France after the Peace of Lunéville, 1801.
« Nouvel atlas de l’histoire de France », Cohen, Destemberg, Dusserre & Houte, Autrement, 2016
Belgium was annexed on October 1, 1795, after the United Provinces became a sister republic, theoretically independent (treaty of alliance of May 16).
In Italy, Bonaparte won dazzling victories, and between the spring and summer of 1797, he signed armistices, while Italian patriots took advantage of the offensive to proclaim the republic in Piedmont. The Peace of Campoformio (October 17, 1797) gave Austria the archbishopric of Salzburg and Veneto but confirmed the possession of Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine (from Alsace to Koblenz) to France, finalizing the birth of the Ligurian and Cisalpine Republics. In February 1798, French military intervention allowed Roman patriots to proclaim the Republic. These were allied states – with very formal independence.
In January 1799, the patriots led General Championnet to proclaim the ephemeral Neapolitan Republic which lasted only until June 24. However, after the occupation of Tuscany by French troops, all of Italy except Venice was occupied by the French, and most of it formed republics. The Italian unity desired by the patriots was possible, but the Directory took care, on the contrary, to prevent it definitively: from February 8 to 16, 1799, a referendum took place in Piedmont which gave a strong majority for annexation by France (effective on September 11, 1802).
On February 9, 1801, the Treaty of Lunéville was signed between France and Austria. It confirmed for France the possession of the Austrian Netherlands, the principality of Liège, and the left bank of the Rhine. Austria had to recognize the Batavian Republic and the Helvetic Republic. Additionally, Article 7 of the treaty provided for compensation to the dispossessed German princes, to whom territories would have to be redistributed, thus giving France the position of continental arbiter.