The Napoleonic Wars - Part 4

 Coup at home

It is important to note that all this while, France was ruled by a directory of 5 members until now. Napoleon, though he hated the Directory, preferred it to a Monarchy. This was because the Directory was very incompetent as compared to the Monarchs. It was doing bad in all the places. Ironically, the Directory required a continuous state of war to survive. During the 1790s, France was in a great internal turmoil.

Law and order situation broke down completely. The Police force was becoming untrustworthy. The French currency's value was decreasing continuously. The Directory assigned a new currency, which didn't help one bit. The source of incomes for the Directory was drying up and it became increasingly dependent on fines, confiscations, loots from other countries to finance it's war. The living standards of the people was decreasing.

They even had no success in foreign affairs. Britain too, was undergoing internal turmoil and they were willing to accept an unfavourable peace, but the Directory's need of continuous war and the mistrust between both the governments made sure peace talks broke down. The French government even meddled in the rivalry between Austria and Prussia for the control of Bavaria. The French formed the league of Rhine, which made both Vienna and Berlin furious. They engineered certain events as an excuse for conquering Italy and Naples.

However, the Second coalition finally put their armies on fields and the French would soon regret their actions. The famous Suvorov (He never lost a battle) led his Russian armies to join the Austrians in Italy and drove the French out from there. Britain landed her armies and liberated Naples. The French lost all their possesions in Italy except for Genoa. In the North, Archduke Charles defeated Jourdan, driving him back to the Rhine and also took Switzerland, though it was later regained in the Battle of Second Zurich.

Napoleon thought this was the right movement to strike and seized power by a coup, deposing the Directory. However, he still felt he didn't had the power to depose the famous Royalist supporters - Moreau and Pichegru, among others.

A New Start

Napoleon started his career as the ruler of France by issuing peace offers. He knew that the Army was in a bas state and he needed to reform it to make it more efficient. He started out by issuing the long overdue salaries of the Army. At this time, the French had 5 different field armies, with a total strength of 2,85,000 men, though on paper, it was 3,50,000 men. The worst conditions of soldiers were in the Army of Italy, where they had 6000 less horses than required for various uses. Napoleon sent supplies to all the armies and their situation improved drastically.

The armies on the Rhine and Danube were reinforced to a strength of 1,20,000 men. Massena's Army of Italy was increased to 40,000 men. An Army of Reserve was also created. Though there were less troops initially, they numbered dome 53,000 by Mid-April, stationed in Dijon. Dijon because it was in a central position, which can send reinforcements either to Italy or to Germany, if need arises.

However, the main change in the Army was the adoption of the corps d'armee system. In this system, the armies were divided into corps, where each corp contained infantry, artillery and cavalry. They were capable of fighting against a large odds for a considerable period of time. This was Napoleon's trump card which vastly improved the efficiency of the army.

War Breaks Out

Now, to deal with the hostile powers at the borders, Napoleon made a plan of action as follows - Italy was made as the main theater of war, Germany being the second. Moreau, with his army on the Rhine would push the Austrains back towards Ulm and then he would dispatch his most experienced troops to Italy. Half of the reserve army at would join Napoleon at Italy simultaneously whereas the remaining would hold Switzerland.

However, this time too, the Austrians attacked first and pushed the French back further in Italy. Food and other items were already dangerously short again, despite Napoleon's supplies, they were not adequate, when the Austrians attacked. Genoa, the only colony in France was in danger as 24,000 Austrians had surrounded and sieged it and the Royal Navy blockaded the seas.

Genoa and the French army there under the command of Massena was the only thing that stood between the enemies and the direct invasion of France. On the other hand, Moreau, didn't start his operations until 25th of April, 5 days beyond as planned. But when he finally did, he achieved considerable success and the Austrians on the Rhine were on retreat to Ulm and the danger of an invasion of French controlled Switzerland was thwarted.

However, the situation in Italy was deteriorating and Massena sent a message that he could hold out for only 15 days more, on May 2-3rd. However, Napoleon needed a whole month to completely destroy the Austrian force sieging Genoa. Moreau, instead of sending detachments to Italy as planned, made his own plans, where he arrived in Switzerland with 21,000 skilled and experienced force. Napoleon was furious, but he couldn't remove him from command and he would need another 3 years to do so.

On 13th of May, Desaix, about whom we have seen previously, had arrived from Egypt. He will go on to play a major role in securing Italy for France, by sacrificing his life. On May 24th, about 66,000 soldiers were converging on to North Italy to relieve Genoa, which still held out and combined with Massena's 18,000 troops present, it would make up for 84,000 French against 86,000 Austrians.

Despite French efforts, Massena was in no situation to fight anymore. His army was exhausted and hungry. He finally capitulated, which compromised the entire plan of action and constituted a direct threat to France. At this point of time, Napoleon changed his strategy and decided to attack the supplies of the Austrian army and went straight for Milan. There ensued the famous battle of Marengo, where the Austrians fought with bravery and skill, but declared a premature victory (Partly because their commander was wounded and there were signs of the French retreating.)

However, Napoleon, with his inspirational words. rallied the morale of his men and regrouped after retreating a few distance away, brought in new reinforcements and pushed the Austrians back and occupied Milan. Their army in Genoa were forced to withdraw and Austria sued for peace. Russia and Britain, who were still at war with France, signed the treaty of Amiens, which brought a period of peace in Europe after about 10 years.