The Coalitions

Traditionally, the name of "coalitions" is given to the wars between France and the rest of Europe from 1792 to 1815. The first coalition was formed in 1792 and the last one ended with the second Treaty of Paris, on November 20, 1815.

However, some French Revolutionary Wars like the invasion of Switzerland (1798), and some Napoleonic Wars such as the French invasion of Russia (June to December 1812) and the Peninsular War (October 1807 to April 1814), do not belong to "coalition wars" strictly speaking.

First coalition (1792-1797)

It was formed by Prussia and Austria in May 1792, following the declaration of war launched by the Legislative Assembly to the German Emperor Francis II. England and Holland joined the coalition in February 1793, then Spain (March 1793), Portugal, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Operations were first marked by the french victories of Valmy (François Étienne Kellermann, on September 20, 1792) and Jemmapes (Charles François Dumouriez, November 6, 1792), but the year 1793 began with a series of setbacks which put very seriously the homeland in danger. The reforms launched by Lazare Carnot and the divisions between allies finally permitted to repel the foreign invasion by the French successes in Hondschoote (Jean Nicolas Houchard, September 8, 1793) and Wattignies (Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, October 15 and 16). Revolutionary France even took the offensive and made itself master of Belgium and Holland by the victory of Fleurus (Jourdan again, June 26, 1794).

Prussia left the coalition (Treaty of Basel, April 5, 1795). It was afterwards the turn of the Netherlands (Treaty of The Hague, May 16, 1795), of Spain (second Treaty of Basel, July 22nd, 1795) and of the Kingdom of Sardinia (Treaty of Paris, May 1796). Austria, driven out of Lombardy and Veneto by the Italian campaign (Napoleon Bonaparte, from April 1796 to February 1797), was later forced to sign the preliminaries of Leoben (April 18, 1797) and the Treaty of Campo Formio (October 18, 1797).

England remained alone to continue the struggle against France.

The French Republic came out of this war having acquired Belgium, the left bank of the Rhine, Savoy and the County of Nice. France could further rely on satellite states created in northern Italy: Ligurian Republic and Cisalpine Republic.

• September 20, 1792 - Battle of Valmy.
• November 6, 1792 - Battle of Jemmapes.
• September 8, 1793 - Battle of Hondschoote.
• October 15 & 16, 1793 - Battle of Wattignies.
• June 26, 1794 - Battle of Fleurus.
• April 5, 1795 - Treaty of Basel.
• May 16, 1795 - Treaty of The Hague.
• July 22nd, 1795 - Second Treaty of Basel.
• May 17, 1796 - Treaty of Paris.
• April 18, 1797 - Preliminaries of Leoben.
• October 18, 1797 - Treaty of Campoformio.

Second coalition (1798-1802)

It was England that took the initiative to assemble this coalition. It succeeded all the more because France's behavior, since the end of the First Coalition, irritated or worried all the major European powers.

The Directory was indeed pursuing a belligerent policy. Its main manifestations were, during the year 1798:

1. The invasion of Switzerland, soon followed by its transformation into a mere satellite of France and by the annexation of the republics of Mulhouse and Geneva;
2. The occupation of the Eternal City and the Papal States, in the same year, after the assassination of General Léonard Mathurin Duphot by soldiers of the Pope in front of the French embassy in Rome [Roma];
3. The departure of an expedition to Egypt with the aim of seizing the country;
4. The conquest of the island of Malta, carried out in passing by this expedition;
5. An active support for the Irish rebellion, culminating in the landing of a corps of troops on the coasts of Ireland and its participation in several battles against the forces of the British Crown.

European powers did not remained silent in the face of these initiatives which threatened to disrupt the balance of power on the continent.

1. In May 1798, Naples and Austria contracted a treaty of alliance;
2. In September, the Ottoman Empire declared war on France;
3. In November, Austria allied itself with Russia while the Neapolitans, having prematurely gone to campaign, drove the French out of Rome.

Throughout this period, Great Britain sought to unite these various responses with mixed success. It failed to convince Prussia, which was too preoccupied with integrating the Polish provinces annexed in 1795. As for Austria, it could not reach an explicit agreement with Prussia due to the lack of a financial agreement regarding past and future subsidies granted by London to Vienna. Their subsequent cooperation remained informal.

