Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo, fought on 18 June 1815, brutally ended the Hundred Days and the imperial destiny of Napoleon Bonaparte. Facing Anglo-allied forces of the Duke of Wellington and the decisive arrival of Blücher's Prussian army, Napoleon engaged his last great battle hoping to destroy his enemies separately. In the morning waterlogged ground slowed French movements, delaying the assault. Engagement began with a massive attack on the fortified farm of Hougoumont, followed by commitment of d'Erlon's corps against the allied center. Intervention of British cavalry, led by the Scots Greys and heavy dragoons, repulsed the French attempt. From 3 p.m. Ney, believing in enemy retreat, launched several cavalry charges without infantry or artillery support. These successive assaults failed against well-formed allied squares. Progressive arrival of Prussian troops on the French right flank reversed the balance. At day's end Napoleon committed the Imperial Guard in a final effort to pierce the enemy center. The Guard was repulsed by British and Belgian-Dutch troops, provoking panic in French ranks. Rout spread and defeat became irreversible. Waterloo was more than a military defeat: it was strategic and psychological collapse.

After his return from exile on Elba in March 1815, Napoleon attempted a bold maneuver to reconquer his throne by striking preventively at coalition forces before they could unite. He decided to enter Belgium to separate Blücher's Prussian army from Wellington's Anglo-Dutch army. After victory at Ligny against the Prussians on 16 June and indecisive engagement at Quatre Bras against Wellington, Napoleon hoped to exploit allied disorganization. He chose the Waterloo ground, south of Brussels, to face Wellington on 18 June. Terrain was however unfavorable: soaked by previous day's rain, it slowed troop and artillery movement. Napoleon did not know that Blücher, far from routed, had rallied his troops at Wavre and was actively marching to reinforce Wellington. The coalition, though heterogeneous, was determined to finish with the Emperor and coordinated efforts better than in previous campaigns. Waterloo thus became Napoleon's ultimate attempt to reverse the course of history.

Napoleon applied his classic doctrine of concentrating forces on a weak point, hoping to pierce the enemy center after fixing the wings. Assault began with attack on Hougoumont to the west, aiming to draw allied reserves. Despite heavy losses, the British held in the fortified farm. Napoleon then sent d'Erlon's corps against the allied center-left. These infantry columns were repulsed by British cavalry, notably the Scots Greys and Household Cavalry. Marshal Ney, without clear orders, interpreted a tactical allied withdrawal as rout and launched multiple heavy cavalry charges between 3 and 5 p.m. without infantry or artillery support. These attacks failed against discipline of allied squares. Meanwhile Bülow's then Ziethen's Prussians progressively engaged the French right flank at Plancenoit. Napoleon had to send the Young Guard then part of the Old Guard to resist. At 7:30 p.m. Napoleon played his last card: he sent two battalions of the Middle Guard to attack the allied center. They were stopped by General Maitland's British regiments (1st Foot Guards). It was the first time the Guard retreated. Panic seized the French army, which retreated in disorder. The battlefield was abandoned and roads to Genappe and Charleroi clogged with fugitives.

Defeat at Waterloo definitively ended the Napoleonic epic. On 22 June 1815 Napoleon abdicated for the second time. He hoped to depart for America but was captured by the British and sent to exile on Saint Helena, where he died in 1821. France was occupied, Paris taken without fighting, and Louis XVIII restored to the throne. The Treaty of Paris of 20 November 1815 was harsher than that of 1814: France lost part of its 1790 frontiers, had to pay heavy indemnity, and endure foreign occupation for five years. Europe entered an era of relative peace dominated by restored monarchies under the Congress of Vienna. Militarily, Waterloo confirmed coalition superiority in coordination, logistics, and resilience. Napoleon's aura of invincibility was shattered. Waterloo became a historical symbol: the end of a world, that of revolutionary ambitions carried by the Empire, facing return of traditional monarchical order.