> you're right. it also disintegrated during the retreat in large part from non-french troops deserting,  no the entire army more or less died of cold and starvation there wasnt anyone left alive to desert and they probably all deserted equally even the french ones after this level of horror > and the failure of the campaign immediately led to german uprisings because they had merely bid their time rather than provide true loyalty. no thats the elites  he didnt purge them and bavaria remained loyal to the french side, the entire bavarian army had just decided to join napoleon at some point prior literally the entire army wololo ! > they clearly weren't happy with the loss of territory in the west nor their general conditions.  again the lites the people dont care about borders at a time where no one had even seen a map prussia before napolon was multi ethnic toi half polish half german speaker (generically all polish lol) but still the polish speakers hated being ruled by non poles  meanwhile average german peasants didnt give a shit who the lord they hated also controled > that would've been fine for napoleon if he'd won and had time to stabilize his regime in peacetime, but fate had other plans. less fate and more running head first to try to capture the british tsar wirh a stupid plan i would have just sat there, done a slow campaign to liberate baltic countries, being the superior modern administration and basic laws protecting people from elite oppression, then into novgorod and russia his army was undefeated on the battlefield the russians lost every battle so he could have done that unopposed and taken his time  instead he became obsessed with the idea of capturing the tsar which is dumb because he was very very unpopular and he was also a psycho that could have easily been manipulated into hurting his reputation with the russians further
France