The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787-1802

The French revolutionaries mobilized the largest army seen in Europe, and, pursuing total war, succeeded in conquering a large part of the European continent. However, they were not content with purely territorial aggrandisement: they also attempted ideological conquest, spreading their revolutionary creed of liberty, equality and fraternity. The progress of the revolutionary armies is both narrated and analyzed in this study of the wars, with particular attention paid to the legacy of the old regime, the response of the other European powers, and the reasons for French success. Yet this success was won at a terrible cost: inside France, the war brought the end of pluralism, civil war and the Terror, burdening the country with an enduring legacy of instability. This interaction between events at the front and developments at home is studied in full in this text. There is also careful analysis of the mixed blessings bestowed on the rest of Europe by the impact of the Revolutionary armies. The author ends with the assertion that it was not the French Revolution which created the modern world but the French Revolutionary Wars.