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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

To what extent did Napoleon’s economic war with England become his undoing?

  • UPSC 2010
  • Origins of Modern Politics

Unable to defeat England at sea after the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) destroyed his fleet, Napoleon Bonaparte turned to economic warfare — the Continental System — to strangle British trade instead; the attempt not only failed but set off the precise chain of wars that ended his rule.

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What the full answer covers

  • The Logic and Immediate Failure of the System
  • Portugal and Spain: The "Veritable Ulcer"
  • Russia: Enforcing the System to Its Breaking Point
  • The Cumulative Political Cost

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