War of the First Coalition

The War of the First Coalition was a set of wars fought from 1792 to 1797 between France and a loosely allied group of European powers, and it forms the first phase of the French Revolutionary Wars. The allies acted with little coordination because each wanted to annex a different part of France. The war began when France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792 and Prussia soon joined Austria. A Prussian and Austrian invasion was turned back at Valmy in September 1792, and the French Republic was proclaimed days later. Reverses in 1793, including defeat at Neerwinden and the rising in the Vendée, brought the Committee of Public Safety and the levee en masse, and the new armies drove the invaders out and advanced beyond France. France set up the Batavian Republic and secured the left bank of the Rhine, and Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in northern Italy led to the Treaty of Campo Formio in October 1797, leaving Britain alone against France.