In 1815 Napoleon made a last desperate attempt to persuade Europe to accept him rather than the Bourbons as ruler of France. When Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia agreed to invade France to remove him he chose the last possible moment to attack the British and Prussians in Belgium, hoping to separate them and capture Brussels without fighting or defeat each in turn. He achieved sufficient surprise to come close to success on 16 June, but his plans required a smoother-running machine than his army provided: poor staff-work, distrust, weary cynicism and some treachery undermined French efforts and the encounters at Quatre Bras and Ligny ended in a draw and a narrow victory. On 17 June Napoleon failed to crush Wellington before the weather intervened to ruin his pursuit. Wellington withdrew his army skilfully to a chosen position where Blücher promised to join him. Napoleon underestimated the dogged determination of his enemies to support each other and the Prussians outmarched Grouchy to arrive in time to transform Wellington’s well-organised, stubborn and brave defence at Waterloo into a crushing victory. After this catastrophic defeat Napoleon had again to abdicate.

This chapter investigates the weaponry available to both armies and navies of the Napoleonic wars and their improvement during the period. This was very much a period of improvement rather than an era seeing the introduction of radical new technologies in the fields of weaponry and tactics. However, by the greater use of industrial processes, it became possible to greatly increase the number of arms available and thus the size of the combatting forces it was possible to put into the field. The greatest improvements however were undoubtedly in the field of artillery, which were made more powerful with the improved quality of gunpowder, while the weight of artillery pieces was reduced significantly, allowing them to be far more manoeuvrable on the battlefield. This allowed them to begin the process of achieving the domination of the battlefield that was so obvious in the First World War.