The Reason Napoleon was Beaten at Waterloo "Recouler pour mieux sauter." (French idiom. A rough translation would be. "Recoil, the better to strike.") The campaign of Austerlitz, leading up to the battle of the same name, can be viewed as Napoleon's greatest victory. However a glaring blunder is that the Austrian staff failed completely to calculate the difference between the calendar systems of the two countries. The Russians used the ancient, Gregorian system, putting their dates ten days behind those of the Austrians. And this miscalculation was to ruin the entire campaign. It was, in the proper sense of the word, a decisive victory. By the end of the day on December 2nd, 1805, the Austro-Russian army had ceased to be effective as a military unit, being as it was, reduced to a handful of fleeing fugitives, groups of mauled units in full retreat. Napoleon had carefully weighed the options and decided what threats there were to France. Chandler describes how he went about this: "The French armies could expect attack from four possible directions. Two could be discounted as insignificant; an Anglo-Swedish onslaught against Hanover from Pomerania, or an allied descent on Naples, would have little effect on the major issues of war, and in the former case such an attack might even persuade Prussia to throw her lot in with the French." (Chandler, 1993, p384). The Grande Armeé, unlike other armies, did not move in column formation. Instead, the army was divided into corps, each under a marshal or general, with his own orders and his own methods of executing them. Thus the manoeuvre at Austerlitz is one of the greatest piec... ... middle of paper ... ... "Stand fast…we must not be beat - what would they say in England?" Bibliography: Best, G (1988) The Permanent Revolution. (Glasgow:Fontana) Furet, F (1997) The French Revolution revisited in Recent Debates and New Controversies Ed by G Kates (London:Routledge) Lefebvre, G (1976) The Coming of the French Revolution. (New Jersey:Princeton University Press) Lucas, C (1997) Nobles, Bourgeois, and the origins of the French Revolution in Recent Debates and New Controversies Ed by G Kates (London:Routledge) Mc Garr, P (1989) The Great French Revolution. (Socialist Worker) Mc Garr, P (1998) The French Revolution: Marxism versus revisionism. (International Socialism) Soboul, A (1988) Understanding the French Revolution (London: Routledge) Tosh, J (1991) The Pursuit of History (London: Longman)
Napoleon had a quick victory in mind, and he would use said victory to force Alexander I back to the negotiating table. Taking place 75 miles from Moscow, the French and Russians were just hitting each other very hard, each pounding the other with loads of artillery, charges, and countercharges, leaving the average rate of fire to be about 3 cannon booms and 7 musket shots a second. The casualties on each side were enormous, with the total amount of deaths on both sides being about 70,000, the Russians did not continue with the fighting on the second day, as they withdrew and left the road to Moscow wide open. On September 14th, the Grand Armée entered the Russian capital of Moscow, but to their surprise, by the time they arrived, it was nothing more than what was once a city, but was then completely covered in flames. Most of its residents had been long gone, but had left behind many bottles of liquor, but as much liquor as there was, there was hardly any food, so the French troops did what they could, they drank and looted until Napoleon got word that Alexander I wanted to negotiate for peace.
During the years of 1812-1815 there was a lot of change and a lot of
Crashing cannon balls, firing muskets, Calvary charging with blades of cold steel. These are the images that are presented to people when contemplating, which many people in our society do very often, the Napoleonic wars. The reality is quite the contrary, to some extent this image is true. The reality is the Napoleonic wars were ones of attrition. The goal of army’s were to have enough troops to sustain the ability to fight in the next battle. The British government had this attrition as one of the principal complications with their army and Navy do to their constant involvement in war no matter where public opinion stood.
Napoleon won the battle against Egypt he suffered a disastrous setback at sea because the British
And because of the health of the French soldiers, there was little opposition for the Russian's attacks. Napoleon had returned to France to preserve his empire. With his desertion marking the end of the war. A lengthy bulletin had appeared in The Moniteur on the return of Napoleon. Until November 6, the weather was good, and the movement of the army was executed with success, but on the 7th the cold commenced.
