The Republic in the Balance

CHAPTER 4 · 1792–1795 · The Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848

France is now red on your map — a republic, the only one of size on earth — and the dashed line on its northeastern frontier is the First Coalition: Austria, Prussia, and soon Britain, Spain and most of monarchical Europe, closing in on an army that has lost half its officers to emigration. The charcoal arrow is Brunswick’s Prussian advance on Paris in September 1792. At Valmy, a scratch force of regulars and volunteers stands under a day of cannon fire, shouting “Vive la Nation!” — and the professionals, wet, dysentery-ridden and unnerved, decline the attack. Two days later the Convention abo

The turn: Valmy, 20 September 1792.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.