In December 1798, however, bolstered by its victory over the Irish rebels and the destruction of the French squadron in Egypt at the battle of the Nile, Great Britain signed a treaty with Russia and the Kingdom of Sicily. Russia pledged to intervene in Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Furthermore, concerned about French ambitions in the Levant, it concluded an alliance with the Ottoman Empire which opened straits (the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus) to the Tsar's navy. Paul I immediately dispatched his fleet to the Mediterranean. As protector of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (or Hospitallers), he intended to respond to their expulsion from Malta by attacking the French departments of Greece (Corcyra, Ithaca, and the Aegean Sea).

In March 1799, Austria effectively, if not formally, joined the coalition after France declared war on it for allowing Russian troops to pass through its territory. The Holy Roman Empire also joined the alliance following initial Austrian and Russian successes. However, most of the northern principalities, under Prussian influence, remained technically neutral, while those in the south (Bavaria, Mainz, Württemberg) provided troops or subsidies.

Portugal – legally still at war with France since 1793 – and Sweden completed the list of France’s adversaries.

At the very moment the coalition was crystallizing, hostilities had already resumed in Italy.

1. In the north, France declared war on the Kingdom of Sardinia in early December 1798 for refusing it free passage of its forces through Piedmontese territory, in violation of the Treaty of Paris of 1796. Less than a week later, General Barthélemy Catherine Joubert occupied Turin [Torino], the King of Sardinia renounced his continental possessions and a Piedmontese republic was proclaimed.
2. In the south, twenty days after subduing Rome, the Neapolitans were in turn expelled by a counter-offensive of the French under General Jean-Étienne Championnet. He pressed his advantage to the point of seizing Naples [Napoli] at the end of January 1799. There he founded a Parthenopean republic, while the deposed sovereigns embarked for Sicily on the British ships of Admiral Horatio Nelson.

The Coalition had adopted a plan to coordinate the respective actions of its members. It also intended to capitalize on the widespread discontent caused by French domination.

1. An Anglo-Russian army, transported by the British fleet, would land in Holland;
2. The Austrian armies would launch an offensive in Germany and Switzerland;
3. Russian, Austrian and Turkish armies would drive the French out of Italy;
4. Uprisings would break out, at the instigation of the Coalition, in the countries occupied by French forces, in order to disrupt their operations;
5. When the Allied armies would have reached the French borders, it would be in France itself that royalist secret societies would launch uprisings.

The French, for their part, had four armies to oppose them:

1. The Danube army of General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, intended to intervene in Southern Germany;
2. The Army of Observation of General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, which protected the left (northern) flank of the previous one;
3. The Helvetic army of General André Masséna, based in Switzerland;
4. The Army of Italy under General Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer, covering Northern Italy.

The war began with setbacks for the Republic.

In early March 1799, Corfu, the last of the French departments in Greece, fell to the Russians. A little later, Jourdan, having crossed the Rhine, was defeated twice by Archduke Charles of Austria, at Ostrach and Stockach, on March 21 and 25, 1799. Even the invasion of Tuscany by General Paul Louis Gaultier de Kerveguen at the end of the month was only a deceptive success. The troops he mobilized would soon be needed in Northern Italy to counter the Austro-Russian offensive.

That one was led by the Russian Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov, considered one of the most brilliant military leaders in history. In the spring, he successively defeated Schérer and then Jean Victor Marie Moreau, who had alternated at the head of the Army of Italy, and finally Étienne Macdonald, recalled from Naples by the Directory to try to encircle the Allies.

The Cisalpine and Piedmontese republics ceased to exist. After the fall of Mantua [Mantova] and then the collapse of the Parthenopean Republic of Naples, where the weak garrisons left by Macdonald capitulated in June, virtually nothing remained of French domination in Italy. The failure of a counter-offensive, which ended with Joubert's defeat and death at Novi in August, followed by the fall of Rome to the Austro-Neapolitans in September, completed the disaster. A final French attempt, under the command of Championnet, came to nothing.

As French operations in Italy turned into a rout, the Allies opened a new front in the Batavian Republic. At the end of August, the Duke of York, son of King George III, landed there at the head of an Anglo-Russian army. Despite some initial successes, the expedition quickly faltered. The victory of the Franco-Batavian forces under General Guillaume Brune at Castricum preceded by only a short time the signing of the Convention of Alkmaar on October 18. This convention formalized the withdrawal of the invaders less than two months after their arrival.

In Switzerland, Masséna would soon experience the same success. Until then, he had been limited to resisting, as best he could, the Austro-Russian forces of Archduke Charles and General Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov. While the First Battle of Zurich [Zürich] in June, despite the defeat, allowed him to slow the enemy's advance, he was nonetheless forced onto the defensive throughout the summer.

