Episode 37 Italian Campaign and Sister Republics
Living the French Revolution and Age of Napoleon
Dr Suzanne M Desan
Film Review
Prior to Napoleon’s invasion of Italy in 1796, a king rule Piedmont-Sardinia, Austria ruled the Duchy of Milan and Venice was a republic and independent state. The bigger Italian cities had a strong revolutionary movement, with Italian revolutionaries forming clubs and (illegally) publishing revolutionary pamphlets and newspapers. Filippo Buonarroti, the Jacobin author of Conspiracy of Equals, had created a small republican principality in northwest Italy as a refuge for Italian republicans. They set up public schools and enacted price controls and laws suppressing feudalism. At the beginning of 1796, Buonarroti sought support from the French army to topple the local king.
On March 27, 1796 Napoleon arrived in Nice to take charge of the French Army of Italy. By 21 April, he had driven the Austrians from Piedmont-Sardinia and by mid-May, cheered by Italian patriots, his army marched into Milan. A string of defeats forced Austria to withdraw entirely from the Italian peninsula. Chased by Napoleon’s troops all the way to Vienna, they eventually sued for peace.
Napoleon then established two republics in northern Italy, the Cisalpine Republic and the Cispadel Republic.
Desan attributes Napoleon phenomenal military success to his exceptional treatment of his men, his ability to read terrain and his skill in the logistics of moving troops, artillery, horses and food. Napoleon paid his men in hard cash, bread and meat; was generous with military honors and had no qualms about assisting them them digging moving supply wagons and heavy artillery out of muddy ditches. In the fertile plains of northern Italy, he also encouraged them to forage for food to reduce his reliance on slow moving supply lines. He also introduced a new military formation (a combination of lines and columns) that was easier for new recruits to master and enable Napoleon to execute rapid strikes that outflanked the Austrian army and cut off their supply lines.
The Battle of Lodi was his first really famous battle. He brought the art of self-promotion to new heights, buying several newspapers to promote his successful campaign. After capturing Milan, he marched south on Directory orders to impose war reparations and collect booty (the equivalent of 12 million dollars in gold and silver, 46 million cash and hundreds of paintings and sculptures of Italian masters for the art museum the Directory established at the Louvre.
He would defy the Directory in encouraging Italians to create republics once the Austrians withdrew. He would also defy the Pope in forming the Cispadine Republic (eventually absorbed by the Cisaplpine Republic).
His new Italian republics established a free press, granted rights to Jews, adopted the French revolutionary calendar.
Napoleon played a major role in negotiating the Treat of Campo Formeo, which ended the war with Austria. As part of this treaty, he surrendered the independent Republic of Venice to Austrian control and three more sister republics were formed in Rome, Naples and Luca.
*A region of Italy bordering France and Switzerland.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
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Author: stuartbramhall
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