N Italian state created by Napoleon I at the Peace of Campoformio (1797), comprising Milan and Lombardy, the Valtellina, the Romagna, the Venetian territories of Brescia and Bergamo, and the Duchy of Massa Carrara. By the Treaty of Lunéville (1802), it became the Italian Republic, with Bonaparte as president.
The Cisalpine Republic (Italian: Repubblica Cisalpina) was a French client republic in Northern Italy that lasted from 1797 to 1802.
After the Battle of Lodi, in May 1796, the French general Napoleon Bonaparte proceeded to organize two states—one on the south of the Po River, the Cispadane Republic, and one on the north, the Transpadane Republic. These two along with the province of Novara were merged into the Cisalpine Republic on June 29, 1797, with capital Milan. Austria acknowledged the new entity in the Treaty of Campoformio of October 17 of the same year, gaining in exchange what remained of the Venetian Republic.
Extension
The Cisalpine Republic consisted of roughly the former Duchy of Milan, those portions of the Republic of Venice west of the Adige River, the Duchy of Modena, the Papal Legations, and the Piedmontese province of Novara. The republic had a territory of more than 42,500 square kilometers (16,000 square miles), and a population of 3,240,000 in 20 departments.
Relationships with Switzerland
The new government aimed to unite all Italian lands into a single state. In 1797 the growing power of the French republic created the Cisalpine republic in Northern Italy. The Cisalpine Republic ended up taking control of Campione d'Italia the Valtellina from Graubünden ("Grey League" in English, "Grisons" in French) and joined the republic.
Institutional form
The institutions of the new republic were much similar to those of France.
The republic also adopted the new French calendary era.
The treaty of Alliance
Formally, the Cisalpine Republic was an independent state allied with France, but the treaty of alliance stated the effective subalternity of the new republic to its ally. The French in fact had the control of the local police, and left an army consisting of 25,000 Frenchmen, paid by the republic.
On May 11, 1798, the Cisalpine Republic had adopted as its flag a squared Tricolore.
The second Republic
The Republic dissolved after the defeats of France against the Second Coalition in August 1799. The republic was occupied by Austrian forces, who went away only after June 2, 1800, as Napoleon won the Battle of Marengo. In January 1802, the Cisalpine Republic changed its name to Italian Republic, when the First Consul had himself elected president, 24 January, on the advice of Talleyrand Two days later, in the scene officially commemorated by Monsiau (illustration, left) citoyen Bonaparte appeared in the collège de la Trinité, Lyon, attended by Murat, Berthier, Louis Bonaparte, Hortense and Joséphine de Beauharnais, heard the assembled notables acclaim the Italian Republic.
Later the Republic became the Kingdom of Italy (1805 – 1814).
The state was divided, following the French system, into the following departments:
Adda (capital Sondrio) Agogna (capital Novara) Upper Po (capital Cremona) Lower Po (capital Ferrara) Crostolo (capital Reggio Emilia) Cario (capital Como) Mella (capital Brescia) Mincia (capital Mantova) Olona (capital Milan) Panaro (capital Modena) Reno (capital Bologna) Rubicon (capital Cesena) Serio (capital Bergamo)
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