|
The Raid on Genoa was a minor naval engagement fought in the harbour of the Italian city of Genoa during the first year of the French Revolutionary Wars. French Republican forces in the Mediterranean, under pressure from Austrian and Spanish armies, Royalist uprisings and British blockade had suffered the loss of their principal naval base and the fleet stationed there when British forces under Lord Hood seized Toulon at the invitation of the city's Royalist faction. The survivors of the French fleet were scattered across the Mediterranean, several sheltering in neutral Italian harbours, including the frigates ''Modeste'' at Genoa and ''Impérieuse'' at Leghorn. To eliminate the threat these isolated frigates posed, Hood ordered a squadron under Rear-Admiral John Gell to investigate the harbour at Genoa. The squadron arrived on 5 October and discovered ''Modeste'' and two smaller warships at anchor. Later in the day, three ships of the squadron launched their ship's boats and instigated a boarding action against the anchored ships, in defiance of Genoese neutrality. The French crews resisted, but the British boarding parties successfully captured all three vessels without suffering any casualties. Six days later the detached HMS ''Captain'' also seized the abandoned ''Impérieuse'', which had fled to La Spezia. The action had strategic consequences: the Republican faction in Genoa was strong and they successfully barred Austrian reinforcements from sailing to join the Allied garrison at the developing Siege of Toulon. The outnumbered defenders of the port were overwhelmed and driven into the sea by a Republican assault on 17 December. ==Mediterranean in 1793== The French Revolutionary Wars, which began in 1792 as a conflict between the new French Republic and the Austrian Empire following the French Revolution, spread in 1793 to involve a number of other European nations, including Spain and Great Britain.〔Chandler, p. 269〕 In addition to these external threats, political tensions within France led to a series of uprisings against the Republic in the summer of 1793, particularly in the south of the country. One of the centres of Royalist activity was the city of Toulon, the major naval base and home port for the powerful French Mediterranean Fleet.〔James, p. 66〕 On 28 August, after fighting between Republican forces and British troops for control of the heights overlooking the city, Toulon surrendered to Lord Hood, commander of the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet. Hood's forces occupied the city, seized the French fleet in harbour and called for reinforcements to defend Toulon against the inevitable Republican counterattack, receiving Spanish, Neapolitan and Sardinian contingents over the following weeks as the Siege of Toulon developed.〔Clowes, p. 206〕 Austrian troops were also promised, to be dispatched from the Austrian Army fighting the French in Northern Italy. These troops could only reach Toulon by sea, scheduled to embark from the city port of Genoa, capital of the Italian state of the Republic of Genoa, which at this stage of the war was officially neutral. Genoa was however, in common with other Northern Italian cities, in a state of political upheaval. The French Revolution had inspired similarly-minded revolutionaries in Italy to support Republican ideas, and there was a substantial Republican faction in the Genoese government which supported France's cause.〔Gardiner, p. 98〕 Food supplies were regularly shipped from Genoa to the Republican armies in Southern France, and the demands of Francis Drake, Ambassador to Genoa, that this trade cease went unheeded.〔Rose, p. 48〕 The situation at Genoa was compounded by the presence of French warships in Genoese waters. Those parts of the French fleet which had not been seized at Toulon were now deprived of a home port and so had taken refuge in neutral Italian ports, relying on Italian neutrality to protect them from attack by the more numerous enemy fleets operating in the Ligurian Sea.〔Clowes, p. 213〕 Two of the largest such ships were the 36-gun frigate ''Modeste'' and 40-gun ''Impérieuse'', which had taken shelter at Genoa and Leghorn, in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, respectively. They presented both a threat to Allied shipping and an impediment to the movement of reinforcements through the Italian ports, but despite strong protests from Drake and Lord Hervey, Ambassador to Tuscany, the Republican sympathisers in Genoa and Leghorn refused to compel the French ships to leave. In consequence, Hood resolved that the frigates be eliminated so that the Republicans in Genoa would be coerced into withdrawing their support.〔James, p. 87〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Raid on Genoa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|