CLEP Western Civ II

Answer: C - The Russian winter facilitated the destruction of the Grand Army. Napoleon breached his treaty with Russia and invaded it in 1812. A great conflagration (perhaps beginning as a result of Russian sabotage) consumed Moscow upon his arrival in the city, and Alexander I refused to negotiate with Napoleon, who found himself isolated in hostile territory. He was retreating when the winter set in early, making the campaign the most devastating of its time with an estimated 500,000 troops lost as casualties, captured, or killed by the cold and starvation. Napoleon returned to France with less than 20% of his army, and the powers of Europe united against him, marking the beginning of the end of his rule. (Note: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace revolves around the French invasion of Russia.)