← Back to the front page

History’s Most Catastrophic Man-made Errors

Khalid Elhassan December 9, 2020 34 min

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

6. Nepotism Set the Stage for a French Disaster

Napoleon’s stepson, Prince Eugene de Beauharnais. Wikimedia

Napoleon’s disaster in Russia was caused by not just one bad decision, but by a whole series of bad decisions. L’Empereur’s first bad decision was his poor choice of subordinates. Napoleon’s strategic goal was to bend Russia’s Tsar to his will by decisively defeating the Russian army as soon as possible. However, Napoleon appointed his unqualified stepson, Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, to a major command. Early in the campaign, Napoleon maneuvered the Russians into a situation that should have forced them to stand their ground and fight the decisive battle that the French emperor sought. Should have, but didn’t: Napoleon’s inexperienced stepson screwed up his part of the plan, which allowed the Russians to escape.

Napoleon’s Grande Armee crossing the Niemen River at the start of the invasion of Russia. Wikimedia

Napoleon then plunged into Russia, chasing after the Tsar’s army. The Russians retreated for hundreds of miles, refusing to give battle and scorching the countryside behind them. L’Empereur had planned to halt at Smolensk, halfway to Moscow, go into winter quarters, and resume the campaign the following year. Once in Smolensk, however, Napoleon committed his second mistake, by deciding to continue on to Moscow and into the jaws of disaster.

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.