The struggle had begun in first instance as a protest of the British
monarchy against the excesses of the French Revolution, especially
against the execution of Louis XVI, and doubtless the bulk of the
English nation still fancied that they were fighting against revolution
as personified in Napoleon Bonaparte. But to the statesmen and
influential classes of Great Britain as well as of France, the conflict
had long assumed a deeper significance. It was an economic and
commercial war. The British not only were mindful of the assistance
which France had given to American rebels, but also were resolved that
France should not regain the colonial empire and commercial position
which she had lost in the eighteenth century. The British had struggled
to maintain their control of the sea and the monopoly of trade and
industry which attended it. Now, when Napoleon extended the French
influence over the Netherlands and Holland, along the Rhine, and
throughout Italy, and even succeeded in negotiating an alliance with
Spain, Britain was threatened with the loss of valuable commercial
privileges in all those regions, and was further alarmed by the
ambitious colonial projects of Napoleon.
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