Thermidor and the Directory PDF

# Thermidor and the Directory ## War, Foreign Policy, and Generals The armies were no longer the large revolutionary masses of the Year II. The troops had become professionals who obeyed their officers and maintained order as directed by the government in power. To preserve the republic, the Dir...

# Thermidor and the Directory ## War, Foreign Policy, and Generals The armies were no longer the large revolutionary masses of the Year II. The troops had become professionals who obeyed their officers and maintained order as directed by the government in power. To preserve the republic, the Directory needed to create stability and order within the country. But the more it relied on the military to put down violence, crime, and insurrection, the less the government could claim to be maintaining the rule of law. The Directory period was dominated by war. Despite the broad sentiment for peace that had been demonstrated in the elections of 1797, the Directory depended too much on the profits of war to be able to put an end to it. The generals were the great heroes of the age, whose stature propped up the Directory. War made the generals rich, powerful, and famous. The age of the "nation in arms" and the "citizen soldier" seemed to be over. Instead of defending the Revolution at home from the threat of monarchical Europe (the justification for war earlier in the decade), the armies had now become the instruments of French imperialism as they embarked on the conquest of foreign lands. French armies were doing well in the wars because the allies were hampered by different goals and distrust of each other. In the east, Catherine the Great consolidated Russia's control of its portions of the partition of Poland. She hoped Prussia and Austria would exhaust themselves in fighting against the French. Great Britain, whose interests in northern Europe were threatened by French expansion, needed allies, but the only power committed to the war against France was Austria. In part because that country’s financial difficulties dictated staying in the war to receive subsidies from Great Britain. Austria faced many problems in foreign policy, the most important being the wish to keep Prussia from assuming dominance over the smaller German states. By the Fall of 1794, Prussia wanted peace. The French conquest of Holland threatened to spread revolution into northern Germany, and Prussian resources were already exhausted. The Prussians were convinced even further for peace after the third partition of Poland in 1795 when, with Russia and Austria, it took a share of Polish lands. Having achieved this important goal, Prussia saw no reason to continue fighting and negotiated a peace with France at Basel in April 1795. Other countries also sued for peace. The Dutch in May and the Spanish in July. Having defeated the Dutch, the French transformed that country into a republic, named the Batavian Republic, that was organized on the same principles as the French Republic. Belgium, now firmly in French hands, was incorporated into and administered as part of France. France's opponents at the end of 1795 were Great Britain, Austria, and the small kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, on France’s southern border. Great Britain regretted the French domination of Belgium because of its strategic location on the English Channel. They also feared that with both Belgium and the Netherlands in French control, France would take advantage of the Dutch navy to transform itself into a formidable naval rival. Austria, which had owned Belgium (the Austrian Netherlands) before the French Revolution, was not content to lose it without compensation. Because Belgium was so far from Vienna, Austria would have been pleased to exchange Belgium for Bavaria. But Prussia objected to that exchange, because Austria would thereby obtain more territory within the German-speaking countries of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1795, the Austrian position was rather precarious. They participated in the last partition of Poland, receiving some Polish lands. But the demise of Poland actually hurt Austria’s strategic position. Austria now faced a strong Russian state without Poland as a buffer. Austria was locked in struggle with an enlarged Prussia (which had also gotten a share of the Polish lands) over which country would dominate the Holy Roman Empire. And its only substantial ally was Great Britain, which did not help its cause very much because Great Britain recognized that Austria had no choice but to continue the alliance. Austria exercised considerable influence on the Italian peninsula, where several ruling families looked to them for guidance and where Piedmont-Sardinia was an ally. But even in the Italian peninsula, Austria was threatened by the French. France had already annexed Savoy in 1792 and Nice in 1793, and French troops were poised to move south in 1796 under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte. Born Napoleone