Napoleon having ceded to Archduchy of Austria, with the Treaty of Campo Formio (17 October 1797), the territories of the former Republic of Venice, namely Veneto, Friuli, Istria, Dalmatia, control over the Republic of Ragusa, until that moment in the orbit of the Venice of the Doges. The first Cisalpine Republic lasted until 1799, when it was occupied and dissolved by the Austrians and the Russians, or by two of the armies that were part of the Second Coalition. In 1800, Napoleon again invaded Italy from Egypt, succeeding in reconquering the territories previously subtracted from the second coalition and reviving, among other things, the Cisalpine Republic. On this occasion Napoleon decreed the use of the tricolour for the National Guards of each city. A proclamation of 20 September 1800 confirmed the colours of the national cockade, white, red and green, specifying that it had to be affixed to clothing in such a way as to be clearly visible. In this context the Subalpine Republic was born, a pro-Napoleonic state body that replaced the Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia. The Subalpine Republic also had a short life, given that on 11 September 1802 it was annexed to the French First Republic. In this period was born the attachment of the population towards the Italian flag, which began to enter the social imaginary as a symbol of the country. This popular notoriety was however limited to Northern Italy; other pro-Napoleonic state bodies had in fact adopted other banners, the Roman Republic, for example, a black, white and red national flag, the Parthenopean Republic had, as a national banner, a blue, yellow and red flag, while the Anconine Republic was represented by a blue, yellow and red banner. This was especially true in the army, where the tricolour military banner was defended at all costs from the capture of the enemy. An episode that occurred on 16 January 1801, during the second Cisalpine Republic was significant in that the Napoleonic officer Teodoro Lechi, in a clash with the Austrians in Trento during which a bridge over the Adige river was disputed, decided to burn the tricolour flags of the military unit to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy before surrendering. The national flags of the Italian Republic and of the Kingdom of Italy With the transformation of the Cisalpine Republic into the Italian Republic (1802–1805), a state body that did