British Empire: The changing nature of the Royal Navy

- Advantages of line tactics:

• Allows sustained bombardement 
• Avoids friendly fire
• Reduced exposure to stern and bow
• Flags help signal between admiral and fleet

- Naval Tactics:

• Sink/disable enemies with broadside attacks
• Ship's speed and skill of soldiers is most important 

- Ship types used:

• Ships of the line
• Rating system: 1st - 6th rate 
• 1st+2nd: 80-120 cannons but less manoevrable, 3rd: 76% of navy 1794 and 80% 1814, 4th: phased out late 18th cent. due to insufficient firepower, 5th+6th: frigates - faster and used for coast patrol
• Frigates - prize money made by successful frigates but also used against Britain shipping in Nap. Wars with 619 merchant ships lost 1810

- Development of steam power:

• Several reductions after Nap. Wars leaves 58 ships of the line in 1835
• Little experimentation of ship types due to naval supremacy and efficiency
• Steamships useful for river systems, despite slowness - towed British warships
• 1830s - invention of propeller screw propulsion allows ocean-going steam travel
• 1843 - first British steam frigate, first French in 1845
• 1850 - French 90-gun 'Napoleon' starts arms race - 10 new Fra. steam battleships and 18 new Brit.

- New technology:

• 1820s - Henri-Joseph Paixhans produces shell gun w/ flat trajectory - RN add these guns after the French in 1841
• Iron plates added in response - first 'iron clad' by France 1859
• 1873 - launch of HMS Devastation means sails abandoned 
• New deep-water ports for long-distance steam journeys - coal-transporting merchant ships sail between
• Tehcnical superiority (number + quality) above seamanship 

- Desire for naval supremacy:

• Two-power standard - RN as strong as the next two navies combined, deterring others from equalling their power
• Naval Defense Act 1889 - Brit. gov. naval expenditure must match next two powers combined (£21.5 million 1893-94) - saves money for future by spending it now 
• 1904 - John Fisher (first sea lord) launches huge modernisation programme, restructuring RN so best ships are near Europe

- RN life was tough - cramped conditions, harsh discipline, modest wages, risk of injury/death

- Therefore rely on impressment (naval conscription)

- Create large merchant navy to pool soldiers from in return for RN protection (mutually sustainable relationship)

- Navigation Acts 1660s - trade with Brit. and her colonies must be in Brit. ships - RN becomes ultimate guarantor of Brit. free trade empire

- Combination of lower manpower requirements due to abolition of scurvy and elimination of French threat gives Brit. naval supremacy

- Slavery and the slave trade:

• Late 1700s - slave trade lucrative for Brit. w/ 150 Brit. slaving ships leaving each year
• Plantations fund major wars against France - 1,000s die from defending plantations and disease
• Experienced slaving ship sailors recruited by RN - 1785: only 2,329 men from 5,000 return from slaving voyages

- Early efforts to disrupt slave trade:

• Not enough money during Nap. Wars to patrol W. Africa coasts - 1808: only 2 ships patrolling 5,000km
• Number of slave ships increases - 1800: 80,000 slaves shipped a year
• W. Africa postings undesirable - disease, long journeys, mosquitoes, heat - 1829: 204 of 792 men die in W. Africa squadron
• Slaving ships fly flags of countries Brit. cannot attack
• RN create treaty allowing Brit. to board foreign slaving ships
• Sometimes permitted to act against weaker countries (Portugal, Brazil...) but not USA or France

- The Royal Navy and the end of the slave trade:

• 1840s - RN use paddle steamers to follow slavers down rivers (HMS Hydra capture 4 ships 1844-6) - slavers use clipper boats and large sails for further speed - captured slaver clipper boats added to W. Africa squadron
• 1810-60 - free about 150,000 slaves who are mostly put in RN base of Freetown - although only about 10% of shipped slaves
• Slave trade only ends 1833 when Americas make it illegal - RN pressure Sultan of Zanzibar to end E. Africa slavery

- Privateers - private ships licenced by governments for war/capturing merchant shipping 

- Indian Ocean:

• French privateers wreck Brit. shipping during Nap. Wars
• RN blockade Isle de France (Mauritius) and capture it in 1810

- Red Sea to Bombay:

• Arab pirates threaten shipping 
• 1802 - treaties signed with Imam of Mocha and Sultan of Aden for protection 
• Mocha bombarded and Berbera blockaded until compensation recieved

- Straits of Malacca:

• Roughly 100 pirate ships operate 
• 1824 - Brit. sign treaty w/ Dutch, dividing area and introducing patrols
• Suppression of piracy prioritised as Chinese opium sales increase

- Pirates and slavers operating since 16th cent. - pirates capture est. 1-1.25 million Europeans between 16th-19th cent.

