Why Did Napoleon Invade Russia in 1812?

A proclamation blamed fate, but the paper trail shows one man deciding every step toward war. This is the story of how the alliance of Tilsit collapsed over trade with Britain, how Napoleon was warned a year in advance that Russia would retreat rather than fight, and how he chose to invade anyway, certain that one battle would settle it. Drawing on Napoleon's own correspondence, Caulaincourt's memoirs, and Russian war planning, the video traces the six months of orders, alliances, and troop movements that built the invasion, and shows that the Grande Armée was already halved by summer marches and disease before the first snow ever fell. It follows the campaign from the crossing at Kovno to the burning of Moscow and the retreat across the Berezina, and asks who really controlled the war each side ended up fighting. MAPS Map imagery: NASA Blue Marble and Landsat (NASA/USGS) via NASA GIBS; Natural Earth. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 1:48 Tilsit Alliance Collapses 4:40 Caulaincourt's Warning 8:11 Three Possible Courses 11:09 Building Toward War 14:44 Crossing the Niemen 18:32 Summer Losses Mount Sources: Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, vol. 23, Imprimerie impériale, Paris, 1868 Napoleon's Addresses: Selections from the Proclamations, Speeches and Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte, ed. Ida M. Tarbell, 1897 Armand de Caulaincourt, With Napoleon in Russia, ed. Jean Hanoteau, William Morrow, 1935 Harrison W. Mark, French Invasion of Russia, World History Encyclopedia, 2023 Fondation Napoléon, The March to the Niemen; From the Niemen to Moscow; The Retreat, napoleon.org Fondation Napoléon, 1811 chronology, napoleon-empire.org Mernagh, analysis of Minard's map of the Russian campaign, Significance, Royal Statistical Society, 2012 Charles Joseph Minard, Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812–1813, 1869 Izviestiia o voennykh dieistviiakh, St Petersburg, 1813, Cambridge University Library