Foreign Policy

The conduct of colonial and foreign policy was necessarily influenced by the nature and limitations of British armed power. Until the last quarter of the nineteenth century the United Kingdom was spending more on its armed forces than any other state: ¹

		1870 (£)	1880 (£)	1890 (£)	1900 (£)
United Kingdom:	army	13,400,000	15,000,000	17,600,000	21,400,000
	navy	9,800,000	10,200,000	13,800,000	29,200,000
Germany:	army	9,600,000	18,200,000	24,200,000	33,600,000
	navy	1,200,000	2,400,000	4,600,000	7,400,000
France:	army	15,000,000	22,800,000	28,400,000	27,800,000
	navy	7,000,000	8,600,000	8,800,000	14,600,000
Russia:	army	18,600,000	26,000,000	24,600,000	32,100,000
	navy	2,400,000	3,800,000	4,400,000	8,400,000

The protection of Britain's world-wide imperial interests required a regular army which - though small by the standards of the Continent, where conscription prevailed - was bound to be comparatively expensive to maintain. After the ending of the Crimean War (1856) the size of the regular army was allowed to fall steadily under pressure for retrenchment; from an establishment over 200,000 in 1855 down to a low of 115,000 in 1870. Thereafter the total gradually rose again to reach over 150,000 during the 1890s.