Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/593

The Career oj Napoleon Bonaparte 451 taken possession of the Austrian Netherlands and western Ger- many. Prussia decided to withdraw from a war in which it was not much interested and concluded peace with the new French Republic. Bonaparte's army was directed against Austria and the CENTRAL EUROPE, TO ILLUSTRATE NAPOLEON'S CAMPAIGNS, 1796-1801 king of Sardinia (who ruled over northwestern Italy). In a rapid and brilliant campaign he defeated both these enemies and marched his army nearly to Vienna. He forced Austria to make peace and cede the Netherlands to France. She also agreed to help France get the whole western bank of the Rhine. Bonaparte brought the ancient republic of Venice to an end, giving a part of it to Austria and incorporating the western part into a new state called the Cisalpine Republic, which he patched together out of the small Italian states.