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 Aniversario de la Batalla de Waterloo infographic
Graphic shows timeline of the battle, and profiles of the key military commanders.
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HISTORIA

Aniversario de la Batalla de Waterloo

By Mike Tyler

June 18, 2015 - The Battle of Waterloo – one of the most decisive battles in history – took place in Belgium 200 years ago, resulting in the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte and the end of more than two decades of wars in Europe that had begun with the French Revolution.

The battle was fought during the “Hundred Days” of Napoleon’s restoration – following his escape from exile on the island of Elba – between a French army of 73,000 men and a combined 118,000-strong force consisting of the Duke of Wellington’s Anglo-allied army (with British, Dutch, Belgian and German units) and Gebhard von Blücher’s Prussians.

On the morning of June 18, 1815, Napoleon waited for the ground to dry before launching his attack on Wellington – a major blunder that gave Blücher’s troops more time to reach the battlefield. Napoleon also underestimated his opponents and failed to issue clear orders to his marshals, Michel Ney and Emmanuel de Grouchy, whose errors contributed to the French defeat.

Throughout the day, the main French attacks lacked coordination, and by 6pm – when Wellington’s centre was dangerously weak – Napoleon was too preoccupied with the Prussian threat to exploit the breakthrough. A last attack by the Imperial Guard was routed at 8pm, sending the French army into a panic and mass retreat.

The cost of the battle was immense – an estimated 25,000 French soldiers killed or wounded, with a further 15,000 missing and 8,000 captured. The Allies lost 24,000 killed, wounded and missing. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later.

The Allied victory at Waterloo and political changes brought about by the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15 ushered in a period of relative peace in Europe that was to last for almost 100 years, until the outbreak of World War I. Britain was transformed into the world’s leading industrial and maritime power during the nineteenth century, and the map of central Europe was redrawn, setting the stage for German unification.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 02/03/2015; STORY: Julie Mullins; PICTURES: Wikimedia Commons, Google Maps
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