The disruption of the
Spanish colonial empire was a direct outcome of Napoleon's career, and
next to the colonists themselves the British were the chief
beneficiaries. In general, the new colonies which Great Britain
acquired were intended either, as in the case of Malta, Mauritius,
Ceylon, and South Africa, to strengthen her hold upon India, or, as in
the case of the others, to develop her trade with Spanish America.
[Sidenote: Industry]
This naval predominance of Great Britain and the expansion of her
commerce and colonial empire synchronized with the rapid development of
the Industrial Revolution within England. It was the ceaseless
operation of spinning frames and power looms, of blast furnaces and
steam engines, in a country on which the French emperor's army had
never trod, that most truly worked the downfall of Napoleon.
[Illustration: THE BONAPARTE FAMILY]
ADDITIONAL READING
TEXTBOOK NARRATIVES. H. E. Bourne, _The Revolutionary Period in
Europe, 1763-1815_ (1914), ch.
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