Waterloo: The Day Napoleon's Plan to Divide His Enemies Failed

History

The Battlefield and Napoleon's Plan

Picture a low ridge of farmland, south of a village called Waterloo, on a Sunday in June 1815 It is now in Belgium. On that day, roughly 70,000 French soldiers faced an army led by the Duke of Wellington. And the fighting would decide the future of Europe.

Napoleon had returned from exile only three months earlier, and the powers of Europe had hurried to raise armies against him. His plan was simple and clever, keep his enemies apart and beat them one at a time. Two days before, he had defeated the Prussians under Blucher at Ligny, and he believed that problem was solved. It was not.

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Battle of Waterloo

Planner: Harrison Day

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The Battle of Waterloo William Sadler, 1815

The Prussian Decision and the Battle

Instead of retreating east toward their own supply lines, the Prussians fell back northwards, staying close to Wellington, and in contact with him. That decision is the hinge of the whole story. Wellington chose to stand and fight at Mont Saint-Jean, precisely because he had learned that Blucher could reach him.

So Wellington absorbed attack after attack through the afternoon, and then gradually around 50,000 Prussians arrived and struck the French flank. In the evening, Napoleon sent forward his final reserve, the senior battalions of the Imperial Guard. They were pushed back. With the Prussians breaking through on his right, his army collapsed. Wellington later said, it was the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.

Aftermath and Legacy

Four days afterwards, Napoleon abdicated and coalition forces entered Paris in July. The first French empire was over. and so was a generation of European war.

What followed were decades of comparative peace, and the name of a small Belgian village became a word in our language. To meet your Waterloo is to meet the defeat that undoes you.