Napoleonic Wars:
How far were the success of the British army in the French wars due to the role of
Wellington?
Wellington’s character:
As commander of the allied forces in the Peninsular war in Spain and Portugal, Wellington was known for attention to detail.
He picked battle locations that gave him some advantage.
Had a keen eye for slackness among officers or men, also believed that his army must be supplied from Britain using the navy and not to alienate the local population by living off of their land.
He always made sure that his soldiers were well fed and equipped.
He remarked that: “Our soldiers are the very scum of the earth and it really is wonderful that we should have made them the fine fellows they are.”
He believed in his soldiers which made the army better as they could trust him and his decision making.
Prelude to the peninsular war:
Napoleon began a new campaign in Europe in 1805, after a brief period of peace.
He quickly defeated Austria, Prussia and Russia, and considered invading Britain as his last major foe.
Nelson’s victory prevented any chance of Napoleon invading Britain through the sea.
Napoleon then went to the Iberian Peninsula as Spain was his ally.
However, he angered the Spanish patriots by replacing Spain’s king with his brother Joseph.
In 1807, the French army moved into Portugal to prevent the British Navy using the Portuguese ports.
Portugal was Britain’s oldest ally.
Portugal and Spain, where Napoleon had provoked a patriotic uprising and a guerrilla campaign, Britain had the opportunity to take military action against France on land.
Initial success and setback:
Wellington arrived in Portugal in July 1808, his small force was strengthened by 5,000 Portuguese and extra British troops commanded by Sir John Moore.
After defeating the French led by Marshal Junot at Vimeiro on the 21st August.
Wellington found himself superseded by the new commander-in-chief Sir Hew Dalrymple And his number two, Sir Harry Burrard.
Dalrymple agreed a deal, the Convention of Sintra which allowed the French troops to be evacuated in British ships as well as to keep their loot.
Wellington returned to Britain in anger.
An official enquiry exonerated all three of the commanders.
However, when Wellington returned to the Peninsula, April 1809, he was now in sole command.
Moore was killed during the evacuation of British survivors by the Royal Navy from Corunna in January 1809.
Corunna was a setback for the British
The returning troops looked demoralised and half-starved.
Politicians Complained about the army’s failures.
Some argued to make peace with Napoleon and people mourned the loss of Moore, which was just after the death of Nelson and William Pitt.
Wellington’s tactics:
By September 1809, Napoleon had returned to Paris, and Wellington embarked on a long, arduous campaign from 1809-1814.
This was a war of invasion and retreat, sieges and attrition.
This was against experienced French generals in Massena, Marmont and Soult.
By 1812, he was in Madrid and then forced to withdraw into Portugal before going on the offensive again in 1813 and invading France, to end the campaign in 1814 when Soult yielded the city of Toulouse.
Wellington had to use the Iberian geography and his local allies: the Portuguese regular army, the Spanish army – unreliable, and the Spanish Guerrillas who were hard to control.
On top of all this, he had to maintain his own troops’ morale and readiness for battle.
Rather than risk defeat, Wellington often chose a rear-guard action.
Wellington had to neutralise French strengths: artillery, massed infantry and mobility with large formations or corps.
After an artillery barrage, French infantry would attack in columns, often creating panic.
Most of Wellington’s infantry soldiers had single-shot muskets, and were trained to fire volleys and reload quickly.
Standard musket was the “Brown Bess”, which in expert hands could manage four shots a minute.
Army also had skirmishers, riflemen with the new Baker file, which took longer to reload.
Wellington’s preferred tactic was to position infantry on the reverse slope of a hill, out of sight with some protection from enemy cannon fire.
French infantry had to run uphill into volley musket fire from the British infantry, while rifle-firing sharpshooters peppered the French columns from the side.
British infantry with bayonets could advance if the attack faltered.
Talavera and Torres Vedras:
The ferocity of the Spanish guerrillas contrasted with the weakness of the regular Spanish army.
At the Battle of Talavera in September 1809, the Spanish were ill-equipped and let down by incompetent leaders, but Wellington was unable fully to exploit a narrow victory.
Portugal was a more reliable ally.
To protect supply lines in the winter of 1809-10, Wellington built massive fortification works across a peninsula north of Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.
Defences were known as the lines of Torres Vedras.
His army were secure behind the lines and could receive supplies by sea.
Wellington knew that the French were unable to bring up a siege train or enough men to break through his earthworks and forts.
Many local people fled Lisbon.
This left villages half deserted.
British used scorched earth policy after they left.
This was to remove any food and supplies, therefore when the French came through, and were harassed by the Guerrillas, they would be hungry and cold through the winter whilst the soldiers rested behind lines.
