Second Coalition

The Second Coalition was a renewed challenge to French control in Europe between 1798 and 1801. In the book’s account, the conflict ended with France essentially retaining its position, allowing the political and legal transformation begun by the French revolutionary armies to continue under Napoleon.

Background and Course

After French campaigns had extended control across much of the Italian peninsula, a further back-and-forth unfolded during the Second Coalition. The account gives the war’s dates as 1798 to 1801 and describes its outcome broadly: France remained essentially in control. It does not detail the coalition’s membership, particular battles, or the precise sequence of military reversals.

Reforms in Conquered Territories

The war’s significance in the narrative lies partly in the political changes carried out by French revolutionary armies in the territories they had conquered. They abolished remaining forms of serfdom and feudal land relations and imposed equality before the law. They also stripped the clergy of special status and power, while urban guilds were abolished or substantially weakened.

These changes were not confined to Italy. In the Austrian Netherlands, reforms followed the French invasion of 1795. In the United Provinces, France established the Batavian Republic, whose political institutions closely resembled those of France. In Switzerland, feudal landlords and the Church lost power, feudal privileges were removed, and guilds were abolished and expropriated.

Continuation Under Napoleon

The revolutionary armies initiated the reforms, and Napoleon continued them in varying forms. His overriding concern was firm control over conquered territories, sometimes pursued through arrangements with local elites or the appointment of family members and associates. Yet the account also attributes to him a genuine desire to extend and deepen revolutionary reforms.

The most consequential institutional legacy described here was the codification of Roman law and equality before the law into the Code Napoleon. Napoleon regarded the code as his greatest legacy and sought to impose it throughout the territories under his control. The Second Coalition’s military contest thus appears in the account alongside a continuing struggle over the institutions that would govern Europe after conquest.