Battle of Mondovì

Overview

The Battle of Mondovì was fought on 21 April 1796 between the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte and the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont led by Michelangelo Alessandro Colli-Marchi. The French victory meant that they had put the Ligurian Alps behind them, while the plains of Piedmont lay before them. A week later, King Victor Amadeus III sued for peace, taking his kingdom out of the First Coalition. The defeat of their Sardinian ally wrecked the Austrian Habsburg strategy and led to the loss of northwest Italy to the First French Republic.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The French victory at Mondovì cleared the Ligurian Alps and opened the plains of Piedmont to Bonaparte's army. Within a week, King Victor Amadeus III sued for peace, withdrawing Sardinia from the First Coalition. The removal of the Sardinian ally wrecked the Habsburg strategic position in northwest Italy, which subsequently fell to the First French Republic. The battle thus served as the decisive action that unraveled the Coalition's coordinated defense of northern Italy at the outset of Bonaparte's Italian campaign.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (7)