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10 - The Royal Navy

from Part II - The State of the Armed Forces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2022

By
Stephen Conway
Edited by
Bruno Colson  and
Alexander Mikaberidze
Bruno Colson
Affiliation:
Université de Namur, Belgium
Alexander Mikaberidze
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University, Shreveport
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Summary

By comparison with the continental powers, Britain had no more than a medium-sized army, but the largest navy in Europe.  This chapter seeks to explore the bases of Britain’s naval strength, going back to the seventeenth-century Navigation Acts, and then to consider how that strength was deployed in the war against Napoleon.  It argues that the Royal Navy, despite the limited impact it might be thought that it could have on land warfare, played an important part in the final defeat of Napoleon.

Keywords

Royal Navymaritime warfareconvoysblockadesoverseas tradefinancial strengthamphibious operationsinvasion
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars , pp. 190 - 206
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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