THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN (1796) In the personality of Napoleon nothing is more remarkable than the combination of gifts which in most natures are mutually exclusive; his instincts were both political and military; his survey of a land took in not only the geographical environment but also the material welfare of the people.

Facts, which his foes ignored, offered a firm fulcrum for the leverage of his will: and their political edifice or their military policy crumbled to ruin under an assault planned with consummate skill and pressed home with relentless force.
For the exercise of all these gifts what land was so fitted as the mosaic of States which was dignified with the name of Italy?
That land had long been the battle-ground of the Bourbons and the Hapsburgs; and their rivalries, aided by civic dissensions, had reduced the people that once had given laws to Europe into a condition of miserable weakness.

Europe was once the battle-field of the Romans: Italy was now the battle-field of Europe.

The Hapsburgs dominated the north, where they held the rich Duchy of Milan, along with the great stronghold of Mantua, and some scattered imperial fiefs.

A scion of the House of Austria reigned at Florence over the prosperous Duchy of Tuscany.