Battle of Waterloo - the last battle of the army of Napoleon

The Battle of Waterloo took place on 18 June 1815 betweenunited by an army of European states (England, the Netherlands, Prussia) and the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte. The tiny Waterloo, an ordinary Belgian town near Brussels, not only went down in history, but also became a sign of an insulting loss, an annoying defeat; and this is true - after all, at Waterloo, Napoleon suffered a single, unqualified defeat in his military career.

The Battle of Waterloo was the culmination, the completion 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 could not even remain "just" a French emperor.

After the extremely unsuccessful military companies of 1812-1814Napoleon was forced to accept all the conditions of the victorious countries (Prussia, Sweden, Britain, the Russian Empire), abdicate and set out on an honorable reference to the Mediterranean island of Elba. But even there, far from the turbulent European events, Bonaparte did not give up hope to return to France, "recoup", again become an active politician. On March 1, 1815, the emperor landed on the coast of France, from this day 100 days of Napoleon are counted. In just a few days, Bonaparte traveled from Cannes to Paris, meeting with enthusiastic reception and demonstrating devotion (especially loyal to the emperor were soldiers of the old Napoleonic guard). Louis Bourbon, who ruled France after the abdication of Emperor Napoleon, fled abroad with his court.

All this adventurous venture alarmedEuropean monarchs. It was decided to end the twenty-year era of continuous Napoleonic wars and finally deliver 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 expose against the French troops a joint army, the total number of which reached one million people. The gradual concentration of Allied forces went in late spring or early summer of 1815 in Belgium, along the eastern borders of France. Part of the Allied forces had to come from Northern Italy.

This truly cyclopean army Napoleon was ableto oppose relatively small forces (up to 300,000 people). His army lacked not only ordinary soldiers, but also officers; The Battle of Waterloo ended in an unfortunate defeat, including because of the confusion in the management of the army, unjustified personnel appointments.

The Battle of Waterloo began early in the morning 18June 1815 from the attack of the French army on the castle of Ugumon. The main goal - to disorganize the English units under the command of Wellington - the French could not be achieved. On the contrary, all distracting maneuvers inflicted perceptible damage on the Imperial army itself.

Numerical superiority of Allied forces, badorganization and management of the Napoleonic army, wrong tactics chosen - all this led to a crushing defeat of the French army. The Battle of Waterloo became one of the most bloody battles of world history: the total number of victims reached 16,000 people killed and about 70,000 wounded.

After the defeat, Napoleon was forced to surrendertheir worst enemies - the British. He was forced to secondarily renounce the throne and again sent into exile, this time to the distant island of Saint Helena. The Battle of Waterloo was the last battle that ended the era of Napoleonic wars.

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