The Battle of Waterloo - 200th Anniversary

18 June 2015 marks the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, the final battle of the Napoleonic wars that followed the French Revolution. It saw the French army, under Napoleon, defeated in modern-day Belgium by the armies of the Seventh Coalition, led in part by Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and founding father of King’s College London.
In this film, Professor Andrew Lambert from the Department of War Studies at King's College London explores the events of the battle and it's continued significance today.
Professor Lambert is available for interview on the Battle of Waterloo. Please contact PR on 0207 848 3202 or [e-mail].
Music: 'Unrelenting' and 'Stormfront' Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons...
Images in public domain and courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

[@terrystephens1102]

An excellent summary of it he battle and the consequences that followed.

[@technodemic6258]

How refreshing to be informed by a presenter as knowledgeable as Professor Lambert, as opposed to some snotty American juvenile nerd ignoramus who mispronounces anything mildly French and treats his commentary like a video game he hardly knows how to play. Don't know what the fuck the London railway station has to do with anything, however. If someone named a bar of chocolate "Waterloo", would they show us images of that? You might as well throw in the ABBA song while you're about it, peeps.

[@LittleLances]

'The British were only there at the end', what about the peninsula war? We were there almost all through the war on land and certainly at sea. We were even in Egypt!

[@davidhaw9667]

Yes, he did mention the Battle of the Nile but little else on that score and as for the absence of any mention of the Peninsular War that was mystifying. Another major point was 1812, and the reasons for Bonaparte invading Russia, which was that he couldn't overcome the 'Wooden Walls' of Britain and therefore was hemmed into Europe. When Russia disobeyed him and began trading with Britain again he made his biggest mistake - some Emperor some Empire! Illusion politics flourished even then.

[@28pbtkh23]

David Haw - too right! Napoleon has his Alexander moment and ballsed it up.

[@berthamoen4488]

The usual incomplete story: "The British army at Quattre Bras". And "at Waterloo it is the main French army against the British". Less then half Wellington's army was in fact "British"! More then half was from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

[@28pbtkh23]

We are aware of this, at least some of us are. I know it can be annoying to be left out, ignored or seemingly written out from history. But people will often say “the British” as a shorthand for “the British and European allies”, which is a mouthful. Anyway, I have learnt about their contribution and it is much appreciated 👍

[@28pbtkh23]

Btw - I am sure that the historian in this video knows about the contribution of these other nations. I have seen him often and he knows his stuff.

[@Kuntyful]

Wellington, did a "rope-a-dope"...

[@napoleonlempereur3021]

If the Empereur won this Battle Europe wer in a better Kondition today.

[@levs1736]

Well Mr. Bonaparte, I stand to disagree😂

[@ludovic2431]

Well, the balancing agent is out of business now. Britain is off-site.

[@davidhaw9667]

I often wonder if that was behind the warning by Cameron of a Third World War. He referred to it in his frantic appeals for a Remain vote in 2016 and to many it was simply that, frantic, but as you say, the balancing agent is now gone and my belief is that Cameron may not have been wholly wrong. One might easily imagine Russia bucking at the sight of an emerging Germany leading a European Army .... a pre-emptive strike would seem eminently sensible.

[@28pbtkh23]

We have always been off-site.

[@28pbtkh23]

David Haw - the balancing agent has not “gone.” We are still here. We do not need to be members of the EU in order to fulfill our traditional role. I understand fully that this has been the thinking of the establishment. But we should remember that we joined the EU for the purposes of trade, not for any military influence. Latterly, EU membership for the purpose of military influence has been cited often, but this is just rationalising after the fact. Moreover, you can find on YT discussions by our current military leaders and retired generals who are horrified by the new EU army and military structures which would see Britain subordinated to EU command. W am glad we have left.

[@richardque4952]

Even if napoleon won the battle.he has to confront allied forces of prussia.austria.russia...etc combine forces of half million men.I do not think france could survive.