When France itself fell a victim to the revolutionary leaders, the great Revolution broke loose. The French soon found themselves confronted by a European coalition and were forced into war. Since Austria was inimical to the Revolution, the French troops invaded the Belgian possessions of the Hapsburgs in 1792 under the leadership of General Dumouriez. They found not a few sympathizers in the country. The partisans of Van der Noot looked to the French to deliver them from the Austrian yoke; the partisans of Vonck had always been agents of the French revolutionary leaders, and desired the annexation of their country to France. After the victory of Jemappes (1792), the French entered Belgium, loudly proclaiming that they came as liberators of the people and desired only the destruction of Austrian tyranny. Although the excesses of their troops seemed to contradict this statement, the people believed them. Then came the second and final defeat of the Austrians at the battle of Fleurus (1794). Both Belgium and the principality of Liège were occupied by the victors. A period of terrible excesses followed. The French National Convention entirely abolished all the ancient institutions; a provisional administration was established, and “clubs” with political aims were introduced into all the cities. Taxes, requisitions, systematic pillage, outrages on religious convictions rained upon the unhappy inhabitants. General elections were forced upon the Belgians and manipulated by the “Sans-culottes” and political agents so as to give the impression of a referendum, through which the people should express their desire to be annexed to France. This plan encountered general hostility throughout the country. Thereupon the National Convention, by a law voted and applied on October 1, 1795, simply annexed Belgium and the principality of Liège. As Austria was too weak to defend her possessions, it formally ceded the Austrian Netherlands to France and recognized the annexation by the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797). The French now treated the conquered territory with great harshness. The followers of the Catholic religion were severely persecuted, the churches were closed, the priests were sentenced to death or deported to French Guiana and to the islands of Ré and Oléron, the Catholic worship was suppressed and replaced by that of the “Goddess of Reason.” For the first time in Belgian history military conscription was forced upon the inhabitants, and the youth of the country was compelled to shed its blood on foreign battlefields for a régime it abhorred.