In the midst of the events of the French Revolution that lasted from 1789 to 1799, the government of directors commissioned General Napoleon Bonaparte to command the Army of Italy, which was a legion of the French Revolutionary Army, to battle the Austrians on Italian soil in preparation for an attack on Austrian lands in the north.
A portrait of the King of the Piedmontese Victor Amadeus III
When he joined his forces, Napoleon Bonaparte found an exhausted army that lacked the most basic means of combat, as the Italian army suffered from a shortage of food and equipment. In addition, the soldiers of the Cavalry Division ate their horses when they ran out of food supplies.
victories in Italy
And quickly, the 27-year-old General Bonaparte showed military cunning unprecedented in the war raging in Italy. From the beginning, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the armies of Piedmont, an ally of Austria, at the battles of Millesimo and Mondovi, forcing the Piedmontese king Victor Amadeus III to accept the peace treaty and hand over the regions of Savoy and Nice to France.
Portrait of Ludovico Manin
On May 10, 1796, Bonaparte defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Lodi before dealing them a second blow three months later at the Battle of Castiglione on August 5. Thanks to this, this young general forced the Austrians to retreat to Arcole before he could clear the way to the Austrian Tyrol after another military victory at the Battle of Rivoli on January 14, 1797.
The end of the Republic of Venice
In the midst of this campaign against Austria, the neutral Republic of Venice allowed French forces to cross its territory to confront the Austrians. Moreover, the French were not satisfied with passing through the lands of Venice, and at the same time went to support the Jacobins in the city by inciting them to revolt. Faced with this situation, the Senate of Venice ordered to prepare for war.
Unlike centuries ago when the Ottomans were humiliated by the Battle of Lepanto, the Republic of Venice in the late eighteenth century lost its military luster, as its army was exhausted and unable to stand up to the French or a possible revolution that might shake the region.
Map of northern Italy in 1796
With the fall of Mantua at the beginning of February 1797, the French officially declared their support for any revolution that might break out on the lands of Venice. On March 13, the regions of Brescia and Bergamo witnessed a popular rebellion. As the feeling of support for Venice continued in the region, France officially intervened and provided support to the revolutionaries, giving them a significant amount of military equipment.
On 25 April, Napoleon Bonaparte threatened to intervene militarily against Venice if the Senate refused to resign. Faced with this situation, the Council accepted Napoleon’s terms and resigned, and a few days later Ludovico Manin, the last Duke in the history of Venice, abdicated, thus putting an end to the existence of the Republic of Venice, which maintained its independence for about 1,100 years.
Imposing the Campo Formio Agreement on the Austrians on October 17, 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte formally agreed to the dismantling of Venice and the division of its territories with the Austrian Empire.
