June 18, 1815 has gone down in the annals of history as a pivotal date, which marked the end of an era. Near the city of Waterloo, in present-day Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte would taste the bitter taste of defeat. “Waterloo will blot out the memory of all my victories,” the great leader was to say. He himself understood that the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo not only put an end to his rule, but was also going to reshape the political landscape of Europe.
After escaping from exile on the island of Elba in March 1815, Napoleon returned to France and quickly regained power, ushering in a period known as the Hundred Days. The great powers of Europe – Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia – quickly formed the Seventh Coalition to oppose him. Determined to regain his empire, Napoleon planned a pre-emptive strike to divide and defeat the allied forces before they could unite against him.
On June 16, 1815, Napoleon achieved a temporary victory against the Prussians at the Battle of Lini. However, its strategic position remained precarious. The allied armies, under the command of the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blycher, moved quickly to converge on Napoleon’s position. The two opposing forces met two days later on a battlefield south of Brussels, near the village of Waterloo.
Napoleon’s forces numbered around 72,000 soldiers, made up mostly of battle-hardened veterans and conscripts from his recent campaigns. Wellington commanded some 68,000 troops from Britain, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau, while Blycher’s Prussian army, marching to reinforce Wellington, added an additional 50,000 troops to the Coalition forces.
The Battle of Waterloo began around 11:00 AM. on June 18, 1815. Napoleon delayed his attack due to the muddy ground caused by the previous night’s heavy rain, hoping that the ground would dry enough for his artillery to be effective. His initial attack targeted the British-held farmhouses of Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte, which were the focus of heavy fighting throughout the day.
Fortified on a ridge, Wellington’s forces repulsed wave after wave of French attacks. Napoleon’s strategy relied heavily on his artillery and cavalry, but the muddy terrain and resistant Allied infantry thwarted many of his maneuvers. The French cavalry, led by Field Marshal Michel Ney, repeatedly charged the Allied lines, but were unable to break through the disciplined infantry squares formed by Wellington’s troops.
As the battle raged, Wellington’s forces found it difficult to hold their ground. Around mid-afternoon, Blycher’s Prussian army began to arrive on the battlefield. Their timely intervention was critical: they attacked the French right flank, putting additional pressure on Napoleon’s already hard-pressed forces.
The French Imperial Guard, Napoleon’s elite troops, launched a last desperate attack on the Allied center in the late afternoon. However, he was repulsed by Wellington’s soldiers. The Prussian advance and the resilience of the British general’s forces caused the French lines to waver. By nightfall, the French army had broken up and Napoleon ordered a retreat.
Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo was disastrous. His army fled in chaos, abandoning much of its equipment and artillery. The battle cost the lives of about 25,000 Frenchmen, while losses were also significant for the Allies (about 22,000). Despite the heavy price, the victory was decisive.
After his defeat, Napoleon returned to Paris, where he abdicated for the second time on June 22, 1815. He tried to escape to America, but was captured by British forces and eventually exiled to the remote island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where spent the rest of his life.
The Battle of Waterloo ended more than two decades of conflict across Europe, known collectively as the Napoleonic Wars. It marked the collapse of the First French Empire and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France under King Louis XIII. The battle also cemented the Duke of Wellington’s reputation as one of Britain’s greatest military leaders.
The events at Waterloo had profound effects on the balance of power in Europe. The Congress of Vienna, held from 1814 to 1815, established a framework for European international relations aimed at maintaining the balance of power and preventing the rise of another dominant continental empire.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigone-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis