How Far Was Bonaparte's To Blame For The French Revolution

Although Napoleon was able to formulate an army large enough to force the Russians to retreat, he did not prepare enough supplies to support all of his soldiers. Lack of food and clothing weaken his army, especially after the scorched earth policy, which was Alexander I’s intent that Napoleon underestimated. During the Battle of Borodino, Alexander I was not able to secure Moscow, the holy city, as he was forced to retreat, which enabled Napoleon to move forward into the city. By the time Napoleon reached the Moscow, the city had been destroyed and burned, having nothing to motivate him in Moscow, he was forced to retreat. Although Napoleon may have won the battle at Borodino, he did not gain anything from it as Czar Alexander I always seemed to always be one step in front of him, Napoleon was unable to outwit Alexander I and his military tactics. His soldiers were not equipped with the necessary items to survive the scorched earth and the harsh Russian winter, thus, the majority of Napoleon's soldiers perished, reducing his army of 420,000 soldiers to 10,000 soldiers when he left Moscow. The dramatic reduction of soldiers made his army vulnerable to later attacks from the Russians, who understood the terrain and was well fed and fully clothed. Due to the Russian tactics that Napoleon overlooked, he

Napoleon did not always follow through with his theories and ideas about the well being of France with actions, making him very hypocritical; there are however some contrasting points to suggest that not all his choices were insincere. Therefore his initial claims and theories were not completed, his actions contradicted his preliminary ideas. Consequently, Napoleon betrayed the ideas of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

3.2~ The Reign of Terror was a point in time during the French Revolution in which Maximilien Robespierre attempted to live in “republic of virtue”, which didn’t end well for France. For instance, Robespierre ruled as a dictator in terms of remaining loyal to his duties. Also, another example would be his decisions which impacted his reputation along with his overall personality as a whole. First off foremost, Robespierre didn’t feel pity for his subjects and during the Reign of Terror, 40,000 people were killed for non-existent purposes. Furthermore, one person got executed due to the fact that he accidentally chopped off a tree which was quite significant to the empire, however, Robespierre was very careless and continued with his

France was so set on their plans to attack the Germans head on at Alsace and Lorraine that they didn’t see the Germans grow strong in a huge area of French northern territory where there was plenty of agriculture and manufacturing that they greatly disadvantaged themselves. Tuchman’s assessment of the Russians was: “They entered the war without confidence and remained in it without faith.” In that first month, the Russians were so disorganized and unprepared that they took too long to get seriously into the war to matter much. The Russians were harmed by the weakness of Minister of War, General Sukhomlinov who “...bragged about not having ‘… read a military manual for the last twenty-five years.’” President Wilson of the United States wanted to remain neutral in the war so that at the last minute the U.S. could join the Allies become the savior of the

Russian inability to recognize changing tactics and weapons of modern warfare is inexcusable but sadly explainable. Because the Czar tended to centralize power and surround himself with "yes men," he missed the good advice of those in his country who could have helped guide Russia into war. Some of these choices can also be blamed on misconceptions of Russian capabilities, and of its military identity. The military reforms that were not completely halted by inept leaders were otherwise thwarted by the lack of details with which an army mobilizes and fights. Details were not an important aspect for Russian pre-war strategy or estimations.

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

June of 1812 is when he decided to attack them but the reason for this was because there was a fault in their alliance. Both Napoleon and Alexander I had a suspicion that each other had a competing design on Poland. This caused Napoleon to invade Russia. For those reasons I believe that Napoleon did have a choice whether or not to invade Russia. They both had suspicions not evidence which means they both don't actually know the truth. Just because of one disagreement it doesn't mean that you should invade them right away. If they were to of waited and actually found proof then yes maybe he should've done it but not right away. Napoleon took 420,000 soldiers into Russia to attack. The Russians refused to fight in an unfair battle so they burned the grain fields and killed the livestock so that Napoleon and his army would have nothing to

Invading Russia came with a price, this was a price he would have to pay in more ways than one. If you change your perspective and take a look from Napoleon's eyes you can see a couple reasons as to why he felt he absolutely needed to invade Russia. In the first place, Russia and France had previously been bound together through an alliance; however, by

