The Battle of Waterloo
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The Battle of Waterloo was fought thirteen kilometers south of Brussels between the French, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington from Britain and General BlДјcher from Prussia. Napoleon Bonaparte had always been driven by his desire to make France an European empire and was an experienced warlord and leader. The European powers were meeting in Vienna to re-establish the territorial balance in Europe when news came of Napoleons escape from Elba on March 1, 1815, and his re-entry into Paris on March 20, 1815. In 1814 Napoleon had been exiled to the Island of Elba. The European powers immediately renewed their declaration of war on Napoleon and the 7th Coalition between Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia was formed on March 25, 1815. They began assembling their troops in readiness for war, intending to attack along the French borders and march on Paris from different directions with enough strength to crush the French. In the event, only the armies of Wellington and BlДјcher were in place in Belgium. The Austrians and Russians arrived after Napoleon had been defeated. The Allied army under the Duke of Wellington was a coalition of British, Dutch, Belgian and German soldiers. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, had never been beaten by the French and had a reputation as a talented coalition general. He came to prominence in India and then successfully directed the Peninsular Campaign of 1811 when the British went to support Portugal and Spain against Napoleon. He was made a duke at the end of that war and appointed ambassador to the restored Bourbon court in 1814. Gebhard Leberecht von BlДјcher was the commander of the Prussian army. He was 72 at the time of the Battle of Waterloo and the only man to have beaten Napoleon more than once. Age and experience meant that BlДјcher was less afraid of Napoleon than any other commander. His self-confidence and career record had a positive effect on his army. Napoleons strategy and goal was to capture Brussels. His battle plan was to mount an offensive attack on the Allied troops gathering in Belgium and to destroy them. The armies already clashed before the actual battle took place. BlДјcher and the Prussian army fought Napoleon at Ligny, a village north east of Charleroi on the June 16, 1815. However, BlДјcher and his troops were forced to retreat. A part of the army of the Duke of Wellington tried to drive the French army back at Quatre-Bras, the crossroads of the Brussels-Charleroi and Namur-Nivelles roads. BlДјcher managed to send a message to Wellington that he would be able to join him on the battlefield at Waterloo, but probably only later in the day. Napoleon thought that the Prussian army had been defeated and that he
would only have to face the Wellington troops. On the night before the battle, it had rained heavily and both the French and Allied armies had spent the night in the mud and the pouring rain. The troops of Wellington occupied the northern part of the plains of Mont-Saint-Jean and were situated behind a sunken lane, which later proved to be a strategic advantage for the Duke, because the French infantry and cavalry kept falling inside this sunken land and thereby hindering each other to move further north. The battlefield was situated around three large farmhouses. On the far left was the Hougomont