This is my first post and timeline on the forum. Please give all the praise and criticism you want I appreciate them all.
I have tried to do all the research on the area of history I can but it will obviously not be perfect.
The alternate history has in a way two POD's
Prologue
Part 1 : Revolution
In 1789 the French revolution took place which would change the shape of the world forever. The catalyst to the revolution was the American War of Independence. King Louis XVI wanted to use the American revolution to strike a blow at Great Britain. The cost of France participating in the war cost money and France racked up loans. By 1787 France was bankrupt. The Minister of Finance said that the only way to correct the situation was to impose taxes. The way to do this was not an increase in taxes but to create the taxes for the nobility. A taxation system was imposed on salt and tobacco, a land tax and freedom for the grain trade. The tax on the clergy, nobility and property owners was to be administered equally. The other problem for the King was that France depended heavily on grain. Bad harvests caused food prises to soar, unemployment and starvation whilst the King lived in comfort.
However attempts to change taxes provoked anger especially from the nobility and thus the French King was forced to call the Estates-Generals. The Estates-Generals comprised of three Estates:
First Estate was the clergy (1% of Population.)
Second Estate was the nobility (2-5% of Population.)
Third estate was made up of the bourgeoisie and peasantry (96% of population.)
The Estates-Generals met on 4th May 1789 in which the Third Estate was not happy in the fact that each Estate's vote was to be weighted equally. (1 collective vote per Estate.) The Third Estate wanted the Estates to meet as one body and vote per head. The Third Estate getting tired declared themselves a National Assembly on the 10th June 1789 and invited the other two Estates to take part but would not wait for them. On the 20th June 1789 the King locked the Assembly Hall before the Assembly was going to meet in which they responded by going to a nearby tennis court and took an oath to meet until a constitution was drawn up.
On 12th July Paris was soon consumed with riots. The mob took 32000 muskets from a barracks and proceeded to Bastille prison, a symbol of tyranny. The governor of Bastille ordered his men to open fire on the demonstrators driving the crowd berserk. The mob invaded the prison and announced they were forming a “new government.” Uprisings broke out in towns and countrysides. Privates houses were burnt even alarming he Assembly leaders. On the 4th of August 1789 the Assembly abolished feudalism. On the 26th August 1789 the Declaration of the Rights of Man was passed defining the rights for all men.
On the 5th of October women marched on Versailles. The National Guard responded to keep order however Lafayette convinced the King to give into their demands. On the 6th of October the Royal Family moved to Paris. The King was virtually a prisoner in Paris bowing to the Assemblies demands. The King attempted to leave but without success and on the 17th July 1791 various factionary leaders for the first time called for the King's removal.
On the 20th June 1972 an insurrection was staged. The mob went onto terrorise the Assembly and then onto Tuileris. The King was trapped there where he was joined by the Queen and her children. The Mayor of Paris urged the crowd to disperse and Lafayette urged the King to move from Paris, but it was too late. On the 10th August the mob descended on Tuileries again. The Queen urged the King to fight but Louis decided to seek protection from the Assembly. The King and his family were thus imprisoned and to a vote of 387 to 334 the Assembly voted execution. King Louis XVI was executed on the 12st January 1793 and Marie Antoinette was executed on the 16th October 1793.
Part 2: War!
On September 21st 1792 the Convention held its first meeting and set up a Republic. The Convention established a war dictatorship instead of a democracy through the Commitee of Public Safety. The Reign of Terror saw thousands arrested and executed and a new Revolutionary calender set up.
Because of the outbreak of the French Revolution, France was endangered by the Great Powers of Europe due to the political ideas. The French wanted to move first. The French foreign minister tried to avert war with the Austrians saying that the King would soon establish his authority over the republicans. The Assembly angry at this had him executed and Dumouriez took his place. He wanto establish a friendly pact with the British by making France a constitutional monarchy and respect for trading agreements whilst freeing Belgium from Austria. The Austrians were furious and demanded that the King have his powers reinstated to him. On 29th April France declared war, by popular vote in the Assembly, on Austria thus beginning the French Revolutionary Wars.
