The
Congress of Erfurt sucedded (at least temporarly) to preserve the Russo-French alliance. But in order to keep it that way and stop other countries from revolting against France (as well as undermining british acess to India), Napoleon decided to make an example out of... the ottoman empire!
On
June 22,
1812,
la Grande Armée of 692,105 men, the largest army assembled up to that point in European history, crossed the ottoman borders and headed towards Istanbule.
Now what happens, does Napolean wins? What are the consequences of such action ??
The Grande Armée was divided as follows:
In addition 80,000 National Guards had been conscripted for full military service defending the imperial frontiers.
With these included total French imperial forces on the pttoman borders and inthe ottoman empire itself came to almost 800,000 men.
(Like in OTL) This vast commitment of manpower would, of course, severely strained the Empire - especially considering that there were a further 300,000 French troops fighting in
Iberia and over 200,000 more in
Germany and
Italy.
450,000 French troops makes up the majority of the army with French allies are making up the rest. In addition to the detached
Austrian Corps of 34,000 under Schwarzenberg there were some 95,000
Poles, 90,000
Germans (24,000
Bavarians, 20,000
Saxons, 20,000
Prussians, 17,000
Westphalians and several thousand from smaller
Rhineland states), 30,000
Italians, 25,000
Neapolitans, 12,000
Swiss, 4,800
Spanish, 3,500
Croats, and 2,000
Portuguese. In addition there are also
Dutch and also a number of Belgian contingents. In short, every nationality in Napoleon's vast empire was represented in the attack.