How for just over a century Britain ensured it would not face another Napoleon
Bonaparte—manipulating European powers while building a global maritime empire At the
conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars a fragile peace emerged in Europe. The continent’s borders
were redrawn and the French Empire once a significant threat to British security was for now
cut down to size. But after decades of ceaseless conflict Britain’s economy was beset by a
crippling debt. How could this small insular seapower state secure order across the Channel?
Andrew Lambert argues for a dynamic new understanding of the nineteenth century showing how
British policymakers shaped a stable European system that it could balance from offshore.
Through judicious deployment of naval power against continental forces and the defence
strategy of statesmen such as the Duke of Wellington Britain ensured that no single European
state could rise to pose a threat rebuilt its economy and established naval and trade
dominance across the globe. This is the remarkable story of how Britain kept a whole
continent in check—until the final collapse of this delicately balanced order at the outset of
World War One.
