The French occupation of Malta, 1798

Abstract

Europe at the end of the eighteenth century was in turmoil. The dramatic events of the French Revolution had thrown the 'old order' into chaos, the new ideals of 'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity' united with the far older passions of martial glory had brought the new 'citizen' armies of the French Republic victory on battlefields from Belgium to Spain across Germany and throughout Italy. The great Empires and Kingdoms of the Old Order had been vanquished until in 1797, after six years of war, and perhaps a million casualties, the armies of the French Republic lay at the very gates of Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire, her bitterest continental foe. On April 18, 1797 at the small town of Leoben, one of youngest of the Republic's generals received the Imperial envoys and signed an armistice ending the War of the French Revolution. It was the cumulation of a campaign that had seen a once unknown second lieutenant rise to lead his army and himself into legend, his name- Napoleon Bonaparte! [excerpt]