ABSTRACT
Thugut’s Italian projects were once again discussed as soon as Austria reentered the war against France in 1799 – and in even more radical form. In fact, his hegemonic aspirations in the peninsula grew stronger than ever before after Austrian forces, with the cooperation of a Russian auxiliary corps paid by Britain, had managed to dislodge the French from much of northern Italy. By May 1799, even Turin had been recaptured by the allies. Once more, Thugut would not have scrupled to lay his hands on the region. In summer 1799, there was talk in Vienna not only of reincorporating Lombardy into the Monarchy but even of annexing Piedmont, parts of Savoy, Genoa and the Papal Legations. Together with Venice, by then an integral part of the Monarchy, and Tuscany this would have established full Austrian control over north and central Italy. Thugut set up military administrations for the reconquered zones (as had already been planned in 1796) and even tried to prevent the King of Sardinia-Piedmont from returning to his country from where the French had evicted him in 1798. It appeared as if French domination was simply to be replaced by Austrian hegemony. This was unlikely to sublimate Italian resentment against the French into a positive force to be used by Habsburg policy.