Wellington also cracked down on slackness.
However, he sent home anyone who spent too much time in theatres and brothels.
Fuentes to Onoro:
By 1811, Napoleon had driven Austria, Prussia and Russia from the war.
Peninsula was the only land war zone where Britain could fight back, and Wellington moved into Spain, and advanced from Portugal to besiege Almeida, which a fortress town was lost to the French in 1810.
The French were under control of the French Commander Massena, who tried to relieve Almeida and on the 3rd of May, his army attacked Wellington at Fuentes de Onoro.
Lasted 3 days and Wellington survived.
However, the untested 7th Division was almost caught out of position until the Light Division joined it and used a textbook withdrawal using square formations.
The battle ended with bayonet fighting in the village.
Wellington often complained that things went wrong if he was not personally on the spot.
Maseena paid the price of failure.
Wellington’s self-belief and discipline of soldiers helped a lot.
Wellington on the offensive:
In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with 500,000 men, he pulled out veteran troops from Spain to help this vast army.
Wellington was, for the first time, not outnumbered, and therefore adopted a more aggressive approach.
Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz:
First, Wellington attacked the border fortresses at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz.
Both involved weeks of siege work and using artillery to blast holes in the walls.
Aftermath of victory was as violent as the fight itself.
Soldiers killed, raped and robbed the townspeople.
Thomas Picton, at Ciudad Rodrigo, helped to restore discipline.
After Badajoz, many looters were flogged.
Wellington’s mercy could’ve been due to the terrible carnage of warfare.
He wanted to minimize losses and was seen crying.
Salamanca and Vitoria:
On the march, Wellington went for days without sleep.
Sometimes napping with a newspaper over his face.
Insisted on delivering orders in person.
Wellington often slept in his clothes with his boots besides him and his horse saddled.
At Salamanca, (July 1812), Wellington used hills to shield his army and took the French by surprise on the march.
French were scattered with heavy losses.
French General Maximilien Foy admitted that Wellington was a master of manoeuvres and concealment.
Allies entered Madrid, and Wellington was a hero.
Wellington disliked having titles or promises of future wealth, but did think that daily pay was too low.
He was often critical and nervous of unfamiliar officers sent from London, as well as his soldiers terrorising the Spanish civilians.
By summer of 1813, the French had fallen back on Vitoria.
Wellington attacked from both front and rear which cut off retreat.
British pursuit was interrupted only when soldiers began to loot.
French defeat finished the war in Spain.
French retreated and in 1814, Wellington invaded Southern France.
Peninsular War had restored the reputation of the British army.
The Hundred Days:
France was invaded in 1814 by the allies.
April, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and retreat to exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba.
However, in February 1815, Napoleon escaped and arrived in France with 600 soldiers.
Troops were sent to arrest him, but they joined him.
The newly restored King Louis XVIII fled to England.
Napoleon entered Paris as emperor once again.
The European powers declared war, and Wellington prepared for a fresh campaign.
Wellington takes on Napoleon:
Wellington led a coalition army of British, Belgians, Dutch and Germans with headquarters in Brussels.
He planned to cooperate with the Prussians in the east, led by Field Marshal Blucher.
The Russians and Austrians were not yet ready to join the campaign.
When Lord Uxbridge, Wellington’s second-in-command asked about his plan of battle.
Wellington said that we would be guided by circumstance.
He had lost many of his peninsular veterans to America, and was uncertain about the Belgian and Dutch troops.
“Give me enough of that” he said pointing at the British infantryman.
On the 16th June 1815, there were two battles: Quatre Bras and Ligny.
Wellington as attacked by Marshal Ney at Quatre Bras but held position.
At Ligny, the Prussians lost to Napoleon, and pulled back as the French headed for Brussels.
Wellington also prudently withdrew.
Blucher had told Wellington he would bring the Prussian army to the next battle.
Wellington later claimed he had picked out the site of the battle of Waterloo from the Brussels road.
The Battle of Waterloo:
Battle was fought on the 18th June 1815.
Waterloo was, as Wellington said, “The nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”, and it might have been very different had he not been there.
The battlefield was four miles across at most, had hedges and hummocks to provide cover and three strong points:
The Chateau at Hougoumont in the centre.
The farmhouse of La Haye Sainte.
Farm of Papelotte
Wellington put troops in all of them.
Wellington had 68,000 men and 156 guns against Napoleon with 72,000 and 246.
If Blucher arrived, he would have a more superior army to Napoleon.
Napoleon faced issues on the morning of the battle.
