Immediately after Napoleon's entry into Italy, on 10 April 1796, the French troops occupied the territories under Austrian rule, namely the Duchy of Milan, the territories of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, and two Legations of the Papal State, namely Ferrara and Bologna. Duke Ercole III d'Este, sensing the unfavorable situation in time, had already run away on May 7 treasure in tow, leaving his domains to a regency, dissolved by the French upon their arrival on October 8, when already from three months the transalpines had entered Bologna, where a republican municipality had been formed, and Reggio, which had also risen.


On 16 October 1796, a congress was held in Modena with the representatives of the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia and of the former papal legations of Ferrara and Bologna, which brought together the four cities in what took the name of the Cispadana Confederation. The congress was organized, unofficially, by Napoleon, whose army had crossed northern Italy at the beginning of the year and needed to stabilize the situation in Italy and to gather new troops for a new offensive against Austria.

On December 23, in Reggio Emilia, the congress proclaimed that the four provinces would form the Cispadana Republic and invited the other Italian peoples to join them. A civic guard was formed, made up of hunters and gunners.
(in the photo the composition proclamation of the civic guard of Modena)


The flag was adopted by the Congress of Reggio on the evening of 7 January 1797, on the proposal of Giuseppe Compagnoni, as the emblem of the Provisional General Government of the Cispadana Republic. The flag is described in the acts as formed "of three colors green, white and red", in the center, an emblem consisting of a quiver, which stands on war trophies, with four arrows inside that symbolized the four original provinces, at the inside of a laurel wreath. The Italian flag is officially born.

Napoleon Bonaparte on May 19, 1797 ordered that Romagna, obtained with the Treaty of Tolentino, join the Cispadana Republic and that Modena, Reggio, Massa and Carrara detach from it to join the Cisalpine Republic proclaimed by the general on June 30, 12 messidoro.


On July 27, 1797, 9 Thermidor, the Directory of the Cisalpine Republic announced that it had accepted with immediate effect the request for annexation of the rest of the Cispadana Republic, which thus dissolved.


(under)
Funeral of the Cisalpine Republic
Watercolored etching, Rovereto, May 1799
The expulsion of the French feeds the flourishing of a copious counter-revolutionary production, characterized above all by satirical images, such as this anti-Jacobin allegory representing Democracy as it is transported to the temple dedicated to Vice and Error.

Good work again Giorgio - Bonaparte had his fingers in lots of pies!

Phil

Definitely good one..images are great