By the end of 1792 the war was going well with the French. With the fall of various Belgium cities the French threatened to pursue Austria into the Netherlands though the French promised the British they had no intention of doing so. However when the King was executed in January 1973 the foreign ambassador to Britain was dismissed causing an outcry in France. Dumouriez declared war on Holland and Britain on February 1st 1793.
No one knew that the war would last 20 years. France had managed to survive every Great Power in Europe. In 1795 Prussia and Spain made peace ceding the Rhineland to the French. By 1797 the Treaty of Campo Formio ceded Belgium to France and recognised France's hold on Italy through the Italian campaign by Napoleon. In 1798 France invaded Switzerland and Napoleon invaded Egypt, a French failure with Napoleon retreating to Paris in 1799.
Part 3: Coup
Whilst in Egypt Napoleon had learned that France had sustained defeats in the War of the Second Coalition. The Directory (a body of 5 Directors that replaced the National Convention,) was becoming unpopular. The Convention was corrupt, having financial difficulties and marked by political purges. Abbe Sieyes who, Napoleon detested, had ambitions to dissolve the Directory and become dictator of France. He turned to Napoleon and asked him to be the “sword” in a coup, in which Napoleon agreed. Sieyes had impressive co-conspirators around him, the chief of police Fouche, the foreign minister Talleyrand and Napoleon's brother Lucien a member of the Council of Five Hundred.
The Conspirators had a plan that they would ask the Directors to resign and the Council of Five Hundred and Elders would appoint a committee to draw up a new constitution. The sitting would take place outside of Paris so the the Assembly would not be intimidated by the Paris mob or Jacobin faction. He also wished to get Paul victome de Barras and his protege Roger Ducos to resign. Barras refused.
The coup known as 18 Brumaire took place on the 9th November 1799. On the morning Sieyes persuaded the Council of Elders to move to the Palace of St Cloud because of a Jacobin conspiracy. This is so the Elders could be intimidated by Napoleon's troops. Napoleon was sworn in as commander-in-chief of all units in the Paris area in which he addressed the troops and verbally attacked the Directory. The leader of the Directory Gohier confronted Napoleon, in which Napoleon said Sieyes and Ducos had resigned as well as Barras, a lie. Gohier refused to resign and so Bonaparte ordered his arrest.
Talleyrand went to Barras' house telling him that the other members of the Directory had resigned and so should Barras. He was also given money to bribe Barras to resign. Barras resigned without a fuss.
The following day the Council of Elders met and the resignation of the Directory was announced and a new one was to be called. Napoleon was shocked as he wanted a new constitution to be drawn. Napoleon then illegally broke into the sitting declaring there was no government and denounced the Directory it caused an angry stirring through the room. This endangered the coup.
He then went to the chamber where the Five Hundred was sitting in which there were shouts to kill Napoleon. Napoleon's guards were seized and himself shaken but he was rescued by five guards who broke into the chamber. Lucien, President of the Assembly got them quietened down but Napoleon knew that brute force was the only way. Lucien went out of the Council and addressed the troops guarding the Council saying the Five Hundred was being terrorised by “a group of deputies brandishing daggers.”He then pointed his sword at Napoleon saying he would kill him if he “ever interfered with the freedom of the Frenchmen.” The soldiers dispelled the deputies from the chambers and Grenadiers dispersed the Council.
Lucien then rounded up deputies and dissolved the Directory. They initiated a triumvirate of Consuls to govern France consisting of Napoleon. Committees were set up to draft a new Constitution. Napoleon however wanted supreme power. He appointed his closest associates to key positions within the government. Napoleon who wanted rid of Sieyes urged him to resign, which he did. In December the Constitution was approved and Napoleon was proposed as First Consul.
Part 4: Emperor
Under Napoleon various reforms were made. The Napoleonic code established in 1804 was eventually adopted into other countries in France's Empire. He eventually crowned himself Emperor of France in 1804 and consecrated by the Pope.
Under Napoleon France won the War of the Third Coalition after the Battle of Australitz, one of Napoleon's greatest victories. This dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and eventually the Confederation of the Rhine was created and also various cities were incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy in which Napoleon was head of. The War of the Fourth Coalition from 1806-1807 saw France win again. The Treaty of Tilsit saw the creation of the Kingdom of Westphalia ruled by his brother Jerome as well as the Duchy of Warsaw ruled by the King of Saxony.
