THE OLD WORLD AT WAR
1799-1801
The effects of the new American front were first manifested here when France began to divert resources to their Carribbean colonies. But unfortunately, neither location received them. French relief was redirected from Egypt to Guadaloupe and Haiti, but instead found its end in the Mediterranean when faced with the guns of the British fleet.
Kleber, still desperate to evacuate Egypt, attempts to negotiate with the British and the Ottomans, but fails. Both of his adversaries know full well that there will be no reinforcements for him, and no hope of him putting up much of a fight if he refuses. The 2nd Coalition pushes in and defeats the French in Egypt once and for all. The new power vacuum does not last long. With the old Ottoman government gone and the new yet to arrive, Egyptians entertained thoughts for future independence.
Napoleon’s true interests lay in Europe first, and it was there where France won most of their victories. In Marengo, the French rallied to defeat the odds and the enemy, and put Brune in charge of the area while he prepared to strike at Austria. Combined with Moreau’s early summer attack across the Rhine, Austria decided to negotiate a peace. By early 1801, fighting on the continent was over, with separate peaces hammered out with other continental powers.
THE WAR IN THE WEST
1799-1802
Here, fighting still raged on. Because while the nations of Europe were satisfied; Britain was only beginning its campaigns in the Caribbean. Using superior naval power, the British strangled Guadeloupe of supplies and in 1800, it was theirs. In the smaller colonies, the British continued to win wars at sea and consolidate their power on land. And they wouldn’t make peace until that land was theirs.
Spain continued their fight with the US indirectly on the Louisiana front, for they lacked the troops to actually fight the US there. Similarly, even the US’s rapidly growing military could not march across the continent to attack Mexico. So Spain instead began providing arms and support to Indians, who knew that the farther the US advanced, the harder their lives would become.
In Florida, the US pressed on with the aid of the British navy, though their manpower was mainly militia, the Spanish did not fare much better. Throughout 1801, the fighting continued, and by 1802 it was de facto US territory.
Spain instead concentrated their forces in their Western lands and the islands, and the British moved in to dislodge them. Hispanola, however, remained firmly in French and Spanish hands. The British rallied troops to take the territory, but with news of slave insurrection growing in Haiti, nobody was quite eager to take on responsibility for the area.
In the US, even Jefferson began calling for a free nation stretching to the Pacific, and with no need for the Alien and Sedition Acts, the already-popular Federalists helped bring Adams back into office in 1800. The war was also having interesting consequences on the US economy. In 1798, inventor Eli Whitney demonstrated the utility of interchangeable parts to Congress. Now, with the war to increase demand, musket factories were springing up in the US. New England shipbuilding thrived with Congressional plans to expand the navy making up for the decrease in trade with France and Spain.
