene- tian" and "Ligurian" republics in May and June and, in July, combined Lombardy and the Cispadane Republic into the "Cisalpine Republic. " To- gether with the Batavian Republic in Holland, these new states comprised the "sister republics" of revolutionary France. Nominally independent and equipped with constitutions similar to the French, they endured the same
"benefits" of French occupation that Belgium and the Rhineland had. The systematic looting of the conquered regions sustained the French troops in the field and swelled the personal fortunes of French commanders, but the policy cost the French whatever local support they initially enjoyed and left the sister republics entirely dependent on French backing. 200
Bonaparte renewed his attacks in March, and the Austrians were now willing to negotiate. Eager to seal his triumph, Bonaparte ignored the Di- rectory's preference for territory on the Rhine and negotiated a preliminary peace that gave Belgium and Lombardy to France and compensated Austria with Venice and its Adriatic provinces, but deferred the status of the Rhineland to a later congress. The Directory, in no position to oppose France's most successful general, quickly ratified his fait accompli. Bona- parte then raised the stakes by demanding the left bank of the Rhine and several other concessions, and Austria was forced to accede. After six months of negotiations, the state of war between Austria and France was formally ended in October 1797 by the Treaty of Campo Formio. 201
England's deteriorating military position had brought it back to the ne- gotiating table as well, but a peace agreement remained elusive. England faced a serious fiscal crisis and rising public discontent. In addition, Spain
199 On the directors' reservations, see Homan, Jean-Francais Reubell, 135.
200 Godechot estimates that the French conquests in Italy paid 45 million livres to France during 1796 alone and even more in subsequent years. Grande nation, 439-41.
201 For the text of the treaty, see Stewart, Documentary Survey, 702-709; for insightful analy-
ses of the negotiations, see Schroeder, Transformation ofEuropean Politics, 166-72; and Roider,
? Thugut and Austria's Response, 24? 1.
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had realigned with France in 1796, and its cabinet was increasingly alarmed by French support for the Irish independence movement (including an at- tempted invasion by a French expeditionary force in December 1796). Talks between Lord Malmesbury and French foreign minister Delacroix began in October 1796, but the English terms were too one-sided and the negotiations soon broke down. 202 Although a victory over the Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent in February stiffened English resolve temporarily, the pressure for
peace resumed after Austria signed the preliminary agreement at Leoben and the Royal Navy was rocked by a series of mutinies in April.
When negotiations between England and France resumed in July, En- gland now indicated it would accept the annexation of Belgium in exchange for the French and Dutch colonies at Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and Martinique. Unfortunately, this promising initiative was soon derailed by political divisions within France and England's renewed hopes for a royal. - ist restoration. Although some emigre leaders continued to insist that the old regime be restored in its entirety, other prominent royalists had begun to downplay these ambitions to attract popular support. 203 The result was a stunning defeat for the Directory in the elections of Germinal, Year V (April 1797), which left the two Councils divided between republicans who fa- vored a harsh peace and the moderates and royalists who were willing to offer more generous terms in order to end thewar quickly. 204 The Directory was itself divided by this time, and the royalist leaders assured their English patrons that better peace terms would be available once they gained control. Thus, internal divisions within France both prevented the Directory from offering acceptable terms and encouraged England to stand firm in the hope of obtaining a better deal.
With their positions in jeopardy, a triumvirate of Barras, Reubell, and La Revelliere-Lepeaux turned to the army once again. Backed by the minister of war, General Hoche, and by Bonaparte (whose prestige was now un- matched), the triumvirs launched a coup on 17 Fructidor, Year V (September
202 On French support for the Irish rebels, see Elliott, Partners in Revolution; the 1796 inva- sion is analyzed in chapter 4? See also E. H. Stuart Jones, An Invasion That Failed (Oxford: Ox- ford University Press, 1950). On the Anglo-French peace talks, see Ehrman, Reluctant Transition, 641-50.
