Modern Era
Battle of Quatre Bras (1815): The Prelude to Waterloo
Tactical draw; the Anglo-Allied army held the crossroads, but withdrew the next day after the Prussian defeat at Ligny.
Era · c. 1800 – 1945
Modern Era
Industry, science and global conflict: the century and a half that built the modern world.
Modern Era
Napoleon's Hundred Days (1815): Escape From Elba to Paris
Napoleon briefly restored the French Empire but was defeated at Waterloo, abdicated again and was exiled to Saint Helena; Louis XVIII returned.
Modern Era
Unification of Italy: The Risorgimento from 1815 to 1871
The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861 and completed with Venetia in 1866 and Rome in 1870, which became the capital in 1871.
Modern Era
Napoleon on Saint Helena (1815–1821): Exile and Death
Napoleon spent the last five and a half years of his life as a British prisoner and died on the island on 5 May 1821; his remains were returned to Paris in 1840.
Modern Era
Battle of Waterloo (1815): Wellington, Blücher and Napoleon
Decisive victory for Wellington's Allied army and Blücher's Prussians; Napoleon abdicated four days later, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
Modern Era
Battle of New Orleans (1815): Andrew Jackson's Famous Victory
Decisive American victory; the British assault failed with about 2,000 casualties and the expedition withdrew.
Modern Era
Davy Safety Lamp (1815): Humphry Davy and the Coal Miners' Lamp
The Davy lamp gave miners a light that would not normally ignite firedamp, though it did not end mine explosions.
Modern Era
Mount Tambora Eruption (1815): The Largest Blast in History
A VEI 7 eruption destroyed the summit and two local kingdoms, killed tens of thousands through blast, famine and disease, and cooled the world's climate in 1816.
Modern Era
Wreck of the Medusa (1816): The Raft and Géricault's Painting
About 150 people were set adrift on a raft and only 15 were rescued alive; the scandal embarrassed the Bourbon government and inspired Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa.
Modern Era
Shaka Zulu and the Rise of the Zulu Kingdom (1816-1828)
Shaka turned a small chiefdom into the dominant Zulu kingdom of south-east Africa before his assassination in 1828.
Modern Era
Year Without a Summer (1816): Famine, Frost and Frankenstein
Failed harvests caused the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world, with food riots, disease, mass emigration and lasting cultural echoes.
Modern Era
San Martin's Crossing of the Andes (1817) and Chacabuco
The Army of the Andes crossed the cordillera, defeated the royalists at Chacabuco on 12 February 1817 and took Santiago, restoring Chilean self-rule.