On the bicentenary of the battle of Waterloo of 1815, Philippe Raxhon, who is a historian and professor at the University of Liege, turns the clock back one hundred years. Indeed, the battle of Waterloo was never so present in the popular imagination as during the Great War: it was a spectre that was as malleable as it was timely, one of those archetypal examples of the strategy of “memory dilution” that can determine the course of history.

In 1914, Europe was preparing to commemorate the centenary of the battle of Waterloo which saw the defeat of Napoleon at the hands of the combined army of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Marshal Blücher somewhere south of Brussels. But at the dawn of what was to become the Great War, the memory of June 18th 1815 suddenly became the object of a particular kind of revisionism...In a work entitled “A bloody centenary. The Battle of Waterloo in the First World War”, historian Philippe Raxhon examines this confluence of events while placing an equal focus on attitudes, historical memory and military history. “I was interested in examining the connection between the First World War and the centenary of the battle of Waterloo. Nothing had yet been written on the subject. My approach to this was not to concentrate on the events of June 18th but rather to include the entire period of the war because Waterloo was undoubtedly present from 1914 to 1918”, explains the researcher, who included every possible source in his study: pamphlets, newspapers, advertisements, notices, caricatures…”No source is negligible: a box of matches or a poem can contribute to our understanding of a historical context. Fortunately, the First World War produced a lot of iconographies due mainly to the fact that it was the age of the birth of propaganda. Because television and radio did not exist at the time and cinema was only in its infancy, images were a formidable medium”.  Philippe Raxhon’s work is full of illustrations that attest not only to the omnipresence of Waterloo during the First World War, but also to the popular imagination and the blatant strategies of communication that existed at the time.

Napoleon the conqueror

As the historian shows, the memory of 1815 was mobilized from the very first days of the war. In August 1914, while the Germans were entering Belgium under the command of Otto von Emmich, they had leaflets in their pockets which were intended to convince the Belgians to allow them free passage with the following argument: “Remember the glorious days of Waterloo when German weapons contributed to the establishment of the independence and prosperity of your nation”. Given the necessity of making a unified stand against the German invader, the last thing the Allies needed was a battle of egos based on pompous commemoration of the Battle of Waterloo. “During the years 1910-1913, the English were already preparing for the centenary, some of which had a decidedly anti-French connotation”, explains Philippe Raxhon. While it was unthinkable not to celebrate the event – which occupies an important place in British national culture –, it was important that it be done in the most subtle way possible. In London, the statue of Wellington was draped in blue white and red: any manifestation of the centenary must also carry a Francophile message. Such was the extent of this strategy that the English victory seemed forgotten... “In June 1915, the Times explained that Napoleon and Wellington were equals in terms of talent and military competence: according to the journalist Napoleon lost simply because he was less lucky. This was not just an example of tact, it was a carefully-considered strategy. Every effort was made to avoid shocking the French”, explains the historian.

This favourable position adopted by the English meant that the First World War represented an opportunity for France to consolidate the legend of Napoleon. “France, which had, after all, been beaten at the Battle of Waterloo decided to invoke the spirit of Napoleon. This was no mean task as the Kaiser himself was compared to Napoleon the Emperor at the start of the war! This approach to the memory of Napoleon was quickly abandoned however. Another Napoleon was evoked: that of the little corporal, the genius of warfare close to his soldiers”, continues Philippe Raxhon. “Many images represent the phantom of Napoleon coming to advise the new generals and congratulate the French soldiers: he was even to be seen on Joffre’s shoulder... His military genius can inspire new strategies of the kind. The Napoleon evoked is the Napoleon of the Saint Helena memorial and the words of the memorial are dished out generously! Stamps soon appeared bearing quotations by Napoleon on freedom, on the people and he is seen as the natural custodian of the French Revolution: he who was defeated by the monarchs and tyrants of Europe”.