Buonaparte in Corsica in 1769 to a minor noble family, Bonaparte (despite his Italian heritage) was French because Corsica had fallen into French hands shortly before his birth. He prepared for his military career by studying in French military academies and had specialized in the artillery. Bonaparte happened to be at the right place to help in the recapture of Toulon in December 1793, which put an end to the federalist revolt there and was rewarded by being made a brigadier general. He was twenty-four years old. He came to the attention of Augustin Robespierre (brother of the more famous Robespierre), who was representative on mission in the area. Bonaparte accompanied Augustin back to Paris, just in time to witness Robespierre’s fall. His Jacobin connections landed Bonaparte in jail, but he was soon released. He helped the Convention put down the Vendémiaire uprising in October 1795 and thus ingratiated himself with the leaders of the Directory. In March 1796 he was appointed commander of the Army of Italy. For the campaign of 1796, the Directory planned two theaters of operation: Germany and Italy. They hoped to keep Austria tied down in both places so that it could not concentrate its armies. They were also preparing an invasion of Ireland as soon as the navy could be brought up to the level of providing suitable transport. They envisioned a fatal blow to the British when the Irish would rise to support the French and when British anti-war sentiment would put pressure on the government to end the struggle with France. However, to fight the British they needed a navy. On the other hand, the British, dominant at sea, needed another power to provide an army to fight the French on the continent. Britain helped finance the land war on the continent, but did not contribute many troops to the effort because it lacked a large army. On the Rhine, two French armies under General Jourdan and General Moreau faced the troops of Archduke Charles of Austria. The Directory intended for this to be the main theater of operations, but Bonaparte soon changed that, even though he had a much smaller army, the campaign in Italy came to dominate events. For the campaign beginning in April 1796, Bonaparte planned to move up from the Riviera and cut the connection between the Piedmontese and the Austrian armies. After defeating the Piedmontese, he would then push the Austrians east out of Italy and join the victorious French armies from the Rhine as they forced the Austrians to retreat. They could then dictate peace terms at Vienna. The plan worked at first as Piedmont sued for peace. The fighting continued in the area of the quadrilateral fortresses, a group of forts that guarded the passes over the Alps, and the French armies also moved south to take over papal lands. The French army surrounded the city of Mantua, where an Austrian army was holed up, waiting for the siege to be lifted by their fellow Austrians. The fighting continued throughout the fall of 1796. Mantua finally capitulated in February 1797, and the French armies moved on toward Vienna. But Bonaparte, assuming that the armies on the Rhine were not making progress, signed preliminaries of peace at Leoben (some one hundred miles short of Vienna) in April 1797. The Directory’s aims in Italy had been to get money from the country and to use lands conquered there to exchange for Belgium, in order for France to gain a secure title to Belgium. But in the peace of Leoben, Bonaparte showed that he was pursuing his own foreign policy. Instead of using Italian territory as negotiating chips, Bonaparte had created the Cispadane Republic in northern Italy in October 1796, which proved problematic during the negotiations for peace. Bonaparte could no longer offer Milan to Austria in exchange for Belgium. Instead he proposed that the Austrians take Venice, an independent state that was not at war. Using the excuse of revolts occurring there, Bonaparte sent troops in to overthrow the government and carved up the territory, part of it going to Austria. Bonaparte then redrew the map of Italy to create the Cisalpine Republic out of the Cispadane Republic and the territories captured from Venice and the pope. Like the Batavian Republic, the Cisalpine Republic was a so-called sister republic, organized on the model of French republican institutions and completely subordinate to France. Several explanations have been given for Bonaparte’s actions. Perhaps he wished to create a sympathetic regime to ensure that his army would be supplied. Perhaps he was indeed devoted to republican institutions and wanted to see the principles of self-determination spread to Italy (although this seems unlikely as he had little confidence that the Italians would create stable republican regimes). More likely, he coveted his own empire in Italy. In any case, the campaign of 1796–1797 had left France in control of northern Italy. Bonaparte's conduct shows that he was acting on his own and not following the orders and plans of the Directory. The Directors