The adventure of the Hundred Days and the Congress of Vienna
And so, this glorious Empire created by the most extraordinary genius collapsed. [ ...] Thus ended the political life of the great man, this giant whose greatest mistake was to believe he was destined to become the master of the world ! A fatal mistake
Jean-François Boulart (1776-1842), Mémoires militaires du général Baron Boulart sur les guerres de la république et de l'empire
On 1 March 1815, Napoleon landed at Golfe-Juan at the head of a thousand men, and marched on Paris. Sent by King Louis XVIII to intercept Napoleon, the army instead joined the Emperor who made his entry into the capital on 20 March 1815. This was the beginning of the Hundred Days.
The whole of Europe united against France, which obtained support only from Murat, King of Naples. 700,000 men threatened to invade France. Napoleon had only 250,000. In an audacious move he took the initiative and attacked the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian positions in Belgium. But on 18 June 1815, the French army was crushed at Waterloo. Defeated, Napoleon was forced to abdicate for the second time on 22 June 1815.
The adventure of the Hundred Days did not interrupt the diplomatic negotiations at the International Congress which had opened in Vienna in November 1814. Even before the battle of Waterloo, the allied powers were reorganising the European continent to their benefit.