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A Sports Dispute Started the Cuban Missile Crisis and Other Odd Facts

Khalid Elhassan October 28, 2019 31 min

‘Napoleon’s Withdrawal From Russia’, by Adolph Northen. Wikimedia

4. The Biggest Battle of the Napoleonic Wars Saw One of History’s Greatest Betrayals

After the disastrous collapse of his 1812 invasion of Russia, Napoleon Bonaparte scrapped together a new army. He then skillfully led it in the German Campaign of 1813 against a coalition of armies led by Russian Tsar Alexander I and Austrian field marshal Karl Philipp.

Things eventually came to a head at the Battle of Leipzig, also known as “The Battle of Nations” because of the numerous nationalities involved in the fight, from October 16^th to 19^th of that year. The result was a decisive defeat for Napoleon, after he was dramatically double-crossed, mid-battle, by his Saxon allies.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.