Battle of Waterloo | |||||||
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Part of the Hundred Days | |||||||
Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
French Empire |
Seventh Coalition: United Kingdom Prussia United Provinces Hanover Nassau Brunswick | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Napoleon Bonaparte |
Duke of Wellington Gebhard von Blücher | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
72,000 [1] |
Anglo-allies: 68,000 [1] Prussians: 50,000 [2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
25,000 killed and wounded 7,000 captured 15,000 missing[3] |
15,000 British and allies killed and wounded 7,000 Prussians killed and wounded [3] Wellington's army: 3,500 dead; 10,200 wounded; 3,300 missing. Blücher's army: 1,200 dead; 4,400 wounded; 1,400 missing. |
The Battle of Waterloo was a battle that was fought between the French on one side and the British and the Prussians on the other.
Napoleon Bonaparte was Emperor of France and had started and lost the Napoleonic Wars. He had built an empire that stretched from Spain to the Russian border. Defeated at the Battle of Leipzig and elsewhere, he accepted exile on the island of Elba in 1814.
In February 1815, he returned to France and again took control of the French Army. He attacked his enemies in what is now Belgium and was defeated at Waterloo. It was the last battle of the Napoleonic Wars.