The Battle of Waterloo essays

The Battle of Waterloo essays The Battle of Waterloo was the final and decisive action of the Napoleonic Wars that effectively ended the French domination of the European continent and brought about drastic changes in the political boundaries and power of Europe. Fought on June 18, 1814, near Waterloo, in what is now Belgium, the battle ranks as a great turning point in modern history. There are many reasons as to why Napoleon lost this battle. Most importantly it was due to his generals. Napoleon himself abandoned his troops and his throne after his defeat. The main problem as to why Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo is because he selected an ill-equipped group of generals to lead his army. He didnt have much control over this though. Berthier was dead; Mortier was ill; Andre Massena showed no interest in joining this conflict, and Baron Jomini was with the Allies. If this was not enough he placed the generals he had in places not suited for them. He put Soult as chief of staff, Ney on his left wing, and Grouchy on his right. A disastrous mistake was putting Ney in charge of the attack on Wellington. Napoleon seemed sluggish and waterloo and this was due to his illness. He failed to follow up on opportunities here and this was fatal due to his steady adversaries, Wellington and Blucher. Fault can be put to Napoleon too. He delayed in attacking Blucher at Ligny, failed to use Lobau in crushing him, neglected to pursue hi after he was beaten, been to attack Wellington on June 18, and failed to assign Ney the Imperial Guard as reinfor cements when they could have made a major difference. Soult had been a disaster as chief of staff, neglecting to coordinate the border crossing and, along with Napoleon, failed to send out orders to subordinates promptly and coherently. As well, Vandamme delayed at Gilly, Drouet wasted a day marching between Quatre Bras and Ligny, while Grouchys tortoise like pursuit of the Prussians was a ke ...