The French Revolution in Paris in July 1789 would have disastrous effect on Liechtenstein and its people. During the First War of the Coalitions, French Troops occupied the left bank (Switzerland) of the Rhine from 1789 to 1792. The Swabian League, wary of French intentions, tried to drum up support from where ever they could. They even asked the Prince of Liechtenstein to contribute some troops. He sent fifteen infantrymen and two cavalrymen to stand guard against possible invasion by the French. In 1793 eight men were sent as reinforcement to Liechtenstein's Swabian League contingent. That same year local authorities formed a militia of all able bodied men from the age of 18 to 50. Austrian troops occupied the Principality in 1794 as a safeguard against the French forces just across the Rhine in Switzerland. This was the calm before the storm.
In 1796 the French Marshal Jourdan invaded Bavaria, and Vorarlberg marching through the Rhine Valley. The French, after winning battles at Bregenz and Lauterach, on Vorarlberg's northern border near the Bodensee, Lake Constance, occupied part of the Vorarlberg. The Swabian league, seeing the writing on the wall, surrendered and Liechtenstein was no longer at war. Austria then regained the Vorarlberg in 1797 with the treaty of Campo Formia. The First Coalition of Austria, Prussia, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Sardinia collapsed shortly there after.
The short-lived Helvetian Republic was formed in 1798 under French guidance in Switzerland. The French encouraged the Helvetians to annex Graubünden, just across the Austrian border south and west of Liechtenstein and also the Vorarlberg. The Austrians, of course, were a bit upset at this idea and began to strengthen their defenses by forming new alliances and building up their armies. They also tried to suppress any revolutionary ideas. Baron Franz von Auffenberg, the commanding general of the Austrian military in Vorarlberg recommended that regular militia units be formed and on Aug. 9, 1798, two militia units totaling 3,000 men were formed.
On Dec. 24, 1798, Austria, Great Britain, Russia, Turkey, Naples, Portugal and the Vatican formed the Second Coalition against the French. The French countered by moving several armies to their eastern borders, which ran roughly along the Rhine River. The Principality of Liechtenstein sat squarely on the front lines of the impending conflict. The French stationed an army of 40,000 men under Marshal Jourdan in the Lake Constance and Schaffhausen region. Another 30,000 troops were with Marshals Massena and Oudinot in Eastern Switzerland. To oppose Massena, the Austrians stationed their armies in the Vorarlland and Grisons, 13,000 men under Von Hotze at Berenz, 7000 troops under Auffenberg near Chur, 5000 at Feldkirch, and two Austrian battalions totaling a 1000 men with four cannons on the Luziensteig near Mayenfeld. They worked frantically to strengthened their fortifications in Vorlaberg as well as stocking large warehouses in Feldkirch and Bregenz with necessary supplies to fight a war.
