Human-cost band
about 40,000-50,000 dead and wounded in one day, usual band
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.
About 40-50 thousand casualties in a day -- concentrated, visible, and later painted.
Horses died in heaps that shocked even Napoleonic veterans.
Bands
Dated span (18 June 1815)
Battle of Waterloo is taught as 18 June 1815. 1815-03 and 1815-10 are the usual poles.
Theatre (Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Be.)
Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium is the geography of the ledger -- cities, seas, plants, or ministries as the file requires.
Rain and retreat
1815-06-17: Wellington to the Mont-Saint-Jean ridge; mud for the 18th.
Guard fails
1815-06-18-eve: The last throw; rout.
Regions
Ridge south of Brussels
Core theatre of Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815). Prussians hurt; Wellington holds a crossroads.
Return
Mar-Jun 1815: Elba to Belgium.
The ridge
18 June day: Hougoumont to the Guard.
Memory
After: Lion, films, re-enactors.
US / UK / AU / CA classrooms
Where Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) is taught -- or skipped -- in US/UK/AU/CA surveys, often beside 1939-45 rather than beside Battle of Waterloo's own calendar.
Korean comparative reader
Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) is world-history in a Korean classroom, often paired with Inchon or Tsushima when the subject is a hinge battle -- theatre here is Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium.
Key numbers
Span18 June 1815
Cost bandabout 40,000-50,000 dead and wounded in.
TheatreRidge south of Brussels, present-day Be.
Hero articleBattle of Waterloo
Makers
Napoleon
Napoleon (French emperor) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. Lost his last set-piece and his throne. The mud-and-Grouchy explanations began in his own circle.
Wellington
Wellington (Allied commander) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. Held the ridge and later the British political right. "Nearest-run thing" is his caption.
Blucher
Blucher (Prussian commander) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. Seventy-two, thrown at Ligny, arrived anyway -- the necessary ally.
Michel Ney
Michel Ney (French marshal) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. The cavalry charges and a later execution (1815) made him a romantic ruin.
Emmanuel de Grouchy
Emmanuel de Grouchy (French wing) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. The scapegoat of the missing Prussian chase -- a historiography of blame.
William of Orange
William of Orange (Netherlands) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. Wounded on the ridge; Dutch-Belgian troops' commander in the allied structure.
Belgian peasants' fields were a third ledger. Tourism later paid some of that landscape back in a cold way.
British pension lists and Prussian village memorials are the quiet cost.