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6 - The French Revolutionary Wars

from Part I - The Origins of the Napoleonic Wars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2022

By
Lynn Hunt
Edited by
Michael Broers  and
Philip Dwyer
Michael Broers
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Philip Dwyer
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle, New South Wales
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Summary

One thing is certain about the French Revolutionary Wars, 1792–9: their effects far outran anything predictable from their causes. A war that everyone expected to end quickly dragged on with constantly changing combatants. The French started the war in a spirit of self-defence that rapidly morphed into a war of liberation and then a war of conquest and occupation. The other European powers entered the war to hold back the tide of revolution and soon found themselves defending their very existence as they watched the revolutionary tide flow and ebb and flow again, eroding every previous assumption made about the organisation of states and armies.

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The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars , pp. 127 - 146
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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