203 According to Martyn Lyons, "the story of [royalist) attempts to seize power is one of consistent self-delusion and failure. " France under the Directory, chap. 3, esp. 37? Counterrev- olutionary activities are described in Godechot, Counter-revolution; Sutherland, France 1789-1815, 286-92; Doyle, History ofthe French Revolution, chap. 13 and 127-31; Jones, Long- man Companion, 194-200; Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:225-28, 244-55; and Massimo Boffa, "Emigres" and "Counterrevolution," in Furet and Ozouf, Critical Dictionary, 324-36, 64o-48. English support for the royalists is described in detail in Hutt, Chouannerie and Counterrevolu- tion; and Mitchell, Underground War, 124-35, 15o-{)1.
204 Only 11 out of 216 deputies were reelected at this time, reducing support for the current directors from roughly two-thirds of the Councils to about one-third. Sydenham, First French Republic, 121-27.
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3, 1797). The main royalist leaders were arrested, and Carnot and Barthelemy were ousted from the Directory, while 198 royalist deputies were removed from the Councils. Royalist newspapers were closed, former emigres were given ten days to leave French soil, and a number of anticlerical measures were restored. The Fructidor coup ended the danger of a royalist restoration, but it also showed that the Directory could not survive without violating its own constitution. The coup also brought the peace talks with England to an end; when the French representative declared that France would neither grant colonial concessions nor relinquish its prior annexations, his English counterpart broke off the negotiations. 205
The First Coalition lay in ruins by the end of 1797. Prussia was firmly neu- tral, Austria had made peace, and Spain, Sardinia, and the sister republics in Holland and! Italy were formally allied with France. England was France's sole remaining opponent, but it could do little without a strong continental ally.
The story of the War of the First Coalition illustrates the difficulties that revolutionary states and other powers face when attempting to gauge the balance of threats. The war expanded in part because England and France saw each other as both threatening and vulnerable, and it continued be- cause France could not sustain its military effort and because the Coalition was divided by conflicting interests and ambitions. Since the leading mem- bers of the Coalition had trouble assessing the true level of threat, they failed either to muster sufficient power to overthrow the revolutionary regime, on one hand, or to offer sufficient concessions to persuade it to make peace, on the other. The problem was compounded by a lack of infor- mation on each side and a concomitant tendency to rely on biased sources. As a result, Lebrun and the Convention exaggerated the prospects for a rev- olution in England in 1792-93, and the Directory felt emboldened to sup- port an uprising in Ireland. Similarly, the Coalition's war effort was partly sustained by the belief that the revolutionary government was unpopular and by exaggerated hopes of a counterrevolutionary restoration. In each case, incomplete or biased information reinforced expectations of victory and discouraged efforts to make peace.
'Domestic politics within France contributed to the expansion and contin- uation of the war as well. Under the CPS, negotiations were inhibited by the danger of appearing disloyal, while the Directory's efforts to pursue peace were hampered by several factors: disagreements among the directors, their fragile hold on power, and the army's growing interest in expansion. These internal divisions also helped sustain the Coalition's hopes, at least until the republic's victories in 1796-97 forced all save England to make peace.
205 On the coup of FructidorV, see Sutherland, France 1789-1815, 305-o7; Sydenham, French Republic, 14o-48; and Lefebvre, French Revolution, 2:197-2o6.
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Finally, the course of the war also illustrates how a revolutionary state will modify its initial goals in the face of external pressure. The goal of spreading liberty had been abandoned by 1795, and though the directors continued to offer lip service to republican ideals by giving the sister re- publics French-style constitutions, they treated these areas as assets to be ex- ploited rather than as fraternal associates in an idealistic campaign for liberty. 206 The war also bore an increasing resemblance to a traditional strug- gle for power, with the contenders wrangling over colonial possessions and territorial compensations rather than rival ideological visions.
THE WAR OF THE SECOND COALITION
The Armed Truce
The peace that followed the collapse of the First Coalition was little more than an intermission. The Directory was unhappy with the Treaty of Campo Fonnio (because it deferred acquisition of the left bank of the Rhine), and it faced a new challenge to its authority at home, this time from the left. Ja- cobinism had made a brief resurgence after the royalist uprising in Vendemi- aire III, when the Councils had relaxed the existing anti-Jacobin measures in order to suppress the royalists. Support for the Jacobins was further en- hanced by such factors as chronic economic problems, growing disparities of wealth, and the military setbacks of 1795? 6, which recalled the dangers of
1793 and cast doubt on the Directory's ability to lead the nation in war.
