Why Napoleon & Russia Almost Invaded India Together

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Morango Ostritz
2. 3:00 – 6:00: The Great Game, The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk
3. 9:00 – 10:35: British East India Company, The Great Game

Notable quotes from "Why Napoleon & Russia Almost Invaded India Together"

• Many miles from Morango ostritz and watero India is not typically the first place to come to mind when one brings up the Napoleonic Wars however a little known fact is that India was actually.

  about Morango Ostritz · at 0:01

• For such a thing leaving them very vulnerable as is discussed in the book The Great Game by Peter hopkirk the plan was for the Russians to send 35,000 soldiers through Central…

  about The Great Game · at 5:18

• Barge partly in the water overheard this when word of this reached Britain the British East India Company began to devote more attention to protecting their possessions from…

  about British East India Company · at 9:18

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Paul I of Russia — Person · 4 mentions
• Catherine the Great — Person · 2 mentions

Books & papers

• The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk — Book · 1 mention · first at 5:23
  For such a thing leaving them very vulnerable as is discussed in the book The Great Game by Peter hopkirk the plan was for the Russians to send 35,000 soldiers through Central…

Companies & orgs

• British East India Company — Company · 1 mention · first at 9:23

Concepts & topics

• The Great Game — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 5:23

Places & events

• Morango Ostritz — Place · 1 mention · first at 0:01

Full transcript with timestamps

0:01 many miles from Morango ostritz and watero India is not typically the first place to come to mind when one brings up the Napoleonic Wars however a little known fact is that India was actually almost the setting for what could have been a very major Napoleonic War one which could have changed the course of history ladies and gentlemen hello and welcome to fire of learning today we're going to be discussing secret plans that the Russians and the French made to invade India together and expel the British from the region in the early 1800s to claim it for themselves before we begin we would like to mention that this video is made without the use of AI our sources are listed in a link in the description let's start with the backstory before Napoleon took over France the Russians like most of Europe had opposed the French Revolution which began in 1789 Russia was ruled by an absolute monarchy and fear both the instability

1:01 that a belligerent France and its revolutionary ideals could bring to Europe however Russia did not join the war of the first Coalition against France led by Britain Austria and Prussia as the war progressed the Russian Emperor Katherine the Great did plan to send forces to join planning to send a force of 60,000 to the effort however before Russia could formally enter the war in 1796 Catherine died and her son Paul became Zar Paul was a staunch tradition IST who hated the revolution but did not feel it was best for his country to become involved in the war preferring to focus on domestic affairs and thus canel his mother's plans but when French expansion continued and was deemed too threatening he rejoined the effort in the war of the second Coalition in 1798 along with most of the other major powers of Europe the following year in 1799 Napoleon took over France War continued between France

1:59 and the other power of Europe including Russia however as the Coalition suffered significant defeats the French it became clear that Napoleon was going to be difficult to appro Meanwhile Russia's relations with its Ally Britain which had not been extraordinarily friendly for quite some time in the first place began to worsen as a number of grievances arose such as Russia feeling that Britain had abandoned Russian soldiers at a few points during the war and Britain's interference with neutral shipping the final STW came in the year 1800 2 years before this in 1798 France had landed on and captured the island of Malta which had been ruled by the knights hospitaler also known as the Knights of St John since the 16th century Paul was a protector of the knights and when the French had occupied the island the knights elected Paul The Grandmaster of their order ignoring the religious differences thus he felt

2:53 compelled to defend them which was one of the reasons he joined the second Coalition in the first place but when Britain drove the French out of Malta in 1800 the British decided to keep the island for themselves instead of returning it to the knights infuriated with Britain feeling that Napoleon was at least more tolerable than the Revolutionary government he had replaced and believing that war against France was no longer in Russia's best interest Paul withdrew from the war and while he did not officially make peace began to communicate with the French about working towards their shared interests as war with Britain seemed likely Paul proposed the Bold plan to Napoleon together they could invade India which had come under substantial British influence and rule by this point forced the British out of the subcontinent and claim the wealthy and fertile lands for themselves the British Navy was the most

3:48 powerful navy in the world at the time and was therefore a formidable barrier to any sort of sea Invasion especially an invasion of Britain itself thus attacking British Holdings elsewhere was simply a safer strategy however Russian and French interest in India was much deeper than this the Russians had been interested in expanding into Asia namely the Caucasus Central Asia and Persia since the rule of Peter the Great the prior Century an interest shared as well by Katherine the Great they dreamed that one day Russia could enter India through these regions though neither had managed to come anywhere close to this the French too had long been interested Ed in India and had fought with Britain in the preceding Century for control over it Napoleon himself was well aware of its importance to Britain when he was still a general before he had taken over France he had invaded Egypt hoping to use it as a stepping stone to India

