He had a marvelous memory, which did not only give him the ability to remember knowledge from books but also made him able to remember individual soldiers. This in turn made the soldiers feel special and important. With this feeling, they felt that Napoleon was the people’s hero, a good man and that they would be fighting for a just cause. Also Napoleon could give great motivational speeches, which evoked French nationalism throughout France. “Soldiers! I am pleased with you. On the day of Austerlitz you have justified everything I was expecting of you.” His troops were often motivated by his speeches and marched fast, making reinforcements in battle quick and easy. His marvelous memory also helped him retain knowledge from the military books he read as a student and take these tactics and use them in battles such as the battle of Austerlitiz.
His downfall started in November 1806 when he set up a blockade between Great Britain and other European nations, as he controlled most of Europe save Britain. Napoleon called this the Continental System. However the French navy could not enforce this and smuggling began. Even Napoleon’s own army had to smuggle to get uniform for the army. Angered by this Britain responded with its own blockade, which was much stronger. This limited many supplies for the French army.
In 1808 Napoleon sent an invasion through Spain in an effort to get Portugal to accept the Continental System. The Spanish protested so Napoleon removed the Spanish king and put his own brother on the throne. This evoked Spanish Nationalism and caused bands of peasant fighters, guerrillas, to attack the French army by ambushing their camps at night. This made the French soldiers extremely paranoid as they could not fight the guerrillas directly and were never sure when they would strike next. This was called the Peninsular war and in it Napoleon lost about 300,000 men. Nationalism was becoming a powerful weapon against Napoleon, people who had first welcomed the French rule now felt abused by a foreign conqueror.
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 was a catastrophic mistake. Beginning with 420,000 soldiers (not to mention the reinforcements), Napoleon’s army marched into Russia with limited supplies, thinking that they could find food on the land. However the Russian czar ordered a scored earth policy so that Napoleon’s army would not have any food to eat. Also carts bringing supplies to the French army were ambushed so that the French army had little to eat. Many troops died because of starvation. When Napoleon finally reached Moscow the czar had already ordered it to be burned rather than surrender it. Frustrated and starving Napoleon ordered his men to retreat. The remaining troops marched through the bitter winter, many dying from exhaustion, hunger, and cold. Finally in the middle of December 1812, the French army made it back to France, but only 10,000 remained, most of who could not fight again, due to frostbite.
With limited troops Napoleon decided to raise another army. However this new army was ill trained and unprepared for battle. Taking advantage of his weakness, the European powers attacked and easily defeated Napoleon’s army. In April 1814 Napoleon accepted the terms of surrender and was banished to Elba, a tiny island off the Italian coast. Louis XVIII was put on the throne but was not popular. Hearing this Napoleon returned to France and became Emperor again. In response the European allies prepared for battle. Napoleon’s army was still not very experienced and was defeated once again by the British and Prussian forces. This time Napoleon was sent to St. Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic.
Napoleon was a military genius, however his ambition got the better of him. A French writer Alexis Tocqueville summed him up as “He was as great a man can be without virtue.”