He was unwell and unable to sit down on a horse for long.
Secondly, his men would be attacking uphill.
Thirdly, the ground was waterlogged after rain which caused delays in moving troops and cannons.
Therefore, rather than jumping straight in when possible, they waited until 11 o’clock.
The French began with an assault on Hougoumont, as well as infantry attack, both were repulsed.
However, heavy fire from Napoleon’s “ground battery” of artillery caused some Dutch and Belgian units to break and flee.
Battle was very much in the balance.
The tide turns:
Wellington was on the move most of the day and was directing matters.
By contrast, Napoleon was static and Ney was too much on the gallop with the cavalry.
In the early afternoon, after Napoleon was taken ill and left the field who left Ney to command.
Wellington used this to move his troops out of artillery range.
Ney mistakenly believed Wellington was retreating and sent all the French cavalry in pursuit.
The allied infantry formed squares and fired volleys into the French horsemen.
Napoleon returned to see his cavalry all being wasted.
At the same time he received the news that the Prussian soldiers were about to join the battle.
Marshal Grouchy sent with 30,000 men to keep the Prussians away, had failed to prevent the arrival of Blucher’s army.
Napoleon committed to his elite Guards to hold up the Prussians, the Old Guard veterans to break the British line.
French columns marched uphill, under heavy fire from British infantry.
While the French wavered, Wellington ordered the British to charge with Bayonets and the Old Guard was broken.
Even amongst the chaos. Many soldiers could see the Old Guard run and the Prussians arriving.
The French army disintegrated: many fled, others surrendered as Prussian cavalry pursued the French.
Napoleon escaped to Paris but was exiled On St Helena.
Wellington, the general:
Wellington returned to Britain as a hero and to a political career.
He had to change the image of the British soldier.
After Waterloo, his “scum” enjoyed a new respect.
He was later quoted as saying that had he had his peninsular army at Waterloo, he would have been more aggressive.
He was lucky to have been blessed with an iron constitution that saw him through hard campaigns.
As well as having solid trusted officers like Somerset (Lord Raglan), Uxbridge and De Lancey.
Before Waterloo, he asked for as many of his Peninsular Officers back as possible, not men he had never seen before.
What role did Nelson play in shaping Britain’s naval war with France?
The British and naval warfare:
The British navy guarded the nation against invasion.
It also protected overseas trade and colonies.
Britain depended on ships for trade and well maintained Navy for battle.
American War of Independence had revealed shortcomings.
Many ships of the line were old and poorly maintained.
American privateers enjoyed success against the Royal Navy.
In 1792, the British navy had 135 ships of the line and 133 smaller frigates.
By 1802, the number jumped to 202:277 and the number of sailors from 16,000 to 135,000.
Had competent admirals such as Samuel Hood, Richard Howe and John Jervis. And some of the young ones included Horatio Nelson.
Nelson joined the navy at the age of 12.
He got first command in 1779.
Served in Caribbean.
The navy’s role:
From the outbreak of war in 1793, the navy had ships at sea for months.
Logistics were strained.
Had problems with administration and supply.
Dockyards were in poor condition, shortages of home-grown timber meant that shipbuilding and repairs were slow.
Discontent amongst fleet sailors meant mutinies at Spithead and the Nore in 1797.
Spithead mutinies were more about conditions and the mutiny at Nore was more political, with the ringleaders demanding peace with France.
Experienced seamen were hard to find and retain, and press gangs were forced to use civilians.
During French wars, the Navy was closer to Europe.
Squadrons of ships patrolling the North Sea, English Channel, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Coast of France and Spain.
Key tasks were to protect Britain against invasion, to protect the British commerce on the seas, and interfere with French sea trade and naval activity through blockades.
They also stopped ships from neutral countries to search for cargo.
Nelson’s rise to prominence:
In 1793, Nelson was in command of a squadron in the Mediterranean, happy to be at sea after 5 years of relative inactivity at home.
In 1794, he lost the sight in his right eye when wounded by an exploding cannon shell during a battle with the French off Corsica.
As a commander, he believed in gunnery and boldness, training his gun crews to fire faster and his boarding parties of armed sailors and marines.
In 1797, Nelson became famous for his part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent, off Portugal.
He took his 74-gun ship HMS Captain out of the line of British ships and into close-quarters combat despite severe damage, leading his men in battle on the enemy’s deck with swords, pistols, muskets and clubs.
In this battle, he captured two Spanish warships, increased his reputation and earned promotion to rear-admiral.
Good judgment and bravery in a captain won loyalty from sailors; the men hoped a bold commander would capture enemy ships and bring prize money for them.
