Dispatches On War (Part IX)

Re: # 5

I`m curious as to role of the French Navy during the American War of Independence since I`ve heard varying accounts. I shall look at it some time.

The one battle of Nelson`s that I followed was the one where he really won his spurs as a senior commander, the battle of St. Vincent.

I have just purchased the 8 volume set of ``The barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire``. The 6th volume in that deals with the Frankish invasion of Gaul, and prior volumes speak of the the waves of Angle and Saxon settlements in Britain. In fact some of the Celtic peoples of Great Britain fled to then, Gaul and I believe that is why that area is still called Brittany. I must check on this. I just got interested in this bit.

Is it true that C Northcote Parkinson was an authority on Napoleonic wars?

Re: # 3

As of now, none of the articles covers the French naval operations during the American revolutionary war and as to Normans and England, since AP European History starts with 1450, I have no plans to cover that time period.

Interestingly, both Nelson and his second-in-command, Collingwood, were serving on different ships at the Battle of Saratoga against the French and Collingwood was senior to Nelson in terms of the tenure of his service in the Royal Navy.

I know very little of ancient history and in terms of Britain`s name, I have no idea. I am familar with the Roman period, but anything before it, I have only a passing interest. I will find out, because it is an interesting question you have posed and let you know, what I have discovered.

Ciao

This is just some historical triva, which might interest people.

The tradition of giving a diamond ring was started in 1477 when the Austrian king Maxmillian I presented a diamond ring to his wife, Mary of Burgandy, as a gift.

One can wonder if he used two months worth of taxes to pay for it. :)

The expression ``rule of thumb`` comes from a medieval practice, which allowed a man to beat his wife with a rod no thicker than his thumb.

The expression ``a square meal`` comes from the Royal Navy, where the sailors would be served their meals in square trays three times a day, which created the expression of ``three square meals a day`` and so does term ``learning the ropes``. Young British midshipmen (cadets) had to master tying different kinds of knots in the Royal Navy and this process of learning the different kinds of knots for different purposes was known as learning the ropes.

Ciao

This is an excellent article. I must read it again, it has to be perused more carefully.

I have been interested in the Duke of Wellington, since he really started his militay career in India as Arthur Wellesley. He did a bad job at Srirangapatnam.

Napoleon of course was not just a conqueror but a builder of a state. Parts of Code Napoleon are still followed in France and in many ways the little Corsican was an enlightened man. The deciphering of the Rosetta Stone etc was done by some of his army engineers.

I shall read your earlier articles. It was on a visit to the USS Constituion (which is the oldest commissioned floating naval ship) that I heard that the term sharp shooter originated from a Boston gunsmith whose prize rifles were given to the best marksmen to shoot with. They used to crouch above the rigging to pick off prime targets.

Do your earlier articles cover the role of the French Navy during the American War of Independence ?

And of course speaking of 1066 , any articles of how the Germanic tribes of the Angles, the Saxons and the Franks took over England and France and in virtually renamed Britain and Gaul with the names of their tribes.

re: bjkumar # 1

As I mentioned earlier, this series of articles is basically for my AP European history students and the general idea is to address the pivotal issues and their contextual background and consequeces. The plan is to reach the 1990s, but lets see how it pans out. The intent is not to discuss wars and battles, as much as try to understand the reasons why those events happened and a similar approach will be applied to the two world wars.

The rivalry between Great Britain and France is really interesting and it goes back to the days of the Norman conquest in 1066 AD and there are many reasons for it. Basically, what it boils down is a clash of British and French foreign policies. Throughout its history, France had to sought to dominate western Europe and Britain had sought to keep Europe divided and the rivalry was the result of this policy. I am simplifying it, but the generics are still valid.

As to the Battle of Trafalgar, the ``descriptive account`` is actually a composite. It includes historic accounts of the battle; movies, which showed the life abroad a Royal Navy ship and occassional visits to H.M.S. Victory, when even ever I ended up in London and from reading the Horatio Hornblower series of books. Incidently, Victory is the oldest commissioned ship on active duty and was commissioned in the same year that Nelson was born - 1758. It is presently dry docked in the Dock No. 2 at Portsmouth and still has a serving crew attached to it. It took nearly 2000 trees to make the ship and the timber came from British North America. It is older than than the USS Constitution by a few years. Visit it, if you get the chance. :)

Yes, it would seem that United States benefitted out of this Anglo-French tussle.

Geroge Washington started out as a land surveyor in Virginia and George knew a good piece of real estate, when he saw one! :)

Imperialism actually ended after the Second World War in Europe, when Europe was economically ruined. In fact, the origins of the post-1945 European process of de-colonization was inked in the Atlantic Charter signed between United States and Great Britain in 1941. According to that treaty, the United States promised to secretly support the British war effort and in return, Britain agreed to decolonize its empire. The salient point was that the United States wanted free market access to British colonies and did not like Britain having an economic monopoly over a large area of the world. The concept of British Commonwealth was the idea of Joseph Chamberlain, the uncle of Neville Chamberlain, and it was designed to promote free trade within the British empire and to overcome the problem of tariffs, which hurting international trade after the First World War.

The general idea was for the United States to replace Britain as the premier economic power after the war and it was for this reason, that the United States created a new economic regime based on the Brettonwood institutions - IMF and World Bank. The problem was that Stalin spoiled the plans by taking over Eastern Europe and not giving it back. The result was the Cold War, but the end of the Cold War did allow the United States to economically dominate the world till the Bush administration ruined that economic performance by its misadventures in Iraq. :)

However, imperialism still exists depending on your definition of the term. ;)

Ciao

Your insight into those European events of a while ago is simply fascinating – at least for this newcomer to history. I assume that you are letting it slowly build up to the two world wars. (Don’t answer that!)

I am intrigued by how much rivalry then existed between Great Britain and France. (Neither was much of a free-trader!) What was at the root of the rivalry? Language, culture, or simply a desire to dominate?

How did you reconstruct so vividly the “descriptive” information on the Battle of Trafalgar? War is truly hell. Yet the courage of some of the officers and their concept of honor was something else! (In contrast with what passes for “honor” in our sub-continent! (The British/French people would die with valor for honor – ours kill our women for “it”!))

From this side of the Atlantic, it is my understanding that we took full advantage of that rivalry – playing the two countries against each other to get maximum benefits for the US. Yet here we are today, we are friends with both countries – one is our “oldest ally” and the other a close friend who gave us the “statue of liberty” (what could be more American)! One protected us when we were just getting settled – the other sold to us our middle third – and boy what a bargain that turned out to be!

Was George Washington right – or was he right?!

At what point did imperialism start going out of style in Europe?

ANY two countries can fight – democracies or otherwise – but having different ideologies probably increases the chances of war.