In my opinion yes, Napoleon had to invade Russia. The Russians were broke, the treaty they had with France and was open once again and traded with the British. This would abolish the continental system since British items would flood through Russia into the rest of continental Europe, this is the most important and main reason Napoleon crashed Russia. Another important problem was that the Russians were rallying the army on the end of the Duchy of Warsaw. It was fair that Russia was going to take over the duchy and the Russians were also sending pamphlets into Germany trading for the people to rise up against the French and join the Russians. So if Napoleon did not take part against this threat then the Russians would of took over the Duchy

Dying horses littered the roads and the advanced guard found little forage as Russians everywhere abandoned their homes. Napoleon knew that he needed to fight. At Smolensk, he set up for a battle and waited but the Russians, afraid of a trap steadily withdrew their troops from Smolensk and continued to retreat deeper into Russia. The only major battle in the Russian campaign proved that something was definitely lacking in Napoleon's judgment.

The artillery and small arms were years behind that of France. The Russian army was a conscription army, meaning that local farmers had to furnish a certain number of surfs for military service, as opposed to a professional, trained army where the government supplies the soldiers with all of their needs. An amazing half-million soldiers had enlisted in Napoleon’s Grand Armée (Saglamer, Beginning of the March). This was the largest army gathered for one single invasion. Russia’s army was out numbered 3:1 with only one hundred-seventy thousand soldiers. Not only was the Russian army not well trained, they were also ill equipped. Napoleon recognized that it would be difficult and extremely slow for Russia to mobilize her army due to her enormous size and weak infrastructure. If Napoleon invaded now, he knew that he could be well into the Russian territory before meeting any major opposition. On June 24, 1812, Napoleon began his fatal Russian campaign. The Grand Armée, led by Napoleon, crossed the Nieman River, into Russia. On the journey to Moscow, Napoleon met virtually no major opposition. The first stop in the campaign was Kovono. Early into the campaign, the Grand Armée was affected by a colic epidemic that claimed the life of nine thousand horses and thousands of soldiers (Web, Russian Embassy). This slowed the pace of the army. Harsh weather conditions caused the dry roads to turn to mud, making it extremely difficult to maneuver the

The Preparation of the Russian invasion began in January, 1811. This was a very thought out plan and was well supplied. Napoleon's army consisted of about 700,000 men, which were moved to poland, just outside of Russia’s border. Instead of attacking, Russia created the Sixth Coalition, which was a secret alliance between Russia, Sweden, Britain, and Spain. In may of 1812, Napoleon took command of a multinational grande armee assembled in poland. On June 24-25 1812, the French moved into Russia to eliminate the Threat to Europe. The Russian army attacked the french and everything Napoleon dreamed for was gone. The winter after that was so harsh, only 100,00 of the original grande armee made

His downfall stared in 1812 when he tried to invade Russia. There were 600,000 men of his Grand Army went into Russia. The Russia did not battle them, they destroyed their own villages to keep Napoleon army from finding food. It was only 40,000 men that came back to Poland. This military state held other European states to do better and attack the French army.

The retreat from Moscow was such a great blunder because Napoleon was losing all of his troops. Napoleon and his troops decide to walk across the Neman river into Russia in June of 1812. Napoleon needed to protect his thigh so he sent troops to polostk. Many troops are starting to die at this point. They are lacking many of what a human body needs to survive. They are losing starvation, disease and desertion. 175,000 soldiers arrive in Smolensk but 30,000 soldiers die there. The Battle of Borodino happens on September 7, 1812. Napoleon has 30,000 more casualties at this battle. Napoleon has already lost many many troops. On September 14, 1812 Napoleon finally reaches Moscow to find it completely in ashes. Napoleon knows the czar did all of

In Russia, the year prior, Napoleon’s Grand Army experienced a new form of “total war” which set conditions for large-scale armies to require pivotal victory which previously eluded them. Total war is not a familiar military tactic for Napolean because he was forced to utilize citizens as soldiers. In addition to this, he did not fight his battles on his home soil. The battle of Leipzig battles at proximity, at fluid speed, similar to Waterloo allowing for surprises that mobility affords through open-order tactics.