4:46 however Napoleon's invasion of Egypt had mostly been a failure and never came close to anything like this it was an extraordinarily daring proposition but not entirely impossible to avoid confrontation with the British Navy the plan was to march on land most of the way something that if it could work would have been a very serious threat while the British had considered that something like this could happen overall they believed a land invasion of their Indian Territory was unrealistic and therefore were not sufficiently prepared for such a thing leaving them very vulnerable as is discussed in the book The Great Game by Peter hopkirk the plan was for the Russians to send 35,000 soldiers through Central Asia towards India along the way they would recruit native turkman forces to their side with the promise of plunder in India meanwhile a French army of about the same size would descend the danu cross

5:44 the Black Sea in Russian ships then sail through the Dawn and vulgar Rivers Caspian Sea and meet up with the Russians in Northern Persia modern-day Northern Iran they would then proceed towards India Napoleon was interested in the concept of invading India but felt Paul's plan was unrealistically optimistic perhaps to the point of absurdity about the challenges their forces would face marching through the desert Wilderness something he had experience with and so decided against participating in such a venture indeed Paul did not know what he was getting himself into lacking in knowledge in maps of the landscape he seems to have simply assumed that there would be roads and Food Supplies and such things in the region which did not exist likewise the idea that the native Central Asians would have simply joined his side in exchange for plunder was an unlikely idea history by that point would have

6:42 suggested the opposite reaction to a Russian army marching through their land worse than his understanding of Central Asia was his understanding of India he was not familiar enough with the political and Military situation there to have had a genuine strategy regardless Paul remained con confident of his plan and actually decided to go through with it without the French in early 1801 the Zar assembled 22,000 cacs not even a third of what he had hoped he and Napoleon combined could muster and ordered them to begin writing to invade India however Paul was not a popular ruler he was eccentric volatile and often made unusual and impractical decisions some of which almost suggested Madness such as perhaps invading India with little planning and in inadequate Force he also worked to prevent corruption which had been very profitable for various Russian officials thus the Russian nobility turned against

7:42 him and in the early morning of March 24th 1801 several of his officers broke into his bed chamber and attempted to force him to sign his abdication Zar Paul resisted and tried to climb up his chimney to escape but this failed and his officers murdered him it is possible that the British Ambassador Charles witor helped instigate this assassination even though the British do not seem to have known about the invasion Force heading towards India Paul's son Alexander I took the throne he sent a writer to meet up with the kasac Army which had already made a long journey through the harsh Central Asian landscape in Winter to tell them never mind turn around although hopkirk argued that this likely saved their lives and that they likely would not have even made it to India Alexander restored the tenuous friendship with Britain and went on to become an enemy of Napoleon however Napoleon did not

8:40 forget this idea and was very interested in a realistic version of it in 1807 when Napoleon was nearing the height of his power peace came again between France and Russia and relations improved during these peace negotiations which Napoleon and zaro Alexander themselves orchestrated directly on a barge in the middle of the river Neiman Napoleon expressed an interest in invading India ideally alongside the Russians even claiming he would allow Russia to keep all the territorial gains they would make there however a British spy who supposedly dangled hidden underneath the barge partly in the water overheard this when word of this reached Britain the British East India Company began to devote more attention to protecting their possessions from Land invasion creating detailed maps of potential land routes armies might use and securing an alliance with Persia however Alexander was not very interested anyway and so

9:40 once again not much came of these ideas eventually Russia and France again became enemies in the end Russia would play a leading role in Napoleon's downfall yet Russian interest in India and rivalry with Britain did not end after this in fact these incidents were very much a Prelude to a much more intense anglo-russian rivalry that would develop in that region later that Century referred to as the great game we hope you enjoyed this video if so we invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future to support the channel further there is a link to our patreon in the description a special thanks to our current supporters listed here thank you for watching

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Why Napoleon & Russia Almost Invaded India Together"?

In order: 0:00 Morango Ostritz; 3:00 The Great Game, The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk; 9:00 British East India Company, The Great Game.

What is mentioned in this Fire of Learning episode?

6 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Paul I of Russia, The Great Game, Catherine the Great, Morango Ostritz, The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk, British East India Company. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Why Napoleon & Russia Almost Invaded India Together"?

The episode runs 11 min; the transcript is about 1,702 words in 11 timestamped sections.

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