THE FRENCH REPUBLIC AND ITS SATELLITES (1798-1799)

Following the year (1792) the war objectives of France's revolutionary administrations shifted away from the conventional French king’s conquest strategies and toward a more self-serving patriotic ideology. France seized Belgium, Germany west of the Rhine, Savoy, and Nice as it moved eastward to reach her natural frontiers of the Rhine and the Alps. These annexations were acknowledged by Austria in the Campo Formio Treaty (1797) and German princes driven from the Rhineland were compensated by gaining the area of former church wars, which put a strain on their financial resources and domestic administrations. Reversals strengthened the difficulties and responsibilities of war while upending the status of their governments at home. Apart from it, the immediate consequences did not differ significantly from those of other, more common forms of inter-dynastic conflict. There was never any chance that a revolution would break out. And court circles, in Vienna and Berlin as much as in most of the smaller German nations, were generally afraid to entertain any notion of a coalition between monarchy and the Enlightenment, and instead tightened in their current tendencies of conservatism. They continued to hold influence over areas that were still not conducive to the acceptance of revolutionary propaganda on an economic and social level. Russia's Catherine II and her successor, Paul, made every effort to keep out French influences and spies; their efforts were successful enough to keep revolutionary ideals from entering the nation.

Furthermore, of all France's adversaries, the most tenacious Great Britain was the one most directly and significantly impacted by the development of events. Britain was particularly open to the revolutionary ideals because of her own violent seventeenth century past her relatively advanced constitutional development, and her early industrialization. The large and powerful Whig party led by Charles James Fox, was initially prepared to defend the Revolution in parliament. Not only did her active radical leaders such as Tom Paine, Home Tooke, Thomas Hardy, and those who formed a coterie around Lord Shelburne, welcome the Revolution as the greatest event since American independence? From 1784 onwards the younger William Pitt led moderate Tory government attempted to enact numerous financial and administrative reforms, and it even entertained the idea of legislative reform. The powerful classes in England took time to turn against the Revolution; it was only after the King's execution the beginning of the Terror, and the start of the war that the majority of the Whig party led by the Duke of Portland, made the crucial choice to abandon Fox in opposition and to support Pitt's war administration.

Even though he was by no means revolutionary, Fox was naturally impetuous and giving. He did not think that Jacobinism in England could ever be harmful enough to warrant states dispersed throughout Germany and Austria and the suppression of free expression. Six France-dependent republics had been established by 1799 in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy. Thus, in November 1799, France became governed by the consulate, which was expanded and screened by satellite states, with General Bonaparie serving as the First Consul association. However, some were alarmed by the sudden emergence of numerous radical clubs and societies, many of which were modeled after the French and in communication with them. The majority of the members of the London Corresponding Society were artisans, small-time traders, and members of the lower classes. It also had associated organizations in cities in the north. Gentry and tradespeople made up the Friends of the People and the Constitutional Society. They, along with a large number of others, called for different levels of democratic freedom and constitutional reform. A 'British Convention' calling for universal suffrage and yearly elections was even held in Edinburgh in November 1793. However, as the war dragged on, these actions began to seem increasingly unpatriotic, and the government tightened its grip on power as it gained more support from the populace. As a result, radical sentiments among the working classes grew stronger, and Toryism solidified into a strategy of opposition to any kind of change. Before 1789, parliamentary change appeared to be imminent, but it wasn't until 1832. Pitt borrowed money, which expanded the country's debt and the size of the rentier class, in order to meet the demands of the war, which included providing subsidies to Britain's continental allies. He instituted an innovation in 1798 that would have a huge impact in the future: the income tax.

The European War ended as the century came to an end. The First Consul understood that in the end, he had to cede conquest and glory to the army since his authority depended on its backing. He was also aware that providing France with a more stable, effective, and businesslike government than she had previously had would be necessary to increase his popularity at home. He wanted a truce to maintain order and security, to solidify his power in France. Consequently, he brought Austria to a complete halt in the Battle of Marengo in June 1800. Moreau's victory at Hohenlinden in December brought to the Treaty of Luneville in February 1801. It reaffirmed the conditions of the Campo Formio Treaty. The theological dispute was resolved for the duration of Napoleon's rule when he signed a concordat with the Vatican that same year. Even Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 as a show of peace. Both the 1793 First Coalition and the 1799 Second Coalition, which had included Austria, Russia, Britain, Naples, and Portugal, disintegrated.

The revolutionary wars were over the Napoleonic wars proper had not yet begun. In the interval Napoleon dazzled France and Europe with the dictatorship.