Changes

==Military action to 1812==

==Military action to 1812==

[[Image:David - Napoleon.jpg|thumb|Napoleon Crossing The Alps by [[Jacques Louis David]]]]

[[Image:David - Napoleon.jpg|thumb|left|Napoleon Crossing The Alps by [[Jacques Louis David]]]]

Napoleon's basic military strategy was to identify and defeat the enemy's main force. The goal was to break the enemy's will to resist so that favorable negotiations followed; the conquest of territory was won in negotiations. "I see only one thing," Napoleon explained in 1797, "namely the enemy's main body. I try to crush it, confident that secondary matters will then settle themselves."<ref> Maximilian Yorck von Wartenburg, [http://books.google.com/books?id=CWwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA39&dq=%22confident+that+secondary+matters+will+then+settle+%22&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0 ''Napoleon as a General'' (1902) p. 39]</ref>  

Napoleon's basic military strategy was to identify and defeat the enemy's main force. The goal was to break the enemy's will to resist so that favorable negotiations followed; the conquest of territory was won in negotiations. "I see only one thing," Napoleon explained in 1797, "namely the enemy's main body. I try to crush it, confident that secondary matters will then settle themselves."<ref> Maximilian Yorck von Wartenburg, [http://books.google.com/books?id=CWwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA39&dq=%22confident+that+secondary+matters+will+then+settle+%22&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0 ''Napoleon as a General'' (1902) p. 39]</ref>  

===Russia to 1812===

===Russia to 1812===

===The Polish issue===

===The Polish issue===

In 1807 Napoleon created a powerful outpost of his empire in Eastern Europe. [[Poland]] had recently been divided up by its neighbors, but Napoleon created the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which depended on France from the very beginning. The duchy consisted of lands seized in Russia, Austria, and Prussia; its Grand Duke was Napoleon's ally the king of Saxony, but Napoleon appointed the intendants who ran the country.  The 2.5 million Poles thrilled to the opportunity and by 1814 sent about 200,000 men to  Napoleon's armies, including about 90,000 who marched with him to Moscow.  The Russians strongly opposed any move toward an independent Poland and to punish them Napoleon invaded in 1812.  <ref> Riley (2000) p. 27-8. The Grand Duchy was dissolved in 1815 and Poland would not be a state until 1918.</ref> Napoleon's impact on Poland was dramatic, including the Napoleonic legal code, the abolition of serfdom, and the introduction of modern middle class bureaucracies.  

In 1807 Napoleon created a powerful outpost of his empire in Eastern Europe. [[Poland]] had recently been divided up by its neighbors, but Napoleon created the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which depended on France from the very beginning. The duchy consisted of lands seized in Russia, Austria, and Prussia; its Grand Duke was Napoleon's ally the king of Saxony, but Napoleon appointed the intendants who ran the country.  The 2.5 million Poles thrilled to the opportunity and by 1814 sent about 200,000 men to  Napoleon's armies, including about 90,000 who marched with him to Moscow.  The Russians strongly opposed any move toward an independent Poland and to punish them Napoleon invaded in 1812.  <ref> Riley (2000) p. 27-8. The Grand Duchy was dissolved in 1815 and Poland would not be a state until 1918.</ref> Napoleon's impact on Poland was dramatic, including the Napoleonic legal code, the abolition of serfdom, and the introduction of modern middle class bureaucracies.

== Moscow ==

== Moscow ==