ABSTRACT
Napoleon Bonaparte created the largest empire in Europe prior to that of Hitler's Germany in World War Two. Moreover, the Napoleonic Wars also saw the collapse of the French overseas empire. Much of it was conquered by Britain, although the remaining French territories in North America were sold to the USA in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, taking the territorial claims of the USA to the Rockies. In the period 1800 to 1830, it is two other developments that seem of greater importance: Britain's rise to become clearly the strongest power in the world and the ability of newly independent states in the Americas, North and South, to resist attempts to suppress or limit their independence. In the War of 1812, American warships were unable to make any material difference to trade, let alone security, in British home waters, nor to prevent British power projection into, and in, American waters.
