On the fog-shrouded battlefield of Austerlitz, the Anti-French Coalition launched its first attack against the Pratzen Heights and the seemingly weak right flank.
In the coalition's plan, the right flank could be taken with ease, after which they could join the central forces in encircling and annihilating the enemy army.
At first, the enemy forces on the right flank did retreat easily enough, but rather than collapsing as the coalition had expected, they held down even more coalition troops. Meanwhile, the enemy retook the heights, and Tsar Alexander I committed his reserves to reclaim them.
Saint-Domingue could be understood as the right flank meant to draw in coalition forces. If Napoleon, like the coalition commanders, kept pouring troops into it, it would become a deadly quagmire. It would not only drain military funds and manpower, but crush morale as well. Disease, in particular, had a severe effect on morale.
And the people of Saint-Domingue would resist to the death. The slave rebels of Guadeloupe would rather blow themselves up than remain slaves. A battlefield where both sides fought to destroy each other was not Europe, where prisoners still had to be treated well.
Eventually, even the Polish refused to obey orders. Before boarding ship, Swiss mercenaries in Marseille mutinied upon hearing that they were being sent to Santo Domingo. That once-prosperous land, which had produced vast quantities of sugar, had become a place people feared and no longer wished to visit.
Life required necessities. As social beings, no one could meet all their own needs through individual effort alone. Even the newly founded United States needed goods from Europe.
Thanks to social division of labor and exchange, individuals could strive freely to satisfy certain needs. Yet some needs—especially the most basic ones—could probably not be met through self-sufficiency. National defense,