The Peninsular war followed in 1808. In which Napoleon invaded Portugal with Spanish co-operation in which he failed. Napoleon invaded Spain also in which Napoleon disposed of Ferdinand VII and put his brother Joseph in charge of Spain. Unlike in the rest of Europe Spain did not take France's rule easily. Spain struggled to cope with the Spanish guerrillas in the territory and would help Britain invade Spain. Afterwards the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 saw France win again. The peace treaty saw Austria cede a lot of provinces to France, Russia and the Duchy of Warsaw.
In December 1810 Alexander I of Russia was tired of the French Continental System which forbade its allies to trade with Britain. He was pressed by his mother who was anti-Bonaparte. He issued tariffs on French luxury goods and permitted the importation of British goods. By April Napoleon was warning Alexander. The foreign ambassador to Russia tried to dissuade Napoleon from declaring war however war was inevitable as Napoleon believed that he could win the war.
Napoleon invaded Sweden in July whilst Russia and Sweden reached a deal that Sweden would assist Russia providing Sweden could invade Norway. He also reached an agreement with the Ottoman Empire so that he could reposition his southern troops to meet Napoleon's north troops. Napoleon meanwhile was creating the greatest army the world had ever seen incorporating 675,000 men from France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia and Poland in which 400,000 would see battle. The Russians had around 600,000 in which 220,000 were available for the western front.
Napoleon's Grande Armée deterred the Russian force from attacking. He went into Lithuania and then Davout (who Napoleon gave his command to) captured Minsk on the 8th of July. Napoleon camped outside Vitebsk in Lithuania. On the 27th July the Russian army was camped in the plain of Vitebsk however the next morning they found the countryside deserted. Napoleon then entered Vitebsk.
(POD) Napoleon had advanced nearly 400 miles. His Marshal Michel Ney urged him forward but Napoleon replied. “1813 will see us at Moscow. 1814 at Petersburg.” His supplies were secure and he could impose a new offensive the following year. He would wait until winter had passed before making a new offensive.
By December 1812, Napoleon's army rested peacefully in Lithuania. He had redeployed his troops around Lithuania in case the Russian forces attempted to flank him. He set up blockhouses and erected cannons to protect him on all sides. He summoned actors from Paris and Warsaw to amuse his troops. His ideas then began to turn. He could capture Moscow or go straight into St Petersburg. If he marched onto St Petersburg it might force Alexander into an humiliating peace.
Napoleon marched his troops north towards the city of Velikyrie Luki on March 1813. He was faced with little resistance due to the Russian General Kutuzov's idea that Napoleon would march into Moscow. Because of this Kutzov marched his army forward into Vitebsk to recapture the city and interfere with Napoleon's supply lines. He was immediately however met with Michael Ney's army of 70000 men and 30000 men of the National Guard set to secure the Imperial border. The battle was a strategic battle for the French. They managed to hold out from the Russian armies advances. The Russians were forced to retreat to Orsha. Napoleon sent a message to Michael Ney telling him to assault the Russians until they could not any more.
Fresh supplies arrived in Velikyrie Luki and so after a few weeks in April 1813 Napoleon ventured further into Russia. He encountered the horror of the Russian scorched earth policy after seeing various villages burnt to the ground moving his way north. Supplies began to run thin he drastically needed to enter Novogrod so he could recoup and regain supplies. The French encamped outside Novogrod on June 1813. It comprised of Napoleon's 150,000 troops and Louis d'Avouts 70,000 troops. Novogrod was guarded by Michael Barclay de Tolly who had 130,000 troops in his control.
Guns fired at each other continuously on the first day. The shelling lasted for hours on end until the wall was breached. Napoleon entered the city and fierce street to street fighting erupted but the French forces continued forward. Eventually the Russian forces blew up the bridge connecting Novogrod and the route to St Petersburg. The Russian forces retreated and headed for St Petersburg. Napoleon had suffered no more than 5000 casualties to 6500 Russian casualties. Suppliescame from Poland, though not enough to sustain the army, causing Napoleon to send a message for an armistice to Alexander. Due to Napoleon's advances to the capital Alexander decided to comply with the armistice.
