The purpose of this paper is to analysis the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon's defeat and describe how an alternate outcome for Napoleon could have brought him victory. Many leaders and high ranking officials tried to rule and conquer lands throughout Europe history has shown us. Napoleon Bonaparte, became one of the greatest rulers when he took control of France in November 1799. (Napoleon Bonaparte took power in France on November 9th/10th 1799) Meanwhile the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia began to put their armies into the field to end his rule. The Duke of Wellington commanded one Allied army in Belgium consisting of 67000 soldiers from Britain, Brunswick, Nassau, Hanover, and the Netherlands. Marshal Blucher was in charge The battle ended his rule as emperor of France and marked the beginning of years of peace across Europe (The Battle of Waterloo, n.d). Many mistakes made by Napoleon caused him to lose the final battle at Waterloo, mistakes that if made on today’s battlefield would surely bring defeat. Franklin D. Roosevelt stated “It is said that Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo because he forgot his infantry, he staked too much upon the more spectacular but less substantial cavalry” (Franklin, D., Distressed as Wellington was he sent more troops to La Haye Sainte, pushing back Napoleon's troops. The cavalry commander of Wellington's army sent two brigades of cavalry troops over the ridge. As Napoleon's men charge forward through the front line, this was Wellington's chance as his cavalry charged and attacked Napoleon's infantry, slicing through the troops on the battle field. Wellington had severely diminished Napoleon’s troops also sustaining heavy losses to his left flank desperately needing reinforcements. Eventually Napoleon's cavalry was able to reached Blucher's troops 5 miles east of the battlefield. As the Prussians approached and took the high ground north-east of Blucher's location. The Prussians charged at Napoleon's forces with extreme prejudice. Forcing Napoleon to send in more men as the battle went back and forth between the French and the Prussians. Napoleon at this point had to separate his forces. Wellington had confidence in Blucher and could tell that Blucher was holding his own ground against
McDowell had planned to use Tyler's division as the diversionary attack at the Stone Bridge, while Davies' brigade did the same at Blackburn's Ford. At the same time, Hunter's and Heintzelman's divisions would cross Bull Run at Sudley Springs and attack from the north.
As the British continue to advance toward the hill, Colonel Stark of the American forces ordered the troops to stay in ranks and to fire when Major General Howe’s columns, of the British Army, reached within 35 yards for the redoubt. Once this occurred, the American forces opened fire on the British forces that had advanced close enough to be hit by gunfire, but far away enough to not use bayonets and hand to hand combat, and the Americans were able to keep the British from advancing and forced the survivors to retreat, leaving 96 British troops dead. Howe’s second attempt at taking the hill was executed with the same tactic of trying to attack from the American’s left flank, but this time he had Pigot’s unit assaulting the redoubt directly; however, the British were fired upon heavily once again and were left with a massive amount of casualties. The American forces led by Prescott began to panic and flee the area, due to their inexperience in war, and left Prescott with a force of 150 soldiers, which had little to no gun powder, ammunition, and water. On the other hand, the British decided to change their tactics and Howe decided to order his troops to leave behind their heavy equipment and charge the fortification directly with bayonets in hand to hand combat for his third and
Many suspect that they were with Washington only to maximize the hate on both sides of the battle. They went against Washington’s orders to not be the aggressors. Soon large units of British and American soldiers were sent to settle what should have been small battles. The French however were prepared to fight back and even had the Indians as allies to help with upcoming battles. In July, Braddock’s army which consisted of over 2000 British soldiers rode west with George Washington and came upon 250 plus French soldiers with over 600 Indians allies. Nearly 1000 British were killed, unlike George Washington who was unhurt during the battle was soon promoted to commander of the Virginia army for his bravery. (Roark 146)
Napoleon Bonaparte, an unparalleled military commander who conquered most of Europe around the early 1800’s, invaded Russia in 1812, who was under the rule of Tsar Alexander at the time, lost three quarters of his Grande Armee which was composed of soldiers from all over Europe totaling 600,000 soldiers. This part of history is the most talked about and studied military campaign even today by scholars and military school alike. Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 was a extraordinary expedition that shocked the French Empire to its foundation and led to its eventual collapse just a year later. This Historiographic comparative
It came about, partially due to Napoleon’s strained relationship with Alexander I. The conflict which had arisen can be considered akin to the “Spain’s war of liberation”, as it was also a demonstration of nationalism. However, the implications of this battle were quite different. As France’s uncharacteristic loss had, consequently, yielded to Napoleon losing both a huge sum of his soldiers and his reputation as the invincible ruler. In addition, the loss they suffered had drastically weakened France’s military. Unfortunately for Napoleon, his enemies had immediately seized upon the opportunity to retaliate against the defeated Napoleonic Empire. France’s exposed vulnerability had resulted in the influx of the patriotic sentiments that had been previously
A. A. “Europe and the Superior Being: Napoleon.” The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History. 13 May. 2004. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 6 Dec. 2004. Karl, Kenneth.
