Editing French Directory (section)

=== War and diplomacy (1798) ===
On 17 October 1797, General Bonaparte and the Austrians signed the [[Treaty of Campoformio]]. It was a triumph for France. France received the left bank of the [[Rhine]] as far south as [[Cologne]], [[History of Belgium|Belgium]], and the [[Ionian Islands]] that had belonged to the Republic of Venice. Austria in compensation was given the [[Veneto]] and the former [[Venetian Dalmatia]]. In late November and December, Napoleon took part in negotiations with the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and Austria, at the [[Second Congress of Rastatt]], to redraw the borders of Germany. He was then summoned back to Paris to take charge of an even more ambitious project, the invasion of Britain, which had been proposed by Director Carnot and General Hoche. But an eight-day inspection of the ports where the invasion fleet was being prepared convinced Bonaparte that the invasion had little chance of success: the ships were in poor condition, the crews poorly trained, and funds and logistics were lacking. He privately told his associate [[Marmont]] his view of the Directory: "Nothing can be done with these people. They don't understand anything of greatness. We need to go back to our projects for the East. It is only there that great results can be achieved."{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|pp=243–244}} The invasion of England was cancelled, and a less ambitious plan to support an Irish uprising was proposed instead (see below).

==== Sister Republics ====
{{main|Sister republic}}
The grand plan of the Directory in 1798, with the assistance of its armies, was the creation of "Sister Republics" in Europe which would share the same revolutionary values and same goals, and would be natural allies of France. In the [[Dutch Republic]] (Republic of the Seven United Netherlands), the French army installed the [[Batavian Republic]] with the same system of a Directory and two elected Councils. In [[Milan]], the [[Cisalpine Republic]] was created, which was governed jointly by a Directory and Councils and by the French army. General [[Louis-Alexandre Berthier]], who had replaced Bonaparte as the commander of the [[Army of Italy (France)|Army of Italy]], imitated the actions of the Directory in Paris, purging the new republic's legislature of members whom he considered too radical. The [[Ligurian Republic]] was formed in [[Genoa]]. [[Piedmont (Italy)|Piedmont]] was also turned by the French army into a sister republic, the [[Piedmontese Republic]]. In [[Turin]], King [[Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia|Charles-Emmanuel IV]], (whose wife, [[Marie Clotilde of France|Clotilde]], was [[Louis XVI]]'s youngest sister), fled French dominance and sailed, protected by the British fleet, to [[Sardinia]]. In [[Savoy]], General [[Barthélemy Catherine Joubert]] did not bother to form a sister republic, he simply made the province a department of France.{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|pp=251–253}}

The Directory also directly attacked the authority of [[Pope Pius VI]], who governed [[Rome]] and the [[Papal States]] surrounding it. Shortly after Christmas on 28 December 1797, anti-French riots took place in Rome, and a French Army brigadier general, [[Mathurin-Léonard Duphot]], was assassinated. Pope Pius VI moved quickly and formally apologized to the Directory on 29 December 1797, but the Directory refused his apology. Instead, Berthier's troops entered Rome and occupied the city on 10 February 1798. Thus the [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] was also proclaimed on 10 February 1798. Pius VI was arrested and confined in the [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]] before being taken to France in 1799. The Vatican treasury of thirty million francs was sent to Paris, where it helped finance Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, and five hundred cases of paintings, statues, and other art objects were sent to France and added to the collections of the [[Louvre]].{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|p=252}}

A French army under General [[Guillaume Brune]] occupied much of Switzerland. The [[Helvetic Republic]] was proclaimed on 12 April 1798. On 26 August 1798, [[Geneva]] was detached from the new republic and made part of France. The treasury of [[Bern]] was seized, and, like the treasury of the Vatican, was used to finance Bonaparte's [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|expedition to Egypt]].

The new military campaigns required thousands of additional soldiers. The Directory approved the first permanent law of [[conscription]], which was unpopular in the countryside, and particularly in Belgium, which had formally become part of France. Riots and peasant uprisings took place in the Belgian countryside. Blaming the unrest on Belgian priests, French authorities ordered the arrest and deportation of several thousands of them.<ref>Thys, Augustin, ''La persécution religieuse en Belgique sous le Directoire exécutif, 1798–99'', d'après des documents inédits, Anvers, 1898, [https://archive.org/stream/laperscutionre00thys#page/n6/mode/1up] (in French)</ref>

==== Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt (May 1798) ====
{{main|French campaign in Egypt and Syria}}
The idea of a French military expedition to Egypt had been proposed by [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord]] in a memoir to the [[Institut de France]] as early as 3 July 1797, and in a letter the following month from Talleyrand to Bonaparte. The Egyptian expedition had three objectives: to cut the shortest route from England to [[Company rule in India|British India]] by occupying the [[Isthmus of Suez]]; to found a colony which could produce cotton and sugar cane, which were in short supply in France due to the British blockade; and to provide a base for a future French attack on British India. It also had several personal advantages for Bonaparte: it allowed him to keep a distance from the unpopular Directory, while at the same time staying in the public eye.{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|p=245}}

[[File:The Battle of the Nile.jpg|thumb|300px|''The Destruction of 'L'Orient' at the Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798'', oil on canvas by George Arnald (1825-1827). Defeat at the Battle of the Nile left Bonaparte and his army stranded in Egypt. [[National Maritime Museum]], [[Greenwich]], England]]
The Directory itself was not enthusiastic about the idea, which would take its most successful general and his army far from Europe just at the time that a major new war was brewing. Director La Révellière-Lépeaux wrote: "The idea never came from the Directory or any of its members. The ambition and pride of Bonaparte could no longer support the idea of not being visible, and of being under the orders of the Directory."

