Cispadane Republic

The Cispadane Republic was a short-lived client republic created in northern Italy under Napoleon's protection in 1796. A congress at Modena, representing the provinces of Modena, Bologna, Ferrara and Reggio Emilia south of the Po, proclaimed the new state; the name means "on this side of the Po". In January 1797 the congress met at Reggio Emilia and adopted a government and the first Italian tricolour, a horizontal red, white and green flag. Bologna served as the capital, and the republic introduced French-inspired administrative and legal forms. Its territory was small and its army modest; the republic existed mainly as a buffer and recruiting ground for the French campaign against Austria. In June 1797 it merged with the Transpadane Republic, the former Duchy of Milan, to form the Cisalpine Republic, which later became the nucleus of Napoleonic Italy. The Cispadane episode is remembered chiefly for the tricolour and for demonstrating how French revolutionary institutions were transplanted onto Italian soil. Its brief life illustrates the fluid politics of revolutionary Italy, where sister republics were created, merged and renamed within months as the French armies advanced and retreated.