For more than one century, the personality of Napoleon Bonaparte and everything connected with him has been of great interest to both lovers of world history and a huge number of people who are far from this science. According to statistics, much more literary works are devoted to this commander and politician than to any other person.
Napoleon's Great Army is a huge military force that appeared as a result of numerous conquests led by a brilliant commander. It was on her that he pinned great hopes on the conquest of Russia, and then England.
Conflict between France and Great Britain
The Patriotic War of 1812 entered Russian history forever as an example of the military courage of the soldiers of our country and the genius of the strategic decisions of military leaders. The story of all this should be preceded by a consideration of the events that preceded it.
In the first decade of the nineteenth century Bonaparte, notdaring to start a military campaign against Great Britain, decided to influence the enemy by arranging an economic blockade for him. That is why the first skirmish between Russian troops and the army of the great commander, although it ended in victory for the enemy, did not bring territorial losses to Russia. This happened in 1805 at Austerlitz.
Russia then fought together with several allies in the anti-French coalition. Those French troops are called the First Grand Army. Napoleon Bonaparte, who met with Emperor Alexander the First in the middle of the river on rafts, put forward a condition: Russia should not conduct any trade with Great Britain. It must be said that economic relations with this country were an important budget replenishment item for our fatherland at that time.
Many Russian-made goods were imported to England. Therefore, it was not in the interests of our country to violate such beneficial relations. For this reason, Alexander the First soon ordered the resumption of trade with Great Britain.
Pretext for war
This event was one of the reasons for the outbreak of the War of 1812.
Sending his Great Army to fight Russia, Napoleon made a reckless and extremely short-sighted step, which became fatal for him. Bonaparte's message to the Russian tsar stated that the violation of the agreement on maintaining the economic blockade of England by Russia would sooner or later lead to war. After that, both sides began a hasty mobilization of the military forces of their states.
Napoleon's Second Great Army
The newly assembled military force is notall called great. The French commander planned to send not all the people who served in the Armed Forces of the empire to Russia. For this conflict, he allocated about half of the military personnel. These corps received the name of Napoleon's Great Army. This name is still the subject of controversy in the circles of the scientific community. This chapter will present several points of view on the question of why Napoleon's army was called great.
Some historians say that this adjective is used to refer to the largest part of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the French Empire. Other experts argue that the word "great" the author of the name, and it is obvious that he was Bonaparte himself, wanted to emphasize the military power, brilliant training and invincibility of his subordinates. It is worth noting that the second version is the most popular.
Characteristics of the personality of the French emperor
The choice of such a catchy name can be explained by Napoleon's constant desire to emphasize his military and political successes. His career as a statesman developed extremely rapidly. He climbed into the highest echelons of power, although he came from a poor family, belonging to the middle social class. Therefore, all his life he had to defend his right to a place in the sun.
He was born on the island of Corsica, which at that time was a province of the French Empire. His father had Italian roots, and the name of the future emperor originally sounded like Bonaparte. In Corsicaamong representatives of the merchant class, we althy artisans and other people belonging to the middle class, it was customary to acquire documents indicating that their bearer belongs to an ancient noble family.
Following this tradition, the father of the future emperor of France bought himself a similar paper, which speaks of the noble origin of their family name. No wonder Bonaparte, who inherited this highly developed vanity from his parent, called his troops Napoleon's Grand Army.
The ruler comes from childhood
Another important detail of the life of this outstanding person is that he was brought up in a large family. Parents sometimes did not have enough money to provide all their offspring with decent food. It is known that children coming from such families are especially glib.
Ardent temperament, combined with a constant desire to achieve his goal - to stand at the head of a powerful empire - allowed him to subjugate many European states in a fairly short time.
Multinational Army
These conquests of European states made it possible to replenish the French troops at the expense of the male population of the occupied territories. If you look at the so-called "timetable of Napoleon's Grand Army" in 1812, you can see that it consists of only half of the representatives of the indigenous nationality of the state of France. The rest of the fighters were recruited in Poland, Austria-Hungary, Germany and others.countries. It is interesting that Napoleon, who had a natural ability for military-theoretical sciences, did not have a particular talent for learning foreign languages.
One of his friends at the military academy recalled that one day, after studying German, Bonaparte said: “I don’t understand how you can even learn to speak this most difficult language?” Fate decreed that this man, who was never able to master German perfectly, subsequently conquered a country in which this language is considered the state language.
Strategic miss
It would seem that by increasing the size of his army, Bonaparte should have thereby clearly strengthened its combat power. However, this advantage also had a downside. Such replenishment of personnel at the expense of citizens of other states conquered by force can be considered one of the disadvantages of managing Napoleon's Great Army.
Going to fight not for their Fatherland, but for the glory of a foreign country, the soldiers could not have that fighting patriotic spirit that was inherent not only in the Russian army, but in all the people. On the contrary, even outnumbered by the enemy, our troops saw great meaning in their actions - they went to defend their country from uninvited guests.
Guerrilla warfare
The hot Corsican blood of Napoleon and his numerous military triumphs, with which the emperor was literally intoxicated, did not allow him to soberly assess the geographical features of the country where he sent his troops, as well as certain characteristics of the nationalmentality inherent in the local population.
