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TheFrench Revolutionary Wars re-escalated as 1793 began. New powers entered theFirst Coalition days after the execution of KingLouis XVI on 21 January. Spain andPortugal were among these. Then, on 1 February France declared war on Great Britain and theNetherlands.
Three other powers made inroads into overwhelmingly French-speaking territory in the following months prompting France to amass, domestically, an army of 1,200,000 soldiers. The very ascendantJacobins executed thousands of proven and suspected dissenters, in the final, climactic phase of theReign of Terror. Counter-revolutionary forces turnedToulon over to Britain and Spain on 29 August, capturing much of the French navy, a port not retaken byDugommier (with the assistance of the youngNapoleon Bonaparte) until 19 December. Between these months a battle on the northern frontier, in September, was won by France, which saw the mainly British siege ofDunkirk lifted. The year ended with theFirst French Republic's government, theNational Convention, having rebuffed attacks from the south and south-east but having made an unsuccessful counter intoPiedmont (toward Turin).
At the opening of the year,Dumouriez chose to ignore orders from the government in Paris to defendBelgium and instead began an invasion of the Netherlands, hoping to overthrow the stadtholder and establish a popular republic backed by France. In the event, he tookBreda inBrabant and prepared to cross intoHolland and captureDordrecht. However, the armies remaining in Belgium suffered a number of defeats, such as by theAustrians atAachen andLiège and their raising (lifting)Miranda'ssiege of Maastricht. Dumouriez was forced by his superiors to return to Belgium and take command in theFlanders Campaign.
After a defeat atNeerwinden, Dumouriez had to retreat from Belgium. He then made an agreement with the Austrians to hand over to them several border fortresses in return for a truce where he could march on Paris and restore the monarchy under the Constitution of 1791. However, he was unable to secure the loyalty of his troops, and he defected to the Austrian lines rather than face arrest by theJacobins.
At the same time, the increasing power of radicals in Paris incited revolt in the provinces, with the people ofLyon andMarseille rebelling and theVendée raising an army to attack the central government and open communications with Britain. Spanish armiescrossed the Pyrenees,Kingdom of Sardinia (largely Piedmont-Savoy) armies variousAlpine borders, and Austrian armies occupiedValenciennes and forced the northern armies back toward Paris. Britain ordered a naval blockade of France on 31 May.
The revolutionary government prepared a full mobilization of the nation (seeLevée en masse), showing no mercy to internal or external enemies. According to Mignet's History of the French Revolution: "The republic had very soon fourteen armies, and 1,200,000 soldiers. France, while it became a camp and a workshop for the republicans, became at the same time a prison for those who did not accept the republic." They proceeded to suppressCaen, Lyon, and Marseille, although the counter-revolutionary forces turnedToulon over to Britain and Spain on 29 August, resulting in the capture of much of the French navy, and Toulon was not retaken byDugommier (with the assistance of the youngNapoleon Bonaparte) until 19 December.
In September,Nicolas Houchard defeated theDuke of York atHondschoote, forcing him to abandon the siege ofDunkirk. In OctoberJean-Baptiste Jourdan, taking over the northern armies, won theBattle of Wattignies and returned to the offensive, but did not make major gains before the winter.
In the Pyrenees, the French armies ended the year on a defensive posture near the border, while on the Alpine frontier, a French invasion ofKingdom of Sardinia failed.
The main source for this article is the out-of-copyrightHistory of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, byFrançois Mignet (1824), as made available byProject Gutenberg, as well as other Wikipedia articles.
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