Initial victories that drove a wedge between the allies.
Napoleon’s first goal was to separate the Austrian army from their Piedmontese allies. In a lightning-fast two-week offensive (the Montenotte Campaign), he won a series of engagements:
A desperate three-day battle in the marshes where Napoleon famously seized a flag and charged the bridge.
The 1796–1797 campaign redefined modern warfare. It proved that a smaller, faster army could defeat a larger, static one through superior maneuver and morale. Napoleon returned to Paris not just as a hero, but as the most powerful man in France, setting the stage for his eventual rise to Emperor.