ABSTRACT

The years 1790 to 1830 saw Britain engage in an extensive period of war-waging and empire-building which transformed its position as an imperial state, established its reputation as a distinctive military power and secured naval preeminence.

Despite this apparent success, Britain did not become a world super power in the conventional sense. Instead, as Professor Collins demonstrates, it operated as an enclave power, influencing or dominating many regions of the world without ever asserting global hegemony. Even in the 1820s, Britain still had to fight to maintain influence, and sometimes struggled to assert dominance on the borderlands of the empire.

By locating naval and military power at the heart of Britain's relationship with the wider world, Bruce Collins offers an insightful reinterpretation of the interaction between military and naval war-making, the expansion of the empire, and the nature of the British regime.  Using examples of conflicts ranging from continental Europe and Ireland to North America, Africa and India, he argues that the state’s effectiveness in war was crucial to its imperial expansion and gives new significance to British military conduct in an age of revolution and war.

part 1|57 pages

War, empire and British identity

chapter 1|22 pages

War and empire: the contested connection

chapter 2|33 pages

British militarism

part 2|93 pages

The war against Republican France

chapter 3|30 pages

Containing France in Europe, 1793–95

chapter 4|18 pages

The expanded contest, 1793–97

chapter 5|26 pages

The Irish rebellion, 1796–98

part 3|74 pages

Military imperialism in India

part 4|89 pages

The war against Napoleon

chapter 10|25 pages

The quest for objectives, 1803–08

chapter 11|26 pages

The Iberian peninsula commitment 1808–12

chapter 12|36 pages

Victory in Spain and France, 1813–14

part 5|76 pages

Britain's global reach

chapter 13|28 pages

The war of 1812

chapter 14|17 pages

The Waterloo campaign: lessons learned?

part 6|98 pages

The impact of war

chapter 16|24 pages

Instruments of power

chapter 17|20 pages

Aristocracy and British military culture

chapter 18|25 pages

Interventions overseas, 1820–30

chapter 19|27 pages

Britain as a global power, 1815–30