The Last Days
By 1813 what had originally thought of as an easy conquering of Spain had turned into a bloody insurrection that had begun to slowly but steadily drive the French back. However despite these growing problems to their south Napoleon, had his eyes set on the east where the always troublesome Russia was defying his Continental System. On May 2,1813 Napoleon, with an army of nearly 700,000 French, Polish, Italian, German, Prussian, & Austrian troops, invaded Russia marching towards Moscow & hoping to decisively defeat Russia & compel its Emperor Alexander I to remain in the Continental System. However as Napoleon pushed deeper & deeper into Russia attempting to force the Russian army into battle, all he got was minor battles & skirmishes as the Russians continued to stretch out & weaken Napoleons supply lines. Russia also used scorched earth tactics burning & destroying everything they passed which began to slowly demoralize & starve out the French. While Napoleon would get his major battles defeating his opponents on three separate occasions, by the time he reached Moscow in late September Napoleon found the city abandoned & with hardly any supplies.
Unable to support his army & with Alexander I refusing to capitulate, Napoleon began to withdraw from Russia in October. Along the way Napoleons Grande Armee lost over half of his remaining forces due to desertion, starvation, freezing, & constant harassment by Russian forces. Finally on December 20 he would cross the Neman River reentering Poland. Once in Poland Napoleon immediately returned to Paris to prepare for Poland’s defense against the oncoming Russians. However following this disastrous invasion the nations of Europe, seeing the weakness of France, on January 17,1814 formed a Sixth Coalition of Russia, Spain, Portugal, Britain, Sardinia, Sicily, Sweden, & after their April defection back to the allies Prussia & Austria.
Napoleon soon found himself outnumbered 2-1 up against nearly a million Coalition troops that overwhelmed his forces & drove him & his allies back on all fronts. By the Fall 1814 Coalition forces had driven his forces out of Denmark, Eastern Europe, & nearly all of Spain & Napoleon was desperately trying to hold them off along the Pyrenees & in the Rhine Confederation. However October 1814 would see the defeat of the French forces in Spain at the Battle of the Pyrenees on the 3rd & on the 21st the largest European battle up to that time at the Battle of Nations a few miles from Frankfurt.
The Battle of Nations saw France, & its German & Polish Allies numbering nearly 250,000 against Prussia, Russia, Austria, Sweden, & their German allies numbering just over 400,000 battle each other for 5 days causing over 150,000 casualties before Napoleon was forced to retreat, leaving all territory east of the Rhine in Coalition hands. The war soon came to France as Coalition forces moving out of Iberia, Germany, & the Low Countries pushed for Paris. France would hold the Coalition at bay for another 6 months before on May 9,1815 Napoleon abdicated the throne & France surrendered.
In August the Congress of Berlin began between the victorious powers as the set about redrawing the map & stripping France of much of its revolutionary territories. While the Congress of Berlin was still ongoing however Napoleon, exiled to Elba since Frances surrender, would return to France in late January 1816 & upon his reentering of Paris quickly began raising a new army. On February 1 the Congress declared Napoleon an outlaw & most nations of Europe quickly began mobilizing to defeat him. In the following War of the Seventh Coalition or Eight Week War the two sides fought fiercely across France & the Low Countries before on March 29,1816 an 85,000 strong Prussian led Anglo-German Army inflicted Napoleon with his final defeat in the climactic Battle of Hautmont. The decisive defeat at Hautmont saw Napoleons second abdication on April 5 & his exile to the British island of Bermuda where he would live until his death in 1833 of natural causes.
World of 1817