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Home A Period of Foreign Wars, 1689-1714 |
A Period of Foreign Wars, 1689-1714The Revolution of 1688 ushered in a period of prolonged conflict for Great Britain. Between 1688 and 1815 she was engaged in a series of seven great wars, which occupied no less than fifty-six years. Of these wars five begin and the other two end as wars in which Great Britain's chief opponent is France, and we must try to understand the general causes of the hostility between these two countries before examining the particular causes of each war.First of all, there were the ambitions of France in Europe. France wanted to extend and to strengthen her eastern frontier with the ultimate object of making the River Rhine her boundary (The Rhine, the frontier of old Gaul, was the great object of French ambition, An old proverb ran-Quand Paris boira le Rhin Toute la Gaule aura sa fio). This could only be accomplished at the expense, in the south-east, of the German States and, in the north-east, of the Netherlands. The Netherlands were divided. Part of them, called Holland or the United Provinces, was independent: part of them, corresponding to the modern country of Belgium, belonged to the King of Spain up till 1713, when it came under the rule of Austria. The frontier between France and what is now Belgium was no natural boundary, such as a river or a range of mountains, but on either side of it had been built a great chain of forts known as the " Barrier Fortresses". Those on the Belgian side were slowly and steadily passing into the hands of France as she pushed her frontier forward. Once they were all, or nearly all, in her hands, France might be able to seize not only Belgium, but Holland as well. But with the independence of Holland, England's own fortunes were linked. The French, if they obtained outlets in the North Sea, would threaten our maritime position and consequently our national security. For that reason England insisted that the "Barrier Fortresses" should be fortified wholly or in part by soldiers from Holland, " No Holland, no Great Britain," might have been the motto of English statesmen. The ambitions of France were not only concerned with the acquisition of the Rhine frontier. At various times between 1689 and 1815 her rulers attempted, if not to annex the country, at all events to control the policy of Spain by means of a close family alliance or a treaty. Moreover, Louis XIV (1643-1715) at the beginning, and the French revolutionaries and Napoleon (1793-1815) at the end, of the period had achieved a position in Europe which threatened the independence of all other States. |
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