Catherine The Great's Invasion Of Russia

Just before the nineteenth century, Catherine the Great dies in 1796 after a reign of thirty-four years. She is succeeded by Paul I, a son whom she has consistently undermined and who has lived his life, from the age of eight, in the conviction that his mother organized the murder of his father, Peter III, in 1762. Paul I is an unstable and tyrannical, until his assassination in 1801. His son, Alexander I becomes Tsar and In 1805 Alexander joins the Third Coalition against Napoleon. During the autumn and early winter of that year Russian and Austrian armies attempt to confront Napoleon in central Europe but they are comprehensively outmanoeuvred. Alexander I and Napoleon meet after a loss at Friedland, on June 14, and they carve up Europe to …show more content…
The removal of Russia from Europe's battlefields leaves him free to tighten his hold elsewhere. With Austria an ally by conquest and marriage, Prussia crushed into submission, and nearly the whole of western Europe as his empire, Napoleon perhaps understandably feels justified in taking a strong line with Russia. In spite of the congenial mood in 1807, and an attempt by Napoleon to revive it in another grand meeting at Erfurt in 1808, Alexander I fails to give any practical support to his ally in the 1809 campaign against Austria. There are various reasons. The Continental System is doing harm to Russia's Baltic trade. The introduction of French republican principles in the grand duchy of Warsaw alarms St Petersburg. And the terms agreed by the tsar at Tilsit have been unpopular in Russia from the start. With war between the two empires increasingly probable, Napoleon moves first in what he intends to be a massive and rapid strike. From February 1812 armies begin to march from many different regions to converge on the river Neman. The assembled force is vastly impressive, with 500,000 infantry, 100,000 cavalry and 80,000 in the baggage trains. About 200,000 of these troops are the French Grand …show more content…
Alexander I dies suddenly and childless. With no child to replace him, his eldest brother, Constantine is in line to become the next tsar. Unknown to Alexander I’s other brother, Nicholas, Constantine has renounced his claim. In ignorance, he pledges his allegiance to his older brother, as does the army. After three weeks of sorting out the muddle, the army is instructed to make a new pledge of allegiance to tsar Nicholas I. They are given orders to do so on December 26. A group of officers make a calculated bid to impose their constitutional demands upon the new tsar (whichever brother he may be). They persuade the soldiers that the new pledge is part of a coup. Armed platoons take to the streets. For some hours Nicholas in person confronts and argues with the rebels on a square in St. Petersburg. The confrontation ends when he gives the order for rounds of grapeshot from his artillery. About eighty lie dead when the rebel soldiers and the crowd have dispersed in panic. The leaders of the plot are easily found and arrested. Five are eventually hanged. Their uprising achieves nothing, being the prelude to a long and increasingly oppressive reign by Nicholas I. But under the name of Decembrists, they are later revered as the first martyrs in Russia's long revolutionary tradition. For much of his reign he achieves a sensible diplomatic accommodation with the Turkish sultan in the affairs of the

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Catherine The Great's Invasion Of Russia

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