Waterloo, Battle of, fought on June 18, 1815, was the final battle of the French military genius, Napoleon Bonaparte. It put an end to his political ambitions to rule Europe. His defeat was so crushing that, when a person suffers a disastrous reverse, we say the person has “met his (or her) Waterloo.”
Napoleon returns to France.
After abdicating in 1814, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy. He spent less than a year there before he decided to return to rule France. He saw that the allies at the Congress of Vienna seemed unable to settle their differences, and he hoped to take advantage of this split to regain power.
But the allies joined forces against Napoleon as soon as they heard of his return to France. Napoleon marched north into Belgium to meet this threat. The British Duke of Wellington commanded the allied forces of Belgium, Britain, Hanover, and the Netherlands. Neither commander had good intelligence services. Napoleon was not in good health at the time, and failed to display his earlier energy and military grasp.
The battle
took place at Waterloo, a small town near Brussels. The two armies were about equal in size. Napoleon had about 74,000 troops, and superior cavalry and artillery. Wellington had about 67,000 troops. He placed them in a strong defensive position. The French started a fierce attack against the allied lines on June 18. Wellington’s troops resisted the French assaults.
Napoleon might have won at Waterloo if he had attacked earlier in the day. But he waited until noon because of a heavy rain the night before. This delay permitted Marshal Gebhard von Blucher to arrive with his Prussian troops to reinforce Wellington. The battle was a draw until the arrival of Blucher’s forces. These forces helped turn the battle against the French.
Napoleon made one last effort to win the battle. He flung his best troops, the famous “Old Guard,” against the enemy’s lines. Three battalions of the Guard fought bravely. However, they were overwhelmed. The French troops then retreated from a fierce bayonet counterattack.
Both sides lost many killed and wounded in the battle. The French suffered about 40,000 casualties, and the allies about 23,000. After this defeat, Napoleon failed to gather a new army. He had no choice left but to abdicate a second time.
