its world hegemony secure until the resurgent unified Germany of the early 20 th
century.
Of course the most significant short-term consequence of Waterloo was the
demise of Napoleon. Despite fighting a surprisingly effective and brilliant
defensive campaign in the latter stages of 1815 against the cumbersome advance
of the Prussian Marshal Blucher into France following the defeat at Waterloo, the
Allied armies eventually reached Paris and against Napoleon’s will an armistice
was signed. The Napoleonic Wars were finally ended and Napoleon surrendered to the British frigate HMS Bellerophon on 15 th July 1815. He died on the solitary
island colony of St Helena in the South Atlantic in 1821.
However, the critical long-term legacy of the battle was the establishment of the
Concert of Europe, an agreement by all of the major European powers in the
‘Quadruple Alliance’ ratified at the same time as the Treaty of Paris in November
1815 to find diplomatic and collective solutions rather than use violence or
coercion to resolve potential major disputes. Comparable to the purpose of the
United Nations 130 years later, the Concert of Europe’s primary goal was to avoid
another catastrophic war similar to the Napoleonic Wars which had decimated
continental Europe, unlike any previous conflict with a staggering 9 million
people estimated to have died between 1792 and 1815. Masterminded by the
British foreign secretary Viscount Castlereagh, this laid the foundations for
international cooperation being used as a blueprint for later international treaties,
and helped maintain relative peace in Europe for almost the next century.
One of the fiercest controversies surrounding the “Clash of the Titans” on 18 th
June 1815 is who is responsible for victory. It is always amusing to stand on the
touchline of the debate and observe increasingly nationalistic points being scored
between the French and the Brits, or between the Brits and the Germans as to who
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