Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- MAP 1 The American Eastern Seaboard, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea
- MAP 2 Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River
- Abbreviations
- Note on US Dollar/Pound Sterling Conversion Rates
- Foreword
- Preface
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 CONVOYS AND BLOCKADES: The Evolution of Maritime Economic Warfare
- 2 WAR AT A DISTANCE: Constraints and Solutions
- 3 FROM BUSINESS PARTNERS TO ENEMIES: Britain and the United States before 1812
- 4 THE UNITED STATES BLOCKADED: Admiral Warren's ‘United Command’, August 1812–April 1814
- 5 BLOCKADES AND BLUNDERS: Vice-Admiral Cochrane's Command, April 1814–February 1815
- 6 TRADE AND WAR: The Effects of Warren's Blockades, August 1812–April 1814
- 7 CAPITAL AND CREDIT: The Impact of the Final Phase
- 8 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
- EPILOGUE
- Appendix A: Maritime Tables
- Appendix B: Economic History Tables
- Notes to the Chapters
- Bibliography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- MAP 1 The American Eastern Seaboard, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea
- MAP 2 Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River
- Abbreviations
- Note on US Dollar/Pound Sterling Conversion Rates
- Foreword
- Preface
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 CONVOYS AND BLOCKADES: The Evolution of Maritime Economic Warfare
- 2 WAR AT A DISTANCE: Constraints and Solutions
- 3 FROM BUSINESS PARTNERS TO ENEMIES: Britain and the United States before 1812
- 4 THE UNITED STATES BLOCKADED: Admiral Warren's ‘United Command’, August 1812–April 1814
- 5 BLOCKADES AND BLUNDERS: Vice-Admiral Cochrane's Command, April 1814–February 1815
- 6 TRADE AND WAR: The Effects of Warren's Blockades, August 1812–April 1814
- 7 CAPITAL AND CREDIT: The Impact of the Final Phase
- 8 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
- EPILOGUE
- Appendix A: Maritime Tables
- Appendix B: Economic History Tables
- Notes to the Chapters
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THIS BOOK STUDIES PART OF BRITAIN'S early-nineteeth-century supremacy at sea and the Royal Navy's use of maritime blockades and convoys as economic warfare against a United States republic not yet thirty years old. It is not a general history of the War of 1812; rather, it briefly traces the evolution of both offensive and defensive economic warfare at sea, and then examines Britain's aggressive use of commercial and naval blockades, and the protective use of merchant convoys, during it. This strategy had evolved during a succession of wars, and was to prove particularly successful when used by Britain in the Anglo-American war of 1812–15 – the so-called ‘War of 1812’. This was, in effect, part of Britain's long-term war with France, declared by the French Revolutionary government in February 1793 and continued by Napoleon until his downfall. Apart from a brief respite during the Peace of Amiens, between March 1802 and May 1803, it was to last until the autumn of 1815, when Napoleon was finally and permanently exiled on St Helena.
During Britain's war with France French military successes in Continental Europe could be contained only by British seapower. Britain possessed not only the world's largest merchant fleet but also the Royal Navy, the world's strongest maritime fighting force. Britain's maritime commercial blockade of France had isolated her colonies, dislocated her overseas trade and seriously damaged the French economy, while the Royal Navy's blockades of French ports had prevented the amalgamation of France's Brest and Toulon fleets, making the invasion of Britain impracticable and the military reinforcement of French colonies extremely difficult.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- How Britain Won the War of 1812The Royal Navy's Blockades of the United States, 1812-1815, pp. xxi - xxivPublisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011