Books
War
War of the Second Coalition
1798–1802 CE
The War of the Second Coalition was the last major phase of the French Revolutionary Wars and one of the clearest bridges into the Napoleonic age. France fought a shifting alliance that included Britain, Austria, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Naples, and other powers, while Napoleon’s Egyptian adventure and later return to France changed his political future. The war ended with France still dominant on the continent and Britain still resistant at sea.
The setting combined revolutionary uncertainty, coalition politics, expeditionary warfare, naval power and Napoleon’s rise before the creation of the empire. It also explains why the boundary between the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars is often blurred in historical fiction.
The war moved across several theatres and political coalitions, so its history can be followed through individual campaigns, regiments, ships, households and factions as alliances shifted and armies advanced or withdrew.
