The Battle of Waterloo was a battle that was fought mostly between French and British forces. Napoleon was crowned as Emperor of France in 1804. Then he launched many successful attacks on other countries in Europe. France soon had an empire that stretched from Spain to the Russian border. The only country that was still not captured was Great Britain. The Royal Navy had many ships, so invasion by France was not possible. However, Great Britain was not strong enough to stop Napoleon and his army from taking over most of mainland Europe.
Napoleon seemed unstoppable until two separate campaigns caused his empire to fall apart. He gathered a huge army to invade and conquer Russia once and for all in 1812. However, he did not think that he would have very many difficulties and it turned out he did. His army was caught by the Russian winter and destroyed by the weather and lack of food.

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