Battle of Waterloo — 211 Years Ago

Napoleon's Final Defeat

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on June 18, 1815, near the village of Waterloo in present-day Belgium. It was the decisive engagement that ended Napoleon Bonaparte's final attempt to reclaim European dominance during the period known as the Hundred Days. Napoleon had returned from exile on the island of Elba in March 1815 and quickly retaken power in France. European powers immediately formed a new coalition against him. Napoleon chose to attack before his enemies could fully unite their forces. He struck into Belgium, defeating Prussian forces at Ligny on June 16, but failing to destroy them. Two days later he faced the Duke of Wellington's allied army at Waterloo.

A Close-Run Thing

Wellington famously described the battle as "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life." The fighting was intense and lasted throughout the day. Napoleon made repeated massed assaults against the allied lines, including a famous charge by his elite Old Guard late in the afternoon. Wellington's forces held their defensive positions on the ridge above the battlefield. The outcome turned decisively when Prussian forces under Field Marshal Blücher arrived on Napoleon's eastern flank. Caught between two armies, the French force collapsed. The rout that followed was total. Napoleon abandoned his army and fled toward Paris.

The End of an Era

Napoleon abdicated for the second and final time on June 22, 1815. He was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. The Congress of Vienna, which had been meeting since 1814 to redraw the map of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, completed its work. The settlement established a balance of power among European nations that, with various disruptions, shaped the continent for the rest of the 19th century. The word "Waterloo" entered the English language as a synonym for a decisive and final defeat, a usage that persists today. The battle ended twenty years of almost continuous warfare that had transformed Europe and the wider world.