The Directory had responded by closing the remaining Jacobin political clubs and banning former Montagnards from Paris, but Jacobin influence began to reemerge after the antiroyalist coup of Fructidor, Year V. 207 Left- wing newspapers and political associations became increasingly active, and with nearly 6o percent of the deputies due for replacement in the next elec- tion, the danger of a Jacobin victory began to eclipse the fear of a royalist restoration. 208 The directors imposed new restrictions on the Jacobin clubs,
206 Thus, a French general argued that "Holland has done nothing to avoid being classed among the general order of our conquests. It was the ice, the indefatigable courage of our troops and the talents of our generals that delivered her and not any revolution. It follows from this that there can be no reason to treat her differently from any conquered country. " Quoted in Schama, Patriots and Liberators, 201.
207 The first <Challenge had come not from the Jacobins but from the even more radical Con- spiracy of the Equals, Jed by Fran\ois-Noel ("Gracchus") Babeuf. Babeuf tried to launch an insurrection against the Directory by organizing a clandestine party and infiltrating the army, but the plot was betrayed by an informer and Babeuf was executed in May 1797. See R. B. Rose, Gracchus Babeuf The First Revolutionary Communist (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1978); Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:231-44; and James H. Billington, Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins ofthe Revolutionary Faith (New York: Basic Books, 1980), 72-78.
208 Sutherland, France, 309.
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eventually passing a decree that required incumbent deputies to verify the elections of new members. These maneuvers enabled the directors to re- move 127 deputies (most of them suspected Jacobins) in the so-called Coup of Floreal, Year VI. The Directory had managed to cling to power once again, but the episode further underscored its political weakness. 209
Despite its earlier successes, France's strategic position remained prob- lematic. England remained defiant and its fortunes were reviving after the setbacks of the previous year: the naval mutinies had been quelled by mid- summer, a series of fiscal reforms and tax increases had restored the govern- ment's credit, the threat of invasion had made the English public more receptive to patriotic appeals, and the destruction of the Dutch fleet at Camperdown in October had bolstered English morale and preserved its maritime superiority. England had also extricated itself from Santo Domingo by the fall of 1798, freeing resources for new campaigns elsewhere. Although Pitt had been willing to acknowledge French possession of the Low Coun- tries during the peace talks in 1797, England's leaders were increasingly committed to overthrowing the revolutionary regime and restoring the bal- ance of power in Europe. Naval power could not accomplish these objectives unaided, however, so England still needed continental allies. 210
FrenchExpansionism. Therewasnoshortageofcandidatesforconstructing a new coalition. The Austrian government was equally unhappy with the Treaty of Campo Formio, and Baron Thugut of Austria began exploring new alliance possibilities before the ink on the treaty was dry. 211 There were hints that Prussia might join a new coalition and Russia was beginning to take a more active role as well. 212 Yet given the conflicting interests and mistrust
209 The results were ratified by the law of 22 Florea! , which gave a legal veneer to a clear vi- olation of constitutional procedure. See Sydenham, First French Republic, 17<>-75; and Isser Woloch, Jacobin Legacy: The Democratic Movement under the Directory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), chap. 10.
210 See Rose, Life ofPitt, 2:328-33; Ian R. Christie, Wars and Revolutions: Britain, 176o-z8z5 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 241-42; Piers Mackesy, Statesmen at War: The Strategy ofOverthrow, 1798-99 (London: Longman, 1974), 2-9; A. B. Rodger, The War ofthe Sec- ond Coalition, 1798-z8oz (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), 7-8; Duffy, Sugar, Soldiers, and Seapower, 298-311; and John M. Sherwig, "Lord Grenviiie's Plan for a Concert of Europe, 1797--99,'' Journal ofModern History 34, no. 3 (1962).
