ABSTRACT
The ineffective part played by Prussia in resisting the tide of French conquest can be partially explained, though the explanation is no exculpation, by the fact that her heart was never in the task. In extent the territories which Prussia and Austria thus acquired exceeded those they were losing to France beyond the Rhine, and geographically the new provinces were more advantageously situated than were those for which they were in some measure compensation. The real gainer by the Polish troubles was the French Republic, which owed its great successes on the Meuse and Rhine in no small measure to the preoccupation of Austria and Prussia in playing jackal to Russia's lion in Poland. The Peace of Campo Formio marks the complete failure of the attempt of monarchical Europe to interfere in the affairs of Revolutionary France, By it Austria followed the example of Prussia in making terms with the formidable Power whose hostility their intervention had provoked.
