War of the Second Coalition

• 1. Introduction

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  The War of the Second Coalition began not with a formal declaration but with a cascade of broken promises, angry emperors, and a French general who could not resist a fortified island on his way to Egypt. Between 1798 and 1802, France faced a second great alliance of European monarchies: Britain, Austria, and Russia at the core, joined by the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples, and a cluster of German states. The war would reshape the map of Europe, confirm French territorial gains that many on the continent had hoped were temporary, and ultimately exhaust every major power into an uneasy peace.

  What made this coalition different from the first? Why did it splinter before it could threaten France directly? And how did a single man, recently returned from a failed campaign in Egypt, manage to seize both the French government and the momentum of the war? Those questions run through every phase of this conflict, from the fall of Malta in June 1798 to the signing of the Treaty of Amiens on the 25th of March 1802.

• 2. A Coalition in Pieces

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  Naples allied itself with Austria on the 19th of May 1798, becoming the first formal building block of the new coalition. Russia joined the Naples-Austria arrangement on the 29th of November, and Russia then allied with the Ottoman Empire on the 23rd of December and with Great Britain three days later. Yet for all this treaty-making, the alliance was riddled with contradictions from the start.

  Britain and Austria, the two powers that had led the First Coalition, could not even formalize their own agreement. The sticking point was money. Austria had emerged from the War of the First Coalition carrying deep financial debt to Britain, and the two sides could not agree on a loan convention to cover that outstanding balance, let alone arrange a new British subsidy for the coming war. They proceeded anyway, through improvised cooperation rather than a binding alliance.

  American historian Paul W. Schroeder argued in 1987 that blaming Austria alone for the coalition's eventual failure was too simple. The Habsburg monarchy's debt was severe enough to cause hyperinflation and internal instability that threatened a revolution inside Austria itself. Emperor Francis II and his state chancellor Thugut were not fighting to destroy France at all costs; they were fighting to ensure Austria came out stronger than it went in. Schroeder also pointed out that Britain, Russia, Prussia, and the Ottoman Empire were each scheming to limit the others' gains in any postwar settlement. The coalition was a league of rivals before it was a league of allies.

  Prussia, which had left the First Coalition as early as April 1795, declined to join again. Britain and Austria both tried to persuade Prussia, with Austrian Chancellor Thugut insisting he would only join if Russia did too. Prussia remained on the sidelines throughout the war, while Spain actively supported France.

• 3. Malta, Egypt, and Russian Fury

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  On the 11th of June 1798, General Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers directed a landing of several thousand French troops at strategic points around the island of Malta. Napoleon had stopped at Valletta on his way to Egypt, demanding entry to the heavily fortified port. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, following the island's neutrality rules, would allow only two ships at a time into the harbour. Napoleon ordered bombardment of the city. The Knights of the Order who were French deserted; those who remained could not mount a successful resistance. Napoleon removed the other Knights from their possessions.

  Emperor Paul I of Russia was the honorary head of the Knights of Malta, and this forcible expulsion of the order enraged him. That anger pushed Russia toward the coalition more decisively than any diplomatic effort from London or Vienna could have managed.

  Meanwhile, Napoleon's army became stranded in Egypt. Napoleon invaded Syria from Egypt but retreated after failing to take Acre. He repelled an Ottoman counterattack at the Battle of Abukir, then learned of the political crisis deepening in France. He abandoned his army in Egypt and sailed back to Europe in October 1799. The army itself eventually surrendered in September 1801. Back in France, Napoleon used his military reputation and the support of the army to stage a coup that made him First Consul, head of the French government.

• 4. French Defenses and German Roads

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  In early November 1798, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan arrived at Hüningen to take command of what was called the Army of Observation, a force whose assigned task was to watch the Rhine border. What he found alarmed him. The army was, in his own assessment, woefully inadequate for any serious assignment. The Army of the Danube and its two flanking forces, the Army of Helvetia and the Army of Mayence at Mainz, were all short of manpower, ammunition, and training. Most resources had already been directed to the Army in Northern Italy, the Army of Britain, and the Egyptian expedition.