- Barbary States beys (rulers) gain 10% of ransoms and forced labour - 1795: USA pay $1 million in ransom

- RN secure treaties after bombarding Tripoli in 1675 and Algiers in 1682

- 1816 - Admiral Pellew, Lord Exmouth, sent to N. Africa to tackle Barbary States - secures treates w/ beys of Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers

- Just before Exmouth leaves, 200 captured Sardinians, Corsicians and Silicans massacared on Algerian island, Bona

- Lord Exmouth returns same year and sinks over 40 vessels - bey of Algiers repays over £80,000 in ransom money and frees 3000+ slaves

- Shows Brit. willingess to use RN force to protect foreigners - assume a global policing role

- 1768 - Royal Society send Cook around the world to map distance between Earth and Sun - Admiralty also wants new lands

- 1768-71 -completes successful circumnavigation  

- Accurate charts and good navigation skills crucial for voyage - Scilly disaster 1707 proves this with 4 warships and 1,550 men lost

- Cook unable to accurately measure transit of Venus across the Sun due to limitations of instruments 

- BUT: establishes claim to Aus., NZ and the Pacific; shows possiblility to stay out 3 years w/o losing too many men to disease; and new tech helped make accurate charts - establishes basis for future colonisation

- 1795 - Admiralty est. Hydrographic Office to collate reliable charts

- 1704 - Brit. capture Gib. and Minorca in 1708 (Part of the War of Spanish Succession)

- 1727 - Spain try to recapture Gib.

- 1756 - Ad. Byng executed for not attacking Fre. forces in Min.

- Mar 1778 - Brit. fail to close strait of Gib. to prevent Fre. fleet in Toulon joining navy in US

- 1779 - Treaty of Aranjuez - Spa. let Fra. conquest Min. and Gib. for support - 121 ships of the line in total compared to Brit. 90 (Dutch join Spa-Fra, making it 137)

- 1784 - Brit. barricade Min. when Fra-Spa land but lack of food/scurvy leads to surrender after 5 months

- Sep 1782 - F-S fleet major attack on Gib. w/ over 5,000 men and 18 ships - enough gardens for food and accurate cannonfire means Brit. last until end of war 1783

- Gib. provides vital naval post durin Nap Wars (1792-1815)

- Initially Dutch after wars w/ Portugal, Fra. and native kingdom of Kandy 

- One of few cinammon sources until end of 18th cent.

- Dut. royal family give it to Brit. during Fre. Rev 1794 in return for protection - Brit. yield £300,000 goods and cinammon plantations

- Retained in Treaty of Amiens 1802 - sporadic warfare w/ Kandy over coastline but Brit. make peace to avoid expensive war

- 1815 - Govnr Brownrigg occupies Kandy and captures king - imposes Kandyan Convention, making Kandy a self-governing protectorate

- 1817-18 - rebellion but is brutally suppressed w/ land confiscation and village burning 

- Ceylon annexed as Brit. colony - est. road + rail networks to open up plantation farming and tighten military control

- Only a stopping point for Dut. between Eur. and E. Indies - also used to blockade shipping

- RN attempt to capture during War of Independence 1781 but Fre. get there first

- 1795 - Brit. arrive under Sir George Elphinstone, demanding colony for 'safekeeping' - occupied until Treaty of Amiens 1802 when returned to Dut.

-  1806 - Brit. re-occupies in Nap. Wars to prevent Fre. seizing control - maintain a permanent prescence

- 1814 - Formalised in treaty w/ Dut. 

