The Battle of Waterloo (1815)
On June 18, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte's French army was decisively defeated near the village of Waterloo in present-day Belgium by a coalition force commanded by the Duke of Wellington, with crucial reinforcements from the Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher. The battle ended Napoleon's final campaign — the "Hundred Days" — and led to his permanent exile on the remote island of Saint Helena. Waterloo became a byword for ultimate defeat.
Napoleon's Return
Napoleon had been exiled to the island of Elba in April 1814 after the first abdication. He escaped in February 1815 with roughly 1,000 soldiers and marched on Paris, gathering a swelling army as he went. King Louis XVIII fled; Napoleon entered Paris on March 20. The assembled powers of Europe — Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain, and others — immediately declared Napoleon an outlaw and mobilized. Napoleon's only hope was to defeat his enemies before they could concentrate their full strength against him. He marched north into present-day Belgium with approximately 125,000 men to strike before Wellington's Anglo-allied army and Blücher's Prussians could unite. On June 16, he fought two battles simultaneously: Ney engaged Wellington at Quatre Bras while Napoleon attacked Blücher at Ligny. The French won at Ligny, but the Prussians withdrew in good order rather than routing completely. Wellington fell back to a ridge south of the village of Waterloo, choosing a strong defensive position and sending word to Blücher that he would stand and fight if Prussian reinforcements could reach him.
Did You Know?
After the battle, Wellington said he had never seen anything so dreadful — not even his earlier victories. His famous verdict: "It was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life." The entire battle lasted about nine hours and was decided by arguably a few thousand men — the timely arrival of Prussian forces under Blücher in the late afternoon. Had they been delayed an hour more, Wellington might have been forced to retreat.
The Battle
Napoleon delayed the start of the battle until late morning — reportedly to let the ground dry after overnight rain — a decision that gave the Prussians additional time to march to Wellington's aid. French attacks throughout the day battered Wellington's line but failed to break it. The key engagement around the fortified farm of Hougoumont tied down large French forces in a costly, futile assault. In the late afternoon, Napoleon unleashed his elite Imperial Guard in a massive frontal assault on Wellington's center. The Guard had never been decisively defeated in battle. Wellington's defenders held. When the Guard was thrown back, the French army broke in a panic. At almost the same moment, Prussian troops under Blücher arrived in force on the French right flank, completing the collapse. Napoleon fled the battlefield in his carriage. The combined Allied pursuit was merciless.
Napoleon's Final Exile
Napoleon abdicated for the second time on June 22 and was exiled by the British to the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena — so remote that escape was effectively impossible. He died there on May 5, 1821, at age 51, probably from stomach cancer. The Battle of Waterloo ended 23 years of near-continuous warfare that had killed millions across Europe. The Congress of Vienna, already in session when Napoleon escaped Elba, completed its reshaping of the European political map. The post-Napoleonic order — the Concert of Europe — largely held for a century, until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. "Waterloo" entered the English language as a metaphor for a catastrophic, final defeat. The battle has been the subject of countless histories, novels, and films, including Tolstoy's War and Peace, which treats Napoleon's campaigns as its central subject.