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TheFrench Revolutionary Wars continued from 1793 with few immediate changes in the diplomatic situation as France fought theFirst coalition.
On theAlpine frontier, there was little change, with the French invasion ofPiedmont failing. On the Spanish border, the French under GeneralDugommier rallied from their defensive positions atBayonne andPerpignan, driving the Spanish out ofRoussillon and invadingCatalonia. Dugommier was killed in theBattle of the Black Mountain in November.
On the northern front in theFlanders Campaign, theAustrians and French both prepared offensives inBelgium, with the Austrians besieging Landrecies and advancing towards Mons and Maubeuge. The French prepared an offensive on multiple fronts, with two armies inFlanders underPichegru andMoreau, andJourdan attacking from the German border. The French withstood several damaging but inconclusive actions before regaining the initiative at the battles ofKortrijk,Tourcoing andFleurus in June.[1][page needed] The French armies drove the Austrians, British, and Dutch beyond theRhine, occupying Belgium, theRhineland, and the south of theNetherlands.
On the middle Rhine front in July General Michaud's Army of the Rhine attempted two offensives in July in theVosges, the second of which was successful, but not followed up allowing for a Prussian counter-attack in September. Otherwise this sector of the front was largely quiet over the course of the year.
At sea, the French Atlantic Fleet succeeded in holding off a British attempt to interdict a vital cerealconvoy from the United States on theFirst of June, though at the cost of one quarter of its strength. In the Caribbean, the British fleet landed inMartinique in February, taking the whole island by 24 March and holding it until the Peace ofAmiens, and in Guadeloupe in April, where they captured the island briefly but were driven out byVictor Hugues later in the year. In the Mediterranean, following the British evacuation of Toulon, the Corsican leaderPasquale Paoli agreed with admiralSamuel Hood toplace Corsica under British protection in return for assistance capturing French garrisons atSaint-Florent,Bastia, andCalvi, creating the short-livedAnglo-Corsican Kingdom.
By the end of the year French armies had won victories on all fronts, and as the year closed they began advancing into theNetherlands.
| Preceded by | French Revolutionary Wars 1794 | Succeeded by |