But circumstances had changed. Archduke Charles and his troops had left Switzerland. The Viennese court, reluctant to see the Duke of York liberate Belgium, a former Austrian possession, transferred them to the Margraviate of Baden, on the Rhine frontier, where operations had stalled since March. Moreover, also concerned by Russian successes in Italy, Austrian government had managed to convince the Tsar to send Suvorov to Switzerland.

Between the departure of one and the arrival of the other, Masséna launched an offensive. On September 26, he won the Second Battle of Zurich and completely scattered Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian army before Suvorov's arrival. This field marshal, who had just crossed the St. Gotthard Pass that same day, was forced to retreat, a feat that would remain his last and perhaps his finest. The Tsar held the Austrians responsible for this defeat, as Archduke Charles had been recalled before the two Russian armies joined forces. Furious, Paul I withdrew from the coalition on October 22. On the Swiss front, France had yielded nothing.

The harsh weather interrupted operations. During the winter, Napoleon Bonaparte, having returned from Egypt, seized power in France and offered both the British and the Austrians a negotiated peace. Both rejected his proposal outright. In April 1800, hostilities reignited at the initiative of the Austrians, who launched an attack in Italy, threatening the Var River. To contain them, Masséna was forced to entrench himself in Genoa, where he faced a blockade by both land and sea, the latter enforced by the British Royal Navy.

The First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte had three armies at his disposal:

1. The Army of the Rhine, formed from the merger of the former armies of Helvetia and the Danube (which itself absorbed part of Bernadotte's Army of Observation). It was commanded by General Moreau;
2. The Army of Italy, now under the command of General Masséna;
3. A reserve army, assembled in Dijon and ready to intervene in Germany or Italy as needed. General Louis-Alexandre Berthier was its nominal commander. The First Consul has indeed renounced officially taking the lead, both so as not to offend the fastidious republicans and to preserve an essentially civil character for his function.

Bonaparte's preference was for a flank attack on the Austrian forces in Germany, through northern Switzerland. However, Moreau's opposition to this plan, and especially the state of affairs in Italy, led him to concentrate his efforts there.

The Army of the Rhine, however, received orders to cross the river. It carried out this at the end of April and quickly achieved successes, after which a ceasefire was signed in July which interrupted operations for a long time.

The Italian army and Masséna, for their part, were asked to hold Genoa until reinforcements arrived.

These ones, in the form of the reserve army, headed for the Alps to attack the Austrian rear via the St. Gotthard, Simplon, Little St. Bernard, and Great St. Bernard passes. Bonaparte himself, beginning his second Italian Campaign, crossed the latter on May 20th and then descended on Milan [Milano], which he entered on June 2nd. Two days later, Masséna evacuated Genoa after a grueling siege. His long resistance, however, had borne the expected fruit by holding back valuable enemy troops before the city for a considerable time. Eight more days later, Bonaparte inflicted the defeat of Marengo on the Austrians, a battle that saw the death of Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, the principal architect of the victory. When the First Consul returned to Paris on June 17th, France had recovered Piedmont, Liguria, and Lombardy.

In July 1800, defeated everywhere, Emperor Francis I resigned himself, in the wake of the ceasefire in Germany, to entering into negotiations with "General Bonaparte." He was, however, merely seeking to buy time, since just four weeks earlier he had accepted aid of 50 million pounds sterling in exchange for a commitment not to deal with France before February 1801. After much procrastination, a Franco-Austrian congress opened in Lunéville at the beginning of November 1800. Shortly thereafter, Bonaparte, recognizing the duplicity of his adversary, reignited hostilities.

In central Italy, Joachim Murat consolidated the French position in Tuscany, which had been reconquered since October. He expelled the last Neapolitans before driving them out of Rome and then invading the Kingdom of Naples. In the north, Brune crossed the Mincio River, won the battle at Pozzolo on December 25, 1800, and advanced as far as Treviso .

In Germany, Moreau won a decisive victory at Hohenlinden on December 3, then advanced towards Vienna, taking Salzburg on the 15th. Austria had no other choice but to negotiate.

Armistices followed one another, putting an end to the fighting in the various theaters of operation: the Armistice of Steyr (December 25, 1800) in Germany, the Armistice of Treviso (January 15, 1801) in northern Italy.