I have tried to do all the research on the area of history I can but it will obviously not be perfect.
The alternate history has in a way two POD's
- What if Napoleon having settled in Vitebsk waits until winter passes to continue his campaign into Russia?
- What if he decides to capture St Petersburg instead of capturing Moscow?
Prologue
Part 1 : Revolution
In 1789 the French revolution took place which would change the shape of the world forever. The catalyst to the revolution was the American War of Independence. King Louis XVI wanted to use the American revolution to strike a blow at Great Britain. The cost of France participating in the war cost money and France racked up loans. By 1787 France was bankrupt. The Minister of Finance said that the only way to correct the situation was to impose taxes. The way to do this was not an increase in taxes but to create the taxes for the nobility. A taxation system was imposed on salt and tobacco, a land tax and freedom for the grain trade. The tax on the clergy, nobility and property owners was to be administered equally. The other problem for the King was that France depended heavily on grain. Bad harvests caused food prises to soar, unemployment and starvation whilst the King lived in comfort.
However attempts to change taxes provoked anger especially from the nobility and thus the French King was forced to call the Estates-Generals. The Estates-Generals comprised of three Estates:
First Estate was the clergy (1% of Population.)
Second Estate was the nobility (2-5% of Population.)
Third estate was made up of the bourgeoisie and peasantry (96% of population.)
The Estates-Generals met on 4th May 1789 in which the Third Estate was not happy in the fact that each Estate's vote was to be weighted equally. (1 collective vote per Estate.) The Third Estate wanted the Estates to meet as one body and vote per head. The Third Estate getting tired declared themselves a National Assembly on the 10th June 1789 and invited the other two Estates to take part but would not wait for them. On the 20th June 1789 the King locked the Assembly Hall before the Assembly was going to meet in which they responded by going to a nearby tennis court and took an oath to meet until a constitution was drawn up.
On 12th July Paris was soon consumed with riots. The mob took 32000 muskets from a barracks and proceeded to Bastille prison, a symbol of tyranny. The governor of Bastille ordered his men to open fire on the demonstrators driving the crowd berserk. The mob invaded the prison and announced they were forming a “new government.” Uprisings broke out in towns and countrysides. Privates houses were burnt even alarming he Assembly leaders. On the 4th of August 1789 the Assembly abolished feudalism. On the 26th August 1789 the Declaration of the Rights of Man was passed defining the rights for all men.
On the 5th of October women marched on Versailles. The National Guard responded to keep order however Lafayette convinced the King to give into their demands. On the 6th of October the Royal Family moved to Paris. The King was virtually a prisoner in Paris bowing to the Assemblies demands. The King attempted to leave but without success and on the 17th July 1791 various factionary leaders for the first time called for the King's removal.
On the 20th June 1972 an insurrection was staged. The mob went onto terrorise the Assembly and then onto Tuileris. The King was trapped there where he was joined by the Queen and her children. The Mayor of Paris urged the crowd to disperse and Lafayette urged the King to move from Paris, but it was too late. On the 10th August the mob descended on Tuileries again. The Queen urged the King to fight but Louis decided to seek protection from the Assembly. The King and his family were thus imprisoned and to a vote of 387 to 334 the Assembly voted execution. King Louis XVI was executed on the 12st January 1793 and Marie Antoinette was executed on the 16th October 1793.
Part 2: War!
On September 21st 1792 the Convention held its first meeting and set up a Republic. The Convention established a war dictatorship instead of a democracy through the Commitee of Public Safety. The Reign of Terror saw thousands arrested and executed and a new Revolutionary calender set up.
Because of the outbreak of the French Revolution, France was endangered by the Great Powers of Europe due to the political ideas. The French wanted to move first. The French foreign minister tried to avert war with the Austrians saying that the King would soon establish his authority over the republicans. The Assembly angry at this had him executed and Dumouriez took his place. He wanto establish a friendly pact with the British by making France a constitutional monarchy and respect for trading agreements whilst freeing Belgium from Austria. The Austrians were furious and demanded that the King have his powers reinstated to him. On 29th April France declared war, by popular vote in the Assembly, on Austria thus beginning the French Revolutionary Wars.
