Revolutionary France in the context of "Austrian Netherlands"

Diplomatic relations between France and Switzerland have traditionally been close, through important economic and cultural exchanges. Switzerland and France (which is part of the European Union), share about 600 km of border (prompting strong cross-border cooperation) and a language (French is one of Switzerland's four official languages).

French-Swiss relations date back to the Middle Ages, when the Kingdom of France and the Old Swiss Confederacy established close contacts. The good neighborly relations ended when revolutionary France invaded Switzerland and established the Helvetic Republic in 1798. Switzerland remained a French vassal state until 1813. At the Congress of Vienna, Switzerland was granted small areas of French territory as compensation and Swiss independence was restored. After that, France respected Swiss neutrality and relations remained peaceful. In the early 21st century, both countries maintain friendly relations.

The Republic of Geneva was an independent city-state that emerged in the early 16th century following its break with both the Catholic Church, the political authority of the Bishop of Geneva, and the political influence of the House of Savoy. Strongly influenced by the Protestant Reformation, and particularly by the work of Guillaume Farel and later John Calvin, the city became a leading center of Calvinism and a refuge for Protestants from across Europe. Politically, Geneva developed republican institutions modeled on some of the Swiss cities, asserting its sovereignty against the Duchy of Savoy and navigating a precarious position between powerful neighbors such as France and the Swiss cantons. From its declaration of independence in 1534 until its annexation by revolutionary France in 1798, Geneva evolved into a prosperous hub of trade, finance, watchmaking, and publishing, while maintaining a distinctive identity as both a fortified “Protestant Rome” and a cosmopolitan republic. The republic was restored in 1813, and briefly existed again before joining the Swiss Confederation as a canton in 1815.

The French and British interregnum in the Dutch East Indies of the Dutch East Indies took place between 1806 and 1816. The French ruled between 1806 and 1811, while the British took over for 1811 to 1816 and transferred its control back to the Dutch in 1816. However Java and Sumatra were only returned in July 1821.

The French invaded the Dutch Republic and established the Batavian Republic by 1795, and then the Kingdom of Holland in 1806. The fall of the Netherlands to Revolutionary France and the dissolution of the Dutch East India Company led to some profound changes in the European colonial administration of the East Indies, as one of the campaigns of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was fought in Java. This period, which lasted for almost a decade, witnessed a tremendous change in Java, as vigorous infrastructure and defence projects took place, followed by battles, reformation and major changes of administration in the colony.

Marie Louise (Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Theresia Josepha Lucia; 12 December 1791 – 17 December 1847) was Duchess of Parma from 11 April 1814 until her death in 1847. She was Napoleon's second wife and as such Empress of the French and Queen of Italy from their marriage on 2 April 1810 until his abdication on 6 April 1814.

As the eldest child of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria, and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, Marie Louise grew up during a period marked by ongoing and unceasing conflict between Austria and revolutionary France. A series of military defeats at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte had inflicted a heavy human toll on Austria and led Francis to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire. The end of the War of the Fifth Coalition resulted in the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise in 1810, which ushered in a brief period of peace and friendship between Austria and the French Empire, much like prior alliances between the Austrian and French Royal family. Marie Louise agreed to the marriage despite being raised to despise France. She bore Napoleon a son, styled the King of Rome at birth, who briefly succeeded him as Napoleon II. Marie Louise's son was later titled Duke of Reichstadt.

The Franco-American alliance was the 1778 military pact between the Kingdom of France and the United States during the American War of Independence. Formalized in the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, it was a military pact in which the French provided many supplies for the Americans in their conflict with France's rival Great Britain. The Dutch Republic and Spain later joined as allies of France, while Britain had no major European allies during the conflict. The French alliance after the American forces captured a British army at Saratoga in October 1777, demonstrating the viability of the American cause.

Although France had played a significant role in the Americans' achievement of independence, the U.S. backed away from the alliance after 1793, when Revolutionary France declared war on Great Britain. The U.S. declared itself neutral. Relations between France and the United States worsened when the U.S. became closer to Britain, signing the Jay Treaty of 1795, leading to an undeclared Quasi-War. The alliance was entirely defunct by 1794 and formally ended in 1800.

Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), usually known as Lord Castlereagh, derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh (UK: /ˈkɑːsəlreɪ/ KAH-səl-ray) by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was an Irish-born British statesman and politician. As secretary to the Viceroy in Ireland, he worked to suppress the Rebellion of 1798 and to secure passage in 1800 of the Irish Act of Union. As the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1812, he was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon, and was British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna. In the post-war government of Lord Liverpool, Castlereagh was seen to support harsh measures against agitation for reform, and he ended his life an isolated and unpopular figure.

Early in his career in Ireland, and following a visit to revolutionary France, Castlereagh recoiled from the democratic politics of his Presbyterian constituents in Ulster. Crossing the floor of the Irish House of Commons in support of the government, he took a leading role in detaining members of the republican conspiracy, the United Irishmen, his former political associates among them. After the 1798 Rebellion, as Chief Secretary for Ireland he pushed the Act of Union through the Irish Parliament. However, unable to overcome the resistance of King George III to the Catholic Emancipation that they believed should have accompanied the creation of a United Kingdom, both he and Prime Minister William Pitt resigned.

The Treaty of Värälä (sometimes known as the Treaty of Wereloe) was signed in Värälä, Elimäki Municipality, Finland, between Russia (represented by Otto Heinrich Igelström) and Sweden (represented by Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt). It was signed on 14 August 1790 and concluded the Russo-Swedish War. The treaty confirmed status quo ante bellum with respect to the borders; however, Russia's right to interfere with Swedish interior affairs from the Treaty of Nystad was expressly revoked. The provisions of the previous Treaty of Åbo were basically confirmed.

A year later, on 19 October 1791, a convention was signed in Stockholm, whereby the countries pledged to assist each other in case of foreign attack. The treaty anticipated the First Coalition in its being directed against Revolutionary France. Catherine bound herself to pay her new ally annual subsidies amounting to 300,000 rubles. Gustav III had sent to his cousin, Catherine II of Russia, a letter in which he besought her to "forget the war as a passing cloud" and invoked their common blood as his claim to enjoy amitie with his cousin.

Ernest Augustus (German: Ernst August; 5 June 1771 – 18 November 1851) was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death in 1851. As the fifth son of George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, he initially seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but none of his older brothers had a legitimate son. When his brother William IV, who ruled both kingdoms, died in 1837, his niece Victoria inherited the British throne under British succession law, while Ernest succeeded in Hanover under Salic law, which barred women from the succession. This ended the personal union between Britain and Hanover that had begun in 1714. He remained heir presumptive to the British throne until the birth of Victoria, Princess Royal in 1840.

Ernest was born in London but was sent to Hanover in his adolescence for his education and military training. While serving with Hanoverian forces near Tournai against Revolutionary France, he received a disfiguring facial wound. He was created Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale in 1799. Although his mother, Queen Charlotte, disapproved of his marriage in 1815 to her twice-widowed niece, Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, it proved happy. The eldest son of George III, the Prince of Wales (later George IV), had one child, Charlotte, who was expected to become the British queen, but she died in 1817, giving Ernest some prospect of succeeding to the British and Hanoverian thrones. However, his elder brother Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, fathered the eventual British heir, Victoria, in 1819 shortly before the birth of Ernest's only child, George.