What was the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo?

The outcome of the Battle of Waterloo was a Coalition victory. On 18 June 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Army of the North was defeated by the Seventh Coalition’s Anglo-allied army under the Duke of Wellington and Prussian forces led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

Napoleon hoped to defeat Wellington and Blücher separately before the wider Coalition armies could mobilise. Wellington held his defensive position on the ridge near Mont-Saint-Jean through repeated French attacks. The arrival of large numbers of Prussian troops on Napoleon’s eastern flank gradually turned the battle against France.

The French army eventually broke after the Imperial Guard’s final assault was repulsed. Waterloo ended Napoleon’s Hundred Days return from exile, led to his second abdication on 22 June, and effectively ended the First French Empire. A common mix-up is confusing Waterloo with Ligny, where Napoleon had defeated the Prussians two days earlier. The Battle of Wavre, fought simultaneously, was a limited French tactical victory but did not change the Coalition’s overall success.