Nelson had star quality not then popularly known as such, but still recognised: he had seemed frustrated whenever forced into inactivity – as happened towards the end of 1797 when, fighting ashore in an attack on a Spanish fort in the Canary Islands, his right arm was shot through and later had to be amputated.
Contemplated retirement but was back on the sea in 1798.
Maritime trade and control of the Mediterranean:
The British navy was the prime obstacle to Napoleon’s plans, both for an invasion of England and wider schemes for European domination.
With its naval strength, Britain could defy French attempts at a European trade embargo, maintains its global trade without hindrance and cripple French maritime operations both mercantile and naval.
Napoleon, a general adept at land battles but knowing little of naval warfare, faced the reality that British naval power, exercised aggressively by a commander like Nelson, could thwart his ambitious ideas.
Mediterranean was a key battleground.
Napoleon had grand visions of making an expedition to Egypt.
A French presence in Egypt seemed to threaten the British power in the Mediterranean and, worse, threaten India, and the immensely valuable trade of the East India Company.
Nelson was tasked with cruising the Mediterranean to deal with this threat.
He found the French fleet in Egypt, at anchor in Aboukir Bay, and launched a daring attack in fading daylight.
French were anchored in a line, but Nelson slipped half of his force between the French ships and the coast in order to attack from both sides.
Of 17 French ships engaged, 13 were captured or destroyed.
Very strong victory, the Battle of the Nile as it became known, left most of Napoleon’s army stranded.
Napoleon returned to France, annoyed, and having identified Nelson as a strong opponent.
News of Nelson’s victory made him a hero and he was made a baron with an annual pension of £2,000 and his victory was celebrated with pictures.
Nelson’s fighting qualities:
Nelson had created a strong reputation as a fighting admiral.
He was made a viscount in 1801.
He looked after his crew but himself too.
He wrote to the Admiralty insisted on his entitlement to a share of prize money gained by captains under his command.
Those captains respected his courage and aggression.
Also that Nelson often discussed plans with the captains.
He instilled the notion of “duty” as well as teamwork by becoming “a band of brothers”.
He also went to some trouble to improve the lot of his men.
Many seamen who served under him came to admire and love him, they knew that Nelson’s personal courage was never in doubt.
By the time of Trafalgar, the battle that confirmed his status, he was already Britain’s most famous sailor.
With a staunch supporter in PM William Pitt. Nelson as much as anyone seemed to symbolise British resistance to France’s own hero, and, from 1804, emperor Napoleon.
The threat from Napoleon:
In 1901. Nelson was in action in the Baltic, leading British ships in an attack on Copenhagen in Denmark.
Denmark was feared to be joining an alliance with France, Sweden, Russia and Prussia.
This would swing the balance against the British.
The attack on the Danish fleet in Copenhagen occasioned the famous incident when Nelson put a telescope to his sightless eye, when he signalled by Sir Parker to halt the attack.
The battle ended in a truce.
These kind of stories made Nelson even more of a hero.
The short-lived Peace of Amiens brought respite for the Navy.
Peace talks had started before the Copenhagen raid.
This was because of British fears that the League of Armed Neutrality might be a danger to British maritime trade, and the navy’s freedom to stop and search neutral ships on the sea.
The Copenhagen attack stopped these fear and the league was dissolved.
Amiens did not last, because the French refused to agree a trade deal with Britain and remained belligerent, occupying Naples in Italy.
Britain declared war on the 18th of May 1803.
Even before he crowned himself emperor in May 1804, Napoleon had been assembling an army at Boulogne with an intention to invade England.
Nelson was in command of the Mediterranean fleet, and was tasked with keeping the French fleet in port.
No French invasion across the Channel could succeed while the British navy patrolled the Channel and blockaded French ports in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Napoleon demanded his admirals lure the British fleet away, long enough for his invasion army to cross the Channel in barges.
From July 1803, Nelson was at sea almost constantly, hoping to engage the French fleet in a battle.
In 1804, Spain joined the war as France’s ally which added their ships to the French.
New French Naval commander, Villeneuve, was neither aggressive nor confident of his fleet’s abilities against the now renowned Nelson and was reluctant to leave port.
Naval technology and tactics:
Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory was already an old ship when it fought at Trafalgar in 1805, but British vessels had been improved by the 1780’s innovations of coppering which was covering a ship’s wooden hull with copper sheets.
The metal protected the wood and nails from rot/corrosion.
After years at sea, wooden hulls grew a thick crust of barnacles and seaweed, slowing a ship’s speed, until it was dry-docked and repaired.
