The French Revolution changed the political situation in Biel/Bienne. In 1793, the French Revolutionary Army captured the Bishopric of Basel and brought the French into the lands near Biel. When they conquered the Moutier valley and Erguel in 1797 it brought the French practically to the gates of Biel/Bienne. On 6 February 1798, French troops marched through the open city gate while the population celebrated their arrival. Bienne and its neighboring communities were incorporated as the "Canton de Bienne" into the département du Mont-Terrible of the First French Republic. Two years later, in 1800, it went to the Département du Haut-Rhin. Under Mayor Sigmund Wildermeth (1765–1847) Biel strictly followed every dictate from Paris.