Napoloan Bonaparte in Italy

Napoleon Bonaparte set out to take command of the Army of Italy. In a way, his campaign was intended less to give France power in Italy than to give the French a strong bargaining position to force concessions from Austria. Perhaps most important was the fact that the French government had no money. Napoleon Bonaparte was really asked to plunder and pillage Italy in order to fill the Directory's treasury.

France hoped to strike at Austria by attacking Italy. Austria was not the relatively small nation it is now, but a large power empire. Italy was not a unified country, but collection of separate states. Some were independent, like the Papal States, the republics of Venice and Genoa, and the Kingdom of Sardinia; others belonged to foreign powers, primarily Austria, which claimed Milan, Mantua, Tuscany and Modena.

Germany was in a similar situation. The most powerful German state was Prussia; most of the others were weak and divided. The year before Napoleon's Italian campaign, Prussia had signed a treaty giving France the states on the left bank of the Rhine River, the part of Germany closest to France. But Austria refused to recognize this treaty and took up arms against France.

The war in Germany was not going well for the French, so they hoped that success on the Italian front would give them leverage. With a series of victories in Italy, they might be able to pressure Austria into yielding the left bank of the Rhine.

Napolean had no doubt that the plan he had thought up in 1794, the one that had so impressed Robespierre, would bring such victories. But the army with which he was supposed to carry out the plan was in terrible shape.

The Army of Italy had been sitting at the foot of the Alps for three years. One of its battalions refused to leave France until it had been paid. There was no food, no ammunition, and no money to buy any.

Napoleon set up his headquarters in Nice and received his generals. They took one look at their new commander, a short, skinny 26 year old with long, messy hair, who held a portrait of his new wife in one hand and insisted that everyone look at it, were not impressed. They thought he was a political schemer who had managed to get this post through back-room deals. Did he really expect to take on the Austrian Empire with 27,000 ragged, hungry soldiers who had not been paid in months and wore shoes made of straw?

But young Napoleon was not the least bit intimidated by them. He asked about the size of their units, troop morale, and supplies. Then he said he would inspect the soldiers the next day and begin to march the day after.

Within 48 hours he managed to get enough bread, meat, and brandy to last 6 days. He split up the soldiers in the rebellious battalion and spread them out among all the other units, thus diffusing their anger.

This was his speech to them to inspire courage: "Soldiers, you are naked and undernourished. The government owes you much, but can give you nothing. Your patience in bearing all privation and your courage in facing all kinds of danger have won the admiration of France. She is a witness to your hardships. You have no shoes or coats or shirts, and almost no food. Our supply is up to you to capture them. You want to do it, and you can do it. Let's go!

He electrified his soldiers and began his march on April 2, 1796. Inseatd of tackling the well defended passes through the Alps, he quickly marched his army across Genoese territory. He beat back Austro-Sardinian forces in four battles, and on April 28 the king of Sardinia agreed to a truce. The Austrian army retreated to protect the city of Milan.

After these first victories, Napoleon Bonaparte had another speech for his troops. "Soldiers! Up to this time you have fought for nothing better than barren rocks, which although made famous by your courage, are useless to the Fatherland. Lacking everything, you have made up for everything you lacked. You have won battles without cannon, crossed rivers without bridges, made forced marches without boots, and bivouacked without brandy and often without bread. Only the soldiers of liberty could have endured what you have endured! For all this, my thanks. You still have battles to fight, cities to take, and rivers to cross. You have done nothing, since you have everything to do."

When he signed the peace treaty with the king of Sardinia, he wrote into it the "right to cross the Po River at Valenza." The Austrian general was completely fooled and immediately took his troops off to Valenza to lie in wait for the French army.

But Napoleon calmly crossed the river at Piacenza instead, taking the Austrians by surprise from behind. After the Battle of Lodi, the rich provence of Lombardy fell into his lap. Now Milan was wide open to his advance. Archduke Ferdinand of Austria left that city in a great hurry, taking with him his gold and art collections.