Coppering made warships faster and more durable.
Nelson’s early career taught him the effects of close-range gunnery on wooden ships.
Gunnery was the key to winning a sea battle, and captains drove their gun crews to achieve faster rates of fire.
In battle, ships were usually supposed to stay in line, but Nelson was never shy of ignoring conventions.
Nelson’s favourite ploy was to break the enemy’s line, so his ships could fire in turn.
Then sending broadsides to rake enemy ships from bow to stern – front to rear.
Ammunition for the muzzle-loading guns included iron-balls, chain shot and heated shot.
Fired at close range, often point blank with the ships touching, broadsides did terrible damage, smashing through decks and masts, and killing/wounding many crewmen.
A ship might be holed and sunk, but more often it was captured and became a prize of victory.
British sailors admired French shipbuilding and captured French ships were used by repairing them and being reflagged as British.
Strategy and man-management:
Naval strategy was often a guessing game.
An enemy ship, or an entire fleet, could easily vanish into the vast oceans.
Fast frigates and cruisers kept watch on the enemy, reporting movements.
Nelson often had to rely on guesswork as much as intelligence.
Sailing ships relied on wind, and their movements were predictable.
Playing this waiting game, a captain had to keep his crew fit, on a diet that at its worst consisted of salted beef, mouldy biscuits, foul drinking water, and rum or brandy.
On long voyages, sailors often became ill with scurvy which was caused by poor dieting.
Nelson looked after his men.
Chasing the French:
In January 1805, Admiral Villeneuve’s fleet put to see from Toulon, but the French ships soon returned to port.
However, he was deterred by rough seas and a fear of Nelson, who searched for the enemy in vain.
Back in London, in April 1805, Sir Charles Middleton, took over the Admiralty.
Middleton was almost 80 but was still full of life, ordered aggressive action against the French.
Nelson who was still patrolling the Mediterranean, and frustrated at not knowing what the French were up to, was ordered to provide a naval escort for General James Craig’s army from Gibraltar to Malta.
Napoleon was still urging Villeneuve to be bolder and at the end of March 1805, the French fleet finally broke out of the Mediterranean and escaped west across the Atlantic to the West Indies.
This alarmed the British government who feared a French attack on the valuable sugar trade.
Nelson lamented that his previous good fortune had deserted him, at first even the winds were contrary, but sailed in pursuit, fast crossing the ocean in three week, and arriving in early June with fit crews, while the French had to disembark with 1,000 sick men.
The two fleets never met, Villeneuve hastened back to Europe, with Nelson again following.
British Minister at Naples, Hugh Elliott, wrote to Nelson joking that he somehow seemed to have shrunk the globe, having been at sea so long and sailed from Egypt to the West Indies and back, yet with ships and men in such health and spirits.
The Battle of Trafalgar:
Nelson was given command of the fleet of Cadiz.
He hoped to lure Villeneuve out of port.
He kept his ships 50 miles offshore.
A line of frigates reported any enemy movements.
Nelson set about inspiring confidence in his captains.
Stressed the importance of getting into battle quickly and not firing until they were a few yards away from the enemy.
No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy.
19th October 1805, Villeneuve had 33 battleships, 30,000 men and 2568 gun.
Early on the 21st October, both fleets saw each other.
With not enough wind to return to shore, Villeneuve ordered his ships into a line.
Nelson formed his fleet into two divisions, one led by himself in the Victory, the other by Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign.
At 11.40AM Nelson signalled the fleet: ‘England expects that every man will do his duty”
Soon after, he raised his favourite signal: ‘Engage the enemy more closely’
His ships inched forwards receiving heavy fire from the enemy which they were unable to return, however, the enemy aim was poor.
60 ships preparing to fight carried a huge weight of armament.
If all the cannons of all the armies at the battle of Waterloo were lumped together with the guns from the two fleets at Trafalgar, only 7% of the total would be contributed by the land forces.
HMS Victory carried armaments equal to 67% of the British Army’s artillery at Waterloo.
Royal Sovereign reached enemy line first.
Collingwood was on the quarterdeck, the most dangerous place.
At 12:10, with the Sovereign only yards from the enemy, Collingwood who was eating an apple gave the order to open fire.
Before Victory opened fire, she was under fire from 5 ships for 40 minutes losing 50 men.
Her rigging and sails were cut to pieces and steering mechanism destroyed.
At 12.35, she found a gap astern of Villeneuve’s flagship the Bucentaure.
The Victory’s carronade caused devastation of Bucentaure’s quarterdeck
Her guns raked the enemy’s stern with a broadside which put some 400 Frenchmen and 20 guns out of action.
