The Napoleonic Wars Finally End: the Second Treaty of Paris signed November 20, 1815
It is tempting to assume the wars ended at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, with the surrender of the French. In fact, the French army fled the field in shocking disarray without so much as a rear guard action pursued through the night by Blucher and the Prussians. A full-scale invasion of France followed with multiple skirmishes and small battles as Napoleon himself fled south and ultimately reached Paris to face a hastily formed provisional government. There had been no surrender.
The Emperor abdicated in favor of his son, Napoleon II, on June 22—four full days after Waterloo. The provisional government, however, rejected his son, and he was forced to leave Paris. He attempted to flee to America before falling into the hands of the British navy. The provisional government attempted to negotiate terms of surrender, but coalition troops demanded nothing less than the restoration of King Louis XVIII, and it wasn’t until June 2 that hostilities finally ceased. Louis entered Paris on July 8. Months of negotiations over reparations, restorations, and even looted art, resulted in the treaty that finally ended the wars that had embroiled Europe for decades. November 20 marks the formal end of the Napoleonic Wars.
