It marked the ultimate defeat of Napoleon and end of the Napoleonic Wars, a series of wars that had stricken Europe for around a decade. It meant liberation and peace for much of Europe as Napoleon was viewed as a tyrant by most non-French Europeans. It also marked the start of a period known as "Pax Britannica" which was a hundred year period of relative peace where the British Empire was the unchallenged global power because the defeat of Napoleon left the British with no serious rivals.