Napoleon Its Incomplete Right Now Essay, Research Paper

There is no doubt that Napoleon?s life left a huge impact on Europe. People have called him ?The greatest man of action born in Europe since Julius Caesar?(Winston Churchhill)

The campaign of 1812 was more frankly imperialistic than any other of Napoleon’s wars; it was more directly dictated by the interests of the French upper class. The basic purposes of the war were to subject Russia to the economic interests of the upper class and to create an eternal threat against her in the shape of a vassal Poland, united with Lithuania and White Russia. Only by resisting this aggregation could Russia preserve her economic and political independence.

Napoleon had tried to conquer England, but was defeated at Trafalgar. The English also succeeded in organizing a new anti-French coalition consisting of Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Naples.

On December 2, 1805, in his greatest victory, Napoleon defeated the combined Austrian and Russian armies in the Battle of Austerlitz. In September 1806 Prussia entered the war against France, and on October 14 the Prussian armies were defeated at Jena and at Auerst?dt. The Russians put up a better resistance at Eylau in February 1807 but were routed at Friedland in June.

The Russian emperor Alexander I could have continued the struggle, but he was tired of the alliance with the British. He met Napoleon at Tilsit, in northern Prussia near the Russian frontier. There, on a raft anchored in the middle of the Niemen River, they signed treaties that created the Grand Duchy of Warsaw from the Polish provinces detached from Prussia and, in effect, divided control of Europe between the emperors.

At this time the French and their allies were maintaining a blockade against England. Russia was not effectively pursuing this blockade, and the French upper class wanted the complete elimination of England from European markets. Napoleon made this his primary excuse for the war.

Since the Congress of Erfurt, the Russian emperor had shown himself less and less inclined to deal with Napoleon as a trusted partner. In the spring of 1812, therefore, Napoleon massed his forces in Poland to intimidate Alexander. After some last attempts at agreement, in late June his Grande Arm?e–about 453,000 men, including contingents extorted from Prussia and from Austria–began to cross the Niemen River.

Napoleon entered a largely deserted Moscow. The Russian commander in chief, Gen. M.I. Kutuzov, had evacuated troops and civilians from the city. A fire broke out and spread rapidly, eventually destroying more than two-thirds of all the buildings. ?The fire had spread rapidly. It could not have been stopped. It would burn, devouring more than half the city, for three, perhaps even four days.?(Kelly) Looting was rife. ?At the center was the conqueror himself. In the Kremlin, the conquering Napoleon Bonaparte could see the red glare from the windows. He was mesmerized, impressed?but also terribly agitated?at such sacrifice by the Russians.?(Kelly) The lack of supplies and shelter and continual harassment by Russian skirmishing forces made it impossible for Napoleon to winter in Moscow, and Alexander did not sue for peace. On October 19 the French troops began their catastrophic retreat. Kutuzov, through brilliant strategy and with the aid of heroic partisans, pursued the enemy and drove him from the country.

The Patriotic War of 1812, or the Russian Campaign of Napoleon as it was called on the West, occupies one of the most remarkable places in the century-old and reach of events Russian history. The Patriotic War of 1812 had become the beginning of the end of Napoleon’s Empire; Russia had become the place of the destruction of the Great Army. Many events were contained in this heroic epoch: long and heavy retreat of the Russian armies in land, a bitterness of defeats of the first months of the campaign, the tragedy of the surrender of Moscow to the enemy, the triumph and the joy after enemy’s proscription from the limits of Motherland. Back in France word had spread that Napoleon had been killed by the Russian army. When he heard this news he felt the need to get home even more.(Kelly) This false truth made the people lose their confidence in their leader.

This catastrophe heartened all the peoples of Europe to defy Napoleon. In Germany the news unleashed an outbreak of anti-French demonstrations. The Prussian contingents deserted the Grande Arm?e in December and turned against the French. The Austrians also withdrew their troops and adopted an increasingly hostile attitude, and in Italy the people began to turn their backs on Napoleon. The retreat from Russia, combined with Napoleon’s reverses in Spain, precipitated his downfall. Napoleon was captured and sent to Elba for imprisonment. ( Riehn,)

?Napoleon escaped from Elba because he had within him a fund of unexpected energy which the petty activities of his tiny realm could not satisfy?(Fisher, pg. 129). Napoleon mobilized his man and met the country that he had successfully opened his military career against, England, for one last time. Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo mainly because of the amount of people the Allies had. ? In the four critical days of the campaign he had hardly taken twenty hours of rest, and had spent more then thirty-seven hours in the saddle?(Fisher, pg. 140). Napoleon was captured and sent to St. Helena where he spent the last few years of his life.

After the Russia incident Napoleon’s empire fell apart. England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria allied together to fight the French. Napoleon did not win to many victories against them. In a three-day battle at Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, the French were outnumbered in every way. The French had to retreat. Then on March 30, 1814 the allies captured Paris. Even Napoleon’s generals realized it was a lost fight and gave up. Napoleon was forced to abdicate the throne on April 6, 1814.

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