On my so far one and only trip to Europe, I had a day tour of Waterloo. It helped me understand two things. The first is that it was held on the paved road from Paris to Brussels - the road that Napoleon needed to easily move his artillery.
The second thing was the looting peasants in the battle's aftermath. Waterloo is cropland and the battle was in June, so everything was planted with no chance of replanting for that year. All the farmworkers' income for the year was gone, because you won't be paid to harvest crops that don't exist. Plus the damage done to the fields themselves by infantry, cavalry and bouncing cannon balls.
On my so far one and only trip to Europe, I had a day tour of Waterloo. It helped me understand two things. The first is that it was held on the paved road from Paris to Brussels - the road that Napoleon needed to easily move his artillery.
The second thing was the looting peasants in the battle's aftermath. Waterloo is cropland and the battle was in June, so everything was planted with no chance of replanting for that year. All the farmworkers' income for the year was gone, because you won't be paid to harvest crops that don't exist. Plus the damage done to the fields themselves by infantry, cavalry and bouncing cannon balls.