The French prepare a great advance on three fronts, with Jourdan and Jean Victor Marie Moreau on the Rhine and the newly promoted Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy.

The three armies are to link up in Tyrol and march on Vienna.

In the Rhine Campaign of 1796, Jourdan and Moreau cross the Rhine River and advance into Germany.

Jourdan advances as far as Amberg in late August while Moreau reaches Bavaria and the edge of Tyrol by September.

However, Jourdan is defeated by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and both armies are forced to retreat back across the Rhine.

Napoleon, on the other hand, is successful in a daring invasion of Italy.

In the Montenotte Campaign, he separates the armies of Sardinia and Austria, defeating each one in turn, then forces a peace on Sardinia.

Following this, his army captures Milan and starts the Siege of Mantua.

Bonaparte defeats successive Austrian armies sends against him under Johann Peter Beaulieu, Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser and József Alvinczi while continuing the siege.

The rebellion in the Vendée is also crushed in 1796 by Louis Lazare Hoche.

Hoche's subsequent attempt to land a large invasion force in Munster to aid the United Irishmen is unsuccessful.