by John Bryant

Created on: May 08, 2008   Last Updated: June 18, 2009

Waterloo! Despite its having been fought almost 200 years ago, Waterloo remains the most famous battle in world history .. one which ended an empire and permitted almost a generation of peace in western Europe.

Why was Waterloo so important, so burned into the pages of history? A bit of historical context. In a time when kings ruled Europe, the French people rose violently against their own monarchy in 1789, casting it aside and initiating a period of bloody turmoil as many of the aristocracy who were unable to escape were sent to the guillotine and commoners fought and schemed for power. The ensuing chaos of 'equalite, fraternite, et liberte' was tearing France apart; even the executioners were often soon the executed. Finally, in desperation, French society rallied around a young Army officer born on the French-held Mediterranean island of Corsica. This officer's genius for war in defeating France's many enemies and his ruthlessness equal to the task of establishing order throughout the country soon made him the nation's all powerful ruler. And the Emperor Napoleon, thereafter, led a nation fully mobilized for war into almost two decades of political and territorial expansion, posed on the English Channel, in the Caribbean islands, into north Africa, and to the gates of Moscow.

Finally, an exhausted France sued for peace and Napoleon abdicated his throne and accepted exile on the small island of Elba, off the west coast of Italy. He plotted and schemed, however, to return to power. In early 1815, he escaped and came ashore in the south of France, to a nation once again ready for its Emperor. As he traveled triumphantly to Paris, soldiers sent to arrest him instead rallied to his side and he entered Paris once again the leader of the French nation and at the head of an army ready to die for him.

Soon they would be given that opportunity! As Napoleon again prepared for war, the allies of six nations mobilized to meet him in a final, decisive battle for the soul and future of Europe. That meeting would come in a small village only 15 kms southeast of Brussels, Belgium.

On 18 June 1815, 124,000 Frenchmen under Napoleon initially met in the early morning 97,000 English and Dutch soldiers under Britain's Duke of Wellington. As the two armies fought for the field for eight hours, under horrible artillery fire, the clash of bayonets, and the charge of cavalry , victory teetered in the balance, and, perhaps, the French veterans began to seize the upper hand. At

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