This was the decisive battle of the Waterloo Campaign. This would be Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. Waterloo marked the end of the period known as the Hundred Days. This period began in March 1815 after Napoleon's return from Elba. After Napoleon returned to power in 1815, many states which had previously resisted his rule formed the Seventh Coalition and began to build up armies to oppose him. Napoleon had been exiled after his defeats at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, and the campaigns of 1814 in France. The defeat put a final end to Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French. Napoleon abdicated, surrendered to the British, and was exiled to Saint Helena. Napoleon died in Saint Helena in 1821.
2. The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 in Belgium near Waterloo. When Napoleon returned to power in 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition, and began to build up armies. One army was Anglo-Allied under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and the other a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher. Napoleon chose to attack in the hope of destroying them before they could join in a coordinated invasion of France with other members of the Coalition. Napoleon delayed giving battle until noon on 18 June to allow the ground to dry. Wellington's army, positioned across the Brussels road on the Mont St Jean escarpment, withstood repeated attacks by the French, until, in the evening, the Prussians arrived in force and broke through Napoleon's right flank. At that moment, Wellington's Anglo-allied army counter-attacked and drove the French army in disorder from the field.
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Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica in 1769. Napoleon was sent to France in 1777 to study at the Royal Military School in Brienne. In 1784, Napoleon spent a year studying at the Ecole Militaire in Paris. He graduated as a Second Lieutenant of artillery. During the French Revolution, Napoleon fought well for the Republic. He helped to defeat the British at Toulon. Then he was made a Brigadier General. Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais and gained command of the French army in Italy. After defeating the Austrians in 1797, The Directory agreed to let Napoleon take an army on an Egyptian campaign to capture Egypt and hamper British shipping to India. Napoleon's campaign in Egypt did not go as planned so he abandoned his army and rapidly returned to Paris. France was then involved in several wars. In 1802, Napoleon signed the Peace of Amiens, a temporary peace with the British. He sold France's Louisiana territory to the U.S. in 1803. In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor. In 1805, Napoleon was planning an invasion of England when the Russian and Austrian armies began marching toward France. Napoleon's forces defeated them at Austerlitz, but not before the British fleet had destroyed Napoleon's navy at Trafalgar. In 1810, Josephine had not yet provided Napoleon with any heirs. So he had his marriage to her annulled. Then he married the 18-year-old Austrian archduchess Marie Louise. She gave birth to a son in 1811. In 1812, Napoleon's Grand Army entered Russia in order to punish Czar Alexander. The deadly Russian winter decimated his army. Napoleon rushed back to Paris and raised a new army. Then he was defeated by a coalition of European forces at Leipzig in 1814. Napoleon was then exiled to the isle of Elba. There he
