The Battle of Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815, was one of the most pivotal military engagements in history. It marked the final defeat of Emperor Napoleon I of France and the end of 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in Europe. Waterloo had far-reaching consequences for the balance of power, redrawing the political map of Europe and ushering in a period of relative peace that would last for much of the 19th century. Its impact and legacy still resonate today, two centuries later.
The Road to Waterloo
The events that led to Waterloo began in February 1815, when Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the island of Elba. The former emperor landed in southern France with a small force and began marching toward Paris, gathering support along the way. Alarmed by his return, the major powers of Europe – Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia – quickly formed the Seventh Coalition and began mobilizing their armies to confront the French once more.
Hoping to defeat the allies one by one before they could unite their forces, Napoleon planned a preemptive strike into Belgium, where the British and Prussian armies were assembling. On June 15, he crossed the frontier with around 125,000 men, aiming to drive a wedge between the two allied armies and defeat them separately.
After two days of initial fighting at Quatre Bras and Ligny, Napoleon‘s French army of around 72,000 men faced off against 68,000 British, Dutch and German troops under the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo on June 18. The Prussians under Marshal Blucher, retreating from Ligny, were regrouping to the east and marching to join Wellington.
The Battle
The battle began around 11:30 am with a French attack on the coalition positions near the chateau of Hougoumont on Wellington‘s right flank. Despite gaining a foothold, the French failed to capture the chateau and its surrounding woods after a series of attacks throughout the day.
In the early afternoon, the French launched a massive assault by 18,000 infantry on the allied center near the farm of La Haye Sainte. After fierce fighting, Wellington‘s line held and French casualties were heavy. "Hard pounding this, gentlemen," the Duke told his staff. "Let‘s see who can pound the longest."
Recognizing the need to break Wellington‘s infantry squares, Napoleon ordered Marshal Ney to lead massed cavalry charges against the allied center. However, without infantry or artillery support, the 9,000 French horsemen failed to break the impenetrable allied squares despite numerous valiant attempts. British artillery and muskets exacted a dreadful toll.
A key turning point came around 6 pm when the Prussians finally arrived on the battlefield and attacked the French right flank near the village of Plancenoit. Faced with this new threat, Napoleon was forced to divert vital reinforcements. The allies then counterattacked and captured La Haye Sainte. With his army exhausted and disintegrating, Napoleon threw his last reserves, the Imperial Guard, into a final desperate assault. Met with a hail of musket fire, the elite guardsmen faltered, then broke. Seeing this, other French units lost heart and began retreating. Wellington ordered a general advance and the French retreat soon turned into a rout.
By 9 pm the battle was over. The French had suffered around 25,000 killed and wounded, and 9,000 captured. The allies lost some 22,000 men. Prussian forces pursued the retreating French through the night.
Aftermath and Consequences
The shattering defeat spelled the end of Napoleon‘s bid to regain power. Returning to Paris, he abdicated for a second time on June 22. The coalition forces entered the French capital on July 7. This time, the allies exiled Napoleon to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he remained until his death in 1821, never to threaten Europe again.
Waterloo marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars and over two decades of conflict that had started with the French Revolution in 1789. France lost the territorial gains it had made under Napoleon and was reduced to its 1790 boundaries. The victorious allies convened the Congress of Vienna to redraw the political map of Europe. Guided by the Austrian chancellor Metternich, they sought to restore the old order, reinstating deposed monarchies like the Bourbons in France and creating new states like the Netherlands to check French power. The victors also divided up some territories for themselves, with Britain gaining the Cape Colony in South Africa, Ceylon and other colonial possessions.
The relatively conservative settlement aimed at maintaining the balance of power and stymieing revolution held for much of the 19th century. However, the rise of Prussia disrupted this balance within a few decades. Building on its growing power and prestige after the victory at Waterloo, Prussia united the German states under its leadership in 1871, establishing a powerful new empire that would transform European politics.
Legacy and Memory
The Battle of Waterloo has attained iconic status in the two centuries since it occurred. It has become a byword for a decisive turning point, whether military or metaphorical. The popular image of Waterloo as the epic final clash between military giants Napoleon and Wellington, with the Prussians playing a supporting role, has been perpetuated in art, literature and film. Numerous memorials, museums, reenactments and coins commemorate the battle and its participants to this day.
