THE STRATEGICAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 
189 
to cross the Rhine near Schaffhausen and threaten Ulm ; while the 
Austrians in South Germany were thus compelled to form front to flank, 
he made other French troops mount the St. Bernard and struggle 
through the passes of the Simplon and St. Gothard; then he entered 
Mil an,crossed the Po between Pavia and Cremona and—turning Westward- 
compelled the Austrians to fight with their face to their base on the field 
of Marengo. Nor was this the only time in modern annals that the 
violation of the Swiss Republic’s territory was of the utmost strategical 
import. In 1814 the allies crossed the Rhine in German territory, from 
Wesel to Mannhein, but they also invaded France by the gap of 
Burgundy from Basle, and by the valley of the Rhone from Geneva. It 
is not surprising that the Swiss have come to the conclusion to bar the 
principal passes of their land for the future against the movements of 
Foreign armies, and formidable fortifications at St. Maurice 1 and Airola 
now stand in the way of both French and Italians. 
In the wars of the last century, a considerable part of the left bank 
of the Rhine was in French hands, and after they overran Belgium and 
Holland in the wars of the Revolution, they could attack Germany as 
they pleased. They also overran Hanover, and in 1805 Napoleon’s 
invasion was from the re-entering angle formed by the Maine from 
Wurtzburg to Mayence, and the Rhine from Mayence, up to 
Strasburg. The key of Southern Germany is the Danube from 
Ulm to Ratisbon. The Black Forest and the Suabian Jura 
render its upper basin not very fit for manoeuvres ; while 
from Ratisbon to Passau, the left bank is closed by the Bohemian 
Mountains. Mack was in Ulm, the Russians were near the Traunn. 
The French Corps from Wurtzburg, Mayence, Mannheim, Spires, 
Karlsruhe, and Strasburg, marched on Ingolstadt, Neuburgand Donau- 
werth, then went to the Isar to prevent any of the allied troops coming 
to the relief of Ulm ; while others occupied the roads from Ulm by 
Nordlingen to Bohemia, by Rain and Augsburg to the Isar, and by 
Memmingen to the Tyrol, and thus compelled Mack to capitulate. 
Napoleon then marched into Vienna. But the possession of some 
Capitals is not decisive. The Austrians held out, and with the 
Russians, their allies, were beaten at Austerlitz. Now the strategical 
importance of South Germany in a campaign between France and 
Prussia became very obvious. It would have been impossible to 
Napoleon to have triumphed as he did, in 1806, if he had not previously 
secured, by making, the confederation of the Rhine, the aid of Bavaria, 
Baden, Wurtemburg, and Hesse. Then his legions formed up South of the 
Maine from Wurtzburg to Baireuth as the Prussians and Saxons went 
South-west across the Thuringian Wald ; he soon compelled them to 
form front to flank on the Saal, with their left on the Elbe ; he beat them 
at Jena and Auerstadt, and, seizing the passages of the Elbe between 
Magdeburg and Dresden, he was not only in Berlin before them, but 
captured the passages of the Oder at Stettin and Kustrin, and thus cut 
off Brandenburg from all help from Russia. 
It is a singular fact that every war between France and Austria in 
Germany was accompanied by operations in the North of Italy. The 
road to Vienna and to France also was South as well as North of the 
Alps, and the valleys of the Adige and the Inn enabled the separated 
forces of the Germans to keep something like touch. In 1796, when 
Jourdan was on the Naab, and Moreau on the Leek, Bonaparte was on 
l See Appendix, 
