18th century
Peace
between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant that the two countries
entered the Nine Years' War as allies, but the conflict - waged in Europe and
overseas between France, Spain and the Anglo-Dutch alliance - left the English
a stronger colonial power than the Dutch, who were forced to devote a larger
proportion of their military budget on the costly land war in Europe. The 18th
century would see England (after 1707, Great Britain) rise to be the world's
dominant colonial power, and France becoming its main rival on the imperial
stage.
In
1701, England, Portugal and the Netherlands sided with the Holy Roman Empire
against Spain and France in the War of the Spanish Succession. The conflict,
which France and Spain were to lose, lasted until 1714. The British Empire was
territorially enlarged: from France, gaining Newfoundland and Acadia, and from
Spain, Gibraltar and Minorca. Gibraltar, which is still a British overseas
territory to this day, became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to
control the Atlantic entry and exit point to the Mediterranean.
Treaty
of Union
The
United Kingdom of Great Britain was born on May 1, 1707, shortly after the
parliaments of Scotland and England had ratified the Treaty of Union of 1706 by
each approving Acts of Union combining the two parliaments and the two royal
titles. Deeper political integration had been a key policy of Queen Anne
(reigned 1702–14). Under the aegis of the Queen and her advisors a Treaty of
Union was drawn up, and negotiations between England and Scotland began in
earnest in 1706.
Scottish
proponents of union believed that failure to accede to the Bill would result in
the imposition of union under less favorable terms, and months of fierce debate
in both capital cities and throughout both kingdoms followed. In Scotland, the
debate on occasion dissolved into civil disorder, most notably by the notorious
'Edinburgh Mob'. The prospect of a union of the kingdoms was deeply unpopular
among the Scottish population at large, and talk of an uprising was widespread.
However Scotland could not long continue. Following the financially disastrous
Darien Scheme, the near-bankrupt Parliament of Scotland reluctantly accepted
the proposals. Supposed financial payoffs to Scottish parliamentarians were
later referred to by Robert Burns when he wrote "We're bought and sold for
English gold, Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation! Recent historians, however,
have emphasized the legitimacy of the vote.
The
Acts of Union took effect in 1707, uniting the separate Parliaments and crowns
of England and Scotland and forming the single Kingdom of Great Britain. Queen
Anne (already Queen of both England and Scotland) became formally the first
occupant of the unified British throne, with Scotland sending forty-five
Members to join all existing Members from the parliament of England in the new
House of Commons of Great Britain, as well as 16 representative peers to join
all existing peers from the parliament of England in the new House of Lords.
Jacobite Risings
The
Jacobites wanted to replace the Hanoverian kings with the son of James II. They
attempted armed invasions to conquer Britain. The major Jacobite Rebellions in
1715 and 1745 were speedily suppressed. Their defeat at the Battle of Culloden
in 1746 ending any realistic hope of a Stuart restoration. The great majority
of Tories refused to support the Jacobites publicly, although there were
numerous quiet supporters.
South Sea Bubble
The
era was prosperous as entrepreneurs extended the range of their business around
the globe. By the 1720s Britain was one of the most prosperous countries in the
world, and Daniel Defoe could rightly boast:
We
are the most "diligent nation in the world. Vast trade, rich manufactures,
mighty wealth, universal correspondence, and happy success have been constant
companions of England, and given us the title of an industrious people."
The
South Sea Bubble was a business enterprise that exploded in scandal. The South
Sea Company was a private business corporation set up in London ostensibly to
grant trade monopolies in South America. Its actual purpose was to renegotiate
previous high-interest government loans amounting to ₤31 million through market
manipulation and speculation. It issued stock four times in 1720 that reached
about 8000 investors. Prices kept soaring every day, from ₤130 a share to
₤1000, with insiders making huge paper profits. The Bubble collapsed overnight,
ruining many speculators. Investigations showed bribes had reached into high
places--even to the king. Robert Walpole managed to wind it down with minimal
political and economic damage, although some losers fled to exile or committed
suicide.
Warfare and finance
From
1700 to 1850, Britain was involved in 137 wars or rebellions. Apart from losing
the American War of Independence, it was generally successful in warfare, and
was especially successful in financing its military commitments. France and
Spain, by contrast, went bankrupt. Britain maintained a relatively large and
expensive Royal Navy, along with a small standing army. When the need arose for
soldiers it hired mercenaries or financed allied who fielded armies. The rising
costs of warfare forced a shift in government financing from the income from
royal agricultural estates and special imposts and taxes to reliance on customs
and excise taxes and, after 1790, an income tax. Working with bankers in the
City, the government raised large loans during wartime and paid them off in
peacetime. The rise in taxes amounted to 20% of national income, but the
private sector benefited from the increase in economic growth. The demand for
war supplies stimulated the industrial sector, particularly naval supplies,
munitions and textiles, which gave Britain an advantage in international trade
during the postwar years.
British Empire
The
Seven Years' War, which began in 1756, was the first war waged on a global
scale, fought in Europe, India, North America, the Caribbean, the Philippines
and coastal Africa. The signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763) had important
consequences for Britain and its empire. In North America, France's future as a
colonial power there was effectively ended with the ceding of New France to
Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under British control)
and Louisiana to Spain. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. In India, the Carnatic
War had left France still in control of its enclaves but with military
restrictions and an obligation to support British client states, effectively
leaving the future of India to Britain. The British victory over France in the
Seven Years War therefore left Britain as the world's dominant colonial power.
During
the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became
increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British
Parliament's ability to tax American colonists without their consent. Disagreement
turned to violence and in 1775 the American War of Independence began. The following
year, the colonists declared the independence of the United States and with
economical and naval assistance from France, would go on to win the war in
1783.
The
loss of the United States, at the time Britain's most populous colony, is seen
by historians as the event defining the transition between the
"first" and "second" empires, in which Britain shifted its
attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa. Adam
Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were
redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies
that had characterized the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to
the protectionism of Spain and Portugal. The growth of trade between the newly
independent United States and Britain after 1783 confirmed Smith's view that
political control was not necessary for economic success.
During
its 1st century of operation, the focus of the British East India Company had
been trade, not the building of an empire in India. Company interests turned
from trade to territory during the 18th century as the Mughal Empire declined
in power and the British East India Company struggled with its French
counterpart, La Compagnie française des Indes orientales, during the Carnatic Wars
of the 1740s and 1750s. The Battle of Plassey, which saw the British, led by
Robert Clive, defeat the French and their Indian allies, left the Company in
control of Bengal and a major military and political power in India. In the
following decades it gradually increased the size of the territories under its
control, either ruling directly or indirectly via local puppet rulers under the
threat of force of the Indian Army, 80% of which was composed of native Indian
sepoys.
In
1770, James Cook became the first European to visit the eastern coast of
Australia whilst on a scientific voyage to the South Pacific. In 1778, Joseph
Banks, Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on
the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment of a penal settlement, and
in 1787 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in 1788.
At
the threshold to the 19th century, Britain was challenged again by France under
Napoleon, in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of
ideologies between the two nations. It was not only Britain's position on the
world stage that was threatened: Napoleon threatened invasion of Britain
itself, and with it, a fate similar to the countries of continental Europe that
his armies had overrun. The Napoleonic Wars were therefore ones that Britain
invested large amounts of capital and resources to win. French ports were
blockaded by the Royal Navy, which won a decisive victory over the French fleet
at Trafalgar in 1805.
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