Battle of Waterloo and national identity
Date: 18 June 1815
Location : Waterloo, present-day Walloon Brabant in Belgium south of Brussels
Result: Decisive Coalition victory
Belligerents: France and Seventh Coalition: United Kingdom, Netherlands, Hanover, Nassau, Brunswick, Prussia
Strength: France - 72,000; Seventh Coalition-118,000: Anglo-allies: 68,000; Prussians: 50,000
Casualties and losses: France Total: 51,000; Seventh Coalition Total: 24,000
Waterloo started on the 18th of June 1815. The British allied forces were under the command of the Duke of Wellington. They faced the formidable French army and the Emperor Napoleon. This was a make or break battle for Napoleon and Wellington. The outcome would change the history of Britain and that of Europe.
The Duke of Wellington Napoleon
Task 16. Find answers to the following questions. Use the key words in brackets.
What influence did Wellington have on the course of the battle? (to visit every unit, to ride backwards and forwards behind the lines, to issue orders)
How is the Battle of Waterloo described? (to stand smb’s ground, to maintain high rate of fire, a brutal pounding match, artillery, to throw elite imperial guard at smb., to be pounded volley after volley with musket fire, to capitulate)
By 9 p.m. Wellington had won the battle. What was the cost of the victory?
What role did the Battle of Waterloo have? ( to change the course of history, to boost patriotism, to forge national identity, to win a conclusive victory over France, to give national roots)
Task 17. Explain the following phrases used in the film.
- A make or break battle for Napoleon and Wellington
- The battle swayed to and fro
- It was touch and go who would win the battle
- A conclusive victory over France
Cultural Commentary
* The battlefield today
Some portions of the terrain on the battlefield have been altered from their 1815 appearance. Tourism began the day after the battle, with Captain Mercer noting that on 19 June "a carriage drove on the ground from Brussels, the inmates of which, alighting, proceeded to examine the field".In 1820, the Netherlands' King William I ordered the construction of a monument on the spot where it was believed his son, the Prince of Orange, had been wounded. The Lion's Hillock, a giant mound, was constructed here.
Lion's Mound at Waterloo
Apart from the Lion Mound, there are several more conventional but noteworthy monuments throughout the battlefield. A cluster of monuments at the Brussels-Charleroi and Braine L'Alleud-Ohain crossroads marks the mass graves of British, Dutch, Hanoverian and King's German Legion troops. A monument to the French dead, entitled L'aigle Blessé ("The Wounded Eagle"), marks the location where it is believed one of the Imperial Guard units formed a square during the closing moments of the battle.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle of Waterloo