False Start: Britain and Coalition Warfare in 1794

This article analyses Britain's struggle to conduct warfare as a member of a coalition during the first war against Revolutionary France. It focuses on Anglo-Austrian planning in the winter of 1793-4 and the effort to implement these plans in the spring of 1794. Scholars have attributed the coalition's defeat in Flanders to Austro-Prussian distractions in Poland and the botched British attempt to supersede this through subsidies. In contrast, this article illustrates that delays in planning, preparations, and operations hamstrung the coalition's I 794 campaign in Flanders in the spring, before the diplomatic and military reversals of the summer.