Sister republic

For the French revolutionary government, see revolutionary republic.

A sister republic (French: république sœur, pronounced [ʁepyblik sœʁ] ) was a republic established by the French First Republic or by local revolutionaries during the French Revolutionary Wars. These republics, though nominally independent, relied heavily on France for protection, making them more akin to autonomous territories rather than independent states. This became particularly evident after the declaration of the French Empire, when several states were annexed, and the remaining turned into monarchies ruled by members of the Bonaparte family.

1799 caricature in which the Prussian ("God, how it grows; It's terrifying"), Russian ("That should be good to eat"), and Austrian ("Don't touch, my friend, it's poisonous") monarchs watch how republics spring up like mushrooms around France, spreading towards other European capitals

History

The French Revolution was a period of social and political upheaval in France from 1789 until 1799. The Republicans who overthrew the monarchy were driven by ideas of popular sovereignty, rule of law, and representative democracy. The Republicans borrowed ideas and values from Whiggism and Enlightenment philosophers. The French Republic supported the spread of republican principles in Europe. According to Paul D. Van Wie most of these sister republics became a means of controlling occupied lands as client regimes through a mix of French and local power.

Sister republics in Italy

• The Subalpine Republic (1800–1802), annexed by the French Republic
  • The Piedmontese Republic (1798–1799), conquered by Austro-Russian troops and rendered back to Sardinia, but reconquered by Napoleon in 1800 and renamed the Subalpine Republic (Novara to the Italian Republic)
    • The Republic of Alba (1796), reconquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia
• The Parthenopean Republic (1799), reconquered by the Sanfedisti for the King of Naples and Sicily
  • The Republic of Pescara (1799), reunited with the Kingdom of Naples
• The Roman Republic (1798–1799), ended with the restoration of the Papal States
  • The Anconine Republic (1797–1798), joined the Roman Republic
  • The Tiberina Republic (1798–1799), joined the Roman Republic
• The Ligurian Republic (1797–1805), annexed by the French Empire
• The Republic of Lucca (1799 and 1800–01), later continued (1801–05) under the old oligarchy and replaced by the Principality of Lucca and Piombino
• The Italian Republic (1802–1805), transformed into the Kingdom of Italy
  • The Cisalpine Republic (1797–1802), transformed into the Italian Republic
    • The Cispadane Republic (1796–1797), formed the Cisalpine Republic
      • The Bolognese Republic (1796), annexed by the Cispadane Republic
    • The Transpadane Republic (1796–1797), formed the Cisalpine Republic
    • The Republic of Crema (1797), formed the Cisalpine Republic
    • The Republic of Bergamo (1797), formed the Cisalpine Republic
    • The Republic of Brescia (1797), annexed by the Cisalpine Republic
• The Provisional Municipality of Venice (1797–1798), annexed by the Austrian Empire

Other sister republics

Map of France and her sister republics in 1798

• The Republic of Bouillon (1794–1795)
• The Republic of Liège (1789–1791)
• The Rauracian Republic (1792–1793), French revolutionary republic in Basel
• The Lémanique Republic (1798), joined the Helvetic Republic
• The Republic of Mainz (1793), French revolutionary republic in Rhenish Hesse and the Electoral Palatinate
• The Batavian Republic (1795–1806)
• The Cisrhenian Republic (1797)
• The Irish Republic (1798), accompanied General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert's Irish expedition in support of the Irish Rebellion of 1798
• The Helvetic Republic (1798–1803)
• The Republic of Danzig (1807–1814)
• The Rhodanic Republic (1802–1810) (Valais)

See also

• List of French client states