Central Europe and Northern Italy 1797

The French Republic secured victory in the War of the First Coalition in 1797, after it defeated an alliance of European powers, including Prussia and Austria as constituents of the Holy Roman Empire, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal, who united against French expansionism and the threat of spreading revolution. The Treaty of Campio Formio, signed on 18 October 1797, arranged for a transfer of lands between Austria and the French Republic. France’s victory made the terms of the treaty favourable to its own interests. Much of present day Belgium, the Rhine area and Corfu was ceded to France, in return for Venice and Dalmatia which were occupied by French troops at the time. The peace did not last for long as war would soon erupt again and begin the process of the disbandment of the Holy Roman Empire, which had effectively become a convoluted, supra-national alliance with conflicting interests between its member states.