The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon's Decisive Defeat

it was one of the biggest and bloodiest battles to that point in history the titanic clash that brought a generation of terrible warfare decisively ended the career of napoleon bonaparte and marked the start of a century of relative peace it was the battle of waterloo [Music] for over 20 years europe had been at war the french people had killed their king fought off invaders who came to reverse their revolution and gone on the offence [Music] they attacked their neighbors to spread the fire of republicans in that maelstrom of instability and violence one man had emerged to dominate france a military genius who routed foreign enemies on the battlefield just as he brushed aside domestic rivals his name was napoleon bonaparte by 1812 he had declared himself emperor and ex-chunks of northern italy spain the netherlands and germany he'd set up puppet regimes across much of the rest of europe and he had humbled prussia russia and austria but his insatiable ambition was his undoing at either end of the continent an attempt to occupy spain and portugal provoked ferocious resistance and became a quagmire sucking in men and money while a gigantic attempt to invade russia in 1812 ended in catastrophe his mighty army was annihilated in the winter snows the emperor was fatally weakened two years later a huge coalition of european powers invaded france itself forced napoleon to abdicate and sent him to the small island of elba the coast of italy the war was over the great statesmen of europe gathered to make peace they met in vienna but dancing dalliances dining and diplomacy but they were premature in the spring of 1815 the exiled emperor of france napoleon bonaparte escaped his jailers and landed with a small band of followers in southern france with characteristic dash charisma and speed he marched hard to paris troop deserted to his cause and he entered the capital as the king fled the powers of europe trembled that napoleon was back on the throne they amassed an overwhelming coalition to strike at france from every angle hundreds of thousands of russians spaniards portuguese austrian german dutch and british troops napoleon decided to make a lightning assault smash one element of this coalition and deter the rest to sow division among his enemies the most obvious target was an allied force in what is now belgium until recently part of france napoleon gambled this might be friendly territory with its troops unwilling to fight their former emperor he thought the british troops were second rate and their commander the duke of wellington might have humiliated napoleon's marshals in the peninsula war but would be no match for the emperor himself in june 1815 napoleon marched north he crossed the border on the 15th of june brilliantly driving a wedge between wellington's british and allied army based around brussels and a prussian army at namur as the allies scrambled to respond napoleon lunged at the prussians first driving them back at the battle of li-ni napoleon had his first victory of the campaign it would be his last british troops halted his attachment of napoleon's army at capra brack but as the prussians retreated wellington gave the order to pull back lashed by torrential rain wellington's men trudged north he ordered them to take up position on a defensive ridge he had identified just south of brussels napoleon's french army was over there is marching up from the french border wellington the allied commander had decided that he needed to stop the french army on this ridge monster jean ridge it was the last place he could stop them before brussels which is just that way and there's a little village just behind this ridge called waterloo and that gave its name to this battle [Music] it was a hard night the men slept in canvas tents that let the water in thousands of feet and hooves churned the ground into a sea of mud we were up to our knees in mud and stinking water we had no choice we had to settle down in the mud and filth as best we could men and horses shaking with cold but on the morning of the 18th the storms have passed napoleon plans an all-out assault on the british and allied army route it before the prussians could come to its aid and capture brussels the only thing in his way was wellington's polyglot untested allied army he had around about 67 000 men less than half of those men were british wellington was commanding an allied army the majority of his troops were dutch belgians and various german kingdoms and principalities he was scathing about his army so it was an infamous army and it was ill-equipped it had been cobbled together at the last minute and it now faced an army with a lot of french veterans marching north under napoleon one of the great commanders of all time wellington strengthened his position by turning three great farm complexes into fortresses on the right over there jugger mall that was anchor of his right wing then we come over to the center here the french troops are marching up this road over here you can see they're they're deploying over there then we got lahissand that was the anchor of wellington's central position there and then further over there in the distance you can see amongst the haze over there that's papalot that he also fortified napoleon outnumbered went and his troops were seasoned veterans he planned a massive artillery barrage followed by mass infantry and cavalry attacks his guns were slow to get into position because of the mud but he brushed off concerns telling his staff that wellington was a poor general and it'd be nothing more than eating breakfast his first assault would be against wellington's western flank to distract his attention before launching a french attack right at his center the target of this diversionary attack would be the farm buildings of hugemon at around 11 30 napoleon's guns opened up an eyewitness described them as being like a volcanic 80 cannons sending iron balls earthling into allied lines then the french infantry assault began they marched across these fields and they took a terrible pounding the french they were obliterated by artillery fire there were sharp shooters in these walls they made uh little holes in these walls so they could shoot through them and the farmhouse itself is a bit like a fortress so the french troops took a terrible pounding and it began as a diversity attack but really as the day went on it became an obsession with the french on this side of the battlefield and they kept feeding men into what was coming this absolutely appalling battle suffering terrible casualties using lots of ammunition when actually napoleon had only meant it to be a diversion in the first place [Applause] just after one o'clock napoleon sent his infantry forward at the other side of the battlefield massive columns of men trampled the crops as they trudged up the slope toward wellington's army eagles held a loft bands playing men singing men shouting view vlog for her long live the emperor and they'd have marched down into the valley below and start trudging up this hill exhausting work the crops were six foot high it was heavily muddy their boots had been covered in mud that had