"Rule Britannia" Part 3. Chapter 8 from "Our Country, Then and Now"

"Russia and Prussia," "Britain vs. France and the Seven Years War," "The French Revolution and Napoleon"

Serialization of selections from my book Our Country, Then and Now continues with the cooperation of my publisher, Clarity Press.

As stated in the last installment, arguably the most important geopolitical event of the last 500 years has been the rise of the British Empire. This Empire was created through a series of deliberate choices made by the British nation starting with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603).

After England’s initial war with Spain, it next gained ascendancy over Holland and renewed its ancient strife with France for European hegemony by thwarting the invasion plans of Louis XIV. Meanwhile, the modern European system of states began to move toward its contemporary form by the rise of Russia and Prussia in eastern Europe. To make room for these two modernizing powers, Russia would shove Sweden and Poland aside, while Prussia would eventually displace Austria as the dominant nation within the German-speaking world.

While all this was going on, Britain and France carried out their epic showdown following the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. With Napoleon’s defeat, Britannia not only “ruled the waves” but moved to the final battle with Germany for domination of the Continent.

Russia and Prussia

Europe now became witness to the rise of Russia under Peter the Great (1672-1725). Combining the patience of the East with Western technical methods, Peter the Great, says Dehio, “sent the power of Russia soaring upwards.”[i]

Peter learned the art of war by fighting the Swedes, whose Baltic empire now began to decline. He created the modern Russian army, aided the Orthodox church in exchange for its support, and built a bureaucracy through judicious taxation. Peter’s adulation of Western civilization, especially France, manifested rapidly was but not shared with the Russian people of impoverished serfs and Jews in its western region; it “concealed the smothered discontent of the outraged soul of a people.”[ii] From Peter the Great onwards, Russia was subject to sudden revolts that eventually culminated in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

Britain and Russia now became the two “flanking powers” of Europe. Russia’s growth was based on wars against Sweden, Poland, and Turkey, with Peter crushing Sweden at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. He also established relations with China and extended the growing Russian Empire into the Caucasus and toward Central Asia and Persia.

Britain had its own eyes on Persia and the Middle East as possible connecting points between India and the Mediterranean. Britain now became alerted to Russia as a future adversary. The English diplomatic service commenced a secret espionage operation in Russia that persists until today.

France had come back from a period of decline after the death of Louis XIV to compete with Britain for overseas territories. Its motives were trade, wealth, and above all, control of foreign markets for domestic manufactured goods. This was especially so between the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War during the period 1748-1756. Britain had gone to the aid of Austria against the two Bourbon powers—France and Spain. Meanwhile, Russia too was beginning to oppose any bid by other nations for Continental supremacy.

Dehio writes: “A tendency on the part of any nation to dominate the old Continent would always cause the flanking powers to shelve their antagonism and join forces.”[iii] So Britain and Russia would join their strength but only when it was convenient. There would be constant maneuvering and intrigue, spy vs. counter-spy, to enable Britain’s mastery in weaving favorable coalitions.

Progressive victories of Britain and Russia over France, Spain, Sweden, and Poland gave space for the rise of the small Prussian state in northern Germany under Frederick the Great. Dehio calls Prussia “…a trough between two waves….A country on the culturally backward fringes of the Protestant world now shot into prominence, a power based on a military civilization.”[iv] Prussia would mold the German character during the formation of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I and his chancellor, Otto von Bismarck.

Britain succeeded in its Continental wars by subsidizing its allies rather than fighting its enemies itself. As Eric Berne wrote in Games People Play: “Let’s you and him fight.” Britain had money to spare in financing its allies’ armies, both from trade and from the seemingly bottomless pit of government bond sales; i.e., public debt and the inevitable inflation. Such proxy wars clearly foreshadowed today’s campaign in Ukraine against Russia led by the US but involving other NATO nations, most notably Britain. [This is another example of what was now the Anglo-American powers meddling in Continental affairs for their own aggrandizement.]

Britain vs. France and the Seven Years War

In the Seven Years War (1756-1763), Britain and France would fight for the future of a continent—North America—and a subcontinent—India. Britain’s victory on both fronts was due to its mastery of the sea. Britain could project power thousands of miles away in a manner that proved impossible for France. But this could not stop Britain’s American colonies from breaking away.

It even appeared to some that the center of gravity of world power might someday shift to the United States. During the American Revolution, all the Continental powers joined against Britain to help make America free. The usually disunited states of Europe sought to humble Britain and create a new Transatlantic counterweight.

Meanwhile, Russia advanced to a new level of prestige. It started when Catherine the Great (1729-1796) seized the throne from her husband, Peter III, who would shortly be assassinated. The partitions of Poland followed, and a Russian fleet destroyed the Turkish navy in the Aegean Sea. Britain, now alarmed, began to side with Sweden and Prussia against Russia, but Parliament refused to authorize a new Continental war. With the carving up of Poland and the weakness of the Ottoman Turks, Prussia under Frederick the Great

The French Revolution and Napoleon

Meanwhile, Britain was becoming the first modern industrial state. The Industrial Revolution began with harnessing of power from coal. Over forty years, there was a ten-fold increase in coal-fired iron production. Iron was the foundation for domestic manufacturing, building of railroads, construction of ships, and forging of armaments.

It was Britain’s creation of the factory system as applied to wool and cotton textiles, along with the utilization of limited liability corporations to protect investments, that enabled it to become the leading world power by the end of the 19^th century. From 1760 to 1820, Britain’s population doubled, a development aided by improved methods of medicine. It was industry that gave these people a livelihood. Those who turned to petty crime for a living were transported to the penal colony of Australia.

Meanwhile, in France, centuries of authoritarian rule, [collapse of its own monetary system based on government debt], and abuses by the elites produced a middle-class explosion. With the French Revolution, a political party, the Jacobins, came into being that could keep the masses in ferment. To divert the anger of the mob, they launched into foreign aggression.

France attacked its eastern neighbors to secure new borders by pushing its control to the Rhine on the German border. Napoleon became First Counsel of France in 1799. [Within France], terror and war boosted each other. Dehio says: “Napoleon raised the power of the state of Louis XIV to the level of the new age.”[v]

Britain knew that war and possible invasion again loomed. Nothing could match Napoleon’s force of almost one million men, but France was still trying to build up its navy. Britain began to pump vast funds into Europe, providing stipends to any nation that had a chance to stand up to the French hurricane. With its own navy, Britain organized a trade war against France.

One of Napoleon’s objectives in opposing Britain was to move toward India, which he had already attempted in his failed invasion of Egypt in 1798. Next, Napoleon tried to forge an alliance with Russia after Russia and Britain had fallen out over various shifting alliances and British moves to attack Russia’s capital, St. Petersburg, via the Baltic Sea.

After Tsar Paul I, the son of Catherine the Great, had broken with Britain, he was courted by Napoleon to plan a joint expedition against British India. Paul had dispatched an army of 22,000 Cossacks to attack India when he was assassinated by members of the Russian nobility.

It was alleged that the assassination was abetted by the British ambassador to St. Petersburg, a military officer named Charles Whitworth, who had been arranging cash subsidies to pay Russia for the use of troops against France. Czar Paul had abruptly dismissed Whitworth, who returned to England and became a Privy Counselor. But British intrigue in St. Petersburg continued.

On December 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French. His coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Wearing robes of satin and diamonds, he strode up the aisle wearing high-heeled shoes and carrying the scepter of Charlemagne. Pope Pius VII traveled from Rome for the enthronement, during which Napoleon placed a crown of gold laurel leaves on his own head as the Pope watched.

By now, Britain was war-weary and made overtures to Napoleon suing for peace. In fact, France could have enjoyed peace at any point through Napoleon’s conquests, except for his determination to hold power. Such has been the case with so many empires, and Napoleon continued to covet India.

Seeing that Napoleon was determined to restore the French fleet, Britain restarted the war. Napoleon now decided to invade Britain, but his plans proved impracticable. So, France renewed the war on the Continent, causing Britain to form the Third Coalition with Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Naples-Sicily. Britain also began to impress American seamen into its navy, causing US President Thomas Jefferson to cut off trade with both Britain and France, ruining American commerce.

The British fight to the death against Napoleon was now underway. Previously, Britain could have lived with Napoleon, due to its maritime trading power and overseas possessions, including India, but no more. Britain and France met offshore at Cape Trafalgar in Spain for the greatest sea battle of the age. Lord Nelson, the British admiral, died, but the battle was won. Next, Britain under the Duke of Wellington invaded Spain, and Napoleon again courted Russia to join him. But Russia was reeling by the cutting off of trade with Britain under Napoleon’s Continental System.

[Napoleon called Britain, “perfidious Albion,” “a nation of shopkeepers.”] Most of the battles against Napoleon were fought by Britain’s continental allies, not by British troops. Russia now refused to submit to Napoleon’s Continental System. So, in order to defeat Britain, Napoleon had to conquer Russia before Russia sent its own forces against him. Napoleon’s 1812 attack on Russia was a preventive measure. Russia deliberately drew Napoleon deeper into Russia, and the French army failed to master the great distances of the steppes.

The Battle of Borodino was inconclusive, with historians still asking why Napoleon did not commit his Imperial Guard. The only possible answer was that he could not afford to lose it so far from home. The French occupied Moscow, but after it burned, they launched a retreat in the dead of winter. French losses were catastrophic. The British now launched another coalition, with Napoleon’s final defeat taking place at the hands of the British and Prussians at Waterloo in Belgium in 1815. But it was Russia that had dealt the decisive blow, as it would later do against Hitler.

[Thus began Britain’s golden century. France never recovered the power and prestige of its glory days.]

Coming Next: “Britannia Rules the Waves,” “The Rise of Germany,” “South Africa”

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[i] Dehio, p.92.

[ii] Ibid, p.96.

[iii] Ibid, p.114.

[iv] Ibid, p.111.

[v] Ibid, p.141.