The Battle of Waterloo occurred on 18 June 1815 near Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium) following Napoleon's return to power in March 1815, which initiated the Hundred Days. Upon his return, many states that had previously opposed Napoleon formed the Seventh Coalition to oppose him again and hastily mobilized their armies. Wellington's and Blücher's armies were positioned close to the northeastern border of France, and Napoleon devised a strategy to attack them separately before they could unite and invade France alongside other coalition members.
The battle pitted the French Imperial Army under Napoleon I against two allied forces of the Seventh Coalition. One allied force was a British-led army commanded by Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, comprising units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau. The second allied force consisted of three corps of the Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher. The engagement represented the culmination of Napoleon's attempt to reassert dominance in Europe following his escape from exile.
The battle was known by different names depending on the nation: in France it was called the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean, after the hamlet of Mont-Saint-Jean, while in Prussia it was termed La Belle Alliance, meaning "the Beautiful Alliance," after the inn of that name. The outcome was decisive for the coalition, as the French Imperial Army under Napoleon I was defeated by the combined forces of Wellington and Blücher. This engagement marked the last significant military engagement involving Napoleon I and effectively ended his Hundred Days return to power.
The early republic period saw the United States move from the weak Articles of Confederation to the federal Constitution ratified in 1788, with the Bill of Rights added in 1791. George Washington served two terms as president (1789–1797), establishing precedents for executive authority, and the federal capital moved permanently to Washington D.C. in 1800. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled the nation's territory for roughly $15 million, opening vast trans-Mississippi lands to American expansion. The War of 1812 against Britain ended inconclusively but produced a surge of American national identity and eliminated most British support for Indigenous resistance east of the Mississippi. The Northwest Indian Wars (1785–1795) and the Creek War (1813–1814) broke Indigenous confederacies that had resisted US expansion. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily balanced slave and free states as the nation expanded westward, but embedded the contradiction of slavery in every subsequent territorial debate.
Several Cayuse killed; 1 US killed
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