All this ultimately contributed to the death of Napoleon's Grand Army. But only it did not happen instantly - the army was dying slowly. Moreover, both the commander-in-chief and most of his subordinates for a very long time had the illusion that they were gradually moving towards their goal, step by step approaching Moscow.
Bonoparte failed to foresee that not only the soldiers of the Russian army, but also ordinary people would defend their country, forming numerous partisan detachments.
There are cases when even women not only participated in the popular resistance, but also took command. Another fact from the history of the Patriotic War of 1812 is indicative. When the French near Smolensk asked the peasant how to get to the nearest settlement, he refused to show them the way under the pretext that at this time of the year it was impossible to get there because of the numerous forest swamps. As a result, the soldiers of the enemy army had to find their own way. And it is not surprising that they chose the most difficult and longest. The peasant deceived them: at that time, all the swamps were just dried up due to the abnormally hot summer.
Also, history has preserved the memory of a simple peasant from the people who fought near Moscow in the detachment of the famous hussar and famous poet Denis Davydov. The commander called this brave man his best friend and warrior of unprecedented courage.
Moral Decay
Few of the hugeNapoleon's multinational army could boast of such professional and spiritual qualities. On the contrary, Bonaparte, raising the fighting spirit in his subordinates, sought first of all to play on their base desires and aspirations. Leading his army to Moscow, the emperor promised foreign soldiers, who had no motivation for heroism, to give the rich Russian city to their full disposal, that is, he allowed it to be plundered. He used similar techniques in relation to the soldiers, who were demoralized as a result of an exhausting campaign in harsh climatic conditions.
These actions of his did not have the most favorable consequences. When the army of the French emperor was left to the mercy of fate in winter Moscow, burned down by a fire set by Russian sabotage groups, the soldiers began to think not at all about the glory of their Fatherland. They did not even think about how best to retreat and return to France for the remnants of the once great army. They were busy looting. Everyone tried to take with them as many trophies as possible from the conquered enemy city. In this state of affairs, no doubt, there was a share of the fault of Napoleon Bonaparte, who provoked such behavior of the soldiers with his speeches.
When Napoleon's Great Army invaded Russia, and it happened on June 24, 1812, the great commander himself at the head of the corps, which numbered about a quarter of a million people, crossed the Neman River. After him, after some time, other armies invaded our state. They were commanded by such already famous by that momentgenerals like Eugene Beauharnais, Macdonald, Girom and others.
A grand plan
When was the invasion of Napoleon's Grand Army? It is necessary to repeat this date once again, since such a question is often found in history exams in educational institutions of all levels. This happened in 1812, and this operation began on June 24. The strategy of the Great Army was to limit the concentration of strikes. Bonaparte believed that one should not attack the enemy, surrounding regiments under the command of Russian generals from different sides.
He was a supporter of destroying the enemy in a simpler and at the same time effective scheme. The numerous invasions of his first army immediately had to bring such significant losses to the Russians as to prevent the regiments of Russian generals from joining their efforts by attacking the French army from different flanks. This was the original plan of the Russian resistance.
Napoleon proudly informed his generals that his brilliant military strategy would prevent Bagration (pictured below) and Barclay from ever meeting.
But Napoleon's Grand Army in 1812 became acquainted with the unexpected tactics of Russian generals. They changed their intention in time to fight a general battle as soon as possible. Instead, the Russian troops retreated farther inland, allowing the enemy to "enjoy" the harsh climate of the local territories and the courageous sorties against them, which were carried out by partisan detachments.
Of course, the Russian army also inflicted significant damage on combatthe relics of the Napoleonic troops in rare clashes.
Victory of military ingenuity
The result of such actions, planned by the Russian generals, fully met all expectations.
The great army of Napoleon in the battle of Borodino consisted, according to approximate estimates, of 250,000 people. This figure speaks of a major tragedy. More than half of Napoleon's Great Army that invaded Russia (date - 1812) was lost.
A new look at history
The book "In the footsteps of Napoleon's Great Army", published several years ago, allows you to look at the events of those distant days from a new perspective. Its author believes that in the study of this war, one should rely primarily on documentary evidence and the latest finds of archaeologists. He personally visited the sites of all the major battles, participating in excavations.
This book is in many ways similar to an album of photographs of discoveries made by scientists in recent decades. The photographs are accompanied by scientifically based conclusions, which will be useful and interesting for lovers of historical literature, as well as specialists in this field.
Conclusion
The personality of Napoleon and his art of military strategy still cause a lot of controversy. Some call him a tyrant and a despot who bled many European countries, including Russia. Others consider him a fighter for peace, who made his numerous military campaigns, pursuing humane and noble goals. This point of view is also not without foundation, since Bonaparte himselfsaid that he wanted to unite the countries of Europe under his leadership in order to exclude the possibility of hostility between them in the future.
Therefore, the march of the Great Army of Napoleon and today, many people perceive as the anthem of freedom. But being a great commander, Bonaparte did not have the same talents in politics and diplomacy, which played a fatal role in his fate. He was betrayed by most of the generals of his own army after the Battle of Waterloo, where the final death of Napoleon's Grand Army took place.
