French Revolutionary Wars

Revolutionary France declared war on Britain and the Dutch Republic in February 1793. The French navy had lost most of its officers to the Revolution, and the Royal Navy, under Howe, Jervis and Nelson, won almost every fleet battle of the war. Howe beat the Brest fleet far out in the Atlantic on the Glorious First of June in 1794, though the grain convoy it was protecting got through to France. Spain changed sides in 1796 and the Dutch, conquered by France and remade as the Batavian Republic, were already enemies; Jervis beat the Spanish off Cape St Vincent in February 1797 and Duncan destroyed the Dutch fleet at Camperdown that October. In 1798 Bonaparte sailed for Egypt, and Nelson, after weeks of searching the Mediterranean, found his fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay and all but annihilated it at the Nile. A French squadron carrying troops to Ireland was beaten off Tory Island the same year. In 1801 Britain broke up the Armed Neutrality of the North by attacking the Danish fleet at Copenhagen, and Saumarez, beaten at Algeciras, struck back in a night action in the Strait. The Peace of Amiens ended the war in March 1802.