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Date: October 21st, 1805

Place: West of Cape Trafalgar, between Cadiz and the Strait of Gibraltar.

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A fleet of 27 ships under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson.

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A fleet of 33 ships

18 French

15 Spanish

Under the command of Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve.

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Date: June 18th, 1815

Place: Near the village of Waterloo, Belgium.

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68.000 men in an allied army, with British, Dutch, Belgian, and German units. Under the command of The duke of Wellington’s.

45.000 Prussians under the commanded of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

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DALL·E 2024-10-29 01.37.56 - A historical scene depicting British-led allied forces from the Battle of Waterloo, showing British, Dutch, and Prussian soldiers in 19th-century mili

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72.000 men under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte.

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The Allies suffered 22,000 casualties.

Napoleon lost nearly 40,000 men killed, wounded or captured.

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Defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, ending his rule as Emperor of France.

Marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

Led to Napoleon's exile to St. Helena.

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British: 449 sailors killed, 1,217 wounded

French and Spanish: 4,408 killed, 2,545 wounded, 20,000 taken prisoner

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Decisive British victory, led by Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Ended Napoleon's hopes of invading Britain.

Established British naval supremacy for years.

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https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Waterloo/The-Battles-of-Quatre-Bras-and-Ligny

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-waterloo#:~:text=Waterloo%20ended%20the%20wars%20that,56)%2C%20lasted%20until%201914.

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-waterloo#:~:text=Napoleon%20lost%20nearly%2040%2C000%20men,entered%20Paris%20on%207%20July.

https://library.brown.edu/cds/askb/waterloo/aftermath.html#:~:text=The%20combined%20number%20of%20men,23%2C000%20for%20the%20Allied%20army.

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The first French troops crossed into the southern Netherlands on June 15, and by day's end, through skillful and audacious maneuvering, Napoleon had secured all of his essential strategic needs. His army was deployed compactly, presenting a front some 12 miles (19 km) wide, separating the Prussian and British forces and ready to operate against either. Early on June 16, Napoleon had planned to shift the bulk of his army to the left wing against Wellington along the Charleroi-Quatre-Bras-Brussels road, but he soon became aware that the Prussian forces assembled at Ligny were vulnerable. To contest the crossroads at Quatre-Bras, Napoleon dispatched a holding force under Marshal Michel Ney, a commander whom Napoleon had dubbed "the bravest of the brave" for his conduct during the retreat from Russia. Ney advanced cautiously on the allied position, however, allowing Wellington the opportunity to reinforce his outnumbered troops, and the allies retained Quatre-Bras after a day of inconclusive fighting. Allied casualties numbered roughly 4,700 killed and wounded, while the French lost 4,300.

Napoleon himself led the attack on Blücher's force at Ligny, and the Prussians escaped complete destruction largely as a result of miscommunication between the divided French commands. Blücher had deployed three corps (some 83,000 men) on a forward slope, a position that gave him command of the valley below but subjected his men to ferocious artillery bombardment. Napoleon's plan of attack hinged on the use of a corps under Marshal Jean-Baptiste Drouet to shatter the Prussian right flank. Drouet's corps was attached to Ney's command, however, and a series of conflicting orders from Ney and Napoleon led to Drouet's spending June 16 pointlessly marching and countermarching between the two battlefields. Blücher's troops fought stubbornly, but they lacked the skill and stamina of the French veterans, and by late afternoon Napoleon was ready to administer a finishing blow to the Prussian centre, pending the arrival of Drouet's corps. At that moment a strong enemy column was reported in the French rear, and sections of the French left wing began to withdraw in the face of that apparent threat. Blücher took advantage of the confusion by launching a heavy attack, but it was rebuffed by a detachment of Napoleon's veteran Imperial Guard. The turning point of the battle had now been reached: Blücher's troops had spent their force, and Napoleon had confirmed that the mysterious enemy column was, in fact, Drouet's, and it had already begun to withdraw in accordance with orders from Ney. Two hours later than he had intended, Napoleon ordered the Guard to assault the Prussian centre. The Guard charged through Ligny soon after 7:30 pm, followed by great numbers of cavalry, and the Prussian line collapsed. Adolf, baron von Lützow, spurred his cavalry unit into a failed countercharge that led to his capture by the French, and the 72-year-old Blücher had his horse shot from under him while securing the Prussian retreat. Pinned by the dead animal and with the cavalry battle continuing around him, Blücher was rescued by his aide-de-camp and borne away from the field. Darkness and the stubborn resistance of the two Prussian wings prevented Napoleon's success in the centre from turning the defeat of the Prussians into a rout. The victory was considerable. Prussian casualties were more than 12,000, while the French lost approximately 10,000. During the night, a further 8,000 Prussians, recruited from former provinces of the French Empire, deserted Blücher and fled east toward Liege, away from the French and the larger engagement to come.

