The French Revolutionary Wars
In 1792 Louis XVI, believing that a victory in war would enhance his popularity while a defeat of French forces would reflect badly on the revolutionaries, supported war against the Austrians. The revolutionary Robespierre shared his belief that war would strengthen the monarchy and opposed the King, but France declared war against Austria that spring. The Prussians entered the war on the side of the Austrians. French forces defeated the Prussians at Valmy and the Austrians in several battles in the Netherlands and the Rhineland. In 1793 Louis XVI was executed, and the occupation of the Netherlands led the British to enter into the war.
Following the execution of the King nearly all of the European powers declared war on the French, who also faced internal rebellions. The French defeats of the period led to the establishment of Jacobin power in France and the Reign of Terror. By 1794 French forces stabilized the situation on its borders and the following year victories against the Spanish and the Prussians led those countries to sue for peace in 1795. The following year French forces invaded Austrian held Italy, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, a general almost wholly unknown at the time. In the first of his many brilliant campaigns Bonaparte destroyed the opposing forces in Italy.
By 1796 Bonaparte and the French armies were advancing upon the Austrian capital of Vienna and the Austrians requested a peace treaty. The Treaty of Campo Formio ended the first of the French Revolutionary Wars, also known as the War of the First Coalition. Fighting continued at sea, with the British, French, and Spanish fleets engaging in several notable battles. In 1797 the British fleet under John Jervis defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Cape Saint Vincent. Spain had by then made peace with France, but the British were concerned about a possible merger of the Spanish and French fleets, which combined would overpower the British.
While technically the war of the First Coalition was over the British remained at war with France. This led General Bonaparte to plan an attack on Britain through an invasion of Egypt. His increasing popularity was one impetus for the French Directory to approve the plan, since it would place Bonaparte far from Paris. Napoleon won a crushing victory in Egypt at the Battle of the Pyramids, but his fleet was destroyed by the British under Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile, stranding his army. The following year the British organized a second coalition against the French, with Austria and the Russian Empire.
The French dispatched troops to Ireland to provided assistance to the rebellion against British rule, and fought a brief, undeclared naval war with the United States. The Americans had originally been solicited to support France in its wars based on the Alliance of 1778, but the Americans took the position that the treaty of Alliance had been with the Bourbon government of Louis XVI and his overthrow ended the agreement. The War of the Second Coalition, pitting France against the Austrians, British, Russians, and several smaller states began in 1799, with General Bonaparte still in Egypt. By the time it ended Bonaparte would be the most famous man in Europe.