Napoleon at Waterloo: The End of the French Empire

Napoleon at Waterloo: The End of the French Empire

On June 18, 1815, on the hills south of Waterloo in Belgium, 72,000 French soldiers faced 68,000 Anglo-Dutch troops in a decisive battle. Commanding the French was the 46-year-old Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte. Commanding the Anglo-Dutch force was Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington of Britain. The battle lasted less than a day, from 11:30 in the morning until 9 at night, and ended in catastrophic French defeat. Twenty-five thousand French soldiers were killed or wounded, including Napoleon's elite Imperial Guard.

The battle ended Napoleon's political career and brought down the First French Empire. He was exiled to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he died of illness six years later. His political career lasted 16 years, from his seizure of power in 1799 to his defeat in 1815. In those 16 years he redrew the map of Europe, established the legal and administrative system of modern France, and lost it all at Waterloo. The battle thus became one of the most famous in human history, and the word Waterloo itself became a byword for total defeat.

The Short Man from Corsica

Napoleon was born on August 15, 1769, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, the same year France purchased the island from the Republic of Genoa. His family was minor nobility, his father a lawyer. At nine he was sent to the Brienne military school on the French mainland. There his schoolmates mocked his Corsican accent and short stature. This early experience of marginalization shaped his fiercely competitive character.

When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, Napoleon was 20, a lieutenant of artillery. He seized the opportunities the revolution offered and was promoted to brigadier general in 1793 after his role in the siege of Toulon. In 1796 the 27-year-old Napoleon was named commander of the Army of Italy. He won a string of victories over the Austrians and made Europe take notice of his name. On November 9, 1799, Napoleon launched the Coup of 18 Brumaire and overthrew the French Directory, naming himself First Consul. On December 2, 1804, he crowned himself emperor in Notre-Dame de Paris, founding the First French Empire.

Total War Across Europe

After Napoleon took power, Europe plunged into 15 years of war, the Napoleonic Wars. France and the anti-French coalitions clashed again and again. In 1805 the French navy was defeated by Britain at Trafalgar, but the same year Napoleon crushed the Russo-Austrian army at Austerlitz. In 1806 the French army defeated Prussia at Jena. The 1807 Treaty of Tilsit gave France mastery of continental Europe.

By 1812 Napoleon controlled territory that included modern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, western Germany, Austria, and most of Poland. His brothers were kings of Spain, Naples, Holland, and Westphalia. This was the height of the French Empire. But in 1812 Napoleon made the greatest strategic mistake of his life, deciding to invade Russia. Of the 600,000 troops he led into Russia, only about 30,000 returned alive. The disaster marked the beginning of his decline.

Exile on Elba

In March 1814, allied armies of the anti-French coalition entered Paris. Napoleon's marshals forced him to abdicate. On April 11 he signed the act of abdication and was exiled to the island of Elba in the western Mediterranean. This was his first exile. Elba lay close to the Italian coast and had 8,000 inhabitants. The coalition believed that distance was safe enough. But they underestimated his political influence.

Napoleon followed events in France closely from Elba. After the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, the rule of Louis XVIII was deeply unpopular. Many veterans were unemployed, and many peasants feared losing land to returning nobles. Through his intelligence network Napoleon learned of this mood and decided to return and seize power. On February 26, 1815, he set out from Elba with 700 guardsmen and landed near Cannes in southern France on March 1. From there he marched north on foot to Paris.

The Hundred Days

Napoleon traveled from Cannes to Paris in 20 days. He met almost no resistance. Every unit sent to stop him ended up joining him. On March 20 he entered Paris, while Louis XVIII fled in panic to Belgium. This is the famous Hundred Days. From his landing on March 1 to his second abdication on June 22, exactly 103 days, the period is known as the Hundred Days regime.

Once back in Paris, Napoleon faced a new anti-French coalition. Britain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia immediately formed the Seventh Coalition and assembled nearly a million troops to invade France. Napoleon had to strike before the coalition completed its concentration and defeat its armies one by one. He chose to attack the Anglo-Dutch army and the Prussian army first because they were closest. On June 15, 1815, Napoleon led 120,000 French troops across the Belgian border, heading straight for the junction of the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian armies.

The Decisive Battle

On June 16 the French and Prussian armies clashed at Ligny. Napoleon directed his main force to defeat the Prussians but failed to destroy them. The Prussian Field Marshal Blucher led his remnants in retreat. Napoleon sent Marshal Ney with 30,000 troops to pursue them while taking his own main force against the Anglo-Dutch army. This division of forces would prove fatal. Ney failed to pursue effectively, giving the Prussians the chance to reorganize.

On June 18 Napoleon's 72,000 French troops met Wellington's 68,000 Anglo-Dutch troops south of Waterloo. The French attack began at 11:30. Wellington had chosen excellent ground; his troops took cover behind the ridge, and much French artillery fire fell harmlessly. Throughout the day French assaults were repulsed one after another. At four in the afternoon Napoleon discovered Prussian forces approaching from the east to reinforce Wellington. This was something he had not foreseen. If the Prussians joined the battle, the French would lose.

The Collapse of the Imperial Guard

At seven in the evening Napoleon made his final decision and ordered his elite Old Guard to lead the final assault. The Old Guard was Napoleon's most trusted unit, made up of veterans who had served him for years and had never been defeated in battle. The whole French army and indeed Europe regarded them as an invincible legend. But Wellington was ready.

As the Old Guard reached the crest of the ridge, Wellington ordered the British infantry hidden behind the ridge to fire a massed volley. The dense fire dropped hundreds of guardsmen on the spot. The Old Guard recoiled for the first time. The sight was a death blow to French morale. The entire French army collapsed once it saw the Old Guard retreat. Prussian troops arrived from the east and joined the battle, and the French could no longer resist. At nine the fighting ended in total French defeat. Napoleon rode away from the field.

Exile to Saint Helena

On June 22 Napoleon returned to Paris, and the next day was forced to abdicate by parliament. He tried to flee to America but the British navy blockaded every port. On July 15, Napoleon surrendered to a British warship at the port of Rochefort. The British government decided to exile him to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. The island lay 2,000 kilometers from the west coast of Africa and was extremely far from any landmass. Escape would be impossible.

Napoleon arrived at Saint Helena on October 15. His last six years on the island were tedious but quiet. He read and wrote letters daily, dwelling on his glorious past. He dictated his memoirs, analyzing every battle in detail. On May 5, 1821, Napoleon died at 52. The cause was stomach cancer, but many suspect slow poisoning by the British. In 1840 the French government brought his remains back from Saint Helena to Paris and buried them at Les Invalides. This posthumous honor turned his years of exile into the image of a tragic hero.

The Influence of Waterloo on History

Waterloo reshaped European history. After the fall of the French Empire, Europe entered the Vienna system led by Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. This system lasted nearly 100 years, until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. It was one of the longest periods of peace in European history. In this sense Waterloo brought Europe a century of stability, at the cost of Napoleon's defeat.

Although defeated, Napoleon's influence did not end there. The Napoleonic Code he enacted remains the foundation of civil law in France and many European countries today. The departmental administrative system he established is still the core of French local government. The modern bureaucratic systems he developed became standard for European state governance. From this angle Napoleon lost the war at Waterloo but shaped the institutional foundations of modern Europe. This institutional legacy is far more enduring than any military victory and is the true wealth he left to history.

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