were losing control of their generals and of foreign policy. The final peace treaty, the Treaty of Campo Formio, was not signed until October 18, 1797. The Austrians delayed negotiations because they hoped that the victory of moderates and royalists committed to peace in the elections in France in the spring of 1797 would force the Directory to make a more conciliatory gesture toward peace and give more concessions. But after the coup of Fructidor (on September 4, 1797) when royalist elections were annulled, they saw that they had no choice but to sign the final treaty. The Treaty of Campo Formio, though not as harsh as it might have been, was nonetheless a defeat for Austria. They had to recognize the Cisalpine Republic, which was nothing more than a satellite of France. The French acquisition of territory in the Rhineland demonstrated that Austria was not able to protect the principalities within the Holy Roman Empire either. Some of the states of the Holy Roman Empire (notably Württemberg and Bavaria) now sought security in alliances with France. During 1797, negotiations between France and Great Britain did not come to anything. Neither power was willing to give up the struggle nor believed that it had to. France was winning the war on the continent, and Great Britain had many hopes for continued success in the naval colonial wars. During the Terror, the French had poured many resources into trying to build up their navy. However, the lack of skilled sailors, the enormous expense of building ships, shortage of building materials, and the defeat in a naval battle on June 1, 1794 (Ushant, called by the British “the Glorious First of June") put the British ahead in this sector of the war. They took advantage of their superiority by trying to take over the French colonies in the West Indies. The slave rebellion that had broken out in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 had spread throughout the colony. The French government finally responded in the summer of 1792 by sending troops and commissioners to rally the free people of color to its side and put down the slave rebellion. However, by the time these forces arrived, the Revolution of August 10 had dethroned Louis XVI and had established a republic. Some white planters fled from the chaos. Others opposed the Jacobins and fought them in the name of the deposed king. Seeking help from the English forces in the Caribbean, these white planters hoped to reestablish themselves in positions of authority and to preserve the slavery system. By early 1793, the French had declared war on the British, and the cooperation of the planters with the British made them traitors in the eyes of the Jacobins in the Convention. Great Britain was not the only power trying to take advantage of the situation. The Spanish, whose colony shared the island of Hispaniola with the French colony of Saint-Domingue, sought an alliance with the former slave armies. In February 1793, Sonthonax, the Convention’s envoy in Saint-Domingue, wrote home to France urging the Convention to do something for the slaves in hopes of getting them on the side of France. He stressed the danger of losing the colony entirely. The Convention, despite its avowed devotion to equality and freedom, did nothing for the slaves. Sonthonax decided to act on his own to get the support of slaves for France by offering them freedom. But the leaders of the army of former slaves rejected the offer and continued to fight against the French. Toussaint Louverture now emerged as an important leader in Saint-Domingue. A former slave himself, Louverture was committed to preserving freedom for the former slaves. At first he cooperated with the Spanish, but then he began negotiating with the French as well. The former slaves hesitated to throw their lot in with the French because in 1793 it looked as if the British, who intended to pay for the war with the riches of the Caribbean, landed in Saint-Domingue in September 1793, and in early 1794 they captured two other French colonies, Guadaloupe and Martinique. In the midst of this crisis, when France seemed about to lose its colonial empire, the Convention in Paris finally acted. On February 4, 1794, the Convention declared the emancipation of all the slaves. They did so, not because there had been a growth of antislavery sentiment in France, but rather in hopes of saving the West Indian islands for France. The emancipation decree of the radical Convention was not destined to last long. Evidence that no profound shift had occurred in attitudes toward slavery in France is provided by the actions of Napoleon Bonaparte. When he came to power he felt no hesitation in trying to take back control of the West Indian islands and reenslave the people. He was able to do so in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Martinique had been in British hands and reverted to France in 1802 at the Peace of Amiens. But in Saint-Domingue the army, under the capable direction of Toussaint Louverture, had not only