Napoleon's Wars: First and Second Coalitions

How Napoleon saved the French Revolution.

The French Campaign, by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1864)

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Following the French Revolution, Europe was at near constant war from the 1790s until 1815. Together, these conflicts are called the Napoleonic or Coalition Wars. 

For each of the six wars, Europe’s great powers organized into alliances—called a coalition—in order to oppose France. 

Here is the story of Napoleon’s earliest wars: the First and Second Coalition. 

Map of Europe

In order to understand the Napoleonic Wars, you need to know the era’s map of Europe. 

Central Europe was divided between two great empires: Prussia to the north, and Austria to the south. West of those two countries were a loose confederation of German lands, called the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was a buffer zone between France to the west, and Austria and Prussia to the east. 

First Coalition

From 1792 to 1797, France was opposed by the First Coalition: Britain, Austria, and Prussia. 

Ruled by the Directory, the French Republic declared war against its European enemies, who threatened to reinstall the disgraced King Louis XVI to the French throne. 

In 1793, Napoleon successfully defeated the British-backed royalists during his siege of Toulon. This won him national fame within France as a revolutionary hero.

Then in 1795, General Bonaparte delivered his famous “whiff of grapeshot” when he defended the Tuileries Palace against French royalists. Once again, he had successfully defended the French Revolutionary government from the Bourbon monarchy. 

Now a famous general, Napoleon was sent to aid France’s fight against the Austrians in Italy in 1797. Napoleon’s Italian Campaign was enormously successfully, winning the war for France. 

The war ended with the Treaty of Campo Formio, signed in Napoleon’s new Italian territories. 

Second Coalition

From 1798 to 1802, France was opposed by a Second Coalition. This time, it was Britain, Austria, and Russia (not Prussia). Russia was nominally part of the Coalition, but barely participated. 

The Second Coalition started with Napoleon’s invasion into Egypt and Syria, where he battled against the Ottomans. But the French fleet was destroyed by the British Navy during the infamous Battle of the Nile. 

Back in France, the Directory began to collapse. Forced to abandon his troops, Napoleon snuck out of Egypt. Arriving in Paris, he overthrew the French government and declared himself First Consul in 1799. 

Having stabilized France’s government, Napoleon was ready to again kick the Austrians out of Italy. Famously crossing over the Alps, he smashed the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in 1800. 

The war ended with the Treaty of Luneville in 1801. Under its terms, France gained southern territories in what is now Italy. 

France made peace with Britain under the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, ending the Second Coalition.