DBWI: French Victory at Austerlitz?

What would have happened if the French had managed to defeat the Austro-Russian Force at Austerlitz, a longer lasting French Empire?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
I own that I have never figured out what the hell Napoleon was thinking before and during the battle. He had the Pratzen Heights before the battle, but then abandoned it and let the Russians march in and occupy, and THEN attack and try to take it back? It just seems so stupid- certainly not the Napoleon who carried out such an amazing campaign in Italy during 1796-97.

As for what would have happened had Napoleon won, I can't really see a victory changing much. Prussia was about to enter the war, and if the French had somewhat snatched a victory over the Russians, I think the Prussians would have soon finished him off.
 
According to the Bavarian historian Steiner Napoleon had a clever *but unsuccessful strategy* However, his backup plan ultimately led to his crushing victory at the Battle of Nations at Weimar.

He fell off the heights in order to luer the armies into the town below. It ALMOST worked. The Austrians left the hill and engaged his strong left flank in the town and mauled them. Rather than the Russians coming down, he actually OVERESTIMATED the Austrian resolve and they fell back in a rout. The Russians kept the hill and the Austrians just funneled more troops, increasing their route.

The rest is history. Napoleon charges up the heights and finds way too many Russians, falls back orderly to the North west. Austria needs time to rebuild its army after its crushing defeats in Ulm and Austerlitz, but the unbloodied Russians and now Prussians along with other more minor coalition partners gather in Bohemia and then march West. Napoleon intercepts them at Weimar and traps them inside the city annihilating them while the Austrians were not powerful enough to break them out.

IF the French won at Austerlitz, it would be a big strategic victory, but not tactical one. There is no way he could have inflicted a Cannae style disaster on BOTH the Austrian and Russian militaries. He might have forced their surrender and ended the coalition before Prussia jumped in, but ultimately his fallback plan ensured long-term French dominance.

OOC : NAPOLEON LIVES!
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
but ultimately his fallback plan ensured long-term French dominance.

Long-term? Are you serious? I'll admit that his victory at Weimar briefly restored Napoleon's fortunes and allowed him to keep the Allies forces out of France until the winter of 1806 was over. But the mauling he received at Austerlitz (which you minimize in your post) and the devastating defeat he suffered at Dresden (which you don't even bothering mentioning), clearly sealed Napoleon's fate. When Paris fell to the combined armies of Russia, Prussia and Austria in the spring of 1807, they were simply completing a process that began with the defeat at Austerliz.
 
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