On the 11 of November 1801, Empress Paola reached Naples on a French brig, where she joined Napoleone Buonaparte at the Castel Nuovo, the formidable fortress overlooking Naples' Harbour. The Empress was keen to keep her presence a secret, retreating to the countryside palazzo on the outskirts of the city. However, rumours that the Empress was in Italy soon began to spread throughout the courts of Europe. In the meantime, Napoleone and the other leaders of the Republic had been declared outlaws and guilty of sedition. In Spain, Emperor Luiz was busy raising an army to send to Naples and to Sicily, however with most of its elite troops in North Africa, much of the winter was spent hastily recruiting an army in Portugal and Castile. Meanwhile in Naples, the new Republican Government called for a levée en masse with all unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25 being called to arms and required to report for immediate military service. Married men along with women and children were to engage in the production of goods for the new army. As a result, the number of men in arms swelled to 300,000 in Naples and 100,000 in Sicily. Meanwhile, revolutionary activity had spread throughout Italy with uprisings in Modena and Turin in December of 1801.
To defend the new republic, Napoleone appointed men whom had served alongside him in the Egyptian campaigns to lead the various divisions as he reorganised the Neopolitan Army. Sicily remained the most vulnerable region as the Spanish Navy could cutoff the island from Naples and as a result coastal fortifications were hastily prepared. In November of 1801, the Spanish Navy was able to capture the city of Siracusa, with the Castello Maniace fortress falling to the Spaniards on 18 November 1801. The island would remain difficult to defend as a force of Spanish Royal Marines landed on the island, but they failed to capture Messina later in the month, retreating to the Southeastern corner of the island. In the consul's home island of Corsica, a uprising against Spanish rule would lead to a two year struggle finally culminating with the abandonment of the island by Spanish troops in 1805.
While the armed struggle against Spain persisted, Napoleone and the other leaders of the rebellion were busy establishing a new government and implementing reforms. Among the most significant acts of the new Provisional Assembly in Naples was the abolition of feudalist privileges and the destruction of the Latifundia in Naples. In December 14 of 1801, an act calling for the the nationalisation of church would lead to a confiscation of all church properties and an abolition of the Holy Orders. Under the leadership of Napoleone, a new legal code based on that of ancient Rome was also created. The new Republic's government was based on that of Ancient Rome, with executive authority placed in 5 person consulate, with Napoleone at its head. Additionally a 300-member senate was created with all male citizens aged 20 years or older able to vote for electors whom would elect the senators. Ironically its first legislation in May 1802 was the "War Powers Act", limited its own power. In reality, the government soon became a dictatorship with Napoleone at its helm.
Throughout the winter of 1801-1802, with few available troops, the Spanish attempted to place a blockade on Naples, but blockade runners soon became adept at smuggling goods into Naples. Pope Leo XII condemned the republic for its anti-clericism, but once riots broke out in the Papal States in support of a united Italy, leading the papacy to maintain a cautious approach to the Republic. Most of consuls advised Napoleone to pursue a defensive strategy to defend the new republic, however he wanted to go on the offensive to create a united Italy. As a result, he decided to attack, while first fortifying Naples and Bari, leaving behind only a smaller number of troops to defend the port cities. Instead he would invade the Papal States to take the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, which was still under Spanish rule, from there he would overrun the Duchy of Savoy, which was ruled by the absentee house of Savoy, now Kings of England.
Throughout the first months of 1802, Napoleone prepared for the invasion of the Papal States and Tuscany, which for the time being remained under control of the Spanish Crown. Empress Paola meanwhile kept a low profile and sent correspondence to her cousin King Louis XVII of France, hoping to have him aid the new Republic in an effort to weaken Spanish Power. The Parthenopean Consul meanwhile appealed to the Italians as "heirs of Rome", adopting a flag with a Roman Eagle their flag. Revolutionary activity spread, and in April 1802 when he finally made his move, Pope Leo was forced to flee Rome to Turin, and from there to Vienna where he sought the assistance of the Hohenzollerns. With a triumphant entrance into the city, on 12 May 1802 Napoleone proclaimed the birth of a new Roman Republic.
When Napoleone's troops had entered the the Papal States on 28 April 1802, the Papal Army offered little resistance, with its last major battle being at Loreto on 3 May 1802. However, with news that the Holy Roman Emperor had joined the war to assist Spain in "securing the peace", Napoleone had his troops rush to the Venetian Republic in an effort to seal off the Alps from invading German troops. Additionally, Napoleone hoped to capture ships from the Venetian Navy along with the shipyards there to help protect the coast of the new Roman Republic. Throughout the year, the Roman Army swelled to nearly 500,000 men as a new sense of Italian Nationalism swept through the Italy. In May and June of 1802, popular uprisings soon led to the government of the United Duchies of Milan and Modena being overthrown and provisional assemblies joining the Roman Republic as well.
Responding to appeals from the Pope, both England and the Holy Roman Emperor declared war on the Roman Republic, though France had sat idly by, Louis XVII was persuaded by his cousin Paola that by aiding Napoleone, France could gain territory at the expense of Spain. On 28 May 1802, Louis made a secret treaty with the Roman Republic whereby France would declare war on Spain, England and the Hohenzollern-led Holy Roman Empire. As a result, on 18 June 1802 French troops crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, capturing much of Catalonia by July and having captured much of Spain's industrial (particularly textile) production. Responding to the Pope's appeals, by summer of 1802, Denmark and Poland also joined the allied coalition, uniting against France and the Roman Republic. However, in July the Ottoman Empire invaded Savoy-ruled Syria, threatening the new conquests there. What had begun as a popular uprising in Naples, now spread to all of Europe as a war.
