Key Facts
- Actual duration
- 110 days (20 March – 8 July 1815)
- Coalition commitment
- 150,000 men each from 4 Great Powers
- Napoleon's exile destination
- Saint Helena (died there 1821)
- Coalition declaration
- Napoleon declared outlaw on 13 March 1815
Strategic Narrative Overview
The Hundred Days encompassed the War of the Seventh Coalition, including the Waterloo campaign and the Neapolitan War. Napoleon moved rapidly to engage coalition forces before they could unite. His campaign culminated in the Battle of Waterloo, where he was decisively defeated by the combined forces of the Duke of Wellington and Prussian Field Marshal Blücher, ending his brief return to power.
01 / The Origins
Napoleon escaped from his exile on the island of Elba and returned to Paris on 20 March 1815, while the Congress of Vienna was still in session reorganising post-war Europe. Alarmed by his return, the assembled powers declared him an outlaw on 13 March. Austria, Prussia, Russia, and the United Kingdom formed the Seventh Coalition on 25 March, each pledging 150,000 troops to end his renewed rule.
03 / The Outcome
Following his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon abdicated and was captured by the British. Unlike his earlier exile to Elba, he was sent to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821. King Louis XVIII was restored to the French throne on 8 July 1815, and the Congress of Vienna's settlement reshaping Europe was upheld.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Side B
1 belligerent
Duke of Wellington, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.