Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- General introduction and acknowledgements
- Introduction générale et remercients par
- Introduction (English)
- Introduction (français)
- The sea and seapower within the international system
- Germany, 1870–1914: a military empire turns to the sea
- The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1937–1942
- The US as a new naval power, 1890–1919
- World war suspended and resumed: Russia, 1919–1940
- Freedom and control of the seas, 1856–1919
- Unclos and the modern law of the sea
- New navies and maritime powers
- Britain, 1815–1850: naval power or sea power?
- Free trade, industrialization and the global economy, 1815–1914
- Coal and the sea
- Shipbuilding and power: some reflections
- Maintaining naval hegemony in the industrial age: Britain, 1850–1889
- Naval armaments races, 1889–1922
- The British Empire and the war at sea, 1914–1918
- Steaming worldwide waters: adaptation and transformation in the Netherlands
- Austria-Hungary: an inland empire looks to the sea
- The Ottoman Empire and the sea, 1789–1922
- Empire and trade without a major navy: Portugal
- Italy, 1861–1914: did the sea build a state and an empire?
- Imperial failure of the industrial age: Spain, 1805–1898
- Denmark: a small power with a growing shipping industry
- Sweden and the sea in the 19th century
- Navies, internal order and trade in South America, 1830–1914
- The sea and the American Civil War
- The wider Caribbean during the 19th and 20th centuries
- Ship canals
- Oil and water
- Imperial failure in the industrial age: China, 1842–1911
- China turns to the sea, 1912–1990
- India and the sea
- Les Îles d'Océanie et l'ouverture sur la mer à l'heure de la première mondialisation contemporaine
- Maritime labour
- Fisheries
- Geographical determinism and the growth of the American whaling and sealing industries
- La France et la mer, 1815–1914
- Russia tries the new naval technologies, 1815–1914
- The First World War and Japan: from the Anglo-Japanese Alliance to the Washington Treaty
- The sea in the Great War
- The Mediterranean and World War I
- Germany in World War One: naval strategy and warfare
- The sea in German grand strategy, 1919–1939/40
- The case of Germany in the first part of World War II, 1939–1942
- Britain on the defensive, 1939–1942
- Britain and the sea, 1943–1945
- The Washington Treaty era, 1919–1936: naval arms limitation
- The Washington Treaty era: neutralising the Pacific
- The United States and the Second World War
- The sea as a decisive factor in the Second World War
- The sea and the rise of the dictators: Italy, 1919–1940
- The Italian offensive, 1940–1941
- The sea and the Cold War
- NATO as a maritime alliance in the Cold War
- The sea and the Soviet Empire
- The sea and the economic slump, 1919–1939
- Océans et globalisation depuis 1945
- America's Pacific power in a global age
- Les nouvelles ressources océaniques
- Hiérarchies portuaires dans le monde et changements régionaux de connectivité maritime, 1890–2010
- Between empires and institutions: non-state actors and the sea since 1945
- The narcotics trade and the sea
- Climate change and world trade
- La France et la mer depuis 1945: une mutation inachevée
- Changes in naval power and seaborne trade in postwar Asian waters
- Looking to the future
- Conclusion(English)
- Conclusion(français)
- General conclusion
- Conclusion générale par
- Miscellaneous Endmatter 1
- Miscellaneous Endmatter 2
Britain, 1815–1850: naval power or sea power?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- General introduction and acknowledgements
- Introduction générale et remercients par
- Introduction (English)
- Introduction (français)
- The sea and seapower within the international system
- Germany, 1870–1914: a military empire turns to the sea
- The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1937–1942
- The US as a new naval power, 1890–1919
- World war suspended and resumed: Russia, 1919–1940
- Freedom and control of the seas, 1856–1919
- Unclos and the modern law of the sea
- New navies and maritime powers
- Britain, 1815–1850: naval power or sea power?
- Free trade, industrialization and the global economy, 1815–1914
- Coal and the sea
- Shipbuilding and power: some reflections
- Maintaining naval hegemony in the industrial age: Britain, 1850–1889
- Naval armaments races, 1889–1922
- The British Empire and the war at sea, 1914–1918
- Steaming worldwide waters: adaptation and transformation in the Netherlands
- Austria-Hungary: an inland empire looks to the sea
- The Ottoman Empire and the sea, 1789–1922
- Empire and trade without a major navy: Portugal
- Italy, 1861–1914: did the sea build a state and an empire?
