First Coalition, War of the
Years: 1792 - 1797
The First Coalition is the traditional name of the wars that several European powers fight between 1792 and 1797 against the French First Republic as the first major concerted effort to contain Revolutionary France.
Despite the collective strength of these nations compared with France, they are not really allied and fight without much apparent coordination or agreement.
Each power has its eye on a different part of France they want to appropriate after a French defeat, which never occurs.
The coalition takes shape after the French Revolutionary Wars have already begun.
After the stated aim of the National Convention to export revolution, the guillotining of Louis XVI of France (January 1793) and the French opening of the Scheldt, a military coalition is formed against France.
These powers initiate a series of invasions of France by land and sea, with Prussia and Austria attacking from the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhine, and Great Britain supporting revolts in provincial France and laying siege to Toulon.
France suffers reverses (Battle of Neerwinden, March 18, 1793) and internal strife (Revolt in the Vendée), and responds with extreme measures: the Committee of Public Safety forms (April 6, 1793) and the levée en masse drafts all potential soldiers aged eighteen to twenty-five (August 1793).
The new French armies counter-attack, repel the invaders, and move beyond France.
French arms establish the Batavian Republic as a satellite state (May 1795) and gain the Prussian Rhineland by the first Treaty of Basel.
Spain makes a separate peace accord with France (second Treaty of Basel) and the French Directory carries out plans to conquer more of Germany and northern Italy (1795).
North of the Alps, Archduke Charles of Austria redresses the situation in 1796, but Napoleon carries all before him against Sardinia and Austria in northern Italy (1796–1797) near the Po Valley, culminating in the peace of Leoben and the Treaty of Campo Formio (October 1797).
The First Coalition collapses, leaving only Britain in the field fighting against France.