...ral in the french army and was given a lot of recognition for his actions by the Directory. This created a very positive public image of him within the french population and gave him the political capitol to stage a coup upon the Directory. Bonaparte named himself Emperor of France and was able to win a multitude of battles across Europe. Napoleon finally lost his power and was removed from his position by the people of France after a scathing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
Napoleon was not only a great leader, he was also a military genius. As a military genius, Napoleon won many battles to expand France and was always welcomed back to France as a hero. His use of strategic warfare throughout many battles allowed him to be seen as a hero not only in France but all of Europe. Although his army was outnumbered by the Russians and Austrians on December 2, 1805, Napoleon's brilliant strategies resulted in a defeat of the opposing armies in the Battle of Austerlitz.
Napoleon was an outstanding military commander and enjoyed many successful campaigns. Napoleon maintained the Revolutionary syst...
Napoleon returned to home to France with only about 10% of his Army still alive. He lost most of his soldiers during the Great White Death, which is one of the largest French disasters to date. Since all the coalition allies knew he was in trouble, they decided to follow him and take him out while he was down and burned out. This is when he decided to give himself up and be exiled to Elba with 1000 guards. Before he left though, he promised his men that he, “… would return when the flowers bloomed.” And that was a promise that Napoleon kept.
Reasons for Napoleon's Defeat The Campaign of 1812 should have been another crusade for Napoleon, but he now faced 2 new policies that he had never faced before, the severe Russian winter and the notorious scorched-earth policy. On June 23, 1812 Napoleon's Grande Armee, over 500,000 men strong, poured over the Russian border. An equal amount of Russian forces awaited them. The result of the campaign was a surprise.
With all the glory and the splendour that some countries may have experienced, never has history seen how only only one man, Napoleon, brought up his country, France, from its most tormented status, to the very pinnacle of its height in just a few years time. He was a military hero who won splendid land-based battles, which allowed him to dominate most of the European continent. He was a man with ambition, great self-control and calculation, a great strategist, a genius; whatever it was, he was simply the best. But, even though how great this person was, something about how he governed France still floats among people's minds. Did he abuse his power? Did Napoleon defeat the purpose of the ideals of the French Revolution? After all of his success in his military campaigns, did he gratify the people's needs regarding their ideals on the French Revolution? This is one of the many controversies that we have to deal with when studying Napoleon and the French Revolution. In this essay, I will discuss my opinion on whether or not was he a destroyer of the ideals of the French Revolution.
How did a man with a promising military career loose it so quickly? Napoleon was one of the greatest military minds but did not always use it correctly, which eventually led to his downfall. This essay will explain what led to the downfall of Napoleon.
...n’s system. This lead to the Peninsular War. This war it was killed off Napoleon and his troops. He lost most of his troops and lost a lot of power. Napoleon was down for the count and country was kicked in the head economically and physically from this mistake.
Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the famous figures in French history by the importance of his internal reforms. However, he remains primarily in global memory as one of the greatest military commanders in history. Indeed, Napoleon Bonaparte delivered more battles than Alexander the Great, Hannibal, or Caesar. His campaigns covered all Europe from Spain to Russia, without forgetting the East with Egypt and Syria. The French Emperor entered in the prestigious capitals of Europe, Milan, Vienna (twice), Berlin, Madrid and Moscow. Napoleon has greatly influenced the Western way of war, not only by the new organization of armies, but also by the optimization of different capabilities and the combination between leadership and creativity in the battlefields.