Pax Britannica: Ruling the Waves and Keeping the Peace before Armageddon PDF
Preview Pax Britannica: Ruling the Waves and Keeping the Peace before Armageddon
BRITAINANDTHEWORLD EditedbyTheBritishScholarSociety Editors: JamesOnley,UniversityofExeter,UK A.G.Hopkins,UniversityofCambridge GregoryBarton,UniversityofWesternSydney,Australia BryanGlass,TexasStateUniversity,USA OthertitlesintheBritainandtheWorldseriesinclude: IMPERIALENDGAME Britain’sDirtyWarsandtheEndofEmpire BenjaminGrob-Fitzgibbon SCIENCEANDEMPIRE KnowledgeandNetworksofScienceintheBritishEmpire,1850–1970 BrettBennettandJosephM.Hodge(editors) BRITISHDIPLOMACYANDTHEDESCENTINTOCHAOS TheCareerofJackGarnett,1902–1919 JohnFisher ORDERINGINDEPENDENCE TheEndofEmpireintheAnglophoneCaribbean1947–1967 SpencerMawby BRITISHIMAGESOFGERMANY Admiration,AntagonismandAmbivalence,1860–1914 RichardScully THEANGLO-AMERICANPAPERWAR DebatesabouttheNewRepublic,1800–1825 JoeEaton BRITISHPOLICYINTHEPERSIANGULF,1961–1968 ConceptionsofInformalEmpire HelenevonBismarck CINEMAANDSOCIETYINTHEBRITISHEMPIRE,1895–1940 JamesBurns THEBRITISHABROADSINCETHEEIGHTEENTHCENTURY Vol.1:TravellersandTourists Vol.2:ExperiencingImperialism MartinFarrandXavierGuégan(editors) IMPERIALCULTUREINANTIPODEANCITIES,1880–1939 JohnGriffiths SPORTANDTHEBRITISHWORLD,1900–1930 AmateurismandNationalIdentityinAustralasiaandBeyond ErikNielsen PAXBRITANNICA RulingtheWavesandKeepingthePeacebeforeArmageddon BarryGough Forthcomingtitlesinclude: BRITISHIMPERIALISMANDINDIA’SAFGHANFRONTIER,1918–1948 BrandonMarsh NEWDELHI:THELASTIMPERIALCITY DavidJohnson BritainandtheