Britain relied heavily on its Royal Navy for security, seeking to keep it the most powerful fleet afloat with a full complement of bases across the globe. Ī favoured diplomatic strategy was subsidising the armies of continental allies, such as the Kingdom of Prussia, thereby turning London's enormous financial power to military advantage. The British were generally highly successful in their wars, with possibly the only notable exception being the American War of Independence (1775–1784). The chief enemy down to 1815 was France, with its much larger population base and its powerful army. This had been the basic reason behind the British wars against Napoleon, and in the view of some, Germany in World War I. After expending enormous energy on the defeat of the First French Empire and Napoleon (1793–1815), British policy focused on achieving a conservative balance of power within Europe, with no one country achieving dominance over the affairs of the continent. Peace was the usual pattern, but there was at times major conflict, particularly against France from the 1790s to 1815, after which Britain would not fight another war on the European soil until World War I, with victory achieved at enormous cost. Starting with India in 1947, independence movements took off in nearly every colony so that most had acheived independence by the 1960s with only a small handful left by the 1970. The Statute of Westminster granted effective independence to the Empire's long self governing Dominions in 1931.
Foreign policy made sure it was never seriously threatened. The Second British Empire was built fresh in Asia and Africa and reached its zenith in the 1920s. The overseas First British Empire was devastated by the loss of the thirteen American colonies in a war when Britain had no major allies. Foreign policy based on free trade (from the 1840 to 1920s) kept the economy flourishing. For the current situation since 2000 see foreign relations of the United Kingdom.īritain from 1750 to the 1910s took pride in an unmatched economic base comprising industry, finance, shipping and trade that largely dominated the globe.
The history of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom covers English, British, and United Kingdom's foreign policy from about 1500 to 2000.
0 kommentar(er)
