Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns: 1805-1815

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars raged in Italy for 23 years. In that time, no fewer than eight campaigns involving hundreds of thousands of troops were mounted in the Italian peninsula, as France and Austria struggled over this secondary, but still vitally important theatre of war. As Frederick Schneid demonstrates in this work, control of Italy was rightly seen by Napoleon as an important means of applying strategic pressure on the Austrians, while simultaneously providing security for France’s vulnerable southern flank. This work places the Italian campaigns into their proper historical perspective. Beginning with a geo-strategic overview of the Italian peninsula and its place in French and Austrian calculations, Schneid moves on to a careful consideration of the major campaigns that began in 1805, 1809 and 1813. These include studies of the battles of Caldiero, Wagram and Mincio.