The end of the Napoleonic Wars led to a peace settlement which endured for 50 years. Out of the ashes of this conflict, a new world order emerged, with Great Britain rising to become the dominant world power for almost a century. Millions of people, both soldiers and civilians, had died. By the time of Napoleon Bonaparte’s final defeat on the fields of Waterloo in June 1815, Europe had been engulfed in almost continual conflict and turmoil for 25 years. In many ways, it should be described as the First World War.
The titanic struggle of almost every European nation, and their empires, against France, affected every continent. The Napoleonic Wars were the first truly global conflict.
