The Battle of Waterloo took place on June 18, 1815 between the combined army of European states (England, the Netherlands, Prussia) and the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte. Tiny Waterloo, an ordinary Belgian place near Brussels, not only went down in history, but also became the designation of an insulting loss, an unfortunate defeat; and rightly so - after all, at Waterloo, Napoleon suffered the only unconditional defeat in his military career.
The Battle of Waterloo was the culmination, the end of the famous Napoleonic "100 days"; after this defeat, all claims
Bonaparte to create a world empire is a thing of the past. Moreover, he did not even manage to remain "only" the French emperor.
After the extremely unsuccessful military campaigns of 1812-1814, Napoleon was forced to accept all the conditions of the victorious countries (Prussia, Sweden, Britain, the Russian Empire), abdicate the throne and go into honorable exileon the Mediterranean island of Elba. But even there, far from the turbulent European events, Bonaparte did not give up hope of returning to France, "recouping", becoming an active politician again. On March 1, 1815, the emperor landed on the coast of France, it is from this day that 100 days of Napoleon are counted. In just a few days, Bonaparte made his way from Cannes to Paris, everywhere meeting with an enthusiastic welcome and a demonstration of devotion (the soldiers of the old Napoleonic guard turned out to be especially loyal to the sovereign). Louis Bourbon, who ruled France after the abdication of Emperor Napoleon, fled abroad with his court.
All this adventurous undertaking seriously alarmed the European monarchs. It was decided to put an end to the twenty-year era of continuous Napoleonic wars and finally deal a crushing blow to the Corsican "upstart". The Seventh Coalition of European States (Austria, Russia, Britain, Prussia) was organized, this time directed not against France, but against Napoleon personally. Emperor Bonaparte was outlawed. It was decided to put up a united army against the French troops, the total number of which reached a million people. The gradual concentration of allied troops took place in the late spring - early summer of 1815 in Belgium, along the eastern borders of France. Part of the Allied forces were supposed to come from Northern Italy.
This truly cyclopean army Napoleon was able to oppose relatively small forces (up to 300,000 people). In his armythere was not enough not only ordinary soldiers, but also officers; the battle of Waterloo ended in an unfortunate defeat, including due to confusion in the management of the army, unjustified personnel appointments.
The Battle of Waterloo began in the early morning of June 18, 1815, with an attack by the French army on Château Hougoumont. The French failed to achieve their main goal - to disorganize the English formations under the command of Wellington. On the contrary, all diversionary maneuvers caused significant damage to the imperial army itself.
The numerical superiority of the Allied troops, the poor organization and management of the Napoleonic army, the wrong tactics - all this led to a crushing defeat of the French army. The Battle of Waterloo became one of the bloodiest battles in world history: the total number of victims reached 16,000 people killed and about 70,000 wounded.
After the defeat, Napoleon was forced to surrender to his worst enemies - the British. He was forced to abdicate a second time and sent into exile a second time, this time to the distant island of Saint Helena. The Battle of Waterloo was the last battle to end the era of the Napoleonic Wars.
