Hi Everyone, Starting the first of what will be a series of threads here. If you could only ever ask ONE question about Napoleon, what would it be, and why?
(Hopefully someone will try to answer that question for you - you can post more than one question if you want!)
Napoleon's three greatest mistakes were invading the Spanish Peninsula, the invasion of Russia, and the Continental System.
The one that did the most damage was the war in Spain. It saddled Napoleon with a continuous second front and did more lasting damage than the invasion of Russia in that it was a constant drain on French and allied manpower.
Interestingly, at the beginning of 1813 some of Napoleon's subordinates urged him to withdraw half of the veterans from Spain and send them to central Europe to face the Prussians and Russians. That could have been decisive and would undoubtedly have kept Austria out of the war.
Unfortunately, Napoleon refused to do it, though he did draw on the French armies in Spain for cadres and replacements, sometimes entire units. That decision compounded the error and might have been the decisive decision of 1813.