Under these conditions, the Peace of Lunéville was quickly concluded on February 9, 1801. It again recognized France's possession of the left bank of the Rhine, to which was added Austrian consent to French hegemony over Northern Italy, with the exception of the Republic of Venice.

King Ferdinand IV of Naples in turn signed the Armistice of Foligno (February 18, 1801) and then the Treaty of Florence on March 18, 1801. His territorial losses were minimal, but he had to agree to close his ports to the British navy.

Great Britain, increasingly isolated by the disintegration of the coalition, nevertheless managed in April 1801 to avert the dangers that had been building up in northern Europe for several months.

Towards the end of 1800, Great Britain had alienated Tsar Paul I by refusing to return the island of Malta — conquered from the French in September — to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. In retaliation, the Russian monarch formed an armed neutrality league in December 1800. This league, uniting Russia, Denmark, Prussia, and Sweden, aimed to oppose the aggressive policy of the Royal Navy, which did not hesitate to seize neutral ships suspected of trading with France.

The Great Britain, became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on January 1, 1801, saw this alliance as a serious threat and, when Denmark decided to deny it access to the Baltic Sea, launched an attack. The Danish fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Copenhagen [København] on April 2, 1801. Paul I, guilty in the eyes of the British of getting closer to France, having meanwhile succumbed to an opportune plot, the league was dissolved.

While most ongoing conflicts seemed to be subsiding, Spain launched what would become known as the "War of the Oranges" in May, invading Portugal with French support. The confrontation lasted only two weeks, as the Portuguese were unable to resist.

It ended with the Treaty of Badajoz (June 6, 1801), which resulted in a border adjustment favorable to Spain and the closure of Portuguese ports to British ships. France, however, refused to ratify it and imposed a new agreement, the Treaty of Madrid (September 29, 1801). This treaty worsened the terms of the previous one by adding a war indemnity of 20 million francs and the annexation of Brazilian territories to French Guiana.

Russia, determined to thwart England's hegemonic ambitions over the seas and trade, accepted the Treaty of Paris on October 8, 1801. This granted Russia suzerainty over the Ionian Islands and guaranteed the integrity of the Kingdom of Naples.

On October 9, the Ottoman Empire in turn signed the Treaty of Paris. It recognized the Turk's possession of Egypt. On site, the French, after the assassination of General Jean-Baptiste Kléber (June 14, 1800), quickly capitulated, in Cairo as in Alexandria, to the British expeditionary force.

Isolated, exhausted, and under pressure to re-establish normal trade with continental Europe, the United Kingdom finally approved the Peace of Amiens (March 25, 1802) with France, Spain, and the Batavian Republic.

By this treaty, the British government returned all of France's colonies, the Cape to the Batavian Republic and Minorca to Spain, but retained Ceylon and Trinidad. It also pledged to evacuate Malta and Egypt, while avoiding any pronouncement on French acquisitions on the European continent. Furthermore, it watched without showing any displeasure as slavery was re-established in the West Indies, where unrest threatened to destabilize its own possessions.

France was finally at peace, for the first time since April 20, 1792.

• February 9, 1801 - Treaty of Lunéville.
• March 18, 1801- Treaty of Florence.
• September 29, 1801 - Treaty of Madrid
• October 8, 1801 - Treaty of Paris (with Russia).
• October 9, 1801 - Treaty of Paris (with Ottoman Empire).
• March 25, 1802 - Treaty of Amiens .

Third coalition (1805)

On May 16, 1803, barely a year after the Treaty of Amiens, relationships between France and England were broken again. The latter then began looking for allies and found them among the major European powers dissatisfied with the interventionist policy of Napoleon Bonaparte: resolution passed on 25 February 1803 by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire ("Reichsdeputationshauptschluss") which changed from top to bottom the political balance of Germany; Act of mediation (February 19, 1803) which reorganized Switzerland; creation of the Kingdom of Italy in May 1805.

Eventually, the third coalition was formed in July and August 1805, bringing together, around England: Russia, Austria, Naples, and Sweden.

Hostilities opened in late September. Having abandoned his plans to invade England by the end of August – thus long before the defeat of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805) – Napoleon rusheed towards southern Germany and confined the Austrian army of Karl Mack von Leiberich in Ulm, where it was soon obliged to capitulate (October 20).

Subsequently, the French took Vienna without resistance (November 15). The decisive meeting took place at Austerlitz on December 2nd: the Austro-Russians were routed.

