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O.k. so i now know it had to do with him wanting to keep Russia in the Continental System and so for the sake of discussion ......... what if Napoleon had beaten Russia in the war and so would he have installed a puppet as head of state/government or possibly let Alexander I remain Emperor but with Bonaparte pulling his strings?
Napoleon's expectation was that the capture of Moscow would force the Czar to have to negotiate an end to the war. Napoleon's goal was shoving Russia back under the Continental umbrella and shutting off all Russian trade with Great Britain. He was not trying to topple the Czar or sieze territory to add to the empire. A treaty with Russia pledging to boycott Great Britain, and to respect the borders of Poland, would have satisfied Bonaparte.
Napoleon did not expect to have to winter in Moscow, he did not expect that the Russians would scorch the land and wait him out.
I've never been 100% sure about why Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. At that time he controlled all of Europe (except Great Britain) and Alexander I posed no threat to go on the offense to attack Napoleon (correct?) and even if he had conquered Russia what would he have done with the territory and so any thoughts about why he assembled 600,000 troops to invade it.
From 'Love And Death'
-Napoleon has invaded Austria.
-Why? ls he out of Courvoisier?
Didnt Napoleon learn anything from his attempted conquest of Egypt 15 years prior?
Well, he certainly didn't learn anything from his invasion of Spain only four years previously, so there would seem no obvious reason why he should learn anything from Egypt.
As for his reason for invading, there were various immediate causes, but it boiled down to that he couldn't live with anyone who wouldn't kiss his backside - sometimes not even with those who would, as the Spanish Royal Family discovered - so once Tsar Alexander had the gall to follow a policy of his own, there was only one possible response.
Seriously, Napoleon was in love with war. There is no way he ever would have quit fighting, its all he knew. His peace treaties were just armistaces between new wars.
Formally he fought the war because Russia was ignoring his blockade of Britain. In practice much of Europe was given British dominance of colonial trade.
Its remarkable in hindsight that Napoleon thought he could hold on to Russia even if he had somehow beaten the Russians. Once the Russians retreated to Moscow he should have realized that the war was fruitless. Most of his men died not in battle, but of disease and starvation. And Moscow was not even the Russian capital, St. Petersburg was and closer at hand.
I've never been 100% sure about why Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. At that time he controlled all of Europe (except Great Britain) and Alexander I posed no threat to go on the offense to attack Napoleon (correct?) and even if he had conquered Russia what would he have done with the territory and so any thoughts about why he assembled 600,000 troops to invade it.
Napoleon had already set his eyes on the East. The famed riches of India, China and Japan.
Asia was a money pit. Still is. Ptolemy wrote that India (the subcontinent, which includes parts of Afghanistan, all of Pakistan, India) was famed and fabled to be richer than Persia.
Russia forms this umbrella and offers incredible strategic access to the Asian underbelly. Can anyone imagine the number of states that would have crumbled if Russia had fallen to the little Corporal??
Let's think......... Turkey, the middle east, Bactria, the sub-continent, he would have been master of the world. His plan was perfect. Somewhere along the way his plans went berserk in execution. Probably the battle of Borodino weakened his troop morale. They say it's the bloodiest known to man.
Second, retreating from Russia was a big mistake. Those who escaped Borodino died in the miserable Russian winter. After which, he "still" had enough army to face off until Waterloo.
Make no mistake that it only took a combined army to defeat the great man - after Borodino, after Moscow.
Megalomania is a good thing, but it needs to be kept in check on grounds of strategy and war tactics. Napo got it all wrong somewhere. That's the difference between him and Augustus
Some might ask why East? He knew it was his final frontier. After his futile "battle of the nile" years in his youth, which taught him the hard lesson that....... that Asia wasn't that easy to scalp, given the huge presence of the East India Company.
The French and the British fought for a hundred years to take control of India and Napoleon watched it as he grew.
Last edited by Currency Pair Crocodile; 01-27-2010 at 10:26 AM..
Seriously, Napoleon was in love with war. There is no way he ever would have quit fighting, its all he knew. His peace treaties were just armistaces between new wars.
Please..........
No character assassination of big B. I've studied him for a decade. He certainly is no freak like Hitler. He knew what he was doing the whole time. He ran into some serious and sturdy roadblocks - Nelson, Kutuzov etc.
Besides, he could have conquered all of Europe with Alexandrian or Roman brutality/ruthlessness. But he was also a diplomat. He attached great importance to diplomacy and polished behaviour. Maybe his conscience was pinching him the whole time.
There was absolutely no reason in the world economically or otherwise for Napoleon to invade Russia. War was all he knew.
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