# Pax Britannica and the primacy of the Royal Navy The century of British naval and financial supremacy after 1815, and its handover to America. The peace held among the great powers; the periphery was another matter. *This story parallel: The military-industrial complex and Pax Americana* *This story parallel: The British Empire and its dark history* *This story led to: The passing of the torch: how the American century replaced the British one* *This story part of: Military and security* *The Boer War: gold, the camps, and the making of South Africa part of this story* *American Viscose and the stripping of Britain continues this story* ## 21 October 1805 — The Battle of Trafalgar Nelson's fleet crushed a combined French and Spanish force off the Spanish coast. The victory gave Britain command of the seas for a century, though Nelson died in the battle. ## 1808 — The West Africa Squadron against the slave trade After Parliament abolished the British slave trade in 1807, the Royal Navy formed the West Africa Squadron to intercept slave ships off the African coast. Based at Freetown, the squadron patrolled for decades and freed roughly 150,000 people from captured vessels. It was a sustained naval campaign against the Atlantic slave trade, carried out at real cost in ships and lives. ## 1814 — Malta and Gibraltar anchor the Mediterranean The Treaty of Paris in 1814 confirmed British possession of Malta, adding to Gibraltar, held since 1713. The two fortress harbors gave the Royal Navy control of the western and central Mediterranean. They became the model for a worldwide system of naval strongpoints guarding the routes of British trade. ## 1815 — Royal Navy supremacy after the Napoleonic Wars With the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, no rival fleet could match the Royal Navy. Britain emerged from the wars with the largest navy in the world and used it to police sea lanes, protect trade, and project power globally. This maritime dominance underwrote British foreign policy for the rest of the nineteenth century. ## 1815 — The idea of Pax Britannica, 1815 to 1914 The century between Waterloo and the First World War saw no general war among Europe's great powers, a period later named the Pax Britannica after the Roman peace. Britain's naval supremacy, financial weight, and diplomacy are credited with helping keep that balance. Critics and many historians argue the peace held among the great powers but rested on naval force and did not extend to the colonized world, where wars and conquests ran on without pause. ## September 1839 to 29 August 1842 — First Opium War Britain defeats Qing China in a war triggered by China's suppression of the opium trade. The Treaty of Nanking cedes Hong Kong and opens treaty ports, beginning China's century of humiliation. ## c. 1839 — A global chain of naval bases and coaling stations British forces seized Aden in 1839, one link in a network of bases that came to include Gibraltar, Malta, the Cape, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bermuda, and the Falklands. After steam replaced sail, these ports doubled as coaling stations that let warships and merchantmen refuel anywhere on the globe. The chain tied the empire together and gave the Royal Navy reach into every ocean. ## c. 1840 — Palmerston and gunboat diplomacy As foreign secretary and later prime minister, Lord Palmerston used the threat and use of naval force to open markets and protect British interests and subjects abroad. The practice of sending warships to coerce weaker states became known as gunboat diplomacy. Historians describe this as free-trade imperialism: prying markets open by force while preaching open commerce. ## 29 August 1842 — Treaty of Nanking Treaty ending the First Opium War, ceding Hong Kong to Britain, opening five ports, and imposing an indemnity on China. It was the first of the unequal treaties that defined China's century of humiliation. ## 1850 — The Don Pacifico affair To press the claims of Don Pacifico, a Gibraltar-born British subject, Palmerston ordered the Royal Navy to blockade the Greek port of Piraeus and seize Greek shipping. In a five-hour speech he defended the action with the phrase Civis Romanus sum, that a British subject anywhere should be shielded by British power. The episode became the emblem of gunboat diplomacy. ## October 1856 to October 1860 — Second Opium War Britain and France renew war on Qing China, occupying Beijing and burning the Summer Palace. The treaties legalize opium and force China further open to foreign trade and missionaries. ## 1857 — The Indian Rebellion and the start of Crown rule A mutiny among East India Company troops in 1857 grew into a wide revolt across northern India. British forces suppressed it over the following year with heavy reprisals and loss of life on both sides. In 1858 the Company was abolished and India passed to direct rule by the British Crown. ## 1866 — The global submarine telegraph network The