The weather of 1812, extremely and unusually cold, and of 1815, extremely humid, caused Napoleon's failure. Discuss.
I have not read much about the war expeditions of Napoleon and conditions (weather) that surrounded his failure. However, weather conditions in history have often been a major factor in deciding the tide of the wind of wars.
In the 1800's, the British retreated their attack on the Asantes because of the hot climates and its allied mosquito attack on their soldiers who got infested with the malaria parasite and let the boundaries of the Asantes.
Dickson, effectively didn't the British lose those initial encounters?
Napoleon was defeated in Russia long before the winter weather had taken its toll on the French army. The main reason for the failure of the 1812 campaign was the logistics problem related to the supply of food and materials for military operations and participation in the second parallel war effort. Some historians also speculate that Napoleon's charisma and skills were not the same as during his triumphant years. As for the weather, it is not well known that the heat of summer in the initial phase of the war, just before the defeat, was more devastating than the sad winter finale of the Grande Armée.
References
https://warandsecurity.com/2013/02/11/why-napoleons-1812-russian-campaign-failed/
http://www.indiana.edu/~psource/PDF/Archive%20Articles/Spring2011/LynchBennettArticle.pdf
Thanks. Very informative. Accepting Napoleon displayed lower leadership and skill levels towards the end of his career, the sources indicate that this factor combined with higher humidity (I'm not sure but with concerns as to the weaponry employed they might have a point) put Napoleon at an overall disadvantage because of his mode of fighting.
Speaking of weather during the fall of the Napoleonic Empire, we must remember that the decade 1810-1809 was extremely cold. Nevertheless, the main reasons for the devastating failure in Russia were not related to the weather (as indicated in the sources from my first post). The situation is different, however, when we consider the final battle at Waterloo. It is widely believed that the forces of Wellington and the allied Prussian army won due to heavy rains, just before the battle. According to the observer's account in Les Misérables:
“Had it not rained on the night of 17th/18th June 1815, the future of Europe would have been different ... an unseasonably clouded sky sufficed to bring about the collapse of a World.”
The mud that covered most of the battlefield prevented the effective use of artillery, reduced the troops mobility and eventually led to the end of Napoleon's domination in Europe.
This was, of course, the end caused by the weather with the onset of failure due to strategic errors.
For the description of the “Waterloo Weather” please see
https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1256/wea.246.04
Yes. This was one of the points I was referring to. Napoleon's battle methods, even though he was much less effective as a commander by then, would have been more affected by the heavy rain. His use of bombardment to effect victories possibly went against him, although it was as Wellington said 'a close run thing', and if Blutcher had not arrived would/could have resulted in French victory.
Kindly check...
http://www.historyrundown.com/did-napoleon-really-fail-in-russia-because-of-the-winter/
More to see..
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/napoleon/13-facts-napoleons-invasion-russia-cbc.html
To be seen...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/napoleons-army-may-have-suffered-from-the-greatest-wardrobe-malfunction-in-history-92535444/
See war related issues with weather...
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/insider-insights/articles/7-unstoppable-armies-that-lost-the-war-against-the-weather/7528/
Although Napoleon started his invasion of Russia in the summer of 1811 there were severe setbacks later in the year due to the harsh winter that followed. It is documented for example that the summer horseshoes worn by his cavalry were woefully inadequate for the very cold winter of 1811/12 that followed. And of course, this was all repeated more than a century later when the German army also failed to take Moscow in the winter of 1941/42 in their operation Barbarossa, at least partly due to the cold winter.