Napoleon Bonaparte Mistakes

Jeeval Mehta As Joan Collins once quoted, “Show me a person who has never made a mistake, and I’ll show you somebody that has never achieved much”. The quote suits well to prolific military leader and emperor (from 1804 – 1815), Napoleon Bonaparte. As he dominated European matters for about twenty years leading France against a series of unions in the Napoleonic Wars, he was still prone to making mistakes. These mistakes would eventually lead to the downfall of his power rein in France. These most prominent of these mistakes includes the failure of the Continental System (or Continental Blockade), his invasion into Spain and Portugal (well known as the Peninsular War), and his invasion into Russia. As history does not include an undo button,
The Continental System mention earlier involved countries to block trade with Great Britain. Portugal refused to fall under to the command of the French; thus, this led Napoleon to invade Portugal and invade into the Iberian Peninsula in order to “teach them a lesson”. In order to do this, Napoleon’s forces crossed through Spain, and before they could reach the royal family of Portugal, the family fled off to Brazil. However, Napoleon left some troops in Spain to put burden on the already unsteady Spanish kingdom, which would soon fall. Eventually, Napoleon’s own brother Joseph was placed in power as the king of Spain (a large mistake), which angered the Spanish people. This placement of the new king created guerrilla warfare in Spain. This lead to the intervention of the British forces. In August 1808, the British army headed for Portugal under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. After two battles, British forces were able to push back the French out of Portugal. Napoleon responded by leading his army in Spain from 1808 to 1809. As they approached the board of Portugal, they met with British troops, of which they were able to push back. Sir Arthur Wellesley returned to the battlefield, and under his command, the British army once again pushed the French back out of Portugal and then headed into Spain to assist the Spanish army and their guerrilla
Preserving the Continental Blockade for Napoleon was significant. So when Czar Alexander I decided to give up his support in the system, Bonaparte decided to again “teach him a lesson”. Napoleon also saw this moment as a perfect chance to conquer Russia as well. Therefore, he amassed his grand Army of 600,000 men into Russia. Russia, however, decided to annoy him by constantly retreating into their vast land. When Bonaparte reached to Moscow, the city was already burned by the Russian. He waited for five days for the Russian to surrender, but he then, something hit him on his head. It was snowing, and Napoleon would realize that his army would not be able to survive for long in these condition. With disease rampart in the Grand Army and lack of food available for them, the population of the army dwindled to about 100,000 men. The army would soon encounter the Russian army at Maloyaroslavets, with the French winning the battle. However, Austria, Prussia, and Sweden and Great Britain formed a coalition with Russia to bring down Bonaparte. The British forces pushed forward t0 France through Spain and Russia, Prussia and Austria entered eastern France. In March of 1814, they were in Paris. Napoleon had no other choice but to renounce his throne, marking the end of his once great