Napoleon Bonaparte the first, was the Emperor of France starting in 1804. With this role he was able to lead the Grande Armee. With an addition of a being a general, he was able to have complete control of the army and military and decide what moves they would make. It had appeared that Napoleon and his army was winning all of the battles in Europe. So why was Napoleon’s campaign of 1812 in Russia such a failure? There had been many reasons why Napoleon had won the battles he was in and there were several reasons why he lost against Russia. First off, some of the places where Napoleon would battle, their countries military was not at a higher advanced level, as Napoleons had been. It is easy to take out a weak army, as Napoleon found. However, …show more content…
This battle went to show that the Russian military was a threatening group. Even though the Russians had withdrawn from this battle, they had previously used their artillery and caused much havoc before leaving. The book goes on to say, “Had the factors of distance and weather, both of which hit the French campaign in Poland, been comparable to those in Russia in 1812, then it is possible that the failure of the Napoleonic system would have been dated earlier.” When Napoleon’s army had beat the Russian military at Friedland, not only did this allow the Prussians and Russians to find peace with each other, but this also made Napoleon think he could beat …show more content…
The Russian’s would take out several people with one throw of some type of artillery. “All the powder wagons stood in the crowd; many of these were ignited by the grenades, killing hundreds of people and horses standing about them.” There was another time where the Russians approached the soldier, the captain, and the captain’s attendant. The Russians started to attack the captain and the attendant, and then came after the soldier. The soldier then acted dead and fell off the horse into the snow. The horse followed by laying on top of the soldier. They laid there like they were dead, so the Russians would leave them alone. After the soldier knew the path was safe again, he got up on his horse and
Napoleon Bonaparte will remain in the heart of many French nationals as one of the greatest military leaders that the nation has had when it comes to warfare history. In 1799, Napoleon launched a series of wars, which historian call, “Napoleonic wars” in a bid to extend the territory of France in Europe. Many historians argue that the Napoleonic wars were a continuation of the earlier war under the tag, French revolution in 1789. The French revolution in itself had so many influences in Europe, especially with the armies who felt the greatest impact of the revolution. The revolution brought with it many changes, especially in the production of modern mass weapons with the conscription in place. The new improvements in weaponry made Napoleon seek hegemony in the entire Europe sparking his quest to expand and increase the revolutionary and territorial borders of France. Napoleon, Corsican aristocrat, who was a minor, rose to the position of emperor in France because of the revolution and his idea was to sweep the entire Europe with the reforms brought about by the revolution (Dwyer 32). The idea was to liberate the continent so that all citizens had a chance to take the helm of leadership and do away with the issue of kinship rule. Napoleon was a symbol of change, and although at some point, he comes out as a dictator, he was progressive and created rationalization of governance and all the social
Napoleon’s goal was to easily win this war. An ironic and tragic foreshadowing of the horror to come, an electrical storm pouring down freezing rain, hail and sleet killed a ton of troops and horses the night the Grande Armee soldiers went to capture the city of Vilna . To top off the cake ,these soldiers were already deserting in search of food and plunder. Despite it all, Napoleon remained horrifyingly confident. The climate changing of this long battle became too much for the soldiers, the hot summer days made the soldiers come down with insect borne and waterborne diseases. Many men have already been lost soon afterwards,” Grande Armee entered Moscow Only to see it in flames. Most people had already fled the city, leaving behind vast quantities of hard liquor but little food. French troops drank and pillaged while Napoleon waited for Alexander to sue for peace. No offer ever
If he wanted India, he had to take over Russia. The setback encouraged Russia to rebel against the French Military rule. In 1813, the armies of Prussia, Austria, and Russia defeated Napoleon.
On September 3rd, 1942, Germans reach the outskirts of Stalingrad expecting not much of a fight. Russia, however brought a bigger fight than Germany was expecting. During the winter, as Germany blew Stalingrad to rubble, they were running short on food and ammunition. Germans were also freezing as well as hungry. Approximately, 150,000 Germans were killed during this battle.
Though the Russian army had repeatedly been proven incapable, there still remained a myth of its invincibility. This myth tended to be held on all sides based on the sheer masses of soldiers and not in any way on its tactics or technical proficiency. The government's inability to effectively manage resources was
During Napoleon’s reign he was constantly declaring war on other regions in attempt to gain land for his empire. He did end up gaining a lot of land, but one of his most ineffective attempts of invasion was the Russian Campain. He began the march to Russia with approximately half a
Napoleon’s self-defeating actions were more important for his defeat. Napoleon lost because: (1) he relentlessly pursued a flawed campaign of economic warfare against Great Britain; (2) he refused to acknowledge strategic overreach during the Peninsular War; and (3) he failed to accept culmination during the invasion of Russia in 1812. These actions served to thwart Napoleon’s interests and did not achieve their intended results. More importantly, it will be seen that they combined to create a momentum against France that Napoleon could not overcome.
