ABSTRACT
Italy's frontiers were altered more frequently during the fifteen years of Napoleonic domination than at any time since the Wars of the Signorie in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The political changes were marked, in classic eighteenth-century manner, by total disregard for the opinions of the populations involved. Italy - like Switzerland, the Low Countries, Germany - remained an area whose fate was decided by rulers and diplomats. Italy's frontiers were altered more frequently during the fifteen years of Napoleonic domination than at any time since the Wars of the Signorie in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The battle of Marengo had freed Lombardy and Piedmont of Austrian troops and Austria, which also evacuated the Romagna. The renewal of the war marked the end of hopes in the Italian republic of a stable and peaceful settlement.