- 1798 - Napoleon captures from Knights Hospitaller

- Local population ask for Brit. help - 1799: Nelson blockades and Fre. surrender in 1800

- 1802 - Brit. leave for temporary peace but return in 1803

- Unimportant colony until opening of Suez Canal

- 1766 - Brit. settle but leave in 10 years after War of Independence when they can't defend it 

- Used by sealing ships until United Provinces (ex-Spa. colonies) send Luis Vernet to found colony there in 1828

- Only valuable commodity was seals but Brit. (over 70 sealing ships) and Amer. depleting numbers of seals

- 1831 - Vernet confiscates 3 Amer. sealing ships and trials captains 

- 1833 - Brit. send single ship to reassert sovreignty - Vernet surrenders w/o a fight 

- Brit. want to prevent Fre. advance through Egy. - Sir Robert Grant (Bombay Govnr) believes in pre-emptive seizing of 'places of strength' in Indian Ocean

- 1837 - monthly voyages starts between Bombay and Suez w/ armed ships to protect Brit. interests - Lord Aukland demands E. I. Co. involvement is peaceful w/ local rulers  

- Cmmdr. Stafford Haines suggests to Grant that Aden should be occupied as Sultan is no more than a pirate - Sultan forces plundering the 'Duria Dowlat' means Grant pressures Aukland to let Haines act

- 1837 - arrives in Aden to gain satisfaction agaisnt Sultan forcesand secure a coal depot

- Haines demands Brit. occupation of port during negotiations - assumes Sultan's opening negotiation is a claim that occupation is agreed - Grant seeks approval for armed intervention when negotiations break down

- Aukland reluctant to fight for port without commerical value - John Hobhouse (President of India Board) and Lord Palmerston (foreign sec.) encourage Grant to seize Aden

- 1838 - Grant dies so his deputy, Farish, sends 2 frigates + 700 men to assist Haines

- Haines quickly secures port and presents E. I. Co. w/ a 'fait accompli' 

- Haines left w/ little political allies, small budget to run port on, and using bribes for peace

- Runs up defecit of £28,000 and then tried for fraud + embezzlement in 1854 in Bombay

- Opening of Suez Canal makes Aden a boom town on the main shipping route

- Disraeli:

• Modern conservative party
• PM 1868 and 1874
• 'One nation conservatism' - great paternalism and more pragmatic
• Extends electorate to middle classes and skilled working classes
• Purchases shares in Suez Canal
• Limits Russian Empire influence

- Gladstone:

• Liberal
• PM four times 1868-94
• Less government expenditure and minimal overseas investment
• Lasting peace w/ US in Washington Treaty 1871 - sacrificies disputed fisheries and pays for damaged US shipping 

- 1876 - gives Queen Victoria the title 'Empress of India' which is equal to status of Tsar Alexander II

- 1885 - purchases shares in Suez Canal w/ wide public support

- Widespread imperial jingoism (extreme nationalism and aggressive foreign policy)

- Disraeli gains £6 mill from from Parliament to prepare army/navy - 1/2 liberals in support but Gladstone against

- Limits Russian expansion by supporting bordering nations like Afghanistan and bankrupt Ottoman Empire - 1876: ignores Gladstone's demands to intervene on Ott. massacres of Balkan nationalists

- Lord Salisbury sent to Constantinople to support Ott.

- Unsuccessful attempt by Disraeli to occupt some of Balkans when Russ. are preparing for war

- Russo-Turkish war 1877 - Russ. quickly defeat Ott. and threaten Const. which would give them access to the Med.

-1878 - Ott. surrender and sign peace treaty, giving most of Balkans to Russ.

- Disraeli creates Berlin congress to pressure Russ. - allies w/ Ger. Chancellor Bismarck to force Russ. to abandon some gained territory - the Dardanelles given to Ott. but Russ. retain most conquered territory

- Dis. secures Cyprus for Brit. as an E. Med. base to monitor Russ. expansion - provides new route to India and helps look after Egy. and Suez

- Ott. have to give Cyp. as they're reliant on Brit. to regain them territory

- Cyprus Convention leases Cyp. to Brit. for £92,799 PA - taxed inhabitants and use money for Crimean war

-Brit. now acquiring colonies just to constrain other powers' expansions - Ott. helpless to Brit. and Russ. acquisitions

- Dis. acquisition of Cyp. seen widely as a diplomatic coup - followed by successful annexation of Transvaal (1877) and Zululand (1879) but cost in money and lives

- Gladstone has Mid-Lothian campaign - undermines Dis. and beats Conservatives 1780 election