IV.

The War of the Second Coalition, 1798-1802

It was not long before Britain obtained fresh allies. Having previously taken over Rome, Piedmont, and Switzerland, in September 1798 an army headed by Napoleon Bonaparte sailed for Egypt. A bizarre move that has never been explained completely satisfactorily, this immediately plunged France into war with the Ottoman Empire, Naples, and Russia. In Egypt things went badly wrong: Nelson shattered the French fleet at Abu Qir, while an invasion of Palestine was checked before the walls of Acre. Meanwhile, back in Europe the Austrians joined the new alliance—the Second Coalition—and invaded northern Italy with the backing of the Russian army. Very soon the French were reeling back in defeat, and they were also forced to abandon Naples, which they had briefly managed to occupy and republicanize. Eventually, the situation was stabilized, but for the time being all of Italy had been lost, while a seaborne invasion of the Batavian Republic was only repelled with some difficulty. It was therefore to a badly shaken France that Napoleon returned when he decided to abandon the garrison of Egypt in October 1799. In the midst of political chaos, he soon managed to establish himself as de facto ruler of France. Aided by the fact that inter-allied quarrels had led Russia effectively to pull out of the war, Napoleon soon ended the stalemate. Invading Italy once more, he shattered the Austrians at Marengo, and in December a second victory at Hohenlinden—the work not of Napoleon but General Moreau—again knocked them out of the war. Unable to intervene in Europe, the British did manage to reconquer Egypt, but 1801 saw them faced not just by the French but also a new league led by Russia that sought to protect the rights of neutral shipping. This last was broken by a naval victory at Copenhagen, but Britain was exhausted and suffering serious economic difficulties. Prepared to offer France very favourable terms, in May 1802 she made peace by means of the Treaty of Amiens. The French Revolutionary Wars were at an end.

See also Napoleonic Wars.