1797 recap: The frenzy of victory

Our recap episodes, which offer a synthesis of our 1792-1804 coverage one year at a time, have reached 1797 - a year in which Napoleon Bonaparte continues to confound western Europe amidst the continuing churning turmoil of French revolutionary politics. Chris Sloan talks presenter Alex Stevenson through specific key clips he's picked out from our old episodes grouped around four themes which, we argue, help frame the period and shape our understanding of it in a whole new way. We hope this will provide a helpful refresh for longstanding listeners - whilst at the same time offering an 'entry ramp' to the podcast for those who want to get up to speed relatively easily before we crash full-speed into the intensity of the Napoleonic Wars.

This episode covers an extraordinary 12 months, in which the young Bonaparte helps wrap up victory against the Austrians before continuing his victories on the green felt battlefields of the negotiating table. He's getting a taste for power - but what will the Directory back home make of this? The politics of Paris have moved on to a mounting crisis in which a swing to the right prompts a coup by those in power, crucially backed by the army. Meanwhile there are seismic changes in north Italy, with the end of the 1,000-year republic of Venice and a humiliation for the Pope. And there are two massive victories for the British at sea, against the Spanish at Cape St Vincent and the Dutch at Camperdown... Another staggering year.

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