Quick Take: Napoleon Invades Russia

  Why did Napoleon I invade Russia in 1812? Napoleon invaded Russia because he had to. Of course, there is a little more to it than that. You may recall that at one point in his conquering march across Europe, Napoleon hoped to add Britain to the growing list of Friends of Napoleon countries. Unfortunately for him, the planned British campaign did not work out, since in the naval battle of Trafalgar he lost so much of his fleet that a cross-channel invasion seemed impractical. He took out his frustration in a series of spectacular land campaigns that resulted in “arrangements” with Austria, Prussia, and Russia. The problem was that Britain remained adamantly hostile and also continued to be an attractive and tempting trading partner for his allies. Somehow Napoleon had to break British resistance as well as prevent resumption of trade between the “nation of shopkeepers” and his allies. He did not have enough ships to invade or to mount an effective naval blockade. How could he get at the island nation? Napoleon, who was a great student of Roman history, decided to follow the example of Octavian Augustus, who had also faced difficulties at sea but had found the means to work around his problems. The Frenchman decided to utilize the army, his strength, to counteract his weakness, the navy. He came up with what is called the Continental System, which turned out to be an ingenious method of conducting a naval blockade by land. Put simply, the Continental System involved telling his allies that they could not have anything to do with Britain. If, for example, they resumed trade with Britain, he would enforce his “blockade” not by interfering with the ships, but by a land invasion. His hope was that Britain, cut off from all trade, would capitulate. Of course, once he had drawn this line in the dirt, he was stuck with it. If he permitted any defiance, the whole system would crumble. Enter Alexander I of Russia, who in 1812 finally got tired of this whole mess and decided to resume what had been a thriving trade with Britain. Napoleon ordered Russia to cease and desist. Russia refused to do so, knowing that the probable result would be a French invasion. Faced with open defiance, Napoleon felt he had no choice except to commence a punitive military expedition. Napoleon expected to be into Russia and back out in a matter of a few months, during the course of which the Czar would be defeated and would humbly apologize for having tried to break ranks. The actual results were, of course, quite different. Faced with an early winter snowstorm and a Russian retreat that led his forces on a grim chase to Moscow, Napoleon returned home to Paris with a decimated army to find his alliances in disarray and his power disappearing. The end was near.