Victory then found another 2 ships which were avoided.
Royal Sovereign, the Belleisle, the Victory, and the Temeraire suffered significant damage.
As more British ships began arriving, Villeneuve’s fleet took a pounding as British gunnery overwhelmed the enemy at close range.
Conditions were poor below deck.
Men slipped on the blood of crewmates.
At 1.15PM, Nelson was shot through the shoulder.
Ball punctured his lung and spine.
He was carried below.
Soon after 1.45PM, the Bucentaure, with 99 fit men out of a crew of 643, surrendered as well as other French and Spanish ships.
Captain Hardy visited Nelson and told him that we got 12 or 14 of the enemy’s ships.
Nelson died at 4:30PM and his fleet took 18 of Villeneuve’s ships.
4 were lost in the storm after the battle.
Only 5 from Cadiz were considered seaworthy.
Not one British ship was lost, 459 Britons were dead including Nelson.
1208 were wounded.
2218 French deaths and 1155 wounded.
Spanish had 1025 killed and 1383 wounded.
Trafalgar was a victory, it did not prevent a French invasion nor did it change the War of the Third Coalition.
Two months later, Austria was out of the war.
Prussia and Russia were both defeated by 1807.
After Trafalgar, the Royal Navy received an aura of invincibility and was not challenged by the French afterwards.
The war on French trade:
Nelson had set the tone for the Royal Navy’s war – long patrols at sea, often tedious, to confine the enemy ships in port.
This was also mixed in with strong attacks on any ship or fleet that showed up.
The British dominated the world maritime trade, with more than 21,000 vessels by 1815.
France had far fewer ships and French manufacturers relied on imports from British colonies of goods like tea, coffee, sugar, spices and cotton.
With the British navy protecting merchant ships on the oceans, and keeping many French warships blockaded in ports.
Napoleon’s efforts to impose a trade embargo, banning all British colonial ships from France, had limited success.
French overseas trade suffered more than Britain’s.
The French relied on neutral shipping to carry goods, but the the British navy insisted on stopping and searching neutral ships.
This policy soured relationships with the USA.
Nelson’s vigorous campaign to enforce British naval supremacy had long-term impacts for future British policy.
Trafalgar entered folklore as the most famous naval battle in British history.
Nelson was celebrated as a naval hero.
Equally significant was the navy’s years of economic ear by blockade.
Both the battle and Nelson’s naval tactics throughout his career shaped the future of thinking by the Royal Navy throughout the 19th century.
Nelson’s achievements had made Britain the most powerful maritime state in the world for a 100 years.
How significant was the impact of the French Wars on the British economy?
The impact of change:
After the French Revolution, social order became a priority for the governments who feared unrest in changing times – political, economic, and technological.
As the French Wars raged from 1793 to 1815, there were signs that the British government was becoming more restrictive in its attitude towards the poor and labour.
1799-1800 Combination Acts outlawed trade unions and Luddism was suppressed on the grounds that protests against industrial changes were offenses against private property – which was evidence of revolutionary intent.
Wars lasting more or less continuously for more than 20 years put a big strain on the British economy.
There were radical money-raising measures – first income tax in 1799.
Fears were expressed by certain economists such as Malthus that Britain’s increasing population would increase quicker than food which would lead to mass starvations.
Higher food productions coped with population growth and the demands of war.
The population of Britain rose faster than France’s population.
The impact on trade:
In Europe, and on the seas, Britain imposed a blockade, stopping any neutral ships and shutting off key French ports.
Trade was an important weapon:
The British army could not defeat Napoleon on land unaided.
Britain’s economic weaponry, by using banks to fund coalitions of allies such as Prussia and Austria, as well as its ability to wage a trade war using the navy gave it powerful assets.
This was demonstrated through such measures as the Order in Council issued by George III and his minister in 1807, which was aimed not just at countries allied to Napoleon but any countries that tried to exclude the British flag.
British economy survived and grew, despite war.
Britain’s financial strength and its ability to trade worldwide thanks to the protection of its navy helped it to stay at war when allies like Austria, Prussia and Russia were beaten.
Beaten nations were expected to stop trade with Britain.
Napoleon hoped this trade blockade – the Continental System, in 1807, would choke the British economy.
This failed.
Smugglers and neutral ships would continue to carry goods across the Channel, and since France relied heavily on British trade the French suffered more because of the sanctions.
British merchants found new export markets in northern Europe to compensate for slowdown in trade across the Mediterranean.
Most countries were prepared to break the blockade and trade openly or secretly.
