THE FRENCH REVOLUTION The revolution of 1789 at first amounted to no more than a national attempt to establish in France a regime of political liberty under the guarantee of a Constitution after the American model, and to abolish the rights possessed by the nobles over the peasants. Nothing was further from the thoughts of the leaders of the movement than armed intervention in Europe, and the Constituent Assembly proclaimed its intention of never engaging in a war of conquest. But the French emigres and Louis XVI. sought help from the European sovereigns in order to restore the ancien regime, and the emperor and the king of Prussia, who had been reconciled to one another at Reichenbach in 179o, made common cause against the revolution. Both the Girondins, who desired war in order to effect the destruction of the king, and a ministry which equally desired it for the strengthening of the royal power, influenced the Assembly to declare war upon Austria in April 1792. The French armies, leaderless through their officers being emigres, were on the point of dissolution, and when the Prussian army invaded France it was only checked at Valmy (Sept. 20, 1792). Thereafter France took the offensive and French armies occupied Belgium, the left bank of the Rhine and Savoy, and stirred up the populations to emulate the French in destroying the ancien regime. After the execution of Louis XVI., England, Holland, Spain and Sardinia formed a coalition directed against France. Russia took no part because Catherine preferred to employ her army against the Poles, who had just set up a Con stitution on the French model in an endeavour to throw off the Russian yoke.
In 1793 France was invaded on all sides, but the large conscript armies that she raised were successful, first in freeing French territory, and then in occupying Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine. France then annexed all the country west of the Rhine and the Alps, which from that time were described as her natural frontiers, while Catherine took advantage of the opportunity to destroy Poland by means of the partitions of 1793 with Prussia and of 1795 with Prussia and Austria. France invaded Holland in 1795 and northern Italy and southern Germany in 1796, and the coalition was destroyed by the Treaty of Basle in 1795 with Prussia and Spain, and by that of Campo-Formio with Austria in 1797. The countries beyond the Rhine and the Alps, which were occupied by the French armies, were organized into republics on the French model; the Batavian republic arose in Holland, the Helvetian in Switzerland, the Ligurian at Genoa, the Cisalpine in Lombardy, the Roman in Rome and Parthenopean at Naples. England was left to carry on the war alone, and France prepared to invade Ireland and dispatched an expedition to Egypt in 1798.
A second coalition between England, Russia and Austria suc ceeded in reconquering Italy, but was checked by the defeat of the Russians in Switzerland and the failure of the English in vasion of Holland (1799). The French victories over the Austri ans in 1800, in Italy at Marengo, and in Germany, at Hohenlinden, compelled Austria to sign the treaty of Luneville by which France remained mistress in Italy, and in 1802 England concluded peace with France at Amiens. (See FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS.) Napoleon.—Master of France since 1799 Napoleon extended his power over all neighbouring countries. He regulated the affairs of Germany in agreement with the German princes who, on the pretext of indemnifying themselves for the loss of possessions on the left bank of the Rhine, annexed the territories of the princes of the Church, of the towns and of the landed gentry, in 1803. Aroused by the colonial and maritime ambitions of Napoleon, England resumed the war in 1803. Napoleon prepared to invade England, but was forced to abandon his idea after the victory of Trafalgar, which finally assured to the British the mastery of the seas. He turned the army in readiness at Boulogne against Austria, which had just formed the third coalition with Russia and England. The surrender of the Austrian army at Ulm, and the defeat of the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz in 1805, compelled Austria to sue for peace. The Holy Roman Empire was destroyed in 1806 when the emperor took the title of emperor of Austria ; the diet was suppressed, and a great part of the Ger man States united in a confederation of the Rhine under the pro tection of Napoleon ; the most powerful princes, those of Bavaria, Wurttemberg and Saxony took the title of king.
The peace negotiations with England led to no result. Prussia, which had entered into the war on account of Hanover, was defeated at Jena in 1806 and subsequently invaded, the whole country being occupied. The Treaty of Tilsit, which was con cluded in 1807 after a personal interview between Napoleon and the tsar, Alexander, deprived Prussia of her Polish provinces, which were made into a grand-duchy of Warsaw. Prussia was to remain in the occupation of the French troops until a heavy indem nity had been paid, and she was forced to reduce her army to 40,00o men. For the purpose of striking at British commerce, Napoleon decreed his Continental System (q.v.) to which the British Government replied with the Orders in Council. All com merce was forbidden between the British Isles and the countries under the influence of Napoleon, but nevertheless, trading rela tions with Great Britain continued under the guise of contraband, with the assistance of the inhabitants of these countries. The British dispatched to Copenhagen a squadron which captured the Danish fleet in 1807, and when Napoleon invaded Portugal the British navy conveyed the royal family in safety to Brazil. Napoleon, who had now become emperor, transformed the neigh bouring republics into kingdoms (Holland, Italy, etc.) ; created in Germany the kingdom of Westphalia; conquered the kingdoms of both Naples and Spain, and gave the crowns to his brothers and brother-in-law. To make the blockade effective he annexed Holland, the shores of the North sea and the western coast of Italy, and thus the French empire extended over part of Ger many and Italy.
Indifferent to the sentiment of nationality Napoleon enraged the Spaniards by giving them his brother Joseph as king, and he irritated the Germans by his repressive rule. The Spaniards took up arms against him and involved him in a war that wore out his armies ; the king of Prussia chose for his ministers men who reformed the army and the civil Government; and when Austria made an appeal to the patriotism of all Germany, Napoleon declared war upon her, defeated her at Wagram in 1809, dis membered her, and in 181 o married an Austrian archduchess, who in the following year bore him a son, whom he called the king of Rome. Napoleon sought to make Paris the capital of Europe and regarded himself as the successor of Charlemagne; when he went to war with Russia he compelled Austria and Prus sia to become his allies and supply him with troops ; his domination extended over the whole of Europe with the exception only of Russia, Sweden, Great Britain, Sicily, Sardinia (where the kings of Naples and Sardinia had taken refuge), Portugal and the heel of Spain. But he had used up successively two immense armies.
But the influence of the revolution survived the Napoleonic empire. In all the countries which he had controlled or occupied France had destroyed the authority of the Church, abolished the privileges and rights of the nobles, and set up religious toleration and the equality of all citizens before the law. The empire had carried on the work begun by the republic, and it is in this sense that Napoleon has been called the Apostle of the Revolution. Europe emerged from this crisis transformed, the whole condi tions of her political life—in Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Germany and even Prussia—being completely changed. (See