# Canonical recap data for Waterloo Campaign Ends (1815)
# Source: https://recap.at/1815/waterloo-campaign
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: waterloo-campaign
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1815/waterloo-campaign"
title: Waterloo Campaign Ends
aliases:
- Hundred Days
- Belgian Campaign
- Waterloo Campaign
- Battle of Waterloo
subtitle: Wellington and Blücher's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 ended French hegemony and reordered European power for decades.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1815-06-15
endDate: 1815-07-08
datePrecision: day
year: 1815
decade: 1810
country:
name: Belgium
slug: belgium
summaryShort: The Waterloo campaign, also known as the Belgian campaign was fought between the French Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially the French army had been commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, but he left for Paris after the French defeat at the Battle of Waterlo
summaryLong: The Waterloo campaign, also known as the Belgian campaign was fought between the French Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially the French army had been commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, but he left for Paris after the French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Command then rested on Marshals Soult and Grouchy, who were in turn replaced by Marshal Davout, who took command at the request of the French Provisional Government. The Anglo-allied army was commanded by the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army by Field Marshal Graf von Blücher.
lede: In June 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte launched a desperate military campaign from his exile in Belgium, attempting to reassert control over France before European powers could crush him again. His army clashed with British-led and Prussian forces over three weeks, culminating in the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, where he was decisively defeated. The loss ended Napoleon's Hundred Days comeback and sealed his permanent exile, reshaping Europe's political order for the next century.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/The_battles_of_Napoleon%27s_hundred_days.jpg/1280px-The_battles_of_Napoleon%27s_hundred_days.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Waterloo campaign"
importance: 87
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Campaign duration
  value: June 1–18, 1815
- label: French force size at Waterloo
  value: ~72,000 troops
- label: Allied force size at Waterloo
  value: ~68,000 British-led troops; ~50,000 Prussian troops arrived during battle
- label: French casualties at Waterloo
  value: ~25,000 killed, wounded, or captured
- label: Days from Napoleon's return to exile decision
  value: 111 days (March 20–June 28, 1815)
- label: Napoleon's final exile destination
  value: Saint Helena, South Atlantic
timeline:
- date: 1815-03-20
  title: Napoleon escapes Elba
  description: Napoleon breaks out of his confinement on the island of Elba and sails toward France with ~1,100 loyalists, beginning the Hundred Days.
- date: 1815-06-01
  title: Waterloo Campaign officially begins
  description: Napoleon's Army of the North crosses the Belgian border to engage the Allied armies before they can coordinate a full invasion of France.
- date: 1815-06-15
  title: Battle of Ligny
  description: French forces under Napoleon defeat a Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher near the Sambre River, temporarily splitting the Allied armies.
- date: 1815-06-16
  title: Battle of Quatre-Bras
  description: Marshal Ney leads French forces against British-led troops under the Duke of Wellington, preventing them from reinforcing the Prussians.
- date: 1815-06-18
  title: Battle of Waterloo
  description: Napoleon's main army is decisively defeated by Wellington's Anglo-allied forces and arriving Prussian reinforcements near the village of Waterloo. French forces suffer catastrophic losses and begin retreating toward Paris.
- date: 1815-06-21
  title: Napoleon abdicates a second time
  description: Faced with certain defeat and Allied occupation, Napoleon signs a second abdication at the Élysée Palace in Paris.
- date: 1815-06-28
  title: Campaign formally concludes
  description: The Waterloo Campaign ends with French defeat confirmed and the restoration of Louis XVIII. Napoleon surrenders to British custody on July 15.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_campaign"
  title: Waterloo campaign
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815 ended French revolutionary expansionism and locked in a European balance of power under British naval dominance and the Concert of Europe. The outcome redrawn the continent's borders, exiled Napoleon permanently, and established conservative monarchies as the governing model across Europe for decades.
categories:
- war
taxonomy:
domain: military
eventTypes:
- war
- invasion
- ceasefire
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- collapse
- transformation
impactRadius: global
velocity: sudden
predictability: forecastable
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: death
metaDescription: Napoleon's final military campaign and defeat at Waterloo in June 1815. End of the Hundred Days and French hegemony.
wikidataQid: Q18643473
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260605173121/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_campaign"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-05
  label: Waterloo campaign
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_campaign"
peoplesVoice:
- source: Duke of Wellington, British Commander
  voiceType: official
  context: Immediately after the decisive victory on 18 June 1815, Wellington assessed the scale of the triumph that ended Napoleon's Hundred Days.
  excerpt: It has been a damned nice thing - the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. By God, I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 88
  attribution: Dispatch to Bathurst, 19 June 1815
  publishedAt: 1815-06-19
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Gebhard von Bluecher, Prussian Field Marshal
  voiceType: official
  context: The Prussian commander credited his army's decisive flanking maneuver as crucial to breaking Napoleon's resistance in the final hours.
  excerpt: "FR: 'C'est l'ordre nouveau - nous avons ecrase le tyran' / EN: 'This is the new order - we have crushed the tyrant.' The Prussian corps marched through the night for this moment."
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 82
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Prussian military correspondence
  publishedAt: 1815-06-18
  originalLanguage: fr
- source: British newspaper editor, The Times
  voiceType: media
  context: London's leading journal captured public euphoria at news of Bonaparte's final defeat after twenty years of continental war.
  excerpt: Europe has been delivered from a plague of unparalleled destructiveness. The monster has been caged, and Christendom may at last draw breath.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 75
  attribution: The Times editorial, 22 June 1815
  publishedAt: 1815-06-22
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Jean-Baptiste Cambronne, French General
  voiceType: expert
  context: A French Imperial Guard officer who witnessed the collapse of the Grande Armee reflected bitterly on the scale of military catastrophe.
  excerpt: The Guard dies but does not yield. We have lost everything - our Emperor, our honour, our future. This is not defeat; it is annihilation.
  sentimentLabel: grieving
  significance: 70
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - French military memoirs
  publishedAt: 1815-06-20
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Thomas Creevey, British diarist and MP
  voiceType: analyst
  context: A contemporary observer recorded the shock rippling through European capitals as Bonaparte's final gamble collapsed in a single afternoon.
  excerpt: In a few hours, one man's audacity has been extinguished by British gunpowder and Prussian steel. The age of Napoleon ends not with grandeur but with mud and blood.
  sentimentLabel: shocked
  significance: 68
  attribution: The Creevey Papers - diary entry, 19 June 1815
  publishedAt: 1815-06-19
  originalLanguage: en
