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—— ON THIS DAY ——
JUNE 18, 1815
Waterloo, present-day Belgium
210 years ago
Wellington at Waterloo, by Robert Alexander Hillingford — the Duke of Wellington who chose the defensive position at Waterloo and held it until Prussian reinforcements under Blücher arrived, completing the destruction of Napoleon's last army.
On June 18, 1815, near the Belgian village of Waterloo, approximately 72,000 French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte fought 68,000 Allied troops under the Duke of Wellington plus 50,000 Prussians under Field Marshal Blücher. The battle lasted from mid-morning to evening. By nightfall, Napoleon's army had been destroyed, his rule had ended, and the map of Europe had been redrawn for the next century.
Napoleon had returned from exile on Elba in March 1815 — the Hundred Days — and had rapidly reassembled his forces. He was facing a coordinated Allied response but moved faster than expected, hoping to defeat the British and Prussian armies in Belgium before the Austrians and Russians could mobilize in the east. He nearly succeeded. At the Battle of Ligny on June 16, he defeated the Prussians and forced them to retreat. Had they retreated east toward their lines of communication, they might have been out of the battle at Waterloo. They retreated north, toward Wellington, and arrived at Waterloo in the late afternoon, exhausted but present.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
A charge of French cuirassiers during the Battle of Waterloo — the massed cavalry attacks that Wellington's infantry squares repulsed throughout the day, exhausting the French force before Prussian arrival made defeat inevitable.
Wellington's strategy was defensive from the start. He chose the ridge at Mont-Saint-Jean deliberately, knowing the slope would protect his infantry from French artillery and that the Prussians were marching to join him. His famous assessment of the outcome — 'the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life' — was accurate. Napoleon's delayed start (he waited until the ground dried to allow his artillery to move, losing several hours), Ney's premature cavalry charges, and the failure of the Imperial Guard's final assault all contributed to the French defeat.
The final assault of the Imperial Guard — Napoleon's elite veterans who had never been defeated — came in the early evening. Wellington's infantry had been concealed behind the ridge; when the Guard crested it, they received volleys at close range. The Guard broke. The news that 'la Garde recule' — the Guard is retreating — destroyed French morale instantly. The subsequent rout was one of the most complete in military history. Napoleon fled toward Paris in a carriage, pursued by Prussian cavalry. He abdicated four days later and was exiled to Saint Helena, from which he never returned.
The Battle of Waterloo was covered by Nathan Mayer Rothschild's private courier network before official dispatches reached London — a story that generated the persistent myth that Rothschild made a fortune by knowing the result before other investors did. Historians have disputed the specifics of the story, but it reflects a real phenomenon: the battle created the first modern example of how information about major events reaches financial markets before it reaches governments. The 1815 bond market's response to Waterloo news is a founding episode in the history of financial information.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
Waterloo determined the European political settlement for a century. The Congress of Vienna, which had been interrupted by Napoleon's return, reconvened and finalized a European order that lasted — with modifications — until 1914. The century between Waterloo and the First World War is sometimes called the 'long peace' in the context of major European wars. Waterloo made it possible.
Wellington's victory made him the dominant political figure in Britain for the next thirty years. The Iron Duke became Prime Minister and an unavoidable presence in British politics. His defeat of Napoleon made him the most admired military commander in the Western world and gave him political authority that he exercised, controversially, in opposing parliamentary reform in 1832.
The phrase 'meeting one's Waterloo' — encountering a decisive and permanent defeat — entered virtually every European language as a consequence of the battle. The battle's significance was recognized immediately; the name entered the cultural vocabulary within years. It is one of the small number of historical events that permanently altered the metaphors available to speakers of major languages.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
On June 18, 1815, Napoleon attacked a defensive position held by Wellington and waited too long to do it. The Prussians arrived. The Imperial Guard broke. Napoleon fled in a carriage. He was exiled and never returned. Wellington called it the nearest run thing he had ever seen. It ended an era.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
"The nearest run thing you ever saw in your life."
— Duke of Wellington, describing the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about the Battle of Waterloo, Wellington's defensive strategy, Napoleon's tactical errors, the role of the Prussians, and the European political settlement that Waterloo made possible?
