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After Austria refused to recall its troops from the French border and to back down on the perceived threat of using force, France declared war on Austria and Prussia in the spring of 1792; both countries responded with a coordinated invasion that was eventually turned back at the Battle of Valmy in September.
The Prussian lion circling around the Austrian elephant. Illustration by Adolph Menzel, 1846.. Austria and Prussia were the most powerful German states in the Holy Roman Empire by the 18th and 19th centuries and had engaged in a struggle for supremacy among smaller German states.
The Prussian Minister President Otto von Bismarck made an alliance with Italy on 8 April, committing it to the war if Prussia entered one against Austria within three months, which was an obvious incentive for Bismarck to go to war with Austria within three months so that Italy would divert Austrian strength away from Prussia. Austria responded ...
Within days of the plebiscite, France's pacifist Foreign Minister Napoléon, comte Daru, was replaced by Agenor, duc de Gramont, a fierce opponent of Prussia who, as French Ambassador to Austria in 1866, had advocated an Austro-French military alliance against Prussia. Napoleon III's worsening health problems made him less and less capable of ...
France and Austria continued fighting in Germany until late 1762, when an armistice was signed with Britain and Prussia. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris forced Austria to acknowledge the continued Prussian ownership of Silesia, and France had to cede a number of colonies to the British. The war was extremely costly and left large swathes of ...
Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio in October, [35] ceding Belgium to France and recognizing French control of the Rhineland and much of Italy. [34] The ancient Republic of Venice was partitioned between Austria and France. This ended the War of the First Coalition, although Great Britain and France remained at war.
Moreover, Prussia soon joined Austria against France, later followed by other powers and the armies of émigrés, while the ferment of the Revolution caused political instability, and want of materiel and funds left France's armed forces disorganised.
In any event, Prussia vacillated in the face of the swift French invasion of Austria and then hastily professed neutrality once the Third Coalition was crushed. When Prussia did declare war against France in 1806, its main ally the Russians still remained far away remobilising. The Electorate of Saxony would be Prussia's sole German ally.