73. Slide to war

73. Slide to war

We’re into the slide into the most destructive of the series of wars of that rocked the eighteenth century. It would be a war that had a devastating effect on most of Europe. It was also the last war between Britain and France, and by far the biggest.

But, oddly enough, in the run up to it William Pitt had worked hard, and with an apparently high degree of success, to rebuild Britain’s status as a world power and to use that status to ensure that the whole continent was at peace, and stayed that way. Indeed, apart from a certain intransigence from the Russians, the only factor that denied him complete success was the refusal of the House of Commons to back him on the last key step in his plans.

Shades of his defeats in 1784…

Although, given the slide to war, all of that effort for peace was a little irrelevant. Events way beyond Pitt's control were driving Europe towards war. They were happening in France, where the revolution was still far from over.


Illustration: The Battle of Valmy, September 20th, 1792, by Horace Vernet. This was the surprising victory of the French revolutionary forces over the Prussian, a sign of things to come…

Public domain. Published anywhere (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before 1927 and public domain in the U.S.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

Jaksot(274)

265. War in a unipolar world

265. War in a unipolar world

By the latter part of the twentieth century, the world had become unipolar. The Soviet Empire collapsed even more rapidly than the British one had after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. China was not yet...

26 Loka 202514min

264. Ethics, votes and wars

264. Ethics, votes and wars

We saw in the last episode, that Britain’s involvement in the NATO intervention in Kosovo could be regarded as part of an ‘ethical foreign policy’, since its objective, many felt, was humanitarian, th...

12 Loka 202514min

263. Tragedy at home, ethics abroad

263. Tragedy at home, ethics abroad

Divorce, contrary to what many believe, was not permitted by the Church of England. Henry VIII didn’t divorce two wives, he had the marriages annulled, declaring in effect that they’d never happened. ...

5 Loka 202514min

262. Uncool

262. Uncool

In the early years of Blair’s premiership, his supporters liked to refer to Britain as ‘Cool Britannia’, in a play on the title of the song ‘Rule Britannia’. Last week, we talked about some of the coo...

28 Syys 202514min

261. Cool Britannia

261. Cool Britannia

The Blair government threw itself into action as soon as it was formed.Rather confirming the existence of a deal between them, something they’ve never confirmed, Blair quickly appointed Gordon Brown C...

21 Syys 202514min

260. New Dawn

260. New Dawn

It was a new dawn. Or at least so Tony Blair said, as he emerged from his landslide victory in the 1997 General Election. It’s what he would say, isn’t it?Still, there was some truth to the claim. It ...

14 Syys 202514min

259. Major error, major success, Major’s out

259. Major error, major success, Major’s out

We’re just about ready to move on from John Major but, before we do, we need to spend a few moments on two major events of his second premiership. One was a significant breakthrough, in Ireland, even ...

7 Syys 202514min

258. Major’s bastards and Labour’s deal

258. Major’s bastards and Labour’s deal

By winning the 1992 general election, John Major had gained his own mandate to form a government, instead of imply inheriting Margaret Thatcher’s. He’d shown himself capable of leading the Conservativ...

31 Elo 202514min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
huijarit
mystista
rss-ikiuni
tsunami
konginkangas
totuus-vai-salaliitto
rouva-diktaattori
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
apinan-vuosi
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-peter-peter
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin
historiaa-suomeksi
tiedetta-ja-sirkushuveja-vanhojen-aikojen-podcast
matakuu