French Russian planned expedition, but the British opportunely liquidated the Tsar to put Russia on the right path towards British interests and to distract it from any French-Russian alliance.
A contingent of 35,000 men with light artillery was to join 35,000 men of the Russian army (15,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 10,000 Cossacks) at Astrakhan.
These 70,000 men were then to cross the Caspian Sea. From Astrabad (in Persia – present-day Gorgan), they were to march eastward: Herat, Farah, Kandahar, and reach the territory of present-day Pakistan.
In addition to this Franco-Russian army of 70,000 men, the Russian Far Eastern Flotilla and a Cossack detachment were to take part in this expedition. Matvei Platov's men were the only elements to actually march to India.
Paul I proposed placing this army under the command of General André Masséna.
If the first phase of the operation had unfolded as planned, the Cossacks would have reached the Sikh Empire and the vast Maratha Empire, both of which were resisting British expansionism. The French and Russians were counting on the two sovereigns viewing the Cossacks with benevolent neutrality. It had been planned that after the defeat of the East India Company, the French would occupy the southern part of the peninsula and the Russians, the north.
In February 1801, 22,000 Don Cossacks under the command of Ataman Matvey Platov set out for India. This maneuver was the first step in the conquest by the Russians and French of the vast territory that had been under British rule for approximately half a century.
The assassination of Paul I on March 23, 1801—the result of a conspiracy in which the British participated—changed the game. His son and successor, Alexander I, recalled the Cossacks and restored the alliance between Russia and Great Britain.
Napoleon Bonaparte was furious upon learning of the death of his Russian ally: "The English failed me on 3 Nivôse [rue Saint-Nicaise], they didn't fail me in St. Petersburg."
paints a Napoleonic caricature.
