In the 1800’s the name Napoleon sent shivers down the spines of Europe – if you were French you had shivers of greatness. If you were another country, you had shivers of the French coming to your country. For a time Napoleon was the most powerful leader in Europe and the Louvre is a testament to his sacking of Europe and bringing treasures back to Paris. In Napoleon’s mind Paris was and should be the most powerful capital and the leaders of other countries would have residences in Paris to see him. For Royalty in Europe (most countries were run by Princes and Kings) anything that went out of Paris was brought back to their capitals. As leader of France, Napoleon saw himself better than the rest and this was reflected in his dealings with other country heads of state. As time goes on, some of the other leaders including Alexander in Russia feel snubbed and relations change. Napoleon and Alexander admired each other, and Napoleon would rather fight the British, but Russia was becoming a thorn in his side and they went to war. The story is Napoleon lost and the question is why? Some of the answers are told in the book Moscow 1812 – Napoleon’s Fatal March by Adam Zamoyski published by Harper Books, NY, 2004.

There are many different reasons why Napoleon lost including making mistakes in battles along the march to Moscow. He marched from Paris to Moscow with hundreds of thousands of troops, but did not conquer Russia. Moscow was important to the citizens of Russia, but the administration of the country was in St. Petersburg. Napoleon was friends and admirers of Alexander and did not see him as an enemy. The troops left in the spring time but were not prepared or expected to stay in November when the winter comes to Russia. War was changing from human to mechanical; thus tactics were changing. Also something was suppose to happen when Napoleon made it to Moscow and little did.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when a great leader loses battles we wonder why? what was different? why that battle and not others? Continual learning is a good thing – in terms of Napoleon early on the march to Moscow he could have destroyed the main Russian army but waited till the next day and by that time they had retreated to live another day. He went after Moscow but should have gone for St. Petersburg, perhaps the question is what did he hope to gain in attacking Russia? or what was his clear objectives? If you can ask the questions about historical campaigns you can ask the questions about current campaigns from a commercial point of view.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.