Leo Tolstoy , in '' War and Peace '' , asks about the 1812 French invasion of Russia : " What is the cause of this movement which took the French army all the way from Paris to Moscow , and then back to Paris ? A system , a mysterious callous force ... the unconscious swarm-life of mankind . " The French decision to invade Russia in 1812 had been intended to secure a Franco-Russian alliance that would then conquer India , but it ended in a rout and in the exile of Bonaparte — prompting Stanley Michalak to write that " In 1812 Napoleon failed the supreme test of power politics — knowing when to stop . " The 1919 Amritsar massacre in India , a turning point for that country 's British Raj , horrified world opinion and encouraged agitation for Indian independence . Similarly , the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in Apartheid South Africa brought on a state of emergency and drove the African National Congress underground and into armed struggle
Sharpeville massacre
Sharpeville massacre
Political midlife crisis