Account for the weaknesses of the First and Second Coalitions against France.

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Account for the weaknesses of the First and Second Coalitions against France.

The French Revolutionary War of the First Coalition which commenced in the early months of 1793 was the first concerted response (if we discount the skirmishes which ended at Valmy in September the previous year ) by an alliance of European powers to the new regime in France, which in February 1793 had buried the ancien regime with the execution of Louis XVI. A combination of Britain, Prussia, Austria, Sardinia, Holland, Naples, Spain, Portugal and, to a lesser extent, Russia should have signalled the demise of the French Revolutionary government already troubled by internal turmoil and still a militarily weak nation. It did not. The First Coalition failed, as did the second by 1800 and Europe was left on the verge of a new era created by Napoleon I.

Undoubtedly the most serious weakness of the first two coalitions against France in the 1790's was the disparity of interests and objectives between the 'allied' states. The formation of the First Coalition came at a time when Russia especially, but also Prussia and Austria, were more concerned with events in Poland to commit enough energy