Securing the Sinews of Sea Power: British Intervention in the Baltic 1780–1815
2011; Routledge; Volume: 33; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07075332.2011.555384
ISSN1949-6540
Autores Tópico(s)Maritime and Coastal Archaeology
ResumoAbstract This article argues that Britain's standing as a maritime nation must be considered if we are to fully understand the objectives behind British foreign policy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It focuses on one of the most important challenges successive British governments faced during this period; the need to secure shipbuilding resources. Both British economic prosperity and national security depended upon the continued supply of naval stores. These resources could only be procured from the Baltic region, which meant the region took on a crucial strategic importance for policy-makers. This article will focus on Britain's relationship with the Baltic between 1780 and 1815 tracing Britain's sensitivity to the changing political environment in Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, and particularly Russia, and outlining how this came to dictate foreign policy. Britain hoped to rely on diplomacy and economic interdependence to maintain the movement of naval stores from the Baltic; however intransigence from the Baltic powers forced Britain to resort to military measures on three occasions between 1800 and 1815, such was the importance of these shipbuilding resources. Keywords: Britainforeign policyresourceswarnaval stores Notes 1. A load was between forty and fifty cubic feet. R.J.B. Knight, Shipbuilding Timber for the British Navy: Parliamentary Papers, 1729–1792 (Delmar, 1993), 13. 2. [Greenwich, UK] N[ational] M[aritime] M[useum], ADM BP/2, 29 Sep. 1782. 3. R. Morriss, The Royal Dockyards during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (Leicester, 1983), 86. 4. O. Rackham, Ancient Woodland: Its History, Vegetation and Uses in England (London, 1980), 164–6. 5. H. Kaplan, Russian Overseas Commerce with Great Britain During the Reign of Catherine II (Philadelphia, 1995), 67–77. 6. Kaplan, Russian Overseas Commerce, 63. 7. R. 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Ham, Strategies of Coalition and Isolation. British War Policy and North-West Europe, 1803-1810' (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Oxford, 1977). 126. Charles Long (Junior Secretary of the Treasury) to Secretary of State, 28 Aug. 1800, NA, FO 65/47. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJames Davey I am grateful to Roger Knight and Des Pawson for their helpful suggestions during the writing of this article. I would also like to thank the three anonymous referees for their comments.
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