Why did Napoleon invade Russia? Napoleon invaded Russia because he wanted to force back Russian troops and consolidate all of his power in Europe. He assumed that he would be able to defeat the Russians and, as Hitler did later on, underestimated them.
Napoleon had come to power through a coup in 1799 and made himself the first consul. In 1804, he called himself emperor. By 1812, Napoleon had defeated every military power in Europe, except for Britain and Russia. Napoleon couldn’t defeat Britain’s navy, but he could defeat them and their allies on land. Napoleon wanted to limit British access to anything that was manufactured in Europe and started a blockade. In the beginning, Russia was part of this blockade, but they soon withdrew themselves and began supplying Britain with goods and raw materials. The reason for this was that France had annexed a small territory called West Galicia, which is now part of Poland. Russia saw this as a jumping-off point for the French army and feared that Napoleon would not be content with just Europe and would soon turn his sights on invading Russia. They began to prepare for war, and an alliance with Britain was one step.
Russia tried to make other alliances, but they couldn’t, and Britain was no help in continental Europe. Russia realized that they would be at the mercy of Napoleon unless they tried to do something. Tsar Alexander I mobilized his forces and headed for the border with Europe. He could only raise 153,000 soldiers. Napoleon could draw on the armies of all of Europe, and he was able to raise a force of 600,000 soldiers, which he sent towards the border. On paper, it looked like an easy win for Napoleon. In fact, Napoleon had beaten Russian forces before, and he assumed that it would be an easy win as well. It might have been if the Russian troops had lined up on the border and fought France in the usual way, but they didn’t, and that is why they ended up winning.
Russia couldn’t beat France in a regular fight, so they baited the French army and slowly drew them into Russia. This gave France the same problem that it would give Hitler over 130 years later. Russia is an enormous country. It covers 8 time zones and stretches from all the way above Japan in the east to the same level as Turkey in the west. It is 9,000 km wide. Napoleon assumed that if he was able to take Moscow, Russia would surrender, but with a country so vast, Alexander could always pull his troops back further. There is no head to cut off because the head keeps retreating and moving.
Napoleon’s armies gave chase, and it very quickly became a problem of logistics. Any army needs to be fed and supplied. Generally, an army would confiscate food from the area they were travelling through. Alexander knew this, and so he had his troops conduct a scorched earth policy. That means he had his troops burn Russian villages and farms so that the French would not be able to find anything to eat. It didn’t make him very popular, but it did work. The French did not have enough food. By the time they reached Moscow, their supply lines were far too long to be practical, and the troops in the field could not get food, weapons, or clothing, which turned out to be very important.
Napoleon’s troops reached Moscow, but there was no one there to defend it, and after six months of invading into Russia, Napoleon had to give up and retreat. There were four things that defeated him. The first was the fact that the Russians wouldn’t meet him to fight. They kept retreating further and further. This was frustrating, but it also exhausted the French troops. The second thing was the lack of food. It is very hard for an army to march when they are hungry. The third thing was a typhus epidemic, which decimated the French army. Typhus is commonly caused by lice, and is worse when people are tired and hungry. By the time the French army started to retreat, only 110,000 were left. Then, on their way back, the fourth thing, the brutal winter, wiped out most of the rest of them. Russian winters are cold, and the French troops had no winter clothing. It is estimated that only 30,000 soldiers actually made it back to France. Hitler would discover this as well. It is very difficult to invade Russia. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/napoleon-invades-russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Galicia
https://www.britannica.com/summary/Napoleon-I-Timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon
Image By Adolph Northen – [1][2], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=298121