Chapter · 16:07-18:14

Why victory at Waterloo would not have saved Napoleon

A counterfactual victory at Waterloo is tested against the coalition forces and resources still available to defeat Napoleon.

Notes

An Anglo-Dutch defeat at Waterloo would only have postponed Napoleon's loss in the counterfactual discussed here. A victory probably required the Prussians to remain absent, leaving them available to regroup with the Russians. The participants also count Austria and Sweden among the forces converging against a France exhausted by years of war. Their argument is that the coalition had already organized against renewed French expansion and could compensate for Napoleon's generalship with overwhelming numbers. British financial support forms part of that wider coalition advantage.