Britain As A Military Power 1688 1815

In 1688, Britain was successfully invaded, its army and navy unable to prevent the overthrow of the government. 1815, Britain was the strongest power in the world with the most succesful navy and the largest empire. Britain had not only played a prominent role in the defeat of Napoleonic France, but had also established itself as a significant power in South Asia and was unsurpassed in her global reach. Her military strength was related to, and based on, one of the best systems of public finance in the world and held a strong trade position. This illustrated text assesses the military aspects of this shift, concentrating on the multi-faceted nature of the British military effort.; Topics covered include: the rise of Britain; an analysis of military infrastructure; warfare in the British Isles; conventional warfare in Europe; trans- oceanic warfare with European powers; the challenge of America; and the challenge of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.

“A majestic study of the British Army’s evolution” from the acclaimed historian, commentator, and author of Britain’s Naval Route to Greatness (Stanley D.M. Carpenter, Emeritus Professor of Strategy, U.S. Naval War College). Between 1760 and 1815, British troops campaigned from Manila to Montreal, Cape Town to Copenhagen, Washington to Waterloo. The naval dimension of Britain’s expansion has been superbly covered by a number of excellent studies, but there has not been a single volume that does the same for the army and, in particular, looks at how and why it became a world-operating force, one capable of beating the Marathas as well as the French. This book will both offer a new perspective, one that concentrates on the global role of the army and its central part in imperial expansion and preservation, and as such will be a major book for military history and world history. There will be a focus on what the army brought to power equations and how this made it a world-level force. “Black was one of the first military historians to recognize the requirement for truly global analysis . . . [His] central argument is of great importance to serving soldiers today; senior officers should take note.” —Wavell Room “Challenges hoary impressions of the British military while encouraging readers to dig more deeply into the origins, meanings, and consequences of Britain’s increasingly hybrid army.” —Michigan War Studies Review “A brief but insightful survey of the broad historical processes that, by transforming the British Army into a versatile instrument of global reach and global power, allowed it to shape the world.” —The NYMAS Review

An examination of the British Army during the long 18th century, how it became a world-operating force and its part in imperial expansion and preservation.

Drawing on a large volume of research, this 1998 book considers sustained warfare as a powerful agent of change which transformed a wide range of institutions, structures, and processes in Britain between 1688 and 1815, a period when Britain was at war for much of the time. Stressing the positive as well as the negative, and the long term as well as the short term, the effects of war are brought to bear upon questions of central importance in the study of eighteenth-century British history. How effectively did the emerging state cope with the financial and logistical demands of war? How severe were the economic and social strains imposed upon the population at large, and how did they respond to the call to arms? What effect did war have upon the industrialising economy? A balanced overview is presented of Britain as a nation at war during an important phase of her development as an imperial, industrial and military power.

From explorers tracing rivers to navigators hunting for longitude, spatial awareness and the need for empirical understanding were linked to British strategy in the 1700s. This strategy, in turn, aided in the assertion of British power and authority on a global scale. In this sweeping consideration of Britain in the 18th century, Jeremy Black explores the interconnected roles of power and geography in the creation of a global empire. Geography was at the heart of Britain’s expansion into India, its response to uprisings in Scotland and America, and its revolutionary development of railways. Geographical dominance was reinforced as newspapers stoked the fires of xenophobia and defined the limits of cosmopolitan Europe as compared to the "barbarism" beyond. Geography provided a system of analysis and classification which gave Britain political, cultural, and scientific sovereignty. Black considers geographical knowledge not just as a tool for creating a shared cultural identity but also as a key mechanism in the formation of one of the most powerful and far-reaching empires the world has ever known.

Jeremy Black charts the story of Britain's rise to naval supremacy across the long eighteenth century.

Looking at the impact of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars on the British Isles, Cookson sheds light on the nature of the British state and the extent of its dependence on society's self-organising powers.

The first study to explore all Britain’s key land and sea campaigns from 179–1815 and the two military geniuses who vanquished France. The art of power consists of getting what one wants. That is never more challenging than when a nation is at war. Britain fought a nearly nonstop war against first revolutionary then Napoleonic France from 1793 to 1815. During those twenty-two years, the government formed, financed, and led seven coalitions against France. The French inflicted humiliating defeats on the first five. Eventually Britain and its allies prevailed, not once but twice, by vanquishing Napoleon temporarily in 1814 and definitively in 1815. French revolutionaries had created a new form of warfare, which Napoleon perfected. Never before had a government mobilized so much of a realm’s manpower, industry, finance, and patriotism, nor, under Napoleon, wielded it more effectively and ruthlessly to pulverize and conquer one’s enemies. Britain struggled up a blood-soaked learning curve to master this new form of warfare. With time the British made the most of their natural strategic and economic advantages. Britons were relatively secure and prosperous in their island realm. British merchants, manufacturers, and financiers dominated global markets. The Royal Navy not only ruled the waves that lapped against the nation’s shores but those plowed by international commerce around the world. Yet even with those assets victory was not inevitable. Two military geniuses are the most vital reasons why Britain and its allies vanquished France when and how they did. General Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington and Admiral Horatio Nelson respectively mastered warfare on land and at sea. Of the hundreds of books on the era, none before has explored all of Britain’s land and sea campaigns from the first in 1793 to the last in 1815. This vividly written, meticulously researched book lets readers experience each level of war from the debates over grand strategy in London to the horrors of combat engulfing soldiers and sailors in distant lands and seas. Haunting voices of participants echo from two centuries ago, culled from speeches, diaries, and letters. Britain's Rise to Global Superpower in the Age of Napoleon reveals how decisively or disastrously the British army and navy wielded the art of military power during the Age of Revolution and Napoleon.

The study of eighteenth century history has been transformed by the writings of John Brewer, and most recently, with The Sinews of Power, he challenged the central concepts of British history. Brewer argues that the power of the British state increased dramatically when it was forced to pay the costs of war in defence of her growing empire. In An Imperial State at War, edited by Lawrence Stone (himself no stranger to controversy), the leading historians of the eighteenth century put the Brewer thesis under the spotlight. Like the Sinews of Power itself, this is a major advance in the study of Britain's first empire.