French Campaign in Italy: Verona, Leoben, Venice, and Cisalpine Republic

Background. French troops under Bonaparte had entered Venetian territory in 1796, reaching Verona by 1 June 1796 despite Venetian neutrality, and after the capture of Mantua on 2 February 1797 they openly encouraged revolution in Venetian lands. Bonaparte's stated aim from spring 1796 was the conquest of rich Venetian Lombardy.

Veronese Easter. On the night of 16–17 April 1797 an incendiary manifesto appeared in Verona, and on the morning of 17 April the population rose against the French occupation under Antoine Balland while Bonaparte campaigned in Austria. The insurgents defeated over a thousand French soldiers in the first hour and stormed the town fortifications.

Leoben and the Fall of Venice. On 18 April 1797 Bonaparte signed a preliminary peace with the Holy Roman Empire at Eggenwaldsches Gartenhaus near Leoben. Weeks later, on 12 May 1797, the Republic of Venice was dissolved by Bonaparte and the Habsburg monarchy, ending roughly 1,100 years of independence.

Cisalpine Republic. Building on the Cispadane and Transpadane republics organized after Lodi in 1796, Bonaparte decreed the Cisalpine Republic on 29 June 1797, creating a Directory and appointing ministers; its first constitution, modeled on the French Constitution of 1795, was adopted on 8 July 1797.