Hundred Days
Napoleon's 1815 return. A named operational object of Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815).
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale22
Intensity65
Duration6
Tech shift25
Political impact82
Cultural memory80
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Are the scores a ranking of nations or armies?
No. Scores are browsing aids inside an era-bounded atlas — not live league tables of countries.
How many casualties?
About 40,000-50,000 killed and wounded is the usual combined band for the day.
Did Wellington win alone?
No. Blucher's Prussians were decisive in the afternoon. Wellington said as much.
Why did Napoleon lose?
Coalition numbers, a delayed start, failed combined-arms in the centre, and Prussian arrival -- not a single farmhouse.
What happened next?
Second abdication, Allied occupation, St Helena, and Vienna's settlement confirmed.
Why is it so famous in English?
It was the last battle, near a newspaper city, with a British-led army. Leipzig was larger and less English.
Anglo-Allied (British, Dutch-Belgian, German contingents) plus Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine versus the Armee du Nord.
Artillery and heavy cavalry -- Napoleonic tools on a wet field.
Systems
Hougoumont
The chateau fight on Wellington's right.
Napoleon's command
Lost his last set-piece and his throne. The mud-and-Grouchy explanations began in his own circle.
Wellington's command
Held the ridge and later the British political right. "Nearest-run thing" is his caption.
Late start
1815-06-18-am: French guns wait on wet ground -- the famous delay.
Allied coalition held
Britain plus Prussia on one day.
Meters
Geographic / demographic scale
22
Peak intensity
65
How long it defined a period
6
Tech or method shift
25
Borders, regimes, law, alliances
82
Film, school, ritual density
80
Hotspots
Return
Mar-Jun 1815: Elba to Belgium. Named as historical geography of Battle of Waterloo, not as a targeting list.
Two battles
16 June: Ligny and Quatre Bras. Named as historical geography of Battle of Waterloo, not as a targeting list.
The ridge
18 June day: Hougoumont to the Guard. Named as historical geography of Battle of Waterloo, not as a targeting list.
Rout
18 June evening: La Belle Alliance; pursuit. Named as historical geography of Battle of Waterloo, not as a targeting list.
Memory
After: Lion, films, re-enactors. Named as historical geography of Battle of Waterloo, not as a targeting list.
Materials
Chronology (18 June 1815)
Battle of Waterloo is bounded as 18 June 1815. 1815-03 opens the usual narrative (Elba escape); 1815-10 closes it (St Helena).
Theatre: Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium
Place is evidence. Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium is where Battle of Waterloo happened -- a map for readers, not a guide for repeating it.
Human-cost band
about 40,000-50,000 dead and wounded in one day, usual band Keep the figure as a range. Spectacle integers are not a census.
La Haye Sainte
The farm in the centre that fell late. A material of the Battle of Waterloo vocabulary, dated to 18 June 1815.
1815 formations, not a modern ORBAT or a square-drill manual.
Allied diversity is part of the force picture.