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History’s Most Catastrophic Man-made Errors

Khalid Elhassan December 9, 2020 34 min

Wanggongchang Explosion - Beijing — The Wanggongchang Explosion devastated Beijing. Pintrest

7. An Emperor’s Hubris Led to One of History’s Most Stunning Defeats

In 1812, France’s Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte made what turned out to be one of history’s worst decisions. At the start of that year, Napoleon bestrode Europe like a Colossus, and was at the height of his power. Then he invaded Russia with about 658,000 men – at the time, the biggest army ever assembled.

By the end of 1812, Napoleon had endured a catastrophic defeat. He lost most of his army, and began the downward slide that would culminate two years later in his exile to St. Helena. The disaster can be traced back directly to Napoleon’s own hubris and wishful thinking.

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.