Allied coalition held
Britain plus Prussia on one day.
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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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.
A four-day campaign in Belgium, not a single farm. Grouchy and Wavre are on the map.
The Guard's failure is an ending, not the whole afternoon.
Principles
Napoleonic wars close (English dating)
1815 as a full stop.
A proverb is born
"Waterloo" as defeat.
Imperial Guard
The last French infantry throw. Read as a 18 June 1815 concept in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium.
Plancenoit
Prussian fight on the French right-rear. Not a present instruction.
Steps
- Elba escape
1815-03: The Hundred Days open.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Ligny and Quatre Bras
1815-06-16: Prussians hurt; Wellington holds a crossroads.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Rain and retreat
1815-06-17: Wellington to the Mont-Saint-Jean ridge; mud for the 18th.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Late start
1815-06-18-am: French guns wait on wet ground -- the famous delay.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Hougoumont
1815-06-18: A day-long soak of infantry.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- D'Erlon / cavalry
1815-06-18: Failed centre; Ney's charges.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
Diagrams
From Elba escape (1815-03) through D'Erlon / cavalry (1815-06-18) to St Helena (1815-10) in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. One sequence, not a staff overlay.
Napoleon (French emperor) and Wellington (Allied commander) sit at the centre of most English accounts; Henry Paget, Lord Uxbridge and Gebhard's staff -- Gneisenau correct the usual photograph.
Limits
Source limits
Figures such as "about 40,000-50,000 dead and wounded in one day, usual band" stay in ranges because records are incomplete, political, or still closed. How many casualties? is answered as a band.
No how-to
Battle of Waterloo is described as history. This page does not teach weapons employment, coup method, or attack planning.
Memory bias
English-language fame of Battle of Waterloo and local memory in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium are not the same map. Gebhard's staff -- Gneisenau is often the correction the first photograph drops.
Mud, farms, and squares are historical description. They are not a reenactor how-to sold as scholarship.
Counterfactuals about an earlier start remain open and unprovable.