This caused battle the whole Russian army to fall apart (almost all soldiers were killed), as well as the Ruler to become more vulnerable and lose strength, this later caused the Russian revolution. The army never went back to the strength it used to have. General Alexander Samsonov who had commanded the Russian Second Army committed suicide. (“Battle of Tannenberg (1914)”)
I disagree with Napoleon because the battle of Russia was one of the biggest mistakes he made. This all started when the Russian czar refused to stop selling grain to Britain, so the French and Russian rulers had and idea of each other having competing designs on Poland. In result to this Napoleon decided to invade Russia. In June of 1812 Napoleon and more than 42,000 soldiers left on foot to Russia. The reason why Napoleon had so many soldiers is because they wanted to leave their farms, be recognized, and show people all of their pride that they had to be a part of Napoleons army. As Napoleon left France and was on his way to Russia they had lots of time to make a plan and try to stop him. They came up with the scorched-earth policy. This
The Peninsular War was another mistake that Napoleon made which led to his downfall. It took place in Spain in 1808. He was trying to get Portugal to accept the Continental System so he did something that made the Spanish people very mad. He sent an invasion force that went though Spain but the Spanish people protested. This ended up resulting in Napoleon removing the Spanish king and making his brother the new king. The Spanish were only worried about their church getting attacked so for six years they had many peasant fighters attack the French armies that were in Spain. The Peninsular War was the fight between the peasant fighters and the French. The reason Napoleon had trouble fighting them was because they attacked in small groups then went to hide. This resulted in Napoleon losing 300,000 men.
Napoleon's Conflict with Russia Napoleon was one of the greatest military leaders of all time. By 1812 Napoleon had expanded the territory of France all over Europe including Spain, Italy, Holland, and Switzerland. The countries that Napoleon did not directly control, he was usually allied with. The turning point of Napoleon's career also came in 1812 when war broke out between France and Russia because of Alexander I's refusal to enforce the continental.
This humiliating defeat exemplified how far Russia was behind the industrialized world. Russia at the middle of the nineteenth century was still primarily an agricultural society, with little industry. Russia was deemed to be behind the times as they still had serfdom and there is incompetence in Russia’s style of government, military and social structure. To progress Russia economically and become a more modernize country, they have to break free from their traditional system that is impeding their progress. All these prompted Alexander II to consider reforms in education, the government, the judiciary, and the military. The first reform was the emancipation of serf as the serfs kept rising against their masters and there was numerous act of rebellion that is causing unrest in the country. Furthermore, as most of the Russian army was made up of serfs and they were often malnourished, it shows evidence of the dangers of serfdom. In order for Russia to become a strong military power, serfdom has to be abolished and other reforms have to be
The invasion left Napoleon's army vulnerable and they would eventually be defeated. This war caused Alexander to take precautionary measures and develop military colonies, these colonies developed a relationship between soldiers and peasants. The soldiers would help the peasants with work during times of peace and the peasants would help the soldier’s families during war times. The colonies did not last long due to resentment between the two. Russia military success would cause them to become a dominant superpower regarding the rest of the
Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Russia was a major factor in his downfall. In 1812, Napoleon, whose alliance with Alexander I had disintegrated, launched an invasion into Russia that ended in a disastrous retreat from Moscow. Thereafter, all of Europe, including his own allies, Austria and Prussia, united against him. Although he continued to fight, the odds he faced were impossible. In April 1814, Napoleon’s own marshals refused to continue the struggle and stepped down from their positions. During the actual Russian campaign, there were many key factors that greatly impacted his downfall.
His account focuses heavily on both sides’ tactical successes and failures – from maneuvers in battle to how they handled occupied territory. Before the French surrender, Pierre’s brush with execution becomes a cutting satire of French bureaucracy, which functions so badly that Pierre is nearly executed simply because a general was interrupted while he was deciding Pierre’s sentence. However, the Russians also become objects of Tolstoy’s critique. He depicts disorganization and a lack of professionalism on both sides. The French failures are not limited to their ineffective bureaucracy. “Since the battle of Borodino and the looting of Moscow,” Tolstoy writes, “the French army had borne within itself, as it were, the chemical conditions of its decomposition” Napoleon and his generals seem to have good intentions they order their men not to loot and treat the Russians they meet respectfully. However, the privation and lack of discipline in the French army means that the foot soldiers eagerly and violently loot Moscow at their first