HIST103: World History (1600–Present)

The Peace of Campo Formio was an Austrian expedient. Austria could not accept the loss of Italian territories despite compensation in Germany. Their armies were crushed in Italy and repelled in Germany. The Habsburg monarchy suffered from financial crisis and military defeat.

Baron Johann von Thugut (1736–1818), the Austrian Chancellor, did not intend to allow the treaty to stand. The short time between Campo Formio and the outbreak of the War of the Second Coalition was spent negotiating British subsidies, encouraging a Russian alliance, and preparing the armies for another campaign.²³

Britain continued its war with France despite events on the continent. The blockade of French ports and attacks on colonial trade formed the basis of the British war effort. A year earlier, in 1796, French diplomats had convinced King Carlos IV of Spain (1748–1819) and his first minister, Manuel de Godoy (1767–1851), to move from a neutral power to an active ally of France. Godoy saw an opportunity to reassert Spanish power overseas against Britain.

A combined Franco-Spanish naval alliance stretched Britain to its limits. This arrangement amounted to a revival of the Bourbon Family Compact sans Bourbons. The Spanish alliance with Britain during the War of the First Coalition was strained from the start and uncomfortable to both Spanish and British admirals. The naval threat to Britain only abated with their victory over the Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent in 1797.²⁴

The Second Coalition benefitted from Russian participation. A Russo-Austrian army under Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov (1729–1800) undid much of Napoleon's achievements in Italy. Arguments among the coalition, however, led to Russia's withdrawal in 1799. This compromised Austria's position, but Britain managed to retain naval dominance after its victories at Texel, Alexandria, and Copenhagen. Napoleon inherited the War of the Second Coalition after coming to power through a coup d'état in November 1799.

Although his armies defeated the Austrians in Italy and Germany in 1800, the British continued the fight. Negotiations between the French and British governments began in earnest after the resignation of William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) and the formation of Henry Addington's (1757–1844) ministry and concluded with the Peace of Amiens in May 1802.²⁵

The end of the war marked a temporary cessation of hostilities that encompassed Europe and introduced a number of changes to the nature of armies and warfare. Too much emphasis has been placed on the supposedly radically revolutionary nature of French warfare. The most significant alteration was the ability of the various French regimes to raise large armies of citizen soldiers.

Their European enemies raised large armies, too, to meet this threat, but the ease of the French conscription system, codified in 1797 with the Jourdan Law, could not be replicated in other monarchical states. The concept of popular conscription was fully rejected, even if isolated members of the Prussian or Habsburg governments and armies found the idea intriguing. Moreover, the military reforms introduced in the French army had their origins in the pre-1789 Royal Army.

The application of these reforms was felt primarily in the organization of the army into combat divisions and the improvement of the command system. The French army became more successful as its officers and soldiers gained greater experience on the battlefield. Also, many of the tactical reforms can be traced back to before 1789 in various European armies.

The gradual elimination of the conservative leadership of the French army after 1789 enabled the application of reforms without resistance. European armies did not experience significant tactical or organizational reforms until the Napoleonic era.