By the end of 1792 the war was going well with the French. With the fall of various Belgium cities the French threatened to pursue Austria into the Netherlands though the French promised the British they had no intention of doing so. However when the King was executed in January 1973 the foreign ambassador to Britain was dismissed causing an outcry in France. Dumouriez declared war on Holland and Britain on February 1st 1793.
No one knew that the war would last 20 years. France had managed to survive every Great Power in Europe. In 1795 Prussia and Spain made peace ceding the Rhineland to the French. By 1797 the Treaty of Campo Formio ceded Belgium to France and recognised France's hold on Italy through the Italian campaign by Napoleon. In 1798 France invaded Switzerland and Napoleon invaded Egypt, a French failure with Napoleon retreating to Paris in 1799.
Part 3: Coup
Whilst in Egypt Napoleon had learned that France had sustained defeats in the War of the Second Coalition. The Directory (a body of 5 Directors that replaced the National Convention,) was becoming unpopular. The Convention was corrupt, having financial difficulties and marked by political purges. Abbe Sieyes who, Napoleon detested, had ambitions to dissolve the Directory and become dictator of France. He turned to Napoleon and asked him to be the “sword” in a coup, in which Napoleon agreed. Sieyes had impressive co-conspirators around him, the chief of police Fouche, the foreign minister Talleyrand and Napoleon's brother Lucien a member of the Council of Five Hundred.
The Conspirators had a plan that they would ask the Directors to resign and the Council of Five Hundred and Elders would appoint a committee to draw up a new constitution. The sitting would take place outside of Paris so the the Assembly would not be intimidated by the Paris mob or Jacobin faction. He also wished to get Paul victome de Barras and his protege Roger Ducos to resign. Barras refused.
The coup known as 18 Brumaire took place on the 9th November 1799. On the morning Sieyes persuaded the Council of Elders to move to the Palace of St Cloud because of a Jacobin conspiracy. This is so the Elders could be intimidated by Napoleon's troops. Napoleon was sworn in as commander-in-chief of all units in the Paris area in which he addressed the troops and verbally attacked the Directory. The leader of the Directory Gohier confronted Napoleon, in which Napoleon said Sieyes and Ducos had resigned as well as Barras, a lie. Gohier refused to resign and so Bonaparte ordered his arrest.
Talleyrand went to Barras' house telling him that the other members of the Directory had resigned and so should Barras. He was also given money to bribe Barras to resign. Barras resigned without a fuss.
The following day the Council of Elders met and the resignation of the Directory was announced and a new one was to be called. Napoleon was shocked as he wanted a new constitution to be drawn. Napoleon then illegally broke into the sitting declaring there was no government and denounced the Directory it caused an angry stirring through the room. This endangered the coup.
He then went to the chamber where the Five Hundred was sitting in which there were shouts to kill Napoleon. Napoleon's guards were seized and himself shaken but he was rescued by five guards who broke into the chamber. Lucien, President of the Assembly got them quietened down but Napoleon knew that brute force was the only way. Lucien went out of the Council and addressed the troops guarding the Council saying the Five Hundred was being terrorised by “a group of deputies brandishing daggers.”He then pointed his sword at Napoleon saying he would kill him if he “ever interfered with the freedom of the Frenchmen.” The soldiers dispelled the deputies from the chambers and Grenadiers dispersed the Council.
Lucien then rounded up deputies and dissolved the Directory. They initiated a triumvirate of Consuls to govern France consisting of Napoleon. Committees were set up to draft a new Constitution. Napoleon however wanted supreme power. He appointed his closest associates to key positions within the government. Napoleon who wanted rid of Sieyes urged him to resign, which he did. In December the Constitution was approved and Napoleon was proposed as First Consul.
Part 4: Emperor
Under Napoleon various reforms were made. The Napoleonic code established in 1804 was eventually adopted into other countries in France's Empire. He eventually crowned himself Emperor of France in 1804 and consecrated by the Pope.
Under Napoleon France won the War of the Third Coalition after the Battle of Australitz, one of Napoleon's greatest victories. This dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and eventually the Confederation of the Rhine was created and also various cities were incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy in which Napoleon was head of. The War of the Fourth Coalition from 1806-1807 saw France win again. The Treaty of Tilsit saw the creation of the Kingdom of Westphalia ruled by his brother Jerome as well as the Duchy of Warsaw ruled by the King of Saxony.