Throughout the history of the world there have been hundreds of wars fought and thousands of new creations and advancements in weaponry, which aided certain sides in their victories. Many of the advancements that played big parts in history took place during the late 18th century proceeding all the way through the 19th century because this was the time period of our important Revolutionary Wars, such as the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The Revolutionary Wars lead to much advancement that helped to define the outcomes of many wars that followed, for instance the impact on military strategies due to the advancement of the rifle during the Napoleonic Wars. The Napoleonic Wars took place just after the French Revolution from roughly 1792 until 1815 when Napoleon Bonaparte took over the French troops and continued to fight Great Britain for European supremacy. Napoleon was always known to be a proud leader and made a proclamation 1796 to his troops in Italy in order to raise their spirits that consisted of quotes such as, “The two armies which but recently attacked you with audacity are fleeing before you in terror; the wicked men who laughed at your misery and rejoiced at the thought of the triumphs of your enemies are confounded and trembling” (Kreis). These wars led by Napoleon consisted of a decade’s worth of wars fought between the British and French that lead up to the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, due to the use of advanced weaponry and strategies by the British army (Dugdale).
However, Napoleon did not lose the war out of military errors but of a simple miscalculation - a miscalculation that was made by Hitler a century later. Napoleon believed that if he occupied Moscow, the Russian government would collapse and he would rule Europe with little opposition. But as history reveals, this tactic does not work and Napoleon is defeated, paving the way for other nations to deny Napoleon's lust for power.
As a military genius, Napoleon won many battles to expand France and was always welcomed back to France as a hero. His use of strategic warfare throughout many battles allowed him to be seen as a hero not only in France but all of Europe. Although his army was outnumbered by the Russians and Austrians in December 2, 1805, Napoleon' brilliant strategies resulted in a defeat of the opposing armies in the Battle of Austerlitz.
... many French commanders not even knowing where their own subordinate units were located.11 The French placed their defense in old, outdated tactics of static warfare. Gone were the days of two sides slugging it out against prepared reinforced defense structures. Closely integrating concentrated armor, infantry, and closely supported by aviation assets all combined to crush France in a matter of only six weeks. France was simply not prepared for this new age of warfare.
Napoleon was a man known for his greatest powers and successes as a leader. One of the many successful things Napoleon did early in his life was develop a highly successful military strategy. His tragedy consisted of starting a battle with an enemy while holding his forces back. He would then look for the enemies weakest points and throw all his strength against that point. This newly developed strategy helped him to win many of his attacks such as his attack on and defeat in Italy against Austria and his battle and defeat in Egypt against the Turks.
French Revolution brought a great number of great ideas, but ideas are not beneficial unless they are realized and stabilized. The man to stabilize the concepts of French Revolution was Napoleon Bonaparte. He started out as an Italian general and ended up being one of the greatest historical figures. First, Directors requested Napoleon's support while organizing a coup d'etat. Then, Bonaparte fought Britain in order to benefit France. Lastly, he was called to help creating a new constitution and ended up as the First Consul of France. At home, he ruled using flattery, but also he strongly resisted the opposition. Napoleon is a pro-revolutionist because he denied all the privileges of the aristocracy, created a new constitution, and also established the Napoleonic Code.
Although he inspired new social, economic, and political ideas, Napoleon Bonaparte is better known for his military tactics. Even today, his battle plans are used and studied by many in the military. Napoleon, who started out as an extremely short and wimpy foreigner who rose to become Emperor of France, died in 1821 at St. Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic. He was fifty-two years old. Th cause is uncertain: either he was poisoned or he died of a stomach ailment.
Napoleon returned to home to France with only about 10% of his Army still alive. He lost most of his soldiers during the Great White Death, which is one of the largest French disasters to date. Since all the coalition allies knew he was in trouble, they decided to follow him and take him out while he was down and burned out. This is when he decided to give himself up and be exiled to Elba with 1000 guards. Before he left though, he promised his men that he, “… would return when the flowers bloomed.” And that was a promise that Napoleon kept.
...he day wore on, neither side achieving a clear victory. However, the Prussians, who had managed to regroup their forces, came to the rescue of their allies. After they swarm into the battle, Napoleon’s attempt to reclaim the throne became known as The Hundred Days, ending with his great defeat at Waterloo.
Maximilien Robespierre did not do more to further France as a nation that Napoleon Bonaparte. Robespierre only got the ball rolling. He only took down the governments and caused the deaths of countless numbers of people as a way to control them. He was then caught fleeing and tried to commit suicide and failed. Shortly afterwards he was beheaded. Napoleon had to be taken down by armies of twelve different countries before he gave up rule on France. He then ended up coming back ten months later to retake France. Napoleon had done more to further France as a nation by ending the French Revolution, expanding France and France's power, and seeking peace with France's enemy countries.