The War of the Second Coalition was one of a series of wars between France and a number of other European powers in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. Allied against France in this war were Austria, Great Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia.

France had won the War of the First Coalition in 1797, defeating Austria, Great Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Tuscany and claiming a large amount of new territory. When the Treaty of Leoben (right) ended the war, only Great Britain remained as an enemy of France. That was significant when the British fleet ravaged the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile in August 1798.

In May of that year, Austria and the Kingdom of Naples had signed an alliance to oppose France. Nothing much happened for several months, but a large Austrian-Neapolitan force under Gen. Karl Mack did occupy Rome on November 29. Two days later, Great Britain and Russia allied with Naples. A month later, the forces against France were arrayed, as the Ottoman Empire, which had already attacked French forces in Alexandria, signed on to an alliance with the European powers.

The first battle of the war occurred in March 1799, in Germany. Jean-Baptiste Jourdan had advanced his newly renamed Army of the Danube across the Rhine and through the Black Forest. An Austrian force met the French advance at the Battle of Ostrach and then, three days later, at the Battle of Stockach, and the result both times was a French defeat and retreat. An exhausted and ill Jourdan returned to Paris and was replaced in command by André Masséna (left), who fought off repeated attempts to dislodge French troops from the area. In September, in and around Zurich, Masséna's men made a solid stand and inflicted very high casualties on the Russian army. The French victory convinced Russia to exit the war.

Russian troops had first fought against French troops in Italy in April 1799, joining the Austrian force there in April, after a significant Austrian victory at Magnano. Russian reinforcements were more than adequate to retake Milan and Turin and then in June, Russia troops under Gen. Alexander Suvorov defeated the French at the Battle of Trebbia and pushed them back into the Alps. Hearing of the French advances in Switzerland, however, the Russian high command recalled Suvorov and his men. They didn't make it back in time.

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