Revolutionary Italy

Southern Italy Series

-----Revolutionary Italy-----

The French Revolution began on the 14th of July 1789 with the storming of the Bastille. As the revolution continued Austria issued the Declaration of Phillnitz in late August 1791. Revolutionary France subsequently declared war on Austria in April 1792.

On the 27th of March 1796 General Napoleon Bonaparte assumed command of the Army of Italy, roughly 40,000 Frenchmen tasked with defeating Austria and liberating Italy. He then marched north from Nice and split the Piedmontese Army from their Austrian allies. The Piedmontese signed an armistice on April 28th. The Austrians tried to retreat to Milan but Napoleon was too quick, crossing the Po at Piacenza he smashed the Austrian rearguard at Lodi and entered Milan on the 15th of May.

Napoleon then defeated the Austrian reinforcements at Castiglione and continued his siege of their fortress at Mantua. In November he bested the Austrians at Arcola and again in January 1797 at Rivoli. Mantua finally surrendered on the 2nd of February.

On February 19th The Papal States sued for peace.

On the 18th of October 1797 France and Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, ceding Belgium and Lombardy to the French in exchange for Austrian control of Venice.

After a riot in Rome on December 28th lead to the death of French general Mathurin-Léonard Dupot, a French army under the command of general Berthier entered Rome on the 10th of February. The French proclaimed that Rome was now a republic and ordered Pope Pius VI to give up his temporal powers of state. Pius refused and was taken prisoner.

Meanwhile, in May of 1798, Napoleon set sail from Toulon, France with the Army of the Orient. In June he seized Malta from the Knights of St. John and on July 1st he landed in Alexandria Egypt. On the 21st of July he won the Battle of the Pyramids.

Back in Italy, Ferdinand IV of Naples (III of Sicily) was encouraged by British and Austrian support to enter Rome and reestablish the Papacy. Ferdinand gathered 70,000 men commanded by the Austrian General Karl von Mack. On October 29th, 1798 they entered Rome. But a French counterattack led by General Championnet soon routed the Neapolitan army.

On December 6th French General Joubert occupied Turin and forced King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia-Piedmont to abdicate. With Piedmont now under French control, Charles fled to Sardinia.

Back in Rome, General Championnet marched south on Naples. Ferdinand fled to Palermo and recreated his government in Palermo, Sicily. On January 12th, 1799 the de facto head of government, Francesco Pignatelli Strongoli surrendered to General Championnet. As the French closed in on Naples various Republican factions formed in support of a republic. Unlike in France, the poor classes of Naples [link] supported Ferdinand and now began to fight a vicious battle against the Republican factions on his behalf. But within the city the Republicans, better armed and better led, won the day and on the 23rd of January formed the Parthenopean Republic.

Southern Italy Series

500 BC [link] Origins
264 BC [link] The Punic Wars
115 AD [link] The Roman Empire
405 [link] East and West
526 [link] Collapse of the West
565 [link] Reconquest
572 [link] Lombard Invasion
751 [link] Lombard Italy
814 [link] Charlemagne’s Empire
1000 [link] Italy and the Holy Roman Empire
1095 [link] The Norman Conquest
1154 [link] The Kingdom of Sicily
1250 [link] Hohenstaufen Italy
1280 [link] Anjou Sicily
1300 [link] War of the Vespers
1400 [link] Black Death
1492 [link] Renaissance Italy
1559 [link] Italian Wars
1715 [link] Habsburg Italy
1780 [link] Bourbon Italy
1799 Revolutionary Italy
1812 [link] Napoleonic Italy
1860 [link] United Italy

2/19/12 EDIT:
map base source [link]
map base created by Citypeek [link]