Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo ended the Napoleonic Wars, precipitated his second abdication, and ushered in decades of relative European peace known as the Pax Britannica.
Key Facts
- Date
- 18 June 1815
- Prussian reinforcements
- 50,000 troops arrived during battle
- Napoleon's abdication
- 4 days after the battle
- Coalition entry into Paris
- 7 July 1815
- Napoleonic Wars ranking
- Second-bloodiest single-day battle after Borodino
- Wellington's verdict
- "The nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life"
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following Napoleon's return to power in March 1815 during the Hundred Days, the Seventh Coalition mobilised against him. Napoleon sought to neutralise Wellington's Anglo-allied army and Blücher's Prussians before they could unite. After defeating the Prussians at Ligny on 16 June and contesting Quatre Bras, he pursued both armies northward, forcing a decisive confrontation near Waterloo.
On 18 June 1815, Napoleon's French Imperial Army launched repeated assaults against Wellington's Anglo-allied force positioned on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment. Throughout the afternoon, Wellington's troops held firm. Arriving Prussian forces attacked the French right flank, and when Napoleon committed his elite Imperial Guard in a final assault, it was repulsed. The French army collapsed into a rout as Prussian and allied pressure converged.
The defeat ended the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon's Hundred Days. He abdicated four days later, and coalition forces entered Paris on 7 July 1815, concluding the First French Empire. The battle set a historical boundary between the era of serial European wars and a prolonged period of relative continental peace. The phrase 'meeting one's Waterloo' entered popular culture as a metaphor for catastrophic defeat.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
2 belligerents
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, Field Marshal Blücher.
Side B
1 belligerent
Napoleon I.