Prussia, about to join the coalition, immediately signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn (December 15). Austria was compelled to undergo the Treaty of Pressburg (December 26) that expelled it from Germany and Italy, and signed the death of the Holy Roman Empire, whose sovereign was previously Emperor Francis II.

English, Russians and their associates Neapolitans (reduced to Sicily) and Swedes continued the war.

• October 17, 1805 - Capitulation of Ulm.
• October 21st, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar.
• December 2nd, 1805 - Battle of Austerlitz.
• December 15, 1805 - Treaty of Schönbrunn.
• December 26, 1805 - Treaty of Pressburg.

Fourth coalition (1806-1807)

It formed when Prussia – which refused the reorganization of Germany performed by Napoleon I – joined the countries that had remained at war with France at the end of the Third Coalition (October 1806).

The operations took place in two stages. The first campaign, in Saxony, saw the Prussian army destroyed in a single day: twin victories of Jena and Auerstadt, (October 14, 1806). The 27th, Napoleon entered Berlin.

The second campaign was held in Poland the following spring; the Russians resisted at Preussisch-Eylau (February 8, 1807) but were defeated at Friedland (June 14).

The Treaties of Tilsit (July 7 and 9, 1807) brought back peace at the price of the dismemberment of Prussia. They also provided the basis, in their secret clauses, of a Franco-Russian alliance.

Sweden, for its part, had already signed, on April 18, 1807, the armistice of Schlatkow which costed it Swedish Pomerania.

England, again, remained alone or almost, having no other ally than a dethroned King of Naples.

• October 14, 1806 - Battle of Auerstaedt.
• October 14, 1806 - Battle of Jena.
• February 8, 1807 - Battle of Eylau.
• April 18, 1807 - Armistice of Schlatkow with Sweden.
• June 14, 1807 - Battle of Friedland.
• July 7, 1807 - Treaty of Tilsit (with Russia).
• July 9, 1807 - Treaty of Tilsit (with Prussia).

Fifth coalition (1809)

The first failures of Napoleon I in Spain led Austria in yielding to England and to rekindle the war (April 1809).

The French victories of Eckmühl (April 22) and Wagram (July 5 and 6) forced Austria to sign the Peace of Vienna (October 14, 1809), six months after the start of the war.

The coalition had lived. Austria was deprived of substantial portions of its territory. England only had to find new allies.

• April 22nd, 1809 - Battle of Eckmühl or Eggmühl.
• May 21st & 22nd, 1809 - Battle of Aspern-Essling.
• July 5 & 6, 1809 - Battle of Wagram.
• October 14, 1809 - Treaty of Vienna.

Sixth coalition (1813-1814)

It was concluded between the Russians, the Prussians and the English in February and March 1813, immediately after the disastrous Russian campaign. Austria and Sweden joined them in August; Bavaria and other German states of second order in October.

The initial victories of Napoleon at Lützen (May 2nd, 1813), Bautzen (May 20 and 21) and Dresden (August 26 and 27) were followed by the defeat of Leipzig (Battle of the Nations, October 16, 17 and 18) during which the French army had to deal with an enemy twice in number. Germany was lost for the Napoleonic Empire and must be evacuated.

The war continued in France in January 1814. The Emperor made a final demonstration of his military genius, gaining a winning streak that failed, however, to repel the invasion. Paris fell on March 30, 1814. Napoleon abdicates on April 6, at Fontainebleau.

The Treaty of Paris of May 30, 1814 brought back France to its 1792 borders.

• May 2nd, 1813 - Battle of Lützen.
• May 20 & 21, 1813 - Battle of Bautzen, also known as Battle of Wurschen.
• August 26 & 27, 1813 - Battle of Dresden.
• October 16-18, 1813 - Battle of the Nations, also known as Battle of Leipzig.
• March 30, 1814 - Capitulation of Paris.
• April 6, 1814 - First abdication of Napoleon I.
• May 30, 1814 - Treaty of Paris.

Seventh coalition (1815)

All Europe was instantly leagued against Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba: England, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, Holland, Saxony, Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Hesse, Switzerland, Naples, etc. ...

The Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815) promptly brought an end to the adventure of the Hundred Days.

On June 22, Napoleon abdicated for the second time. On July 6, the Allies entered Paris.

On November 20, the second Treaty of Paris deprived France of Savoy, County of Nice and strongholds on the northern border.

• June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo.
• June 22nd, 1815 - Second abdication of Napoleon 1.
• July 6, 1815 - Entry of the allies in Paris.
• November 20, 1815 - Second Treaty of Paris.