- Imperial failure of the industrial age: Spain, 1805–1898
- Denmark: a small power with a growing shipping industry
- Sweden and the sea in the 19th century
- Navies, internal order and trade in South America, 1830–1914
- The sea and the American Civil War
- The wider Caribbean during the 19th and 20th centuries
- Ship canals
- Oil and water
- Imperial failure in the industrial age: China, 1842–1911
- China turns to the sea, 1912–1990
- India and the sea
- Les Îles d'Océanie et l'ouverture sur la mer à l'heure de la première mondialisation contemporaine
- Maritime labour
- Fisheries
- Geographical determinism and the growth of the American whaling and sealing industries
- La France et la mer, 1815–1914
- Russia tries the new naval technologies, 1815–1914
- The First World War and Japan: from the Anglo-Japanese Alliance to the Washington Treaty
- The sea in the Great War
- The Mediterranean and World War I
- Germany in World War One: naval strategy and warfare
- The sea in German grand strategy, 1919–1939/40
- The case of Germany in the first part of World War II, 1939–1942
- Britain on the defensive, 1939–1942
- Britain and the sea, 1943–1945
- The Washington Treaty era, 1919–1936: naval arms limitation
- The Washington Treaty era: neutralising the Pacific
- The United States and the Second World War
- The sea as a decisive factor in the Second World War
- The sea and the rise of the dictators: Italy, 1919–1940
- The Italian offensive, 1940–1941
- The sea and the Cold War
- NATO as a maritime alliance in the Cold War
- The sea and the Soviet Empire
- The sea and the economic slump, 1919–1939
- Océans et globalisation depuis 1945
- America's Pacific power in a global age
- Les nouvelles ressources océaniques
- Hiérarchies portuaires dans le monde et changements régionaux de connectivité maritime, 1890–2010
- Between empires and institutions: non-state actors and the sea since 1945
- The narcotics trade and the sea
- Climate change and world trade
- La France et la mer depuis 1945: une mutation inachevée
- Changes in naval power and seaborne trade in postwar Asian waters
- Looking to the future
- Conclusion(English)
- Conclusion(français)
- General conclusion
- Conclusion générale par
- Miscellaneous Endmatter 1
- Miscellaneous Endmatter 2
Summary
ABSTRACT.In the 1815 settlement Britain was able to achieve a stable Europe in which minimal naval intervention sufficed to keep the great military powers in balance, while Britain herself concentrated on rebuilding her economic strength and reducing the debts inherited from the war years. After the loss of America, British statesmen aimed for economic influence rather than direct rule of overseas territory.
RÉSUMÉ.Avec le traité de 1815, la Grande-Bretagne sut parvenir à l'établissement d'une Europe stable, dans laquelle une intervention navale réduite suffisait à maintenir l'équilibre entre les grandes puissances militaires. Cela lui permit de se concentrer, quant à elle, sur la reconstruction de sa force économique et sur la réduction des dettes engendrées par ces années de guerre. Suite à la perte de l'Amérique, les citoyens britanniques préférèrent s'attacher à l'influence économique plutôt qu'au contrôle direct de territoires étrangers.
The days of England's glory have their number, and the period of her decline will at length arrive.
Between 1815 and 1850 Britain was a sea power, an imperial state in which the sea dominated national security, economic development and political culture. Yet this distinctive form of power, in which communications, capital and cruisers were the key instruments, was a response to weakness and defeat. Lacking the population to operate as a major European power, chastened by the experience of the American Revolution, British statesmen chose to depend on a limited war strategy of sea control, only engaging the Continent at critical maritime locations: Flanders, Lisbon, Copenhagen and Cadiz. Sea power and insularity enabled Britain to evolve strategic concepts and cultural forms that harnessed the asymmetric advantage of sea control to outmanoeuvre far stronge continental powers, primarily through maritime economic war. Ultimately, British security depended on a peaceful, balanced and stable European system.
SUSTAINING SEA POWER CONSTRUCTING STABILITY.
Britain celebrated her role in the downfall of Bonaparte as “The Sheet Anchor of Europe”, the powerful external agency that prevented the Continent from running onto the rocks of revolution or the shoals of imperial hegemony. Maritime power enabled Britain to rebalance and reinforce but not dominate. After the defeat of Napoleon British statesmen, anxious to reduce peace-time defence expenditure, used the peace conferences at Paris, Ghent and Vienna to create the diplomatic context for a unique sea-power empire.
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- The Sea in History - The Modern World , pp. 92 - 102Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2017