War of the First Coalition

The War of the First Coalition (Guerre de la Première Coalition) is the traditional name of the wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 against initially the and then the  that succeeded it. They were only lightly allied and fought without much apparent coordination or agreement; each power had its eye on a different part of France it wanted to appropriate after a French defeat, which never occurred.

Relations between the French revolutionaries with neighbouring monarchies had deteriorated following the in August 1791. Eight months later,, France declared war on the (cf. the ,  etc.) on 20 April 1792. In July 1792, an army under the and composed mostly of  joined the Austrian side and invaded France, only to be rebuffed at the  in September. One day later the new French Republic was proclaimed.

Subsequently these powers made several invasions of France by land and sea, with Prussia and Austria attacking from the and the, and the  supporting revolts in provincial France and laying. France suffered reverses (, 18 March 1793) and internal strife and responded with  measures. The formed (6 April 1793) and the  drafted all potential soldiers aged 18 to 25 (August 1793). The new French armies counterattacked, repelled the invaders, and advanced beyond France.

The French established the as a  (May 1795) and gained Prussian recognition of French control of the  by the first. With the, the Holy Roman Empire ceded the Austrian Netherlands to France and Northern Italy was turned into several French sister republics. Spain made a separate peace accord with France (Second Treaty of Basel) and the carried out plans to conquer more of the Holy Roman Empire.

North of the, redressed the situation in 1796, but  carried all before him against  and Austria in northern Italy (1796–1797) near the , culminating in the  and the  (October 1797). The First Coalition collapsed, leaving only Britain in the field fighting against France.

Revolution in France
As early as 1791, other monarchies in Europe were watching the developments in France with alarm, and considered intervening, either in support of or to take advantage of the chaos in France. The key figure, the, brother of the French Queen , had initially looked on the  calmly. He became increasingly concerned as the Revolution grew more radical, although he still hoped to avoid war.

On 27 August 1791, Leopold and King of, in consultation with  French nobles, issued the , which declared the concern of the monarchs of Europe for the well-being of Louis and his family, and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them. Although Leopold saw the Pillnitz Declaration as a way of taking action that would enable him to avoid actually doing anything about France, at least for the moment, Paris saw the Declaration as a serious threat and the revolutionary leaders denounced it.

In addition to the ideological differences between France and the monarchical powers of Europe, disputes continued over the status of Imperial estates in, and the French authorities became concerned about the agitation of émigré nobles abroad, especially in the Austrian Netherlands and in the minor states of Germany. In the end, France declared war on Austria first, with the Assembly voting for war on 20 April 1792, after the presentation of a long list of grievances by the newly appointed foreign minister.

1792
Dumouriez prepared an invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, where he expected the local population to rise against Austrian rule. However, the revolution had thoroughly disorganized the French army, which had insufficient forces for the invasion. Its soldiers fled at the first sign of battle, deserting en masse, in one case murdering General.

While the revolutionary government frantically raised fresh troops and reorganized its armies, an allied army under assembled at  on the. The invasion commenced in July 1792. Brunswick's army, composed mostly of Prussian veterans, took the fortresses of and. The Duke then issued a on 25 July 1792, which had been written by the brothers of Louis XVI, that declared his [Brunswick's] intent to restore the French King to his full powers, and to treat any person or town who opposed him as rebels to be condemned to death by martial law. This motivated the revolutionary army and government to oppose the Prussian invaders by any means necessary, and led almost immediately to the overthrow of the King by a crowd which the.

The invaders continued on, but at the on 20 September 1792 they came to a stalemate against Dumouriez and  in which the highly professional French  distinguished itself. Although the battle was a tactical draw, it bought time for the revolutionaries and gave a great boost to French morale. Furthermore, the Prussians, facing a campaign longer and more costly than predicted, decided against the cost and risk of continued fighting, and determined to retreat from France to preserve their army.

