![]() ![]() It set a historical milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace, often referred to as the Pax Britannica. It precipitated Napoleon's second and definitive abdication as Emperor of the French, and ended the First French Empire. ![]() The defeat at Waterloo marked the end of Napoleon's Hundred Days return from exile. Napoleon abdicated four days later, and coalition forces entered Paris on 7 July. According to Wellington, the battle was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life". Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo campaign and Napoleon's last. With the Prussians breaking through on the French right flank, the Anglo-allied army repulsed the Imperial Guard, and the French army was routed. In the evening, Napoleon assaulted the Anglo-allied line with his last reserves, the senior infantry battalions of the Imperial Guard. Here he withstood repeated attacks by the French throughout the afternoon of 18 June and almost lost the battle, but was eventually aided by the progressively arriving 50,000 Prussians who attacked the French flank and inflicted heavy casualties. Upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment across the Brussels road, near the village of Waterloo. Napoleon sent a third of his forces to pursue the Prussians, which resulted in the separate Battle of Wavre with the Prussian rear-guard on 18-19 June, and prevented that French force from participating at Waterloo. The Anglo-allied army held their ground at Quatre Bras on 16 June, but the withdrawal of the Prussians from Ligny caused Wellington to withdraw north to Waterloo on 17 June. Meanwhile, a small portion of the French army contested the Battle of Quatre Bras and prevented the Anglo-allied army from reinforcing the Prussians at Ligny as planned. On 16 June, Napoleon successfully attacked the bulk of the Prussian army at the Battle of Ligny with his main force, causing the Prussians to withdraw northwards on 17 June, but parallel to Wellington and in good order. Napoleon planned to attack them separately in the hope of destroying them before they could join in a coordinated invasion of France with other members of the coalition. Wellington's and Blücher's armies were cantoned close to the northeastern border of France. Upon Napoleon's return to power in March 1815 (beginning the Hundred Days), many states that had previously opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition and hurriedly mobilised their armies. ![]() The battle was contemporaneously known as the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean in France or La Belle Alliance ("the Beautiful Alliance") in Prussia. The other comprised three corps of the Prussian army under Field Marshal von Blücher (the fourth corps of this army fought at the Battle of Wavre on the same day). One of these was a British-led force with units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, under the command of the Duke of Wellington (often referred to as the Anglo-allied army or Wellington's army). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two armies of the Seventh Coalition. The Battle of Waterloo ( Dutch pronunciation: ( listen)) was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. ![]()
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