However, interpretations and perceptions of Waterloo‘s significance have evolved over time, shaped by the changing political and cultural landscape. In Britain, Waterloo was long celebrated as a glorious national triumph, a vindication of British arms, values and institutions over a tyrannical foreign foe. The Duke of Wellington, the "Iron Duke," was lionized as the unflappable leader who saved Europe. This triumphalist narrative suited Britain‘s self-image as it expanded its global empire over the course of the 19th century.
In France, Waterloo represented a stinging defeat that was difficult to come to terms with. French historians initially minimized Napoleon‘s responsibility for the debacle. In the immediate aftermath, some Bonapartists spread rumors that Napoleon had been betrayed by disloyal subordinates like Marshal Bourmont, who defected to the allies on the eve of the battle, and Marshal Grouchy, who failed to prevent the Prussians linking up with Wellington. Napoleon‘s own writings in exile blamed his defeat on "fate" and exaggerated the role of the Prussians.
As the old European order crumbled in the wake of World War I, the meanings ascribed to Waterloo shifted. Many saw parallels between the doomed French charge at Waterloo and the catastrophic offensives of 1914-1918. The wanton destruction and astronomical casualties of the battle seemed to foreshadow the mechanized slaughter of the 20th century. The historian Pieter Geyl called Waterloo "a victory of the old, imperiled and shaken, over the new, over the modern world the French revolution had fashioned and Bonaparte had conquered for it."
In the postwar period, military historians have reassessed the battle, challenging some hoary myths that had grown up around it. Far from the "the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life," as Wellington reportedly described it, his allied army was probably never in serious danger of defeat, given the Prussians‘ approach. Napoleon may have made uncharacteristic errors and failed to demonstrate his usual verve and energy. He also faced severe strategic dilemmas in 1815 that made his plan to preemptively strike the allies highly risky. At the end of a tumultuous 25-year period that had witnessed revolutionary upheaval and destructive wars on an unprecedented scale, Europe in 1815 was united in its determination to decisively defeat Napoleon.
Conclusion
The Battle of Waterloo was unquestionably one of the seminal events of the 19th century. It marked an inflection point that divides the history of modern Europe into a pre- and post-Napoleonic period. The heralded "sun of Austerlitz," symbol of Napoleon‘s earlier triumphs, had finally set. France lost half of the territory and client states it had acquired under Napoleon. The conservative political and territorial settlement established at Vienna endured for a century until it was swept away by World War I.
While the battle itself was not particularly innovative in military terms, more a hard-fought slogging match than a strategic masterpiece, its political consequences were profound and far-reaching. With the Napoleonic threat eliminated, Britain emerged as the world‘s greatest superpower, free to expand its influence across the globe, while Prussia‘s growing power set the stage for German unification and a fateful rivalry with France later in the century. At the same time, the reactionary system imposed by the victorious allies sowed the seeds for the nationalist and democratic uprisings that convulsed Europe in 1830 and 1848.
Waterloo also occupies a prominent place in the collective memory and imagination of Europe. The monumental contest between Napoleon and Wellington has acquired mythic status, serving as an enduring source of national pride for the British and an emblem of heroic defiance and tragedy for the French. "In terms of posterity," notes the historian Alan Forrest, "Waterloo is the most remembered battle of all: remembered with pride by the winners, remembered (perhaps even more intensely) with shame and bitterness by the losers." Two hundred years later, the name Waterloo still resonates as a universal symbol of total defeat and a turning point in history.
Sources
- Barbero, Alessandro. The Battle: A New History of Waterloo. Walker & Co., 2005.
- Chesney, Charles C. Waterloo Lectures: A Study of the Campaign of 1815. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1868.
- Cornwell, Bernard. Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles. Harper Collins, 2014.
- Forrest, Alan. Waterloo. Oxford University Press, 2015.
- Hofschroer, Peter. 1815 – The Waterloo Campaign: Wellington, His German Allies and the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras. Greenhill Books, 1998.
- Siborne, William. History of the War in France and Belgium in 1815. T. and W. Boone, 1844.
- Wooten, Geoffrey. Waterloo 1815: The Birth of Modern Europe. Osprey Publishing, 1992.
- Zamoyski, Adam. Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna. HarperCollins, 2007.