The Peninsular war followed in 1808. In which Napoleon invaded Portugal with Spanish co-operation in which he failed. Napoleon invaded Spain also in which Napoleon disposed of Ferdinand VII and put his brother Joseph in charge of Spain. Unlike in the rest of Europe Spain did not take France's rule easily. Spain struggled to cope with the Spanish guerrillas in the territory and would help Britain invade Spain. Afterwards the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 saw France win again. The peace treaty saw Austria cede a lot of provinces to France, Russia and the Duchy of Warsaw.
In December 1810 Alexander I of Russia was tired of the French Continental System which forbade its allies to trade with Britain. He was pressed by his mother who was anti-Bonaparte. He issued tariffs on French luxury goods and permitted the importation of British goods. By April Napoleon was warning Alexander. The foreign ambassador to Russia tried to dissuade Napoleon from declaring war however war was inevitable as Napoleon believed that he could win the war.
Napoleon invaded Sweden in July whilst Russia and Sweden reached a deal that Sweden would assist Russia providing Sweden could invade Norway. He also reached an agreement with the Ottoman Empire so that he could reposition his southern troops to meet Napoleon's north troops. Napoleon meanwhile was creating the greatest army the world had ever seen incorporating 675,000 men from France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia and Poland in which 400,000 would see battle. The Russians had around 600,000 in which 220,000 were available for the western front.
Napoleon's Grande Armée deterred the Russian force from attacking. He went into Lithuania and then Davout (who Napoleon gave his command to) captured Minsk on the 8th of July. Napoleon camped outside Vitebsk in Lithuania. On the 27th July the Russian army was camped in the plain of Vitebsk however the next morning they found the countryside deserted. Napoleon then entered Vitebsk.
(POD) Napoleon had advanced nearly 400 miles. His Marshal Michel Ney urged him forward but Napoleon replied. “1813 will see us at Moscow. 1814 at Petersburg.” His supplies were secure and he could impose a new offensive the following year. He would wait until winter had passed before making a new offensive.
By December 1812, Napoleon's army rested peacefully in Lithuania. He had redeployed his troops around Lithuania in case the Russian forces attempted to flank him. He set up blockhouses and erected cannons to protect him on all sides. He summoned actors from Paris and Warsaw to amuse his troops. His ideas then began to turn. He could capture Moscow or go straight into St Petersburg. If he marched onto St Petersburg it might force Alexander into an humiliating peace.
Napoleon marched his troops north towards the city of Velikyrie Luki on March 1813. He was faced with little resistance due to the Russian General Kutuzov's idea that Napoleon would march into Moscow. Because of this Kutzov marched his army forward into Vitebsk to recapture the city and interfere with Napoleon's supply lines. He was immediately however met with Michael Ney's army of 70000 men and 30000 men of the National Guard set to secure the Imperial border. The battle was a strategic battle for the French. They managed to hold out from the Russian armies advances. The Russians were forced to retreat to Orsha. Napoleon sent a message to Michael Ney telling him to assault the Russians until they could not any more.
Fresh supplies arrived in Velikyrie Luki and so after a few weeks in April 1813 Napoleon ventured further into Russia. He encountered the horror of the Russian scorched earth policy after seeing various villages burnt to the ground moving his way north. Supplies began to run thin he drastically needed to enter Novogrod so he could recoup and regain supplies. The French encamped outside Novogrod on June 1813. It comprised of Napoleon's 150,000 troops and Louis d'Avouts 70,000 troops. Novogrod was guarded by Michael Barclay de Tolly who had 130,000 troops in his control.
Guns fired at each other continuously on the first day. The shelling lasted for hours on end until the wall was breached. Napoleon entered the city and fierce street to street fighting erupted but the French forces continued forward. Eventually the Russian forces blew up the bridge connecting Novogrod and the route to St Petersburg. The Russian forces retreated and headed for St Petersburg. Napoleon had suffered no more than 5000 casualties to 6500 Russian casualties. Suppliescame from Poland, though not enough to sustain the army, causing Napoleon to send a message for an armistice to Alexander. Due to Napoleon's advances to the capital Alexander decided to comply with the armistice.
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