Meanwhile, the French had been successful on several other fronts, occupying and  in Italy, while General  invaded Germany, capturing,  and  along the Rhine, and reaching as far as. Dumouriez went on the offensive in once again, winning a great victory over the Austrians at  on 6 November 1792, and occupying the entire country by the beginning of winter.

1793
On 21 January the revolutionary government executed Louis XVI after a trial. This united all European governments, including Spain,, and the Netherlands against the Revolution. France declared war against and the Netherlands on 1 February 1793 and soon afterwards against Spain. In the course of the year 1793 the Holy Roman Empire, the kings of Portugal and Naples, and the Grand-Duke of Tuscany declared war against France. Thus the First Coalition was formed.

France introduced a new levy of hundreds of thousands of men, beginning a French policy of using to deploy more of its manpower than the other states could, and remaining on the offensive so that these mass armies could commandeer war material from the territory of their enemies. The French government sent to the United States to encourage them into entering the war on France's side. The newly formed nation refused and remained neutral throughout the conflict.

After a victory in the in March, the Austrians suffered twin defeats at the battles of  and. British land forces were defeated at the in September.

1794
1794 brought increased success to the revolutionary armies. A major victory against combined coalition forces at the gained all of Belgium and the  for France. Although the British navy maintained its supremacy at sea, it was unable to support effectively any land operations after the fall of the Belgian provinces. The Prussians were slowly driven out of the eastern departments and by the end of the year they had retired from any active part in the war. Against Spain, the French made successful incursions in both and.

Action extended into the French colonies in the. A British fleet successfully captured, , and , although a French fleet arrived later in the year and recovered the latter.

1795
After seizing the in a surprise winter attack, France established the  as a. Even before the close of 1794 the king of Prussia retired from any active part in the war, and on 5 April 1795 he concluded with France the, which recognized France's occupation of the left bank of the. The new French-dominated Dutch government bought peace by surrendering Dutch territory to the south of that river. A treaty of peace between France and Spain followed in July. The grand duke of Tuscany had been admitted to terms in February. The coalition thus fell into ruin and France proper would be free from invasion for many years.

Britain attempted to reinforce the rebels in the by landing French Royalist troops at, but failed, and  were foiled by the military garrison led by , leading to the establishment of the.

On the Rhine frontier, General, negotiating with the exiled s, betrayed his army and forced the evacuation of and the failure of the  by.

1796
The French prepared a great advance on three fronts, with Jourdan and on the Rhine and the newly promoted  in Italy. The three armies were to link up in and march on.

In the, Jourdan and Moreau crossed the Rhine River and advanced into Germany. Jourdan advanced as far as in late August while Moreau reached  and the edge of Tyrol by September. However Jourdan was defeated by and both armies were forced to retreat back across the Rhine.

Napoleon, on the other hand, was successful in a daring invasion of Italy. In the, he separated the armies of and , defeating each one in turn, and then forced a. Following this, his army captured and started the. Bonaparte defeated successive Austrian armies sent against him under, and  while continuing the siege.

The was also crushed in 1796 by. Hoche's subsequent attempt to land a large invasion force in to aid the  was unsuccessful.

1797
On 2 February Napoleon finally captured, with the Austrians surrendering 18,000 men. Archduke Charles of Austria was unable to stop Napoleon from invading the, and the Austrian government sued for peace in April. At the same time there was a new French invasion of Germany under Moreau and Hoche.

On 22 February, a French invasion force consisting of 1,400 troops from the  (The Black Legion) under the command of Colonel   in. They were met by a quickly assembled group of around 500 British, and sailors under the command of. After brief clashes with the local civilian population and Lord Cawdor's forces on 23 February, Tate was forced into an by 24 February. This would be the only battle fought on British soil during the Revolutionary Wars.

Austria signed the in October, ceding Belgium to France and recognizing French control of the Rhineland and much of Italy. The ancient was partitioned between Austria and France. This ended the War of the First Coalition, although Great Britain and France remained at war.