Of the nominally independent states the chief were the kingdom
of Sardinia, ruled over by the house of Savoy, and comprising
Piedmont, the isle of Sardinia and nominally Savoy and Nice,
though the two provinces last named had virtually been lost
to the monarchy since the campaign of 1793. Equally extensive,
but less important in the political sphere, were the Papal States
and Venetia, the former torpid under the obscurantist rule
of pope and cardinals, the latter enervated by luxury and the
policy of unmanly complaisance long pursued by doge and
council. The ancient rival of Venice, Genoa, was likewise far
gone in decline. The small states, Lucca and San Marino,
completed the map of Italy. The worst governed part of the
peninsula was the south, where feudalism lay heavily on the
cultivators and corruption pervaded all ranks. Milan and
Piedmont were comparatively well governed; but repugnance
to Austrian rule in the former case, and the contagion of French
Jacobinical opinions in the latter, brought those populations into
increasing hostility to the rulers. The democratic propaganda,
which was permeating all the large towns of the peninsula, then
led to the formation of numerous and powerful clubs and secret
societies; and the throne of Victor Amadeus III., of the house
of Savoy, soon began to totter under the blows delivered by the
French troops at the mountain barriers of his kingdom and under
the insidious assaults of the friends of liberty at Turin. Plotting
was rife at Milan, as also at Bologna, where the memory of old
liberties predisposed men to cast off clerical rule and led to the
first rising on behalf of Italian liberty in the year 1794. At
Palermo the Sicilians struggled hard to establish a republic
Bonaparte
in Italy.
in place of the odious government of an alien dynasty.
The anathemas of the pope, the bravery of Piedmontese
and Austrians, and the subsidies of Great Britain
failed to keep the league of Italian princes against
France intact. The grand-duke of Tuscany was the first of the
European sovereigns who made peace with, and recognized
the French republic, early in 1795. The first fortnight of
Napoleon’s campaign of 1796 detached Sardinia from alliance
with Austria and England. The enthusiasm of the Italians
for the young Corsican “liberator” greatly helped his progress.
Two months later Ferdinand of Naples sought for an armistice,
the central duchies were easily overrun, and, early in 1797,
Pope Pius VI. was fain to sign terms of peace with Bonaparte
at Tolentino, practically ceding the northern part of his states,
known as the Legations. The surrender of the last Habsburg
stronghold, Mantua, on the 2nd of February 1797 left the field
clear for the erection of new political institutions.
Already the men of Reggio, Modena and Bologna had declared for a democratic policy, in which feudalism and clerical rule should have no place, and in which manhood suffrage, together with other rights promised by Bonaparte to the men of Milan in May 1796, should form the basis The Cispadane Republic. of a new order of things. In taking this step the Modenese and Romagnols had the encouragement of Bonaparte, despite the orders which the French directory sent to him in a contrary sense. The result was the formation of an assembly at Modena which abolished feudal dues and customs, declared for manhood suffrage and established the Cispadane Republic (October 1796).
The close of Bonaparte’s victorious campaign against the Archduke Charles in 1797 enabled him to mature those designs respecting Venice which are detailed in the article Napoleon. On a far higher level was his conduct towards the Milanese. While the French directory saw in that province little more than a district which might be plundered and bargained for, Bonaparte, though by no means remiss in the exaction of gold and of artistic treasures, was laying the foundation of a friendly republic. During his sojourn at the castle of Montebello or Mombello, near Milan, he commissioned several of the leading men of northern Italy to draw up a project of constitution and list of reforms for that province. Meanwhile he took care to curb the excesses of the Italian Jacobins and to encourage the Moderates, who were favourable to the French connexion as promising a guarantee against Austrian domination and internal anarchy. He summed up his conduct in the letter of the 8th of May 1797 to the French directory, “I cool the hot The Cisalpine Republic. heads here and warm the cool ones.” The Transpadane Republic, or, as it was soon called, the Cisalpine Republic, began its organized life on the 9th of July 1797, with a brilliant festival at Milan. The constitution was modelled on that of the French directory, and, lest there should be a majority of clerical or Jacobinical deputies, the French Republic through its general, Bonaparte, nominated and appointed the first deputies and administrators of the new government. In the same month it was joined by the Cispadane Republic; and the terms of the treaty of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797), while fatal to the political life of Venice, awarded to this now considerable state the Venetian territories west of the river Adige. A month later, under the pretence of stilling the civil strifes in the Valtelline, Bonaparte absorbed that Swiss district in the Cisalpine Republic, which thus included all the lands between Como and Verona on the north, and Rimini on the south.
Early in the year 1798 the Austrians, in pursuance of the scheme of partition agreed on at Campo Formio, entered Venice and brought to an end its era of independence which had lasted some 1100 years. Venice with its mainland territories east of the Adige, inclusive of Istria and End of the Venetian Republic. Dalmatia, went to the Habsburgs, while the Venetian isles of the Adriatic (the Ionian Isles) and the Venetian fleet went to strengthen France for that eastern expedition on which Bonaparte had already set his heart. Venice not only paid the costs of the war to the two chief belligerents, but her naval resources also helped to launch the young general on his career of eastern adventure. Her former rival, Genoa, had also been compelled, in June 1797, to bow before the young conqueror, and had undergone at his hands a remodelling on the lines already followed at Milan. The new Genoese republic, French in all but name, was renamed the Ligurian Republic.
Before he set sail for Egypt, the French had taken possession of Rome. Already masters of the papal fortress of Ancona, they began openly to challenge the pope’s authority at the Eternal City itself. Joseph Bonaparte, then French envoy to the Vatican, encouraged democratic French occupation of Rome. manifestations; and one of them, at the close of 1797, led to a scuffle in which a French general, Duphot, was killed. The French directory at once ordered its general, Berthier, to march to Rome: the Roman democrats proclaimed a republic on the 15th of February 1798, and on their invitation Berthier and his troops marched in. The pope, Pius VI., was forthwith haled away to Siena and a year later to Valence in the south of France, where he died. Thus fell the temporal power. The “liberators” of Rome thereupon proceeded to plunder the city in a way which brought shame on their cause and disgrace (perhaps not wholly deserved) on the general left in command, Masséna.
These events brought revolution to the gates of the kingdom
of Naples, the worst-governed part of Italy, where the boorish
king, Ferdinand IV. (il rè lazzarone, he was termed),
and his whimsical consort, Maria Carolina, scarcely
held in check the discontent of their own subjects. A British
Naples.
fleet under Nelson, sent into the Mediterranean in May 1798
primarily for their defence, checkmated the designs of Bonaparte
in Egypt, and then, returning to Naples, encouraged that court
to adopt a spirited policy. It is now known that the influence
of Nelson and of the British ambassador, Sir William Hamilton,
and Lady Hamilton precipitated the rupture between Naples
and France. The results were disastrous. The Neapolitan
troops at first occupied Rome, but, being badly handled by
their leader, the Austrian general, Mack, they were soon scattered
in flight; and the Republican troops under General
The Partheno-
paean Republic.
Championnet, after crushing the stubborn resistance
of the lazzaroni, made their way into Naples and
proclaimed the Parthenopaean Republic (January 23,
1799). The Neapolitan Democrats chose five of their leading
men to be directors, and tithes and feudal dues and customs