Blücher's forces, temporarily under the command of August, Count Neidhardt von Gneisenau, continued their retreat toward Wavre on June 17, leaving the French free to turn against Wellington. Napoleon was uncharacteristically slow to seize upon the advantage he had gained, however. At midday on the 17th, Marshal Emmanuel de Grouchy with 33,000 men-nearly one-third of Napoleon's total strength of 105,000-began a dilatory pursuit of Blücher that would effectively remove his force from the action to come. On the left, Ney did nothing to hinder Wellington's orderly withdrawal from Quatre-Bras, and the eventual French response was stymied by a torrential thunderstorm and a skillful rearguard action by the allies. As they repositioned their forces, Wellington and Blücher remained in regular contact, arguably maintaining far better lines of communication than the French did. With the promise of reinforcement by the Prussians the following day, Wellington ended the 17th encamped in a strong defensive position along a ridge south of Mont-Saint-Jean.

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Battle of Waterloo - Battles of Quatre-Bras and Ligny

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The first French troops crossed into the southern Netherlands on June 15. The French advanced, but Wellington and the allies retained Quatre-Bras. Napoleon and Ney defeated Blucher, Gneisenau, and the Prussians at Ligny. Wellington ended June 17 encamped in a strong defensive position along a ridge south of Mont-Saint-Jean.

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https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Trafalgar-European-history

https://ornc.org/stories/the-battle-of-trafalgar/

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/battle-of-trafalgar#:~:text=A%20total%20of%20449%20British,and%20some%2020%2C000%20taken%20prisoner.

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Collingwood was the first to reach the enemy line, firing a broadside into one of the Spanish flagships, Santa Anna. The ships in his division followed him, approaching in a slanting line, spreading the force of the impact and enveloping the allied rear as Nelson had intended.

Nelson meanwhile headed towards the great Spanish ship, Santissima Trinidad, but spotting that Villeneuve was flying his flag on the Bucentaure, the next ship astern, he ordered Flag Captain Thomas Hardy to attack her first. The Victory passed under the stern, firing a broadside as she went, giving the Bucentaure a knockout blow.

As the Victory moved on she became entangled in the Redoutable, and the two ships drifted away. This created a large gap in the Franco-Spanish line through which Nelson's division then poured, splitting the enemy fleet in two - again, exactly as Nelson intended.

The battle developed into a ferocious pounding match but the British had the advantage thanks to Nelson's strategic pre-planning and the fact his men were better trained in delivering rapid, accurate gunnery. When firing finally ceased at 5.30pm, 17 enemy ships had been captured and another was a blazing wreck. Four managed to escape but were captured a few weeks later, and 11 managed to struggle back to Cadiz.

A total of 449 British sailors were killed and 1217 wounded. French and Spanish losses were heavier: 4408 were dead, 2545 wounded and some 20,000 taken prisoner.

What happened after the Battle of Trafalgar?

Britain's decisive victory was overshadowed by news of the death of Nelson, who was shot onboard Victory at 1.15pm and died at 4.30pm. The triumph was further eclipsed by a fierce storm that raged after the battle, forcing the British to abandon most of their captured enemy ships.

News of Trafalgar reached London a fortnight later in the early hours of 6 November 1805. Public rejoicing for the victory was muted by widespread sorrow for the death of Nelson. As a reward for Trafalgar, Collingwood was made a baron, all the captains received the official Naval Gold Medal and a special grant of money was made by the government to all those who had taken part. This was to compensate them for the prize money they lost when their captured vessels sank in the storm.
Read more about the death of Nelson
The Battle of Trafalgar cemented Britain's reputation as ruler of the seas and demonstrated that the Royal Navy had superiority in training, professionalism and expertise in naval tactics that set it apart from its rivals. By 1809 there were over 140,000 men serving on 732 ships, more than ever before.

However, the victory at Trafalgar had little overall impact on the course of the war. Six weeks afterwards, Napoleon went on to confirm his ascendancy over Europe with a decisive victory over Austria and Russia at Austerlitz.

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How did Nelson secure a British victory against the Franco-Spanish fleet? Follow the stages of the battle to learn more