The acceptance of the Spanish crown by Philip V in the face of counterclaims by Archduke Charles of Austria, who is supported by Britain and the Netherlands, is the proximate cause of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-14), the first "world war" fought by European powers.

In 1705 an Anglo-Austrian force lands in Spain.

A Franco-Castilian army halts its advance on Madrid, but the invaders occupy Catalonia.

Castile enthusiastically receives the Bourbon dynasty, but the Catalans oppose it, not so much out of loyalty to the Habsburgs as in defense of their fueros against the feared imposition of French-style centralization by a Castilian regime.

Jean Victor Marie Moreau is given the command of the Army of the Rhine-and-Moselle, with which he crosses the Rhine and advances into Germany in 1795.

He is at first completely successful and wins several victories and penetrates to the Isar, but at last has to retreat before the Archduke Charles of Austria.

The skill he displays in conducting his retreat—which is considered a model for such operations—greatly enhances his own reputation, however, the more so as he manages to bring back with him more than five thousand prisoners.

Moreau was born at Morlaix in Brittany.

His father, a successful lawyer, had insisted on Moreau studying law at the University of Rennes instead of allowing him to enter the army, as he attempted to do.

Young Moreau, showing no inclination for law, had reveled in the freedom of student life: instead of taking his degree, he had continued to live with the students as their hero and leader, and formed them into a sort of army, which he commanded as their provost.

When 1789 came, he had commanded the students in the daily affrays that took place at Rennes between the young noblesse and the populace.

Moreau in 1791 had been elected a lieutenant colonel of the volunteers of Ille-et-Vilaine.

With them he had served under Charles François Dumouriez, and the good order of his battalion, coupled with own martial character and republican principles, had secured his promotion in 1793 as general of brigade.

Lazare Carnot early in 1794 had promoted Moreau to be general of division, and had given him command of the right wing of the army under Charles Pichegru, in Flanders.

The Battle of Tourcoing (1794) had established Moreau's military fame.

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.

Austrian troops force the French to retreat at the Battle of Emmendingen, but commanding generals on both sides are killed.

Napoleon finally captures Mantua on February 2, with the Austrians surrendering eighteen thousand men.

Archduke Charles of Austria is unable to stop Napoleon from invading the Tyrol, and the Austrian government sues for peace in April.

At the same time there is a new French invasion of Germany under Moreau and Hoche.

Austria signs the Treaty of Campo Formio in October, ceding Belgium to France and recognizing French control of the Rhineland and much of Italy.

The ancient Republic of Venice is partitioned between Austria and France.

This ends the War of the First Coalition, although Great Britain and France remain at war.

Emperor Francis II of Austria has recalled Archduke Charles from Germany to hold northeast Italy.

In March, Bonaparte launches an offensive designed to break through the Austrian army's defenses.

At Valvasone, the French encounter part of their opponents' army and drive it back.

For the loss of five hundred men, the French inflict seven hundred casualties on the Austrians and capture six guns.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte's French division isolates an enemy column on March 17 and forces its surrender at Gradisca d'Isonzo.

A total of twenty-five hundred Austrian soldiers, ten artillery pieces, and eight colors are captured.

When several retreating Austrian columns make for the Tarvis Pass to the northeast, the French race to cut them off.

The Battle of Tarvis occurs over three days beginning on March 21 as the Austrians struggle to escape.

Bonaparte's forward thrust will carry his army within seventy-five miles (one hundred and twenty-one miles) of Vienna, where the Preliminaries of Leoben will be concluded in mid-April 1797.

The Knights of Malta lose their island to Napoleon Bonaparte in the summer of 1798.

Habsburg forces secure control of northeast Switzerland from the French Army of the Danube in the Battle of Winterthur on May 27, 1799.

Hotze's force takes relatively high casualties—one thousand men killed, wounded or missing (twelve an a half percent percent) of his entire force of eight thousand—although his losses are comparable to Ney's eight hundred killed, wounded, or missing, from his seven thousand-man force (eleven and a half percent).

More importantly, Hotze has succeeded not only in pushing the French back from Winterthur but in uniting his force with Nauendorf and Charles'.

The unified Austrian force completes the semicircle around Masséna's positions at Zürich.

For the French, despite their success earlier at Frauenfeld, the action is considerably less successful.

In the clash, Ney has been sufficiently wounded that he takes immediate leave, and will remain out of action and command until July 22.

The conduct of the battle also demonstrates the weakness of the French command system, in which personal animosity and competition between high-ranking officers, in this case, Soult and Tharreau, undermine French military objectives.

Tharreau will eventually charged Soult with insubordination; Soult had outright refused to go to Ney's assistance, despite specific, and direct, orders to move his division to Ney's flanks.

Furthermore, the French had dangerously underestimated Austrian tenacity and military skill.

The white coats, as the French call the Austrians, are far better soldiers than the French had assumed, and despite such demonstrations as that at Ostrach, Stockach and Winterthur, the French will continue to hold this prejudice.

This will not change until 1809, when the Battle of Aspern-Essling and the Battle of Wagram a few weeks later will cause Napoleon to revise his opinion of the Austrian military.