Abstract
There is much controversy surrounding the Battle of Waterloo, specifically how Napoleon came to be defeated. I argue that the main cause of Napoleon’s loss was not solely due to any strategic or tactical failure on his part, but by outside elements that severely harmed his ability to wage war. The purpose of this paper is not to present a play by play account of the Waterloo Campaign or to claim that I myself am an expert in military affairs. Instead, this paper seeks to understand the causes of Napoleon’s loss at Waterloo by analyzing the battle’s key moments and applying my thesis of the influence external factors had on these said specific moments and how they affected Napoleon’s army the most. I do not attempt to note every significant moment of the battle, but rather I use important events as examples to support my argument that outside elements had much to do with Napoleon’s defeat (This is done also to avoid redundancy of stating the same
supporting argument over again). Thus, this paper will primarily examine the battle from the French perspective. By doing so, I hope to paint a clearer picture regarding this historic battle.
