In 1812, Napoleon set his sights on Tsarist Russia in Europe. Tsarist Russia quickly formed an anti-French alliance and joined forces to expel Napoleon from the stage of history. After that, Tsarist Russia began to grow gradually, and the Tsar formed an alliance with Austria and Prussia to form a holy alliance and become the hegemon of Europe, whose influence cannot be ignored. However, just a few years later, in the Crimean War, Tsarist Russia suffered a crushing defeat, faced a financial crisis, had to ** Alaska, and Tsar Nicholas I also chose to commit suicide by poisoning.
So, why did Tsarist Russia, once known as the "gendarme of Europe", suffer a crushing defeat in the Crimean War?
In fact, the strength of Tsarist Russia was exaggerated and was far from being invincible.
After the rise of Napoleon, European countries repeatedly formed anti-French alliances in an attempt to curb the rise of France.
However, these alliances not only failed, but instead allowed Napoleon to sweep across Europe, almost unifying the entire continent. In the Napoleonic Wars, the major European powers (such as France, Prussia, Austria, etc.) were all devastated, while Tsarist Russia was relatively less affected by its geographical location. Tsarist Russia has a vast territory, which means that it has sufficient strategic depth. Thus, Tsarist Russia had enough time to choose a strategic adjustment that would give the army time to breathe, reorganize and trim.
The cold winter in Russia became the biggest obstacle for Napoleon, and due to the French army's use of long-range operations, insufficient supplies and scattered troops, the Russian army ushered in a major turnaround. Therefore, the victory of Tsarist Russia over Napoleon does not prove that Tsarist Russia is invincible in Europe.
Through the Crimean War, we can also see that Tsarist Russia is not very clever in diplomacy.
Although Tsarist Russia was the leader of the Holy Alliance and belonged to the Quadruple Alliance, the Holy Alliance was unable to provide support at a critical moment, and in the Quadruple Alliance, Britain gradually moved closer to France. In order to maintain the balance on the European continent, Britain began to support France, while Tsarist Russia carried out constant aggression against the Ottoman Empire, which made it difficult for countries such as Britain and France to tolerate. In the face of Britain and France, Tsarist Russia's chances of victory are indeed not great.
Although Tsarist Russia appears to be strong on the surface, its actual national strength is relatively backward, it still adheres to serfdom, and compared with Britain and France, the combat effectiveness of the Russian army is relatively weak. After the defeat in the Crimea, ** realized that there was a huge gap with the West. After the abolition of serfdom, ** quickly achieved rapid economic development and set its sights on the Far East.