ABSTRACT

Austria was to launch supporting offensives in northern Italy and on the upper Rhine, while an Anglo-Russian expeditionary force would invade Holland and drive into the Netherlands. Under these multiple blows the Directory would collapse, so that Bourbon rule could be restored to France and peace and security to Europe. The analysis of Austria's role in the Second Coalition will be made from two different angles, viewing Austria first as subject and then as object. The Russian contingents in Italy and Switzerland, united under the charismatic leadership of Marshal Suvorov, would invade France from Switzerland, raising the Bourbon standard at Lyons. Thugut foresaw all the military and political problems Austria would later experience, even anticipating that if the war went badly Russia would pull out. But Austria's need for the alliance, above all to check Prussia, gave it no choice.