  Jourdan wrote lengthy correspondence to the Directory documenting the shortages in precise detail. The Directory sent neither significant manpower nor supplies in response.

  The French strategic plan required control of specific roads and mountain passes. Jourdan was ordered to secure positions on the southwest routes through Stockach and Schaffhausen, at the westernmost end of Lake Constance. André Masséna, commanding the Army of Helvetia, was assigned the St. Gotthard Pass, the passes above Feldkirch including the St. Luciensteig at Maienfeld, and the central Swiss plateau around Zürich and Winterthur. Holding these positions would cut allied lateral movement between Italy and Germany while leaving the French free to shift forces between theaters. The Army of Mayence would seal northern routes to Vienna from above. On paper, it was a coherent design. On the ground, it rested on armies that Jourdan had found dangerously underprepared.

• 5. The Swing of Battle

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  In 1799, the coalition pressed forward on multiple fronts. Russian general Alexander Suvorov inflicted a series of defeats on the French in Italy, driving them back toward the Alps. In Switzerland, an Austro-Russian force won initial victories but was then completely routed at the Second Battle of Zurich. In the Netherlands, a British and Russian force retreated after a defeat at Castricum.

  These reversals, combined with Britain's insistence on searching neutral shipping in the Baltic Sea, drove Russia out of the coalition entirely. The British search of Baltic shipping provoked the Second League of Armed Neutrality, which grouped Prussia, Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Sweden in opposition to Royal Navy practices. Britain's response was Admiral Horatio Nelson's surprise attack on the Danish fleet in harbour at the Battle of Copenhagen, which broke the league's momentum.

  The year 1800 brought the war's most consequential engagements. Napoleon crossed the Alps through the Great St. Bernard Pass in May 1800, leading his army into Italy. He spent two weeks conducting the Siege of Fort Bard against Sardinian and Austrian defenders, then crossed into Italy proper. At the Battle of Marengo, he narrowly defeated a larger Austrian force: the Austrians had the greater numbers, but Napoleon organized a retreat from the village and returned with reinforcements. French cavalry charged the Austrian flank, and Austria agreed to evacuate Piedmont, Liguria, and Lombardy.

  In Germany, Napoleon sent General Moreau to take the fight to Austria. Moreau won a decisive engagement at Hohenlinden, then advanced toward Vienna. The Austrians asked for terms. The result was the Armistice of Steyr, signed on the 25th of December.

• 6. Treaties and Their Costs

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  The Austrians signed the Armistice of Treviso on the 16th of January 1801, ending the war in northern Italy. On the 9th of February, they signed the Treaty of Lunéville, accepting terms that largely matched those of the earlier Treaty of Campo Formio. France kept all previous gains and obtained new territories in Tuscany. Austria received Venetia and the former Venetian Dalmatia.

  Russia made formal peace with France through the Treaty of Paris on the 8th of October, then signed a secret alliance two days later.

  In Egypt, Ottoman and British forces invaded and compelled the French garrison to surrender following the fall of Cairo and Alexandria. In the west, France and Spain invaded Portugal in what was called the War of the Oranges, forcing Portugal to sign the Treaty of Badajoz in 1801.

  France also dispatched the Saint-Domingue expedition in December 1801 to recapture what is now Haiti, which had been effectively independent since the 1791 Haitian Revolution. The expedition included more than 30,000 troops, many of them seasoned veterans. It ended in catastrophic failure. By the end of 1802, an estimated 15,000 to 22,000 soldiers had died of disease and yellow fever. Among the dead was General Charles Leclerc, Napoleon's own brother-in-law.

  Britain and France signed the Treaty of Amiens on the 25th of March 1802. The final peace came on the 25th of June 1802, when France and the Ottoman Empire settled under the Treaty of Paris, ending the last active front of the war. The peace treaties confirmed French control of the left bank of the Rhine and recognized the Cisalpine, Batavian, and Helvetic republics as independent states. The interval of peace that followed was the longest in the entire period between 1792 and 1815, though Britain declared war on France again in May 1803, opening what became the Napoleonic Wars.