Sister republic

For the French revolutionary government, see revolutionary republic.

A sister republic (French: république sœur, pronounced [ʁepyblik sœʁ] ^ⓘ) was a republic established by French armies or by local revolutionaries and assisted by the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars. These republics, though nominally independent, relied heavily on France for protection, making them more akin to autonomous territories rather than independent states. This became particularly evident after the declaration of the French Empire, when several states were annexed, and the remaining turned into monarchies ruled by members of the Bonaparte family.

1799 caricature, in which the Prussian ("God, how it grows; It's terrifying"), Russian ("That should be good to eat"), and Austrian ("Don't touch, my friend, it's poisonous") monarchs watch how republics spring up like mushrooms around France, spreading towards other European capitals.

History

The French Revolution was a period of social and political upheaval in France from 1789 until 1799. The Republicans who overthrew the monarchy were driven by ideas of popular sovereignty, rule of law and representative democracy. The Republicans borrowed ideas and values from Whiggism and Enlightenment philosophers. The French Republic supported the spread of republican principles in Europe. According to Paul D. Van Wie most of these sister republics became a means of controlling occupied lands as client regimes through a mix of French and local power.^[1]

Sister republics of Italy

•   Subalpine Republic (1800–1802) annexed to the French Republic
  •   Piedmontese Republic (1798–1799), conquered by Austro-Russian troops and rendered back to Sardinia, but reconquered by Napoleon in 1800 and renamed Subalpine Republic (Novara to the Italian Republic)
    •   Republic of Alba (1796) reconquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia
•   Parthenopean Republic (1799) reconquered by the Sanfedisti for the King of Naples and Sicily
  •   Republic of Pescara (1799) re-united with the Kingdom of Naples
•   Roman Republic (1798–1799) ended with the restoration of the Papal States
  •   Anconine Republic (1797–1798) joined Roman Republic
  •   Tiberina Republic (1798–1799) joined Roman Republic
•   Ligurian Republic (1797–1805) annexed to the French Empire
•   Republic of Lucca (1799 and 1800–01), later continued (1801–05) under the old oligarchy and it was replaced by the Principality of Lucca and Piombino
•   Italian Republic (1802–1805) transformed into the Kingdom of Italy
  •   Cisalpine Republic (1797–1802) transformed into the Italian Republic
    •   Cispadane Republic (1796–1797) formed the Cisalpine Republic
      • Bolognese Republic (1796) annexed to the Cispadane Republic
    •   Transpadane Republic (1796–1797) formed the Cisalpine Republic
    •   Republic of Crema (1797) formed the Cisalpine Republic
    • Republic of Bergamo (1797) formed the Cisalpine Republic
    • Republic of Brescia (1797) annexed to the Cisalpine Republic

Other sister republics

 

France and sister republics in 1798.

•   Republic of Bouillon (1794–1795)
•   Republic of Liège (1789–1791)
• Rauracian Republic (1792–1793) revolutionary French republic in Basel
• Lémanique Republic (1798) joined the Helvetic Republic
• Republic of Mainz (1793) revolutionary French republic in Rhenish Hesse and the Electoral Palatinate
•   Batavian Republic (1795–1806) Netherlands
•   Cisrhenian Republic (1797) Germany
•   Irish Republic (1798) accompanied Humbert's Irish expedition in support of the Irish Rebellion of 1798
•   Helvetic Republic (1798–1803) Switzerland
•   Republic of Danzig (1807–1814)
•   Rhodanic Republic (1802–1810) (Valais)

References

1. Van Wie, Paul D. (1999). Image, History, and Politics: The Coinage of Modern Europe. pp. 116–7. ISBN 9780761812227. Retrieved 24 June 2015.