Napolean's 1812 Invasion of Russia

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In 1812, Napoleon invaded the country of Russia. Most of his advisors warned him against this, saying it would be a very bad decision, but Napoleon ignored them. His armies were heavily defeated and there were many reasons for this. I will be talking about some of these reasons in this chapter.

At first, both the French and Russians attempted to have peace between their countries, by having a meeting called the “Congress of Erfurt” between Napoleon and the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I. This meeting happened in 1808, and ended with the “Treaty of Tilsit” between the 2 countries. This treaty created an alliance of France and Russia, meaning that the rest of Europe was virtually powerless to their immense power. They agreed to aid each other in their separate battles. However, many Russians were unhappy about the alliance, and described it as a “national humiliation”.

The Russians didn’t really help Napoleon in his war against Britain, reducing the effect of the “continental system”, a foreign policy. Napoleon was angered by their decision, and Alexander I was advised to invade Fra...

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