The idea presented two other problems: Republican French policy was opposed to colonization, and France was not at war with the Ottoman Empire, to which Egypt belonged. Therefore, the expedition was given an additional scientific purpose: "to enlighten the world and to obtain new treasures for science." A large team of prominent scientists was added to the expedition; twenty-one mathematicians, three astronomers, four architects, thirteen naturalists and an equal number of geographers, plus painters, a pianist and the poet [[François-Auguste Parseval-Grandmaison]].{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|pp=245–246}}

On 19 May 1798, two hundred ships carrying Bonaparte, and 35,000 men comprising the [[Order of battle of the Armée d'Orient (1798)|''Armée d'Orient'']], most of them veterans of Bonaparte's Army of Italy, sailed from [[Toulon]]. The British fleet under [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]], expecting a French expedition toward [[Constantinople]], was not in position to stop them. The French fleet stopped briefly at [[Malta]], capturing the island, the [[Hospitaller Malta|government of which]] offered little resistance. Bonaparte's army landed in the bay of [[Alexandria]] on 1 July, and captured that city on 2 July, with little opposition. He wrote a letter to the [[Pasha]] of [[Egypt Eyalet|Egypt]], claiming that his purpose was to liberate Egypt from the tyranny of the [[Mamluk]]s. His army marched across the desert, despite extreme heat, and defeated the Mamluks at the [[Battle of the Pyramids]] on 21 July 1798. A few days later, however, on 1 August, the British fleet under Admiral Nelson arrived off the coast; the French fleet was taken by surprise and destroyed in the [[Battle of the Nile]]. Only four French ships escaped. Bonaparte and his army were prisoners in Egypt.{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|pp=246–247}}

==== Failed uprising in Ireland (August 1798) ====
{{main|Irish Rebellion of 1798}}
Another attempt to support an Irish uprising was made on 7 August 1798. A French fleet sailed from [[Rochefort, Charente-Maritime|Rochefort-sur-Mer]] (Rochefort) carrying an expeditionary force led by General [[Jean Joseph Amable Humbert]]. The attack was intended to support an [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|uprising]] of [[Irish nationalism|Irish nationalists]] led by [[Wolfe Tone]]. Tone had several meetings with Bonaparte in France to coordinate the timing, but the uprising within the [[Kingdom of Ireland]] began early and was suppressed on 14 July 1798 before the French fleet arrived. The French force landed at [[Killala]], in northwest Ireland, on 22 August. It defeated British troops in two small engagements on 24 and 27 August, and Humbert declared the formation of an Irish Republic at [[Castlebar]] on 27 August, but the French forces were defeated at the [[Battle of Ballinamuck]] on 8 September 1798 by the troops of [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|Lord Cornwallis]], British [[Commander-in-Chief, Ireland]]. A second part of the French expeditionary force, not knowing that the first had surrendered, left Brest on 16 September. It was intercepted by the [[Royal Navy]] in the bay of [[Donegal (town)|Donegal]], and six of the French warships were captured.{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|pp=398–400}}

==== Quasi-War with the United States (1798–1799) ====
{{main|Quasi-War}}
Tensions between the United States and France developed into the [[Quasi-War]], an undeclared naval war. France complained the United States was ignoring the [[Treaty of Alliance (1778)|1778 Treaty of Alliance]] that had brought the French into the [[American Revolutionary War]]. The United States insisted on taking a neutral stance in the war between France and Britain. After the [[Jay Treaty]] with Britain went into effect in 1795, France began to side against the United States and by 1797 had seized over 300 American merchant ships. [[Federalist Party|Federalists]] favored Britain while [[Democratic-Republican Party|Jeffersonian Republicans]] favored France. Federalist President [[John Adams]] built up the [[History of the United States Navy|United States Navy]], finishing three frigates, approving funds to build three more and sending diplomats to Paris to negotiate. They were insulted by Foreign Minister Talleyrand (who demanded bribes before talking). The [[XYZ Affair]] told Americans about the negotiations and angered American public opinion. The war was fought almost entirely at sea, mostly between privateers and merchant ships. In 1800, the [[Convention of 1800]] (Treaty of Mortefontaine) ended the conflict.<ref>De Conde, Alexander, ''The quasi-war: the politics and diplomacy of the undeclared war with France 1797–1801'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1966</ref>