been staggering up this hill by the time they got to where i am the fighting was at bayonet point there was they were fighting eyeballs to eyeball musketry the muskets back then only five about 50 meters so it'd be right up close to your enemy and in certain places actual hand-to-hand fighting the allied line was pushed back wellington had to act fast and he deployed his cavalry in one of the most famous charges of british history the cavalry crashed into the french infantry 2 000 horsemen some of the most illustrious units of the british are elite lifeguards as well as dragoons from england ireland stop the french scattered a mass of fleeing men surged back towards their own lines the british cavalry in high excitement followed them and ended up among the french another counterattack this time by napoleon who sent his legendary lancers and armored clad curacios to drive off the exhausted allied family horses this hectic seesawing ended with both sides back where they begun the french infantry and wellington's cavalry both suffered terrible losses corpses of men and horses now littered the battlefield at 4pm napoleon's deputy marshall nay known as the bravest of the brave thought he saw an allied withdrawal and launched the mighty french cup to try and swamp the allied center which he hoped might be wavering nine thousand men and horses rushed allied lines wellington's infantry immediately formed squares a hollow square with every man pointing his weapon outwards allowing for all-round defense wave after wave of cavalry not a man present who survived could have forgotten in afterlife the awful grandeur of that charge he discovered at a distance what appeared to be an overwhelming long-moving line which ever advancing glittered like a stormy wave of the sea when it catches the sunlight on they came until they got near enough whilst the very earth seemed to vibrate beneath the thundering [ __ ] of the mounted host one might suppose that nothing could have resisted the shock of this terrible moving mass so you can imagine right here these the cavalry swirling between these squares like wild water in a river going past rocks uh and attacking them from all sides but not managing to break into these squares at all because they're bayonets that the men had bayonets out uh sharpened steel bayonets their muskets and horses will charge but they won't they're not suicidal they won't charge in against a wall of steel spiky bayonets so the cavalry swirled about and this went on for some time the french cavalry took terrible terrible casualties the squares became hospitals in the middle of the squares the dead and wounded would pile up and eventually the french cavalry were totally exhausted turned around and retreated back towards french line it was a terrible battery a terrible battery but the british allied line just held by late afternoon napoleon's plan had stalled he now faced a terrible threat against the odds wellington's army had held firm and now from the east the prussians were arriving defeated two days before atleany the prussians still had fighting and now they were threatening to trap napoleon the emperor redeployed men to slow them down and redoubled his effort to smash through wellington's lines the farm of la hey salt was captured by the french they pushed artillery and sharpshooters into it and blasted the allied center at close range under terrible pressure wellington muttered knight or the prussians must come the prussians were coming more and more troops fell upon napoleon's right flank the emperor was under assault almost in three sides in desperation he played his final card he ordered his last reserve his finest truth the imperial guard veterans of dozens of his battles marched up the slope dutch artillery pounded the guardsman the dutch bayonet charge put one battalion to flight others then continued to trudge towards the crest of the ridge when they arrived they found it strangely quiet 1500 british foot guards were lying down waiting for the command to jump up and fire and wellington shouted now maitland now is your time maitland was in charge of uh the guards that were down here they stood up and they started firing characteristic british volleys into the mass of the french infantry that were attacking the british used to fight in the thin red line long thin lines so that every single british soldier could use their musket so it didn't look as impressive it looked thin and wispy but every british soldier could use their musket bring their gun to bear the french advance to the far bigger pack which looks and sounded very impressive was great for morale but meant that people in the rear ranks couldn't use their muskets and so the british firepower poured into the french and then something extraordinary happened for the first time in decades of war napoleon's elite force the imperial guard turned and fled when the french army saw the guard recoil a shout went up and the entire army disintegrated napoleon's mighty force was instantly transformed into a panicking rabble of fleeing land it was over as the sun set on the 18th of june 1815 bodies of men and horses littered the battlefield something like 50 000 men had been killed or wounded one eyewitness visited a few days later the sight was too horrible to behold i felt sick in the stomach and was obliged to return the multitude of carcasses the heaps of wounded men with mangled limbs unable to move and perishing from not having had their wounds dressed or from hunger as the anglo allies were of course obliged to take their surgeons and wagons with them it formed a spectacle i shall never forget the wounded both of the anglo allies and the french remain in an equally deplorable state [Music] it was a bloody victory but a decisive one napoleon had no choice but to abdicate from the imperial throne of france a week later trapped by the royal navy he surrendered to the captain of hms bellerophon and was taken into captivity it was the end of a great war bloodier and more costly in relative terms even in the first world war it was also the end of the career of napoleon one of history's most talented statesmen and commanders but it was also a beginning the start of a period of relative peace an era also of extraordinary imperial expansion outside europe and remarkable economic and technological advances within it [Music] welcome to the history hit youtube channel hope you enjoyed that video and if you'd like to see more videos where we attempt to try and bring history to life uh please don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell cheers guys [Music]

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Keywords: battle of waterloo, napoleonic wars, military history, duke of wellington, napoleon bonaparte, waterloo 1815, prussian army, battle of waterloo documentary, battle of waterloo scene, battle of waterloo reenactment, what happened at the battle, arthur wellesley, waterloo anniversary 2022, dan snow waterloo, dan snow documentary, dan snow history hit, dan snow history, dan snow battlefield, dan snow history documentaries, history hit tv, history hits youtube

Id: RsLpS4atvLc

Length: 17min 19sec (1039 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 15 2022