French invasion of Russia French invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 () and in France as the Russian Campaign (), began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon's crossed the Neman River in an attempt to engage and defeat the Russian army. Napoleon hoped to compel Tsar Alexander I of Russia to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an effort to pressure the United Kingdom to sue for peace. The official political aim of the campaign was to liberate Poland from the threat of Russia. Napoleon named the campaign the Second Polish
Results of the War of 1812 if the War of 1812 had not taken place, because more and more American settlers would have arrived and Canadian nationalism would not have developed. The War of 1812 was highly significant in Britain's North American colonies. After the war, British sympathizers portrayed the war as a successful fight for national survival against an American democratic force that threatened the peace and stability the Canadians desired. Throughout the war, most of Canada's inhabitants assigned the war to an American desire to annex the British colonies, a perception reinforced by American Generals like William Hull, who issued proclamations stating that Canada