211 In a note to a confidant, Thugut remarked, "Peace! But where is it? I do not see it in the treaty [of Campo Formio] . . . and the execution of it will perhaps be only a second volume of the preliminaries. " The future foreign minister, Louis Cobenzl, told Thugut, "We are only concluding a truce which wiii allow us to reestablish ourselves in Italy more easily than by means of the most successful military campaign; in any case, settling matters in Germany will give us twenty reasons for beginning the war again if we wish to. " Quoted in Roider, Thugut and Austria's Response, 26o-61; and Mackesy, Statesmen at War, 9?
212 Catherine II had died in 1796, but the new tsar, Paul I, shared her anti-Jacobin senti- ments and was alarmed by the growth of French influence in Italy and the eastern Mediter- ranean. See Norman E. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean, 1797-1807 (Chicago: University of
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among the potential members, the formation of a second anti-French coali- tion could have been prevented had the Directory refrained from further ef- forts to expand. But the coup of 18 Fructidor had left the conduct of foreign policy in the hands of Reubell-a consistent advocate of the "natural bor- ders"-and the Jacobin resurgence in 1797 magnified the pressures for an ex- pansionist policy. Taking a hard line at the Congress of Rastatt, the Directory forced the Imperial Diet to acknowledge French sovereignty over the entire left bank of the Rhine (including several territories that had been excluded at
Campo Formio ). Negotiations between Austrian and French representatives accomplished nothing, and Thugut was increasingly convinced that Austria would have to resume the war once conditions favored it. 213
At the same time, the creation of additional sister republics in Italy and Switzerland and the consolidation of French influence in Belgium and Hol- land had reinforced an image of ? imitless French ambition. Although the Di- rectory had not intended to "revolutionize" Rome, struggles between local radicals and conservatives led to the death of a French general, an invasion of the the papal territories, and the establishment of a "Roman Republic" in February 1798. French intervention enabled a group of Swiss sympathizers
to launch their own revolt in January, which led to the establishment of a "Helvetic Republic" in April. The Kingdom of Piedmont was occupied and annexed the following year, confirming France's aggressive reputation. 214
Why was the Directory unable to stop the expansion? In part because the French armies were still dependent on foreign plunder and the Directory on military backing. War had become an economic and political necessity de- spite the widespread desire for peace, and abandoning the sister republics would have entailed dismantling the army in the middle of a war-with un- told domestic and international consequences. As Reubell told a Prussian diplomat in January 1799, "War has become our element . . . the nation has become martial. " Or as Bonaparte later recalled, "To exist [the Directory] needed a state of war as other governments need a state of peace. "215
? Chicago Press, 1970), 32-39, and "The Objectives of Paul's Italian Policy," in Paul l: A Re- assessment ofHis Life and Reign, ed. Hugh Ragsdale (Pittsburgh: Center for International Stud- ies, University of Pittsburgh, 1979), 31-43; and Rodger, War ofthe Second Coalition, 11-12.
213 See Lefebvre, French Revolution, 2:227-28; and Roider, Thugut and Austria's Response, 264, 283, and passim.
214 Thugut concluded, "We must either accept the status quo in Italy and in Switzerland or come to a new rupture with France. " He chose the latter option because he believed that "if the French continue to hold Switzerland, revolution in the Swabian Circle first and then in all of Germany is inevi? able. " Quoted in Roider, Thugut and Austria's Response, 283-84. On these events, see Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:372-80, 402-13; Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 153-54; and Godechot, La Grande nation, 198-202.
? 215 AlbertSoreloffersasimilarverdict:"WaraloneassuredtheexistenceoftheDirectory,and war could only be sustained by war itself. " Europe et Ia revolutionfranfaise, 5:283; and see also Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 167; and Lyons, France under the Directory, 204.
