This study explores all of Britain's key land and sea campaigns and
the dynamic relation among them during the Age of Revolution and
Napoleon, and reveals how two military geniuses were the reason why
Britain and its allies vanquished France when and how they did.
The art of power consists of getting what one wants. That is never more
challenging than when a nation is at war. Britain fought a nearly
nonstop war against first revolutionary then Napoleonic France from 1793
to 1815. During those twenty-two years, the British government formed,
financed, and led seven coalitions against France. The French inflicted
humiliating defeats on the first five coalitions. Eventually Britain and
its allies prevailed, not once but twice by vanquishing Napoleon
temporarily in 1814 and definitively in 1815.
French revolutionaries had created a new form of warfare, which Napoleon
perfected. Never before had a government mobilized so much of a realm's
manpower, industry, finance, and patriotism, nor, under Napoleon,
wielded it more effectively and ruthlessly to pulverize and conquer
one's enemies.
Britain struggled up a blood-soaked learning curve to master this new
form of warfare. With time the British made the most of their natural
strategic and economic advantages. Britons were relatively secure and
prosperous in their island realm. British merchants, manufacturers, and
financiers dominated global markets. The Royal Navy not only ruled the
waves that lapped against the nation's shores but those plowed by
international commerce around the world. Yet even with those assets
victory was not inevitable. Two military geniuses are the most vital
reasons why Britain and its allies vanquished France when and how they
did. General Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington and Admiral
Horatio Nelson respectively mastered warfare on land and at sea.
This is the first book of its kind. Of the hundreds of books on the era,
none before has explored all of Britain's land and sea campaigns from
the first in 1793 to the last in 1815. In this vividly written and
meticulously researched book, readers will experience each level of war
from the debates over grand strategy in London to the horrors of combat
engulfing soldiers and sailors in distant lands and seas. Haunting
voices of participants echo from two centuries ago, culled from
speeches, diaries, and letters. Britain's Rise to Global Superpower in
the Age of Napoleon reveals how decisively or disastrously the British
army and navy wielded the art of military power during the Age of
Revolution and Napoleon.
