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Battle of WaterlooThere is probably no better known battle as that of Waterloo. “Facing ones Waterloo” has become a common expression. Many of us will know the Abba song Waterloo, the station named after the place... but what is it?Waterloo is a village where the battle between Wellington, Blücher and Napeléon took place in 1815. It was where Napoléon “faced his Waterloo” and finally was defeated. In 1815, Waterloo was still Dutch (Belgium became independent 15 years later, in 1830/1831) and while the Congress in Vienna was waltzing between meetings on drawing the new map for Europe, Waterloo ended in fact Napoléon’s attempt to redraw the map of Europe on his own. After the “new Europe” had been established, the nations came somewhat to a rest and the economy, no longer having the negative effects of war, made it possible to invest in industrial developments, actually starting the bloom of the industrialisation that inspired steampunk. I don’t know much about the battle itself, for an introduction to the proceedings I recommend the link to the Wikipedia below. For a more detailed description: there are libraries filled with books on solely this topic. Waterloo is just south of Brussels, Belgium, but if you follow the signs to Waterloo you end up in the wrong place. The battlefield was situated at what now is a little village, Butte de Lion. This does not mean “butt of the lion”, even though a lions butt is facing the village. The Butte is a large hill, topped with a huge lion. According to legend, this is the place where the Dutch prince was wounded - that would be at the foot of the hill that has been erected afterwards, of course.
With all the tourists and the merchandising and all kitsch (you can actually buy the complete costume to dress up as Napoléon, including guns and swords) you might even forget that this soil was drenched in blood, and was covered by fallen soldiers. There is no place to sit back and remember the evil thing war is. The Great War, 100 years later (1914-1918), that marked more or less the end of the Victorian Age, has left nothing but memorial sites in the Somme Region, less than 200 kilometres from Waterloo. Is this because Napoléon was considered to be the “bad guy”, while the good guys won the battle? Is it not necessary to have respect for the dead if they belonged to the “wrong” army? I don’t know... and there is no real monument for the fallen of the “good” army either... MarchesNow there is something strange about Napoléon being the “bad guy”. Somewhat more to the south, the region south of Charleroi, he is celebrated as a hero in a folkloristic/religious cult. This region was, before Belgium was formed, part of France. It used to be a poor and isolated place, deep in the woods where not many people lived.On religious holidays, they take out uniforms and set out to march the countryside. It’s a Catholic thing, with statues of the Virgin Mary carried along, but with this strange Napoléonic dressing. It’s their way of celebrating the hero that brought developments and prosperity to their isolated villages. © Yaghish 2007 |
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