A.'s far-sighted policy with regard to the foreign commerce of Russia is shown in vari ous expeditions round the world sent out by him; in the embassy to Persia in 1817, in which was the Frenchman Gradanne, who was acquainted with all the plans of Napo; leon respecting India and Persia ; in the .missions to Cochin China and to Khiva In the treaties with the United States, Brazil, and Spain ; in the naval and com mercial treaties with the Porte ; and iu the settlement on the n.w. coast of America.
A.'s foreign .policy was characterized at the outset by a desire for peace ; in 1801 he concluded a convention putting an end to hostilities with England, and made peace with France and Spain. He next entered, along with France, into negotiations respect ing the indemnification of the minor states in Germany and Italy, but soon discovered how little the French ruler intended any real compensation. As Bonaparte encroached more and more, took possession of Hanover, and annihilated Holland, A. broke with France, and joined the coalition of 1805. He was present at the battle of Austerlitz, when the allied armies of Austria and Russia were defeated, and retired with the remains of his forces into Russia, declining to enter into the treaty that followed. Next year he came forward as the ally of Prussia ; but after the disastrous battles of Eylau and Friedland, in 1807, he was obliged to conclude the peace of Tilsit, in which he managed to prevent the restoration of the kingdom of Poland, and to mitigate diehard fate of the king of Prussia. During the war with France, A. had also to carry on hostilities with Persia and with Turkey.
Dazzled by the fortune and genius of Napoleon, A., in pursuance of the stipulations of Tilsit, acceded with his huge empire to. the French continental system, thus altering entirely the foreign policy of Russia. He began by declaring war on England in 1808, and attacking her Sweden, wrested from that country, by the peace of Friedriehs hamm (1809), the province of Finland. On the other hand, the Russian fleet, sent to the aid of the French at Lisbon, fell into the hands.of the British. In the autumn of 1808, the two great potentates held a meeting at Erfurt, attended with great splendor, at which A. represented, as it were, the empire of the east of Europe, while Napoleon assumed the dominion of the west. In the war of France against Austria in 1809, A. took only a lukewarm part, although at the peace of Vienna he received the circle of Tarnopol as his share of the spoil of Galicia. Against the Porte, which had not observed the armistice of Slobosta, he renewed the war, which was continued till the peace of Bucharest in 1812.
The alliance, however, of A.with the Corsican conqueror involved such an inconsistency, and was so contrary to the real interests of Russia, that a rupture and a complete change of the Russian policy were inevitable. The pressure of the continental systeni on the material resources of Russia, the despotic changes made by Napoleon, the augmentation of the duchy of Warsaw, the proffers of alliance by England and Sweden, awoke in A. first discontent and aversion, and soon the thought of a decisive contest against the subju gator of Europe and the disturber of the peace of the world. When this gigantic struggle at last began (1812), Russia brought into the field an army of nearly 900,000 men. Dur ing this war (see RIISSO-GE113IAN WAR), A. repeatedly exposed himself to personal dan ger, in order to fire the courage and patriotism of his troops. His magnanimity towa•ds France after the taking of Paris facilitated the negotiations for peace, and won for him great personal regaid, amounting to a kind of enthusiasm. He was received with the same feeling in London, which he visited after the treaty of Paris in June, 1814. When he returned to St. Petersburg, his first care was to provide for the wounded, and for the families of the soldiers that had fallen. The senate wished to give him the title of "blessed," which, from Christian humility, he declined. After a short residence in his own capital, he repaired to the congress of Vienna. Here he laid claim to Poland as essential to the interests of Russia, but promised to confer on it a constitution, and, on the appeared to act for the good of humanity and the freedom of nations.
In the return of Napoleon, A. saw the confusion of Europe begun again, and there fore urged the fulfillment of the treaty of Chaumont and the outlawry of the common enemy. His appearance in the French capital after the battle of Waterloo raised less enthusiasm than previously ; yet on this occasion, too, France owed much to his generos ity. It was about this time that the tendency of A. to pietism, fostered by intercourse with Madame Krfidener (q.v.), was most strongly manifested, and exercised dee=ded influ ence on his political views. It was under the influence of this religiosity that he founded the holy alliance (q.v.), the ostensible object of which was to make the principles of tianity be recognized in the political arrangements of the world, but which became, in fact, a mere handle for political reaction.