Sweden did this in 1808 and Russia from 1810 onwards.
Exports included goods from British factories, and mills including textiles and the re-export of goods from overseas such as the West Indies, East Indies and India.
Britain had the maritime capacity to trade globally, sending factory goods to North and South America, and to Asia as well as its own growing Empire.
British retaliation against France in the economic war, caused a war with the USA.
Royal Navy demanded to board and search any ship trading with France, which annoyed the Americans.
USA banned British trade, which hurt the Americans more than Britain.
This tension led to the war of 1812, which was a pointless distraction for Britain until it ended in 1814.
Trade, wages and the impact on the poor:
Trade continued with Europe, despite the economic warfare.
There were dips in exports, but the British recovered.
The value of British exports overall rose during the wars, while exports to Europe almost doubled between the 1790s and the end of the war.
The trade war had eased by 1812, with the French allowing the legal importation of British colonial items like cotton, sugar and tea.
By 1813, trade tariffs made timber from Canada cheaper than other sources.
New markets opened up in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America.
Trade with the USA continued despite difficulties with retaliation.
The financial squeeze was on private spending and household incomes.
Wages in real terms stagnated from 1796-1814.
The low paid were hit by rising food prices, especially of bread.
Hard times for families with menfolk away at war.
Especially for those breadwinners who did not return or came home maimed and unable to work.
Real wages stagnated during the war years, while prices did not.
For the poor, many parishes, tied the parish relief to the price of bread.
The most well-known of these system was the Speenhamland system, named after a parish in Berkshire.
This linked the size of families to the price of bread in order to determine relief.
Most of these relief systems died after 1815.
The war-debt:
The Seven Years’ War (1756-63) cost Britain nearly £150 million.
The French Wars (1793-1815) cost around £1,600 million.
This cost was incurred not only by sending the army and navy out to fight Napoleon, but also by funding coalitions of allies against the French.
Much of this finance was secured by borrowing – it was war funded on credit.
Success was due to Britain’s already sophisticated manufacturing and banking systems.
Financiers such as Nathan Rothschild helped fund the swelling national debt and arrange loans.
Borrowing to fund international coalitions against Napoleon, signalled the government’s determination to pursue the war to a resolution.
Government’s response to fears about the growth of national debt and higher taxes, was imposing income tax for the first time (1799-1802) and again from (1803-1816).
To raise money, the government offered government stocks, more secure in war times, but on the whole the investment remained steady; the number of stock market traders increased (432-1792, to 726-1812).
From 1802, the new London Stock Exchange was operating.
There was also an increase in banks.
The effect of the war on farming:
The French Wars followed a period of agricultural change known as the agrarian revolution.
This had begun earlier in the 1700s and by the 1790s Encyclopaedia Britannica could claim that Britain led all modern nations in farming.
Output per worker was 50% higher than in other European countries.
Farmers benefitted from high wartime prices, so much so that at war’s end the government introduced the Corn Laws of 1815, which was regulation that protected home wheat-growers from cheap foreign imports.
This created many arguments between protectionist economists and advocates of free trade.
Agrarian revolution had made British farming more efficient with larger farms, and fewer workers.
New crop rotation systems made better use of land rather than leaving fields fallow for a season to restore fertility.
Selective breeding produced sheep, cattle and pigs that gave more meat and wool.
New machinery like the Meikle’s threshing machine and lighter ploughs required fewer horses or oxen and fewer men.
In 1793, the government set up the Board of Agriculture to make surveys of farming across every county.
The official who began this was called Arthur Young.
He knew most “improvers” and started a magazine about agricultural modernisation.
Farming revolution was spurred on by the high demands of the war.
War had little impact on people as it had little effect on daily life.
A key change to land use was the enclosure of farmland.
Parliamentary Enclosure Acts consolidated small landholdings into larger and more efficient farms.
There were more than 3,000 of these acts between 1760 and 1820.
Small farms were absorbed by large landowners, many small farmers became landless labourers.
Some common land used by the poor to graze animals was also enclosed.
The enclosures caused resentment among the poor but did boost output.
Britain’s farms needed to produce more food to make up for the reduction in imports caused by the war restrictions.
Grain continued to be imported, though when imports were restricted, the price of wheat rose sharply.
The consequent rise in bread prices was made worse by poor harvests in 1809 and 1810.
Colonial “tropical” items like sugar and tea were still imported.
Shortage of timber, for shipbuilding, did threaten the war effort.
Ancient Royal Oak forests had been neglected, with many landowners planting wheat instead of trees.
Admiral St Vincent believed the navy administration to be as rotten as the wood in some of the vessels.
