Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo put to an end
French dreams of European mastery. It confirmed the lesson from Blenheim a
century earlier – that Britain was capable (through a mixture of bribery and
naval coercion) to put together land armies capable of maintaining order in
Europe. The failure of Napoleon was also the failure of the Continental System,
and a demonstration that Britain’s trading influence was already so great that
removing her from European markets would affect the continent more than it
would Britain.
The Battle of Waterloo had profound effects for the British.
Firstly, it put to an end the battle over land in Europe, which had lasted from
the fall of Rome. Peace would reign until the Crimea, not a sign that Europe
was unimportant, but a sign that land here was now so important that it could
not be won without a holocaust. The next great conflicts in Western Europe
would be total wars, a form in which Britain was very poorly placed to
participate (both in terms of manpower and a liberal political tradition).
Secondly, balance in Europe unleashed the scramble for territories elsewhere –
from Africa to the Pacific – which were to prove both echo points for British
civilisation, but also points of little economic contribution and ingrained
strategic overstretch. When the great conflict did arrive, the obligation to
guard all points from Sydney to Gibraltar diluted British battlefield presence
and naval advantage. Finally, the peace that Western Europe now enjoyed until
1870 marked the only real achievement of that perpetual aim of British foreign
policy – a self-sustaining balance of power in Europe, something never before
or after achieved without active British involvement.
Written by Andrew Alexander
No comments:
Post a Comment