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This covers the year 1800.

We get Napoleon's first year as First Consul, and the two campaigns that drive Austria out of the 2nd Coalition.

On the British side we get the Act of Union and the combination of the Irish and British Parliaments. Naturally, we get Catholic Emancipation as a consequence.

What? NO? we don't. Oh, that's gonna be weird.

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A rapidly thrown together expedition to the Batavian Republic in expelled by the French.

And yet, there were key successes and innovations that point the way to the future. We'll focus on these as we cover the events of the invasion itself.

The new Light Infantry doctrine of the British Army, that John Moore and the Duke of York push through the Army, over all their resistance to change, is part of the package that makes British infantry the best in the world by 1808. Many of the lessons learned, were learned in this campaign.

Also, there was the experience of relying on the reverse slope, where in the 2nd battle, the British infantry were able to inflict 2,000 Franco-Batavian casualties at the cost of only 37 dead.

Many more lessons learned and the end of the Dutch fleet as a threat were the major results.

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This covers the 1799 campaigns in Italy and Switzerland and Suvorov's art of war. The title is a play on Clausewitz's work on the topic, and Clausewitz is a major source.

Massena, Moreau, Joubert and Jourdan try to fight campaigns dominated by the presence of Suvorov the greatest Russian commander of all times.

Suvorov dominates Italy, defeating three French armies in 3 major battles.

Archduke Charles begins the campaign in Switzerland, defeating Jourdan, eventually driving him into retirement. But Massena is a more difficult opponent.

The Aulic Council makes one of history's great unforced errors. Leaving Rimsky-Korsakov (no, not him, his father though) to face Massena alone. Scheherazade cannot save him.

We end with some of Suvorov's writings on warfare, including excerpts from his: How to Win, an Address to Soldiers in their own Language.

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We take a look at 1798, a year when Clausewitz defines 5 French outrages that would have led to a general European war.

1. The occupation of the Papal States, followed by the kidnapping and death of the Pope.

2. The conquest of Malta, from the Order of Saint John of the Hospital. A clear violation of international law, as it stood at the time. It drew Tsar Paul into the war.

3. The invasion of Switzerland and formation of the Helvetic Republic. The eastern cantons asked for Austrian occupation. This fundamentally upset the balance of power and the assumptions of strategic defense.

4. The invasion and conquest of Naples. We actually spend a lot of time on Maria Carolina and explore the political situation there. The usual criticisms of Austrian and British cynicism and exploitation are brought into a wider context.

5. The annexation of the Piedmont and packing away the House of Savoy to Sardinia.

For added joy, the French invasion of Egypt brought the Ottoman empire into the anti-French coalition.

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The last invasion of Britain and Napoleon's Rivoli campaign along with his final drive towards Vienna obviously deserve to be in one single episode. Not.

It is merely the conceit of combining all the land warfare of 1797 into a single episode that allows this. The Fishguard invasion is only rivalled for drama, action, and intensity by the Texas Chicken War of 1719.

The Rivoli campaign is truly a marvel of Napoleonic warfare. Napoleon defeats a 50,000 man Austrian army and turns it into a mass of 13,000 refugees. The Austrians raise another army, under their best general, Archduke Charles, only to see that one destroyed as well. There is nothing between Napoleon and Vienna. The Empire is forced to sign a one sided peace by Napoleon.

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Napoleon reveals to the world his multi faceted genius and Archduke Charles has a hell of a Rhine campaign, defeating 2 armies, both larger than his.

Napoleon defeats 4 different armies, and creates, and uncreates republics in Italy. He shakes down Pope Pius and Tuscany for millions in cash while doing it, and begins the whole process f looting Italy's great art treasures.
He accomplishes all this with his own underfunded, under equipped, 2nd priority theatre. His talent for warfare, is rivalled only by his talent for propaganda, and Napoleon is soon one of the most highly respected and loved men in France.

There are better podcasts covering the 1796 campaigns, for example the Age of Napoleon podcast is terrific on this subject; this is a mere summary focused on the theme of Napoleon breaking the rules, writing the rules with success as his ultimate justification.

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Pichegru and Jourdan try taking the Austrians on the Rhine in a pinser move. But Pichegru's march on Clerfayt's magazine in Heidelberg is a disaster witnessed by Davout. Was it treachery?

The French are driven back across the Rhine as Wurmser builds up a new army.

The Spanish fronts see a collapse as the French break out of the Basque country into Navarre and Castille. The Treaty of Basel ends the war on good terms for the Spanish.

The Alpine front sees only one move by the French, for now Carnot is starving it of resources.

And of course we follow the doings of The Little Corporal in Paris.

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1794 from the Pyrenees fronts, with massacres of Basque villagers to the Battle of the Black Mountain.
The Italian front has Napoleon, as a mere artillery general, plan a maneuver to get the Piedmontese out of their Alpine fortifications, Massena executes it successfully.
The Rhine front sees the French struggle with the river crossing and when they do cross the Austrians defeat them.
This year reveals the way the Revolution destroyed the human capital of the Royal French Army, and how it improved subsequently. The artillery lost the least, the infantry was getting better after the massive recruitment in the Levee En Masse, the cavalry though, still had a ways to go.