prevailed over the French, it had also conquered the rest of the island from the Spanish and controlled it all. When Bonaparte sent an army to Saint-Domingue in 1801, the French encountered a determined foe and difficult circumstances. One historian wrote, “After one artillery barrage of a fort the black defenders began singing French revolutionary patriotic songs causing the French troops to doubt their purpose: 'our soldiers looked at each other questionably; they seemed to say: 'Are you our barbaric enemies? Are now we the only soldiers of the Republic? Have we become servile political instruments?'" The French army was defeated by the resistance of the black and colored troops and by the depredations of yellow fever. So Haiti became an independent country, the only example of a completely successful slave revolt. Toussaint, meanwhile, still hoping to find a way for a free Haiti to be a part of a French empire, was negotiating with French envoys. They captured him by trickery in 1802 and sent him to France, where he died in prison in 1803. ## Egypt and the Second Coalition Napoleon Bonaparte was rewarded for his successes in Italy in 1796 and 1797 by being named the head of the "Army of England," which was still being organized for an invasion. Fearing that an invasion was neither practical nor likely to lead to much glory, General Bonaparte persuaded the Directory to send the army to invade Egypt. Bonaparte had been making a name for himself in Paris by associating with prominent intellectuals and getting elected to the Mathematical Section of the National Institute (the republic's version of the academies first established by Cardinal Richelieu to promote learning). The Directors were happy to remove this potentially troublesome political figure from Paris and consented to his proposal, though they worried about sending the army so far away. The motives for Bonaparte's grand scheme have been much debated. As a Corsican, perhaps he was more interested in the Mediterranean than in northern Europe. Perhaps he was trying to acquire an empire for himself. There is some evidence that he was making plans to establish a permanent colony in Egypt. He seems to have been taken with the adventures of Alexander the Great and might have been planning to emulate him, with Egypt only the first step in the creation of an eastern empire. He justified the intervention by arguing that striking at Egypt would be a way of striking at England's empire by disrupting routes to the east. He might have considered a much more convenient target for striking at England: the kingdom of Hanover in northern Germany. George III was both king of England and king of Hanover. But Hanover did not offer the opportunities for glory that Egypt did. Whatever the reasons for Bonaparte's choice of targets, the expedition had momentous and long-lasting consequences. It might have been picturesque, but it proved disastrous as a foreign policy, creating the unlikely alliance of Russia and the Ottoman Empire. As the sovereign of the territory in northern Africa, the Ottoman Empire responded to this unprovoked act of aggression by declaring war. Other European powers also now joined with the Ottoman Empire and England to create the Second Coalition. While Bonaparte was away from France, this coalition turned the tide in the war and began defeating French armies in Europe, thus hurting the prestige and popularity of the Directory and eventually providing an excuse for Bonaparte’s seizure of power. In intellectual terms, the expedition created great advances in the subject of Egyptology when the French discovered the Rosetta stone, the key to reading ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The most long-lasting result of the French expedition was the sense of resentment that it created among people in the Middle East, who put it on a par with the Crusades as an example of European aggression against Islam. The Ottoman Empire was traditionally a French ally, and France was not at war with them when the invasion began. The French expedition of three hundred ships sailed from Toulon on May 19, 1798, and managed somehow to escape destruction by the British navy. The British, aware that ships were being gathered but not knowing their target, sent a navy under the command of Admiral Nelson into the Mediterranean to find the fleet and destroy it. The French headed first for the island of Malta, which they easily captured from the remnants of the Knights of Saint John, a former crusading order dating back to the Middle Ages. On June 18, the fleet set sail from Malta. Admiral Nelson assumed that they would go directly from Malta to Alexandria, so he headed toward that city. The French fleet, which was much slower than the British, evaded them by going first to Crete. Nelson, not finding the French at Alexandria, next searched for them at Crete. When the French arrived in Egypt at Aboukir Bay, to the east of Alexandria, they discovered that the British had left only a few hours earlier. Quickly