After each conquest, Napoleon presented himself as a liberator. Even though the Directors had told him not to help revolutionary movements in Italy. France did not want any Italian entanglements, Napoleon disobeyed. He addressed the Italians in stirring words.

"People of Italy! The French army comes to break your chains. The French nation is the friend of all nations; receive us with trust! Your property, your religion, your customs will be respected. We shall wage war like generous enemies, for our only quarrel is with the tyrants who have enslaved you."

The citizens of Milan greeted Napolean with open arms. He emptied their treasury and marched south. He conquered the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the duchies of Modena and Parma, and the papal city-states of Bologna and Ferrara. This diversion took him a month and secured vast amounts of money, horses, ammunition, food, and equipment. Napoleon also looted the great cultural treasures of these states, sending to France many priceless paintings and other works of art.

The Directory was delighted with the spoils but less ecstatic about the fact that Napoleon was negotiating all the treaties himself. He did not ask for their permission or their stamp of approval. His popularity was growing by leaps and bounds, and the Directors were in no position to stop him.

Throughout the entire campaign, the Austrian generals in Italy made the mistake of dividing their troops, thus handing Napoleon some easy victories. He also had an advantage because his army was very different from the armies it faced. The Austrian troops were paid professional soldiers. They would continue to eat whether they won or lost. But for the French army, victory meant food and clothes. Defeat meant starvation.

Napoleon's only problem in Italy was Mantua. His troops tried for a month to bring the city to its knees, but Mantua refused to surrender. A fresh division of Austrian troops was sent to break the French army. Soon there were rumors in France that Napolean was about to lose Italy.

But in January 1797 the Austrian general again made the fatal mistake. Although his army was much larger than Napoleon's, he split it into two groups. This made Napoleon's strategy simple. He attacked the left flank of the Austrian army and demolished it. The rest of the Austrian troops fled. In hot persuit, Napoleon set out across the Alps. When he was practically at the gates of Vienna, Austria's capital, the Austrians decided to negotiate. The result was the preliminary peace treaty of Leoben, signed in April 1797. Napoleon concluded this treaty on his own authority, without the approval of the Directors, who considered the terms too generous to Austria.

Although the Directors were not pleased with his personal diplomacy, they were anxious to keep Napoleon ot of Paris. They thought he was growing far too popular with the French people and might be dangerous if he returned.

Napoleon stayed in Italy to complete the peace negotiations, but the Austrians were in no hurry to reach a final agreement. Elections had recently been held in France, and the royalists had done well in the Council of Elders and the Council of Five Hundred. Both councils were fighting with the Directors, the Directors were fighting with each other, and the Austrians were hoping for a royalist take over of the government.

As the royalists become an increasing menace to the republic, the Directors decided they had no choice but to call upon Bonaparte and his army. Too weak and divided to turn to the French people for defense or to come up with a political solution, they wanted Napoleon to impose a military solution.

Napoleon had been alarmed by the election results and had urged the Directors to suppress the royalists. But when they actually sent for him, he played his cards carefully. If the coup against the royalists failed, he did not want to be too closely associated with it. So instead of going to Paris himself, he sent one of his generals, Pierre Augereau. Augereau arrived on August 7, and by September 4 the royalists had been defeated.

Napoleon claimed the victory as his own, and the Austrians suddenly decided to make a hasty final settlement.

The Treaty of Campo-Formio was signed on October 17, 1797. It basically confirmed the earlier Peace of Leoben, leaving Austria in control of important areas of Italy. But the French claimed the Low Countries and much of Italy, and won a secret promise that Austria would yield the left bank of the Rhine to France.

Napoleon signed the treaty without authorization from the Directors, but the French people were delirious with joy. When he returned to Paris on December 5, a huge official celebration awaited him. The Directors realized that they could not afford to let the people know how irritated they were. They proclaimed that the treaty fulfilled all their wishes, and they immediately gave Napoleon command of the Army of England, anything to get him out of Paris.
- Introductory Essay on Leadership
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.