French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted France against Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and several other countries. The wars are divided into two periods: the War of the First Coalition (1792–1797) and the War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802). Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension. After a decade of constant warfare and aggressive diplomacy, France had conquered territories in the Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries and the Rhineland. French success in these conflicts ensured the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe.
French Revolutionary Wars
Anonymous caricature depicting the treatment given to the Brunswick Manifesto by the French population
While the First Coalition attacked the new Republic, France faced civil war and counter-revolutionary guerrilla war. Here, several insurgents of the Chouannerie have been taken prisoner.
General Jourdan at the battle of Fleurus, 26 June 1794
War of the First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797, initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that succeeded it. They were only loosely 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.
War of the First Coalition
The British evacuation of Toulon in December 1793
Lord Howe's action or The Glorious First of June. Oil painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg (1795), National Maritime Museum.
Strategic situation in Europe in 1796