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? In addition to the army's interest in conquest and plunder, further efforts to extend French control were encouraged by the desire to safeguard past con- quests and put additional pressure on England. In the words of one director, France now aimed "to unite Holland, France, Switzerland, [and] the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics by an uninterrupted continuity of territory . . . a nurs- ery of excellent soldiers and a formidable strategic position. " Thus, the Rhineland was sought as a strategic barrier, and the establishment of the Hel- vetic Republic was inspired in part by a desire to control the strategic passes between France and Italy and halt the espionage activities of English and! emigre agents in Switzerland. Similarly, although France's policies toward the Batavian Republic were affected by its own domestic politics, its underlying objective was to strengthen a key ally and guarantee its continued loyalty. 216
The Expedition to Egypt. French expansionism after Campo Forrnio helped! ensure that a Second Coalition would rise to replace the First, despite the many conflicts between France's putative opponents. 217 The decisive event, however, was the French expedition to Egypt in May 1798. Because England's naval supremacy made a cross-Channel invasion problematic, Bonaparte pro- posed an expedition to conquer Egypt instead. 218 In addition to enhancing French control of the eastern Mediterranean, the conquest of Egypt would pose a direct challenge to the British position in India, which was regarded as the key to England's wealth. It would also bring France's military power to bear against England and facilitate French commerce in the eastern Mediter- ranean. Napoleon and Talleyrand assured the Directory that the Egypt's de- fenders were weak and the population "would greet us with rapture. " They
also promised that England's fear of invasion would prevent the Royal Navy from interfering, and that France's expedition would not provoke any ad- verse foreign response. Over the objections of Reubell and La Revelliere- Lepeaux (who favored consolidating the French hold on the Continent), the expedition was approved in March 1798 and set sail from Toulon in May. 219
216 See BlaiiUling, French Revolutionary Wars, 178. Reubell supported the "revolutionizing" of Switzerland as a military necessity, remarking, "I have never deserved better of my coun- try than by pushing this revolution with all my strength. " Swiss wealth was an additional in- centive, and France used the Bern treasury to finance Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt later in the year. See Gerlof D. Homan, "Jean-Francois Reubell, Director," French Historical Studies 1, no. 4 (196o), 431-32; and Palmer, Democratic Revolution, 2:200.
217 Blaruting, French Revolutionary Wars, 192; Sherwig, Guineas a11d Gunpowder, 101-103; and Mackesy, Statesmen at War, 12-13.
218 After Campo Formio, Bonaparte had advised the Directory "to concentrate all our ac- tivity on the Navy and destroy England. That accomplished, Europe will lie at our feet" (quoted in Rodger, Warofthe Second Coalition, 11). He was ordered to prepare for an invasion but soon realized that the risks were too great.
"9 As Blanning points out, these arguments echo the Girondins' earlier optimism; the French were again choosing to expand the war in the belief that victory would be swift and easy. See his French Revolutionary Wars, 181-83; Rodger, Warofthe Second Coalition, 15-30; and Woronoff, Thermidorean Regime and Directory, 146--48.
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The Egyptian expedition was a product of Bonaparte's personal ambition and the desire to end the stalemate with England. The directors' political weakness played a role as well, as they were in no position to defy France's most popular and successful general. Sending him away at his own request may have appeared an ideal solution.
If the solution seemed ideal, its actual consequences were not. 220 Bona- parte's troops seized Malta in June and reached Egypt in July, where they made short work of the Mameluke defenders. However, the situation was reversed when an English squadron destroyed the French fleet at the Bat- tle of the Nile, leaving Napoleon and his army stranded. Not only did this defeat end any possibility of a French challenge in India (where a French- backed uprising was rapidly collapsing), it also brought Russia and Turkey into the war against France. Contrary to Talleyrand's assurances, the invasion of Egypt had encouraged a rapprochement between the two eastern rivals, and the destruction of the French fleet cast doubt on French invincibility. Russia and the Ottoman Empire began joint operations to re- take the Ionian Islands in the fall. The sultan also prepared an army to re- conquer Egypt. In response, Bonaparte led an expedition to Syria in an attempt to disrupt the Ottoman preparations, but his forces were repulsed, with heavy losses, by a combination of Ottoman troops and English seapower.
In addition to squandering some of France's best troops and isolating its most successful general, the results of its expedition to Egypt was to restore England's control of the Mediterranean and bring two new powers into the war against lFrance.