first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable was completed in 1866, and over the following decades British firms laid a worldwide web of undersea cables. The largely British-owned network, later called the All Red Line, carried messages between London and the empire in minutes. Control of global communications gave Britain an edge in commerce, diplomacy, and naval command. ## c. 1870 — The City of London and the export of capital By the late nineteenth century the City of London was the world's leading financial center, home to its largest markets for insurance, shipping finance, and government bonds. Britain became the world's biggest creditor, exporting vast sums of capital to build railways, ports, and mines across the globe. Returns on these foreign investments flowed back to Britain and helped fund its imports. ## c. 1871 — The classical gold standard and the reign of sterling From the 1870s to 1914 most major economies pegged their currencies to gold, creating a system of fixed exchange rates. London sat at its center, and the pound sterling served as the world's main reserve and settlement currency. British monetary policy shaped credit conditions far beyond Britain's borders. ## 1876 — The Great Famine in British India Drought struck the Deccan and southern India in 1876, and famine spread across the Madras and Bombay presidencies and beyond. Estimates of the death toll range into the millions, with several careful studies near eight million. During the crisis colonial policy kept grain moving to export, and the viceroy Lord Lytton oversaw record wheat shipments to England even as people starved. ## 11 January 1879 to 4 July 1879 — Anglo-Zulu War Britain invades the Zulu kingdom and suffers a shock defeat at Isandlwana before destroying Zulu power at Ulundi. The war ends the independence of southern Africa's strongest African state. ## c. 1880 — British dominance of world shipping British-registered vessels carried a large share of the world's seaborne trade, and at times owned roughly half of the world's merchant tonnage. British shipyards built ships for much of the world, and British firms ran the liner routes and cargo services that linked the continents. Merchant shipping and naval power reinforced each other, one carrying the trade and the other guarding it. ## 31 May 1889 — The two-power standard and the Naval Defence Act The Naval Defence Act of 1889 committed Britain to the two-power standard: a battle fleet at least equal to the next two largest navies combined, then France and Russia. It funded ten new battleships and dozens of smaller ships. The act formalized a policy of unquestioned naval supremacy as a matter of law and budget. ## 1898 — The Anglo-German naval arms race Germany's Naval Laws of 1898 and 1900, driven by Admiral Tirpitz, set out to build a battle fleet capable of challenging Britain at sea. Britain answered with its own building program, and the two nations raced to out-produce each other in warships. The rivalry strained budgets and helped poison relations before the First World War. ## 10 February 1906 — HMS Dreadnought Launched at Portsmouth in 1906, HMS Dreadnought carried an all-big-gun main battery and steam turbines that made her faster and more powerful than any battleship afloat. She was so far ahead that she made all existing battleships obsolete, including Britain's own. The design reset the naval race and gave her name to a whole class of warship. ## 1914 — The First World War drains British power The war of 1914 to 1918 cost Britain enormous sums and turned it from the world's leading creditor into a debtor, largely to the United States. British industry and manpower were strained to the limit, and much overseas investment was sold off to pay for the fighting. Britain won the war but came out of it financially weakened and dependent on American credit. ## 6 February 1922 — The Washington Naval Treaty grants the United States parity The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 set limits on capital ships among the major naval powers. It fixed a ratio that gave the United States and Britain equal tonnage, with Japan below them. For the first time Britain formally accepted a rival as its equal at sea, ending the long era of unmatched Royal Navy supremacy. ## 28 April 1925 — Britain returns to the gold standard Chancellor Winston Churchill announced Britain's return to gold at the prewar rate of 4.86 dollars to the pound, on the advice of Montagu Norman and the Treasury. The high rate overvalued the pound and hurt British exports and employment. ## July 1944 — Financial primacy passes to the United States At the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, the delegates built a postwar monetary system around the US dollar, backed by American gold. Britain, deep in war debt and reliant on American aid, could no longer anchor the world's finances. Across the two world wars, naval and financial leadership passed from Britain to the United States.