disembarking the soldiers in the middle of the night for fear that Nelson would return, Bonaparte then ordered them to march across the desert to attack Alexandria, which they easily captured on July 2, 1798. Although Egypt was nominally under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, the local ruling elite was composed of a special group known as Mamelukes. Originally created in the thirteenth century when the sultan bought boys from the Caucasus mountains to form the elite of his army, they gained control of Egypt and founded their own dynasty. They continued to rule there even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, replenishing their population periodically by purchasing boys from the Caucasus or the Balkans who were trained as warriors. Although the Mamelukes were known as skillful fighters, they were no match for the more advanced technology of the French soldiers. At the Battle of the Pyramids, near Cairo on July 21, 1798, the French won a decisive victory and took control of Egypt. A few days later, however, on August 1, 1798, Nelson almost completely annihilated the French fleet at Aboukir Bay, leaving the French army with no means of returning to France. The invasion of Egypt brought together the Second Coalition against the French. Great Britain, of course, was still in the war and was now joined by the Ottoman Empire. After the death of Catherine the Great in late 1796, Russia had been ruled by her son, Paul I, who hoped to avoid becoming involved in the European wars. But he was worried about the seemingly insatiable conquests of the French revolutionary regime, and Russia naturally feared greater French power in the eastern Mediterranean. Paul, who saw himself as the defender of the Knights of Malta, finally joined the coalition after the Knights were attacked. Naples took advantage of the weakened French position in Europe (in 1798 and 1799 revolts broke out in several of the territories conquered by the French) by attacking the French-sponsored republic in Rome, without success. The French occupied Naples and transformed it into the Parthenopean Republic. Austria also joined the coalition, hoping that with the additional aid of the Russians, it would be able to invade France and overthrow the Directory. After consolidating his power in Egypt (where a rebellion had broken out against the invaders), Bonaparte next turned his attention to preventing the British and the Turks from combining their forces. He led his army north, to the area then known as Syria (what is today called Israel and Palestine). At Jaffa on March 7, 1799, the French were victorious over the Turks, but the aftermath of the battle discredited the victory, as the French massacred three thousand Turkish prisoners on the grounds that they did not have the troops to watch over them nor supplies to take care of them. The French army was beginning to suffer from infection by the plague. They next attempted to take the fortress at Acre. After besieging it for two months, Bonaparte finally retreated in May when he learned that the British were transporting a Turkish army to Egypt. When Bonaparte left on the costly Syrian campaign he had thirteen thousand men. He returned to Cairo with fewer than eight thousand and immediately had to confront the Turkish army, a force of twenty thousand men. The French dealt them a crushing blow at the battle of Aboukir on July 25, 1799. From the British Bonaparte received copies of newspapers that he had been unable to see because of the British blockade of Egypt. He learned about the desperate conditions of the French army in Europe and the unpopularity of the French government, and saw that an opportunity existed for him there. He sailed for France, leaving his army behind in Egypt. On October 13, 1799, the news reached Paris that Bonaparte had landed in southern France. ## Brumaire While Bonaparte was busy in Egypt, the Second Coalition had been making gains against the French, pushing them back on all fronts. The French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory across Europe, were unable to defend such a large area successfully. They also suffered from a lack of manpower, with some of their best troops in Egypt. The Directory hoped that more men would be available soon when the new conscription law went into effect. Passed in September 1798, the Jourdan law made all Frenchmen aged twenty to twenty-five eligible for the draft each year, with the twenty-year-olds to be chosen first, and the rest if needed. The first call was for 200,000 men. Although the allies had the numerical advantage, they waited until the Russians could join them to begin the campaign of 1799. The French, therefore, launched the first attack. The Directory’s plan was to advance on several fronts. But their low numbers immediately led to trouble. General Jourdan refused to take responsibility for the defeats of his army in Germany and resigned his command. In Italy, where the bulk of the French troops, spread over a vast territory