War of the First Coalition
France declared war on Austria in April 1792 and fought most of Europe for five years. The declaration was wanted by almost everyone in Paris for incompatible reasons. The Girondins believed a war would expose the king's treachery and spread the revolution; the court believed a defeat would restore royal authority; and Robespierre opposed it on the ground that nobody loves armed missionaries, which is the one prediction of the period that everybody quotes. The first campaigns were a catastrophe. The army had lost most of its officers to emigration, whole units ran at Lille, and by August the Prussians had taken Longwy and Verdun and Brunswick had promised to destroy Paris. The monarchy fell on 10 August, and the invasion was stopped at Valmy on 20 September by an artillery duel in the rain. France then went over to the offensive, annexed the Rhineland and Belgium, executed the king, and found itself at war with Britain, Spain, the Dutch and Piedmont as well. The year 1793 brought the Vendée, the federalist revolts, the loss of Toulon to the British, and the Terror that was organised to answer them. The levée en masse raised some 800,000 men, and the coalition began to come apart over Poland, which Prussia and Russia were partitioning while Austria fought. Prussia made peace in 1795, Spain followed, and Bonaparte's Italian campaign knocked out Austria in 1797. Britain fought on alone. The war also made the modern army. Conscription of an entire nation, promotion by ability rather than birth, divisions combining all arms, and living off the country rather than off magazines were all forced on France by necessity and adopted by everyone else within twenty years.
- Year: 1792 CE
- Category: Military
