Why was the battle of Waterloo an important battle?

Answer 1

Its significance is hotly debated. The British will tell you that it put an end to Napoleon's domination of Europe, but others believe that it might well have only led to another, similar battle at a later date. In essence, Napoleon had left his exile on Elba and attempted to reconstitute his empire. It has been argued that he wanted only France, and was hoping to obtain a position in which he could sue for peace, but this is probably beside the point. in seven wars, seven coalitions had opposed him, and his defeat at Waterloo--after a march towards Brussels, Belgium, in which he successfully divided the Prussian and Allied (British, Dutch, and Hanoverian) armies--signified the end of his Empire and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. It was the end of a period which saw the introduction of functioning modern democracies and meritocracies, but it resulted, nonetheless, in an age of revolution and anticolonialism. Shortly thereafter, espousing principles borrowed from the French and American Revolutions and Napoleon Bonaparte, Colonies around the world were liberated from their imperial masters and made independent. Revolutions sprang up in South and Central America (as under Simon Bolivar), and elsewhere, but were in other places unsuccessful, as in the cases of Upper and Lower Canada in 1837.

Answer 2

The countries of Europe, excepting France, had spent the previous 10 years fighting against Napoleon Bonaparte as he tried to impress his influence on them militarily.

Having finally defeated his armies and exiled him to the island of Elba off the Italian coast, they were later dismayed to find he had escaped and returned to France as emperor.

Napoleons' ethos was to always defeat his enemys' armies rather than just occupying their lands so, on his return, he assembled his forces and moved against the nearest enemies, the Prussian Army, led by Blucher, and the Allied Army, led by the Duke of Wellington situated in, what is now, Belgium.

Attacking the Prussians first, before Wellington could concentrate his army, he defeated them at Ligny but allowed them to retreat pursued by some of his forces. This left him free to attack Wellington who had arranged his forces south of the village of Waterloo.

After a series of engagements during which the Allied Army lost many men, the Prussian Army appeared on the French right flank forcing Napoleon to take on both enemies at once. This was too much for the French Army and they were pursued back to Paris. Napoleon fled to the coast and taken onto a British ship into captivity and, eventually to exile on St. Helena in the South Atlantic.

Answer 3

It was the final battle for both Napoleon & Wellington. It restored the monarchy to France again, if only for it to bcome a Republic again in due course. It ended napoleons domination of Europe.

Answer 4

It was the final defeat of Napoloen and ended the years of warfare in Europe.

Napoloen had been defeated in 1814 by the Russians and he was exiled. But he escaped and reformed a new army. However, I don't think he had a large enough army with support that could have continued to fight all the nations so his failure was inevitable. hfdhfrishndeohjydtzk[utied

IMPROVEMENT

In 1814 Napoleon had been defeated by a coalition constituted by Prussia, Austria,

Great Britain, Russia, Sweden

His new army had had the chance to win and would have won the Battle of Waterloo, had it not been for the mistakes made by his generals, especially that made by Grouchy, who let Bluecher's Prussian Army to join Wellington, allowing the Allied to win the battle.

Of course this doesn't relieve Napoleon from his responsibility as commander in chief.

The general strategic situation was not so difficult for the French, because neither Russia nor Austria were still ready to effectively intervene in the conflict. Thus we can conclude that, had Napoleon won at Waterloo, he would have had the chance to fight separately and defeat the other allied armies obtaining at least a peace of compromise. But history can't be made with "ifs and but".

Answer 5

It was on 18 June 1815. It was the decisive battle between the French and the British-Prussian forces. (Waterloo used to be a Belgian village.) The battle was fought during the "Hundred Days", that means the period when he returned from exile from Elba and for a hundred days he retook the power and recruited about 72,000 soldiers. Wellington's allied army counted 68,000. He was helped by the Belgians, the Dutch, the Germans and finally an army of 42,000 of Prussians. The French were routed and finally they surrendered, mostly due to the appearance of the Prussian main army led by Blücher. Wellington said, 'it was the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life'. After the Battle, Napoleon signed his second (and final) abdication and was exiled tothe island of St Helena.

There are several important facts about the Battle of Waterloo, worth mentioning, that have to do with mistakes committed by Napoleon:

1 -He left Field-Marshall Davout in Paris as Minister of War, thus depriving the army of his precious contribute as skillful and reliable field-commander, placing instead Ney. Furthermore, Ney, who was suffering of a sort of nervous breakdown since 1812, after the end of the Russian Campaign, joined the army only four days before the Battle of Waterloo and had but no time for setting down with his new subordinates.

• He chose Soult as his Chief of Staff instead of Suchet, who was undoubtedly the very apt man for such a demanding job, which he had successfully covered since 1798 during all conflicts fought throughout Europe, serving in all French armies.
• He chose Grouchy as commander of the 40,000 men who were committed to pursue the defeated Prussian Army after Ligny, but he neglected to order the Marshall to keep him informed about the developments of that operation. So, Grouchy's idle behavior allowed the Prussian Army to reach Wellington's left wing just in time to reverse the course of the battle, that in spite of Ney's tactical mistakes, was turning in favour of Napoleon.
• During the Battle Napoleon was prey of a sort of apathy, which prevented him of taking effective measures to sort out the tactical hotchpotchs Ney committed in the conduct of the battle on the left French wing.

Answer 6

Because Napoleon was trying to take over Europe so they had to stop him.

Answer 7

Napoleon I's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo was significant because it led to his second defeat by the enemies of France, his abdication, and eventually his exile.

Answer 8

The Battle of Waterloo was important because the battle itself, and the following pursuit of Napoleon's broken army, meant that he could no longer wage war on the rest of Europe.