> the french occupation is credited with helping start pan-germanism as a reaction against the french occupation. some parts of germany were willing allies of the french, some weren't. thats more prussian revisionism 3 german speaking regions literally defected to france without being conquered, switzerland the rhine and baden  those 3 had revolts after the success of the french in getting rid of the king and immediately asked to become attached to france later napoleon defeated bavaria in a battle, but using his good reputation, promesses they would know victory under him and raising their pay, he got them to literally all defect to fight as a unit of the french army and i dont believe he even occupied any german territory with french troops, the ideas of the revolution and napoleon himself were so popular that the majority of germans were in favor of being sister republics  which back then was also similar to how the hre worked and what germans knew. being a french vassal was basically equivalent to entire german regions becoming hre free cities with better laws than what they were used to the rhine and switzerland were later annexed into france proper and there was 0 resistance, spain was the exception due to being very catholic and religious    > there were plenty of russian leaders before him who likely would've folded if in his position. napoleon wasn't stupid, but that particular gamble didn't pay off. the dude was a complete psychopath napoleon was convinced he would never burn moscow down to stay in power, he banked everything on the prediction he wouldnt be able to do it, he couldnt believe it when he arrived to see the city in ashes  but psychopaths like that arent un defeatable, they just require different strategies use their frequent and repeated misdeeds to destroy their reputation and make their supporters second guess themselves instead of trying to catch them
France