Napoleon Bonaparte's Defeat at Waterloo

Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at the battle of waterloo for a variety of reasons. These reasons of defeat ranging from his gross underestimations of the battles length and difficulty, The wet weather, Wellington being able to pick the field of battle and of course Napoleons severe underestimations of the duke of wellington’s capabilities as a general. There were also a few other contributing factors such as miscommunications between officers, Napoleons state of mental health and of course Napoleons artilleries lack of effectiveness.

Napoleon believed that the battle of waterloo was going to be quick and easy one. This is primarily because of the fact that Napoleon believed that the Prussians would not be able to return to support Wellingtons forces. Napoleon seemed comforted by his numerical superiority and therefor sought to execute increasingly brash tactics instead of making a greater effort to out flank or even attack the flanks of Wellington. Napoleon focalized his grand attack straight against wellingtons center. Any military general would tell you that a maneuver like this is utter lunacy however Napoleon could have done this for a three major reasons. These being that Napoleon wanted to speed the battles turnout up and to therefor bring a French victory as soon as possible. This need of rapidly speeding the battle up would have only increased during the duration of the battle as the return of the Prussians was confirmed. The second reason being that Napoleon would forcing a quicker outcome would be to try and prevent a possible retreat from the Wellington and the Anglo allies. Lastly Napoleon was also not in the greatest mental state as he was physically and mentally rundown, through lack of sleep illness and stress. This would have led towards clouded judgment and irrational thinking.

Napoleon had never faced the duke of wellington before and was therefor unable to premeditate the strength that he would be opposing. Napoleon was also unaware of the duke of Wellingtons ability to command his army as a general. This uncertainty worked towards Napoleons demise as he had no back ground information of Wellingtons battle tactics and therefor was coming up against an almost unpredictable opponent. Napoleon underestimated the duke of Wellington, for a less competent general. Napoleon made rash, abrasive, strategically lacking decisions, errors that he would not have made if he had known the commanding capabilities of the duke. Inevitably Napoleon did not appreciate, Wellington as a seasoned commander and decided to focus his army on a central assault which was doomed to fail against someone as talented at commanding as Wellington.

Over estimation of the strength of his army and extreme arrogance on Napoleons own part was indefinitely a contributing factor towards his defeat at waterloo. Napoleon was so caught up in his own judgment that he irrationally ignored advice from his own generals that

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