A second meeting between the Russian and French sovereigns took place at Erfurt, September 27, 1808, Napoleon being anxious to secure the friendship of Alexander previous to his contemplated conquest with Spain. While Napoleon was engaged in this undertaking the Russian emperor took the opportunity to make himself master of the Swedish province of Finland.
Alexander burning under the defeats which he had suffered at Austerlitz and Friedland determined to throw off the yoke of Napoleon and began to raise an army. The obvious object of which was the humiliation of France. Napoleon however, was not asleep and he on his part determined upon the fatal invasion of Russia, which was the crowning mistake of his career. Napoleon was anxious to renew hostilities with Russia and to settle for once and all his differences with Alexander and remove his power as a menace to the schemes of aggrandizement which the French emperor contemplated, chief of which was the overthrow of England.
He did not dare to attack Great Britain without first settling his score with Russia. In the meantime he had formed an alliance with Austria, by divorcing Josephine, and his marriage with the daughter of the Emperor Francis, although his alliance with the Austrian court had been far from giving him the support of the Austrian people. The result of diplomacy which followed was that Napoleon began to attempt to annihilate the Russian power, under the guise of a war for the salvation of Poland. he was careful, however, not to go too far in the re-establishment of the old monarchy at Warsaw, his prime object being, not the liberation of Central Europe, but the conquest of Russia, which he started upon with some preliminary successes.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
