In which year was the Battle of Waterloo fought?

The Battle of Waterloo was fought in 1815. The decisive clash took place on 18 June 1815 near Waterloo, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and now in Belgium.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Imperial Army faced a Seventh Coalition force led by the Duke of Wellington, supported by Prussian troops under Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. Napoleon hoped to defeat the allied armies separately before they could combine, but the Prussians reached the battlefield during the fighting and helped break the French position.

Waterloo ended Napoleon’s Hundred Days, his brief return to power after escaping exile on Elba. He abdicated four days later and was eventually sent to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821. The battle also ended the Napoleonic Wars and became a lasting symbol of a decisive, career-ending defeat.

A common mix-up is the date: the wider Waterloo campaign began on 15 June 1815, but the Battle of Waterloo itself occurred on 18 June.