Summary
When the powerful and populous France fell under the control of radical
revolutionaries, the old regimes in the other countries of Europe had good
reason to be scared. For that reason,
they made several attempts to band together to face the French Revolutionary
threat. The first of these had been the First Coalition of 1792-1797, which
started collapsing as early as 1795. In that year, Britain recalled its army
from the European continent. Also in 1795, Prussia, concerned with Russia's
looming presence, made peace with France. Spain, ruled by a Bourbon King but
extremely concerned with British sea power, allied with France (which had killed
its Bourbon king). And in 1797, after Napoleon led the successful Italian
campaign against Austria, the Treaty of Campo Formio was
signed, creating the Cisalpine Republic and spelling the final end of the
First Coalition.
During Napoleon's ill-fated Egyptian campaign, Admiral Nelson's British
fleet demolished the French fleet at the Battle of Aboukir (The Battle of the
Nile) in 1799. This rare triumph over France led to the formation of a Second
Coalition against France, which lasted from 1799 to 1801. When, after getting
demolished at the battle of Marengo, the Austrians
signed the Treaty of Luneville in 1801, the Second Coalition fell apart.
Soon after, the 1802 Peace of Amiens secured peace between the British and
French. A period of Europe-wide peace ensued from 1802-1803, the only time
during Napoleon's rule that no two European nations were at war. Of course,
during this brief European peace, there still were conflicts going on in other
parts of the world: notably, France was desperately trying to control the
situation in Saint-Domingue (today Haiti), where Toussaint l'Ouverture was
disobeying Napoleon's orders. In 1803, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to
the US for 80 million francs (15 million dollars).
Meanwhile, in Europe, Napoleon went ahead and made himself the official
President of the new "Italian Republic", which had formerly been the Cisalpine
Republic. Northern Italy had previously been a French-controlled puppet. Now,
French dominance was stated outright. Napoleon also changed the name of the
French-dominated "Helvetic Republic" to the "Confederation of Switzerland",
himself ruling as the "mediator" of this "new" state. Furthermore, Napoleon
carefully monitored events in the German principalities of Holy Roman Empire, as
the rulers of these petty states competed for Napoleon's favor.
Even as the other European powers tried to unify against France, they were torn
apart by suspicion of each other. In the period of the First Coalition, Austria
and Prussia were so afraid of Russia at their Eastern flank that they kept most
of their armies at home and did little to threaten France.
During the French Revolution, Toussaint l'Ouverture led the slaves on the French
half of modern Haiti to rebel, and proclaimed himself for the revolutionary
Republic, which made him lieutenant governor. In 1801, despite Napoleon's orders
not to do so, l'Ouverture encouraged a revolt on the Spanish half of the island,
freeing the Spanish slaves and creating a united Haiti. Although he had been
involved in a slave revolt, Toussaint encouraged white landowners to return to
running their plantations, but with wage instead of slave labor. He established
a Haitian constitution and started making foreign policy by negotiating with the
US. Napoleon would have none of this and sent General Charles Leclerc to take
French power back in Haiti. Napoleon's forces fought a bloody struggle to depose
Toussaint, who was very popular in Haiti, but they finally succeeded. In 1803,
Toussaint died in a French jail. The mission Napoleon sent to Haiti to put
down Toussaint l'Ouverture, though capturing Toussaint, ended up being
expensive and difficult
In 1800, Spain had sold Louisiana to France, and Napoleon had envisioned
Louisiana as a "breadbasket" for a vast French world empire. Toussaint's
resistance in Haiti, however, turned him off to the idea of commitments in the
New World, which would only be a drain on his European affairs. Furthermore, he
increasingly realized that Britain's dominance at sea would allow them to harass
his communication lines and trade routes with any New World colonies. The
takeover of Haiti by the British in 1803 just reconfirmed his desire to get rid
of New World holdings, and since US President Jefferson had expressed a interest
in the Louisiana Territory, Napoleon decided simply to sell
it rather than to get embroiled
in a distant conflict, where his supply and communication ships would be
vulnerable to the powerful British navy.