In early 1800s demanded reform of the naval dockyards.
This alienated the merchants who retaliated by reducing supplies.
In 1804, Pitt and Melville reversed St Vincent’s reforms to appease the merchant.
In 1805, this was undone again.
The effect of the war on industry:
The Industrial Revolution had begun in Britain before the French Wars and continued at the same speed through them.
New machinery was transforming the textile industry.
New machines such as the Crompton’s spinning mule and powered looms for weaving cloth.
This led to a boom in cotton manufacture.
By 1818, there were 337 cotton spinning mills across Britain.
This boom went on through the war and rather than halt industrial progress, the wars stimulated it.
Cotton trade continued, and entered Europe via new routes, for example through Spain and Portugal, as well as being smuggled.
Textile mills were busy defying the law and selling to France as well as making uniforms for the British Army.
New technology is often spurred on by war.
Innovations during the French Wars included the industrial lathe invented by Henry Maudslay (1797) and an improved power loom by William Horrocks (1813).
Factories were set up in 1807 to make sailing blocks for the Royal Navy, they were seen as the world’s first mass-production lines.
Ironmaking also boomed, with the demand for cannons and other weaponry.
Cyfartha ironworks in South Wale made just 500 tons of iron in 1787 and by 1787 it was producing 10,000 tons a year.
Populations of industrial towns grew fast; by 1820, Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales had 20 times more people than it had in 1790.
Naval dockyards at Chatham, Portsmouth and Devonport were kept busy building new ships and repairing older vessels.
War demanded infrastructure improvements, with canal building, to move heavy materials by water.
New canals around London and the south and Midlands including the Royal Military Canal in Kent, helped to create a more extensive canal system by 1815.
Road transport was still slow but was improved by better roads.
Steam engine development continued for industrial use.
In 1796, Boulton and Watt opened a factory to make steam pumping engines.
Demonstration in 1804 of a steam locomotive by Richard Trevithick was a pointer towards the age of railways about to begin.
The government was involved in some wartime construction projects, like the building of Martello towers (1805-8) along the coast to guard against the threat of invasion.
Also borrowed the French invention of the Chappe telegraph.
This was a signal system using mechanical arms and shutters to transmit messages.
Impact of new ideas:
Change produced fear and uncertainty, often seen by the government as evidence of “revolutionary sympathies”.
Machine breaking was a symptom of the fear felt by skilled workers as traditional craft jobs disappeared.
Government cracked down on outbreaks of machine-breaking or Luddism.
This was named after Ned Ludd who was a worker who had broken two hand-knitting machines in Nottinghamshire some 30 years earlier.
Luddism grew in Nottinghamshire in 1811 and spread to Yorkshire and Lancashire among textile workers fearful of mechanisation.
While this was not directly linked to the war, the agitation and the government’s response to it signalled signs of stress in the reshaping industrial landscape.
Government response to protests by sending in troops to keep the peace, while factory owners hired security guards to protect machines.
New laws introduced to prevent workers forming trade unions.
Government suspended habeas corpus in 1794.
This meant that authorities cannot imprison people indefinitely without trial.
In 1812, the breaking of machines became a capital offence and in 1813, 17 Luddites were hanged.
Luddite campaign lasted until the end of the French Wars.
Deeper social unrest lingered.
The ideals of the French Revolution, especially liberal ideas of social justice, influenced some industrialists such as Robert Owen.
He found support for his plans for new model factor-communities from social philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham.
Many former supporters of the French Revolution, such as the poet William Wordsworth, became disenchanted, first by its violence, and then by the emergence of Napoleon as emperor.
Conclusion: How did the French Wars change Britain?
The French Wars from 1793-1815 had a significant impact on Britain.
Britain was drawn more closely into European diplomacy through coalitions or alliances.
Britain’s economy grew stronger during the wars as well as its military reputation.
Britain emerge in 1815 as a leading power, central to the peace settlement and the post-war arrangements for Europe.
At the same time, it had extended its global trade through overseas colonies and the power of the navy.
Industrial changes and shifts in labour and population, as towns grew because of factories and mills, were unsettling to rich and poor.
Government feared social disorder, and while the tone of the debate during the wars was relaxed and liberal, a more repressive mood was apparent after the end of the war.
Tories opposed to trade unions and vote-reform movements such as Chartism.
French Wars created national heroes in Wellington and Nelson and revived traditional hostility to France, though most of the virulence was aimed at Napoleon rather than the French people.
Friendly cross-Channel relations were quickly re-established.
However, the two countries remained rivals for colonies.