European Kingdoms

Batavian Republic (Netherlands) (Low Countries)
AD 1795 - 1806

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The French directory was established on 3 November 1795, headed by Paul Barras. France's Revolutionary Wars against the monarchies of Europe began to carve out a new empire for the country, both at home and abroad.

The entire island of Hispaniola was gained from Spain in 1795, while the northern Low Countries were invaded in the same year, just a year after having joined the First Coalition against the French. William V of the Seven United Provinces was forced to flee, heading for England, his mother Anne's country of birth.

The position of stadhouder was replaced by the puppet 'Batavian Republic' (Bataafsche Republiek, named after an ancient Germanic tribe called the Batavi which occupied part of the region in the centuries immediately before and after the birth of Christ).

The republic was modelled on the French system. Subsequently a peace agreement was sealed with Prussia and Spain and the Netherlands were officially lost to France. Similarly, Hessen-Homburg fell under near-constant French military occupation, having to pay contributions to the French war effort and all occupied lands were required to provide plenty of conscripts to the French army.

(Information by Peter Kessler, Drs Dirk van Duijvenbode, and William Willems, with additional information from Foreign Policy and the French Revolution: Charles-François Dumouriez, Pierre LeBrun, and the Belgian Plan, 1789-1793, Patricia Howe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), and from External Links: A Short History of Holland, Belgium & Luxembourg (available for download as a PDF from Stanford University), and Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Belgium from Revolution to the War of the Sixth Coalition 1789-1814, Dale Pappas (The Napoleon Series Archive).)

1800

On 14 June, the Second Coalition is effectively destroyed by an Austrian defeat at the Battle of Marengo. The French victory re-secures their client republics in the Netherlands and Italy, although Napoleon has already restored the Cisalpine republic, on 4 June.

One of Napoleon's most brilliant achievements was his Italian campaign, which ended with the Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800 - Austria was ejected from Northern Italy and French power there was now unquestioned

1806

The French-controlled kingdom of Holland is created by Napoleon Bonaparte.