Italian Campaign 1796 - Rise of Napoleon
I'm back finally after being down with fever and this will be my largest one yet.
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Background:
In 1789 the
French revolution shattered europe.After a century of absolute monarchy,arrogance,enormous decadence and corruption on part of the nobility allied with the clergy with france facing economic bankruptcy and famine and still the nobility refusing reforms that would curtail their privilages the lower classes broke out in open rebellion .The upper classes comprised perhaps 1.5% of the total population but controlled 40% of the national wealth.They paid no taxes and also possesed immunity from criminal prosecution by any save the king.Almost all important posts were occupied by the nobility.The lower classes however had to pay half their income in taxes and their situation had become destitute and desperate in the economic crisis.
The result was inevitable-Revolution.
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Inspired by the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau,the french populace led by the burgeousie adopted the slogan of
'Liberty,Equality,Fraternity' and proclaimed a republic.With the nobility killed or fled,the
king executed-it was a dangerous precedent as far as the shocked european absolute monarchies were concerned.To suppress the dangerous ideas emanating from france an europe
wide coalition of monarchies marched against it,determined to restore the old order.The revolutionary leaders fired by revolutionary enthusiasm also added fuel to the fire by declaring their intention to bring the revolution to all the nations of europe.However with much of the officer cadre of the army which was predominantly the nobility defected,they found serious difficulty in fielding forces to halt the allied advance at first with ill disciplined but enthusiastic rabble.As france stood alone against all europe,
desperate she unleashed total war.
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Europe in 1792.
Austria-Hungary,Prussia,France,Britain and Russia were the great powers of europe.Spain and the ottomans had been in decline for some time now.Habsburg austria had diverse possesions both in the netherlands,hungary,austrian heartland and italy.
In this age european armies were professional and small,but france's was
giant advantage was manpower.She was the
most populous nation of europe.The revolutionary leaders abandoned the old way of fighting.
Universal nationwide Conscription was adopted and the
guillotine and reign of terror crushed all internal dissent.The prussian army was halted at Valmy and soon prussia and russia left the coalition.Aided by her inexhaustible manpower reserves and having developed new techniques[which we discuss later].
France overran austrian netherlands and belgium and attacked austrian territories in italy.A determined austria however refused to pull out of the war,furious at the execution of the french queen Marie Antionette-who had been an austrian princess and the annexation of austrian netherlands.Now after 4 years the war of the first coalition drags on in 1796.Austrian armies face and push back the
main french army in germany while secondary forces oppose each other in italy.
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Italy in 1796.
Austria was allied with the piedmont-sardinian monarchy ,the papal states and and naples.
Domestically however the french government was in tatters through corruption and instability.The govt was mostly bankrupt, and by this time the reign of terror of the jacobins[radicals] had been replaced by the burgoesie Directory which was not too popular.Since the time of the revolution the
Paris mob had often dictated the political scene.
The revolution however had opened doors for a new generation of officers-among them an
unknown corsican lieutnant of artillery,Napoleone Buonaparte.Corsica was a small mediterranean island which had only been annexed to france in 1769.The revolution however
removed all previous obstacles of birth and bonaparte had impressed many of the political observers of the directory by playing a
prominent role in the fall of toulon 1793 and later in his theoritical writings on the italian campaign to carnot,the main organizer of the french war effort.He was thus a promising officer considered loyal to the directory in 1795 when the paris mob attacked the directory intent on dismantling it like it had made and broken several governments before.The desperate politicians turned to bonaparte,the only general willing to take the job to repulse the 25,000 mob with 6000 troops available .Bonaparte however makes superb use of his artillery and
crushes the paris mob in what became in his own words a
'Whiff of grapeshot'.
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A youthful Bonaparte in 1796.He was 27 years old and was initially seen as a green political appointment.But things would change..quickly.
The mob as a political force was finished in a brutal slaughter.As a
reward for his services and also to get the now potentially ambitious general away from paris the directory sends him to command the army of italy which was a secondary and neglected theatre hoping to see the end of him.This is where the story begins.
Next: Nature of Warfare-new changes.
