[Sidenote: Remarkable Significance of the Era to Great Britain]
[Sidenote: Colonies]
[Sidenote: Commerce]
Beyond continental Europe the period was of utmost importance. The
maritime and commercial supremacy of Great Britain, which had been
seriously shaken by the War of American Independence, was regained in
the course of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Of course the
United States continued independent. But the great victories of Lord
Nelson over the French fleets rendered Great Britain the true mistress
of the seas; and she proceeded to utilize her naval superiority to
appropriate what remaining French colonies most suited her purpose. In
this way she possessed herself of Malta (1800), St. Lucia, Tobago
(1803), and Mauritius (1810). Then, too, the dependence of Holland upon
France, involuntary though it was most of the time, afforded her an
opportunity to seize such valuable Dutch colonies as Ceylon (1795),
Guiana (1803), and South Africa (1806). The sorry subservience of the
Spanish Bourbons to Napoleon gave Great Britain a similar chance to
prey upon Spanish commerce, to occupy some Spanish colonies, and to
open others to her own trade: at this time the British took possession
of Trinidad (1797) and Honduras (1798) and sent raiding expeditions
against Buenos Aires and Montevideo (1806-1807).
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