Cisalpine Republic

Foundation

Napoleon Bonaparte's 1796-1797 Italian campaign against the Austrian and Sardinian armies brought him prominence, and to stabilise the occupied territory he created the Cispadane Republic south of the Po and the Transpadane Republic north of it in 1796. On 19 May 1797 Modena's territory passed to Transpadania, and by the decree of 12 Messidor (29 June 1797) the birth of the Cisalpine Republic was proclaimed. Its constitution was published on 20 Messidor (7 July 1797), dividing the territory into eleven departments.

The Italian account states the state was instituted on 29 June 1797 by Napoleon through the Italian campaign of 1796-1797. It comprised the State of Milan, the Cispadane Republic (Duchy of Modena, Duchy of Massa, the legations of Bologna and Ferrara) and the Venetian domains of Bergamo, Brescia and Crema; in 1797 it covered 42,500 km² with 3,240,000 inhabitants divided into twenty departments.

Constitution and Government

The first constitution, adopted on 8 July 1797, was based on the French Constitution of 1795: a five-member Directory and two councils (the Council of Seniors, 40 to 60 members, approving laws, and the Great Council, 80 to 120 members, proposing laws), electors restricted to landowners or the wealthy, and the French Republican Calendar, while supreme authority remained with the commander of the French troops.

On 14 Fructidor year VI (31 August 1798) the French ambassador Trouvé dismissed the Directory and the next day promulgated a constitution with stronger executive power, cutting departments from twenty to eleven and local directories from five to three members. The Italian account states the second constitution was imposed on 1 September 1798 by a coup aimed at war savings and provided for a Council of the Elders (Anziani) and a Council of the Juniors (Giuniori). That constitution reduced electors to one per four hundred inhabitants, the Council of Juniors to eighty members and that of the Elders to forty, and raised to ten thousand the population threshold for keeping a municipal administration.

Subordination to France

By the Treaty of Campo Formio (17 October 1797) Austria recognised the Cisalpine Republic, gaining in exchange what remained of the Republic of Venice.

Formally the republic was an independent state allied to France, but the treaty of alliance established its effective subalternity: French control of the police, a 25,000-man French garrison financed by the republic, and a Cisalpine army for Napoleon's campaigns, whose size the sources give differently: the English account 35,000 men, the Italian account 30,000. On 4 March 1798 the Great Council delayed ratification and the Council of Seniors repeatedly refused the terms; Berthier threatened a military government until General Brune removed councillors and the treaty was signed on 8 June 1798. The Italian account dates the treaty to 8 Ventôse year VI (21 February 1798) and records that the Council of Seniors rejected it because the state could not bear its costs.

Territorial Expansion and Renaming

Valtellina was annexed after seceding from the Swiss Three Grey Leagues (announced 22 October 1797). After the Treaty of Lunéville (9 February 1801) the frontier with the Holy Roman Empire was placed on the River Adige; the annexation of Novara shifted the western border from the Ticino to the Sesia, and on 13 May the territory was divided into twelve departments.

In relations with Switzerland, Cisalpine hegemonic claims aimed at a nation state of Italian language and culture but succeeded in annexing only Valtellina. A coup attempt for the annexation of Lugano on 15 February 1798, launched from Campione d'Italia, failed through the intervention of the Lugano Volunteers. The English account likewise records a failed surprise attempt to seize Lugano in 1797 and a failed 1798 coup attempt there.

An Extraordinary Cisalpine Consulta was summoned at Lyon on 12 November 1801 and in January 1802 decided to rename the state the Italian Republic; Napoleon had himself elected president on 24 January 1802 and on 26 January the notables proclaimed the Italian Republic, with the new constitutional government proclaimed in Milan on 10 February. The Italian account states that at the Lyon Consulta of 26 January 1802 the birth of the Italian Republic was sanctioned with Milan as capital and Napoleon as president, while Francesco Melzi d'Eril was named vice-president. The Italian Republic ended on 18 March 1805 when Napoleon proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, crowning himself king with the Iron Crown.

Austro-Russian Occupation and Restoration

During the War of the Second Coalition, after the French defeat at Cassano (April 1799) the republic was occupied by Suvorov's Russian and Austrian forces, which installed a provisional administration. They left only on 30 May 1800, days before Marengo, and Napoleon restored the Cisalpine Republic on 4 June 1800, appointing an Extraordinary Commission of nine members and a legislative Consulta, later concentrated in a three-member Committee of Government (Sommariva, Ruga, Visconti).

The Italian account states the republic was dissolved in April 1799 and Lombardy entrusted to an imperial commission led by Count Federico Cocastelli, which returned to nobles and the Catholic Church the property sequestered or sold during the three republican years, had Jacobins and anti-Catholics identified by the police summarily tried for lèse-majesté before the Royal Judicial Commission, and abolished the republican municipalities. The republic was reconstituted with the Italian campaign of 1800.

Symbols

The Cisalpine tricolour inherited that of the Transpadane Republic and is the same as that of the present Italian Republic. The flags are kept at the Tricolour Museum in Reggio Emilia, and the Cisalpine tricolour was modified during the Italian Republic of 1802 because it was considered too similar to the French one and too revolutionary.