with Britain. Spanish armies crossed the Pyrenees, Sardinian (largely Piedmont-Savoy) armies various Alpine borders, and Austrian armies occupied Valenciennes and forced the northern armies back toward Paris. Britain ordered a naval blockade of France on 31 May. The revolutionary government prepared a full mobilization of the nation (see Levée en masse), showing no mercy to internal or external enemies. According to Mignet's History of the French Revolution: "The republic had very soon fourteen armies, and 1,200,000 soldiers. France, while it became a camp and a workshop for the republicans, became at the same time a prison for those who did not accept the republic." They proceeded to suppress Caen, Lyon, and Marseille, although the counter-revolutionary forces turned Toulon over to Britain and Spain on 29 August, resulting in the capture of much of the French navy, and Toulon was not retaken by Dugommier (with the assistance of the young Napoleon Bonaparte) until 19 December. In September, Nicolas Houchard defeated the Duke of York at Hondschoote, forcing him to abandon the siege of Dunkirk. In October Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, taking over the northern armies, won the Battle of Wattignies and returned to the offensive, but did not make major gains before the winter. In the Pyrenees, the French armies ended the year on a defensive posture near the border, while on the Alpine frontier, a French invasion of Piedmont failed. See also War in the Vendée Notes References The main source for this article is the out-of-copyright History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, by François Mignet (1824), as made available by Project Gutenberg, as well as other Wikipedia articles. Further reading Campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars by year Conflicts in 1793 1793 in France