10. Britain and the Napoleonic Wars.

The Napoleonic Wars comprised a series of global conflicts fought during Napoleon Bonaparte's imperial rule over France (1805–1815). They formed to some extent an extension of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789. These wars revolutionized European armies and artillery, as well as military systems, and took place on a scale never before seen, mainly due to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe; and collapsed rapidly after the disastrous invasion of Russia (1812), and Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat, resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France in 1814 and 1815. No consensus exists as to when the French Revolutionary Wars ended and when the Napoleonic Wars began; one possible watershed-date occurred when Bonaparte seized power in France (9 November 1799). Other versions put the period of warfare between 1799 and 1802 in the context of the French Revolutionary Wars, and set the Napoleonic Wars' beginning at the outbreak of war between the United Kingdom and France in 1803, following the brief peace concluded at Amiens in 1802. The Napoleonic Wars ended on 20 November 1815, following Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo and the Second Treaty of Paris. Collectively, the nearly continuous period of warfare from April 20, 1792, until November 20, 1815, is occasionally called (chiefly in the United Kingdom) the Great French War.

War with Britain 1803-1804. Unlike its many coalition partners, Britain remained at war throughout the entire period of the Napoleonic Wars. Protected by naval supremacy, the United Kingdom was able to maintain a low-cost low-intensity warfare on a global scale for over a decade. Commitment increased in the Peninsula War, where, protected by topography, guerrilla activity, and sometimes massive earthworks, the British army succeeded in harassing French forces for several years. By 1815, the British army would play a central role in the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. The Treaty of Amiens (25 March 1802) resulted in peace between the UK and France, and marked the final collapse of the Second Coalition. But the Treaty always seemed unlikely to endure: it satisfied neither side, and both sides dishonoured parts of it. Military actions soon clouded the peace: the French intervened in the Swiss civil strife (Stecklikrieg) and occupied several coastal cities in Italy, while the United Kingdom occupied Malta. Napoleon attempted to exploit the brief peace at sea to restore the colonial rule in the rebellious Antilles. The expedition, though initially successful, would soon turn to a disaster, with the French commander and Bonaparte’s brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, dying of yellow fever and almost his entire force destroyed by the disease combined with the fierce attacks by the rebels.

Hostilities between Great Britain and France recommenced on May 18, 1803. The Allied war-aims changed over the course of the conflict: a general desire to restore the French monarchy became an almost manichean struggle to stop Bonaparte.

The series of naval and colonial conflicts, including a large number of minor naval actions (such as the Action of 1805) gave perhaps a clear sign of the new nature of war. Conflicts in the Caribbean, and in particular the seizure of colonial bases and islands throughout the wars, would directly and immediately have an effect upon the European conflict, and battles thousands of miles apart could influence each other's outcomes. The Napoleonic conflict had reached the point at which subsequent historians could talk of a "world war". Only the Seven Years' War offered a precedent for widespread conflict on such a scale

The increase in Britain’s industrial power and wealth in the 19^th century.

Britain ranked as the world's largest trading nation in 1860, but by 1913 it had lost ground to both the United States and Germany: British and German exports in that year each totalled $2.3 billion, and those of the United States exceeded $2.4 billion. More significant was the emigration of their goods and capital. In 1840, £7.7 million of her export and £9.2 million of her import trade was done outside Europe; in 1880 the figures were £38.4 million and £73 million. Continental political developments in the late 19th century, relating to the overall breakdown of the Concert of Europe, also rendered this imperial competition feasible, in spite of Britain's centuries of long-established naval and maritime superiority. As these other newly industrial powers, the United States, and Japan after the Meiji Restoration began industrializing at a rapid rate, Britain's comparative advantage in trade of any finished good began diminishing.

By the time of Queen Victoria's death in 1901, other nations, including the United States and Germany, had developed their own industries; the United Kingdom's comparative economic advantage had lessened, and the ambitions of its rivals had grown. The losses and destruction of World War I, the depression in its aftermath during the 1930s, and decades of relatively slow growth eroded the United Kingdom's preeminent international position of the previous century