The Extent to Which Britain's Navy was Responsible for the Changing Fortunes of Foreign and Imperial Policy from 1776-1815
In the 1776 – 1815 period, Britain’s foreign and imperial policies
were most marked by the French Wars. The early defeats and overall
victory of these wars depended not only on the navy but also on other
factors such as the army and the nature of Britain’s relations with
the other European nations at the time. One should also not forget
Napoleon and France who were responsible in a great way for the
changing fortunes of Britain’s foreign and imperial policy. However,
the navy was probably the single most important factor which brought
Napoleon to his knees as he saw his fleets continuously defeated by
one other very important man: Nelson.
The importance of the Navy cannot be undermined in it’s role in
securing British and Allied victory and more importantly preventing
Napoleon from controlling the seas which combined with his outstanding
army would have assured him victory over all. During the first phases
of the wars which were fought against revolutionary France and not
Napoleon the navy was not prepared for war and consequently failed to
offer support to the armies present in Europe so that when York
besieged Dunkirk, his efforts were fruitless because the navy failed
to give gunnery support. When the navy started winning then Britain’s
chances were that much higher and at least they could trade with their
empire upkept by their navy if all else failed. Their first victory
came at StVincent where John Jervis with his 15 ships beat 27 Spanish
ships. They also prevented in the early stage of the war the Dutch
fleet, controlled by Napoleon to take control of the Channel which
would have made an invasion of Britain possible and likely. At Aboukir
Bay in 1789, Nelson annihilated the French fleet. The consequences of
this victory were both political and military. French control in the
Mediterranean was destroyed, the major French army was cut off from
its supplies and France’s hopes of conquest in Egypt and India were
The Trident Submarine houses twenty-four nuclear warheads with each having a range of 4,600 miles over land. If a nuclear war were to break out between the Soviet Union and the United States, virtually every major city could be destroyed in a matter of hours. The origin of these major players in modern day warfare lies in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
This book is the unbiased, detailed narrative of the war in chronological order. Summarized, this literary piece is an explanation of why the British lost the Revolutionary War. Christopher Hibbert explains the reasons behind their loss and provides supporting evidence as the War’s timeline progresses. One
Eliga H. Gould, The Persistence of Empire: British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution (North Carolina: Omohundro Institute, 2000),
The relations between England and the British North American colonies could always be considered precarious. Prior to 1750 British essentially followed a policy of benign neglect and political autonomy in the American colonies. (Davidson p.97) The colonies were for the most part content with benign neglect policy, relishing in a “greater equality and representative government”(Davidson p.95) within the colonies. Competition among European Imperial nations began to effect British policy toward North America colonies causing rapid shifts from 1750 to 1776. During this period, the British Empire made a series of policy decision that sealed the fate of the British North American colonies and lead to the American Revolution.
The British policies having to do with the American colonies that passed between 1763 and 1776 were an attempt by Britain to have the colonists pay for the French and Indian War and an attempt to keep the colonies subservient to British rule. However these policies backfired and cause the colonist’s to resist British authority and strengthened their commitment to republican values in government. The policies implemented new taxes in order to raise funds and caused what the colonists believed to be injustices to go unchecked by the government, as well as causing the colonists to turn to republican ways of self-governing. The colonists felt as if they were not being properly represented in the British parliament, which led to them turning towards
At first, most think Britain would achieve an easy victory over such a small and inexperienced group of colonies. This was also what Britain’s thought. The 7.5 million inhabitants of Britain more than doubled the population of the colonies. With such large numbers, the British government had no problem generating war funds through taxes. The monetary wealth Britain acquired also paid for the first class naval force of Britain. The British had the biggest and best ships money could buy, and with them an array of victories. Alongside Britain’s vast naval fleet stood their 50,000 British soldiers, and 30,000 mercenary Hessian soldiers. Not to mention, Britain still possessed 30,000 additional American loyalists who were still loyal to the British crown. It seemed that Britain’s army was incredibly intimidating, but as Britain soon found out, this war was so much more than a number game.
The English victory over the Spanish Armada marked the beginning of the British naval dominance in the Atlantic. England and Spain had been enjoying a peaceful relationship throughout the early 15th century. However, the relations turned sour after the Spanish backstabbed an English fleet, led by a British sailor named Francis Drake at the Spanish port of San Juan de Ulua in 1568. Drake, privately encouraged by Queen Elizabeth of England, began pirating the Spanish riches for England from the Caribbean and all along the Spanish held coasts of Latin America. King Philip of Spain, already disgusted by the religious practices of England’s royalty, began scheming for a plan to invade Britain. He sent 130 large vessels, meant to carry soldiers, to the English Channel. The once thought “Invincible Armada” was annihilated by England’s smaller, more maneuverable and better armed crafts. While the surviving Spanish ships were retreating back home, a rare September storm devastated the already diminished fleet. With a large chunk of their navy destroyed, Spain did not have enough ships or manpower to control their vast empire. Slowly, their once might...
The Civil War consisted of many legendary battles over the soil of the United and Confederate States of America, which will be retold for generations in history books. Although these land battles were indeed great, the concept of this paper will be the Naval warfare of the Civil War, paying certain attention to the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac.
In late August 1814, after two hard years of fighting America's Second War for Independence with the British, the United States scrambled to establish defenses to protect important military installations in Northern Virginia and Maryland, then under threat of the intimidating British invasion force ominously lurking in Chesapeake Bay. President Madison and his administration had difficulty determining the over-all British military and political objectives and were slow to realize Washington, D.C.'s symbolic importance to the British. Consequently they made little preparation to defend the city. As for the British force commander, Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, he did not yet have his eyes set on other valuable American military targets, such as the nearby port city of Baltimore. Instead, goaded on by a letter urging him to avenge the earlier brutal American raid on the Canadian Port Dover, he focused his forces towards the destruction Washington, D.C.. Just after sunset on August 24, 1814, to the shock and horror of the remaining inhabitants of the city, British forces descended on the U.S. Capitol with one purpose in mind: to raze it to the ground. , , Brushing aside token resistance from the few American regulars and militia stationed in the District, the British proceeded to burn the White House, Treasury Building, State Department, War Office and Naval Yard. In this primal act of wanton destruction, the British humiliated the United States, avenged the indignation of the Dover raids, dispersed key members of the U.S. Government and exercised complete domination over the capitol of their bitter enemy. In gaining a political victory in burning the U.S. Capitol, the British lost the more important strategic initi...
Changes in British policies toward the colonies between 1750 and 1776 played paramount in the evolution of relations between British North America and Mother England. Tension between England and the colonies mounted from the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War to the signing of the Declaration of Independence as a result of the several implemented changes imposed by Parliament for the purpose of increasing income and tightening the grip on America.
51. Through an examination of Parliament’s actions relating to the colonies from 1763 to 1774, explain Great Britain’s approach to the crisis it faced in the post-Seven Years War/French and Indian War decade.
On November 1806, Napoleon set up a blockade (a great forcible closing of ports) to prevent all trade and communication with Great Britain, and other European nations. Napoleon called this policy the Continental System, because it was supposed to make continental Europe more self-sufficient. Napoleon also intended it to destroy Great Britain’s commercial and industrial economy. Napoleons’ blockade wasn’t tight enough, that they got aided by the British; smugglers managed to bring cargo from Britain into Europe. The Blockade weakened the British trade but it didn’t destroy it. In addition, the British responded with its own blockade. The British had a stronger navy, so they were better able to make the blockade work. To make the blockade more forceful, the British navy stopped neutral ships bound for the continent and forced them to sail to a British port to be searched and taxed. America ships were among these stopped by the British navy. In 1812, the US congress declared war on Britain which lasted two years.
Century. There were several key factors in Britain’s rapid growth as an international empire. Britain 's development at this time had an important international and military dimension. An empire based on sea power, commerce and naval dominance consolidated British overseas colonization and trade. Three key factors facilitated Britain’s rise to power, the first is warfare, the second is colonization and the third is trade.
The second issue was impressment. It means that taking men into a navy by force and with or without notice. The British Royal Navy used it against America. In between 1803 and 1807, Britain seized more than 500 American ships and more than 300 of France. According to the Rule of 1756, it ruled that Britain would not trade with neutral nations who were also trading with the enemy. It also ru...
Leach, Douglas Edward. Arms for Empire: A Military Hitory of the British Colonies in North America. New York: Macmillan Company, 1973.