La Révolution batave: un cas particulier dans la grande famille des républiques sœurs

In the large family of Sister Republics, the Batavian Republic occupies a preeminent position by its date of creation, its secular republicanism, and its relative autonomy. It might have been a model for those that followed between 1796 and 1799. This was not the case. Three years and two coups d’Etat in order to introduce a constitution and a stable government --this is what is disquieting. A comparison between the Batavian Republic and the so-called sister republics shows how the Directory, rarely interventionist, indeed halting in the beginning, learned lessons from the previous years and sought to control the terrorist inclinations latent in the new republics. This averted a civil war, but was as a result often more present in Switzerland and in Italy at the express request of local patriots, who played a role as important as the French agents and generals.Taking into account their intrigues allows us to nuance at once the current interpretations on the foreign politics of the Directory and that of the Sister Republics