The Treaty of Campoformio

The Treaty of Campoformio was signed on October 17 1797 by General Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Louis de Cobentzel, representing the Austrians, at Villa Manin di Passariano, Codroipo, the summer residence of the last Doge, Lodovico Manin, and seat of Napoleon. The villa is not far from Campoformio (the present-day Campoformido), near to Udine, where the Austrian command resided. Faced with the threat of Napoleon, the winner on the Italian front, the Austrians agreed to make a pact. The territory of the Republic of Venice, where a pro-French Revolutionary Government had been formed in May, was ceded to Austria, along with Istria and Dalmatia; in exchange Austria recognized the Cisalpine Republic and ceded territories along the banks of the Rhine. The end of the French occupation of Venice, which had started in May 1797, also ended the local experience in democratic government. The Treaty provoked protests from many patriots, hostile to a carve-up between the powers on the basis of which Venice's destiny was decided in a totally arbitrary way, without any involvement of the people. For those who had participated in the Venetian Municipality, the Revolutionary Government body, it was a total betrayal on the part of the French, who subordinated revolutionary ideals to their plans for conquest; the famous incipit of Ortis (“Il sacrificio della patria nostra è consumato” - "The sacrifice of our homeland is consumed") interprets the position of the Venetian patriots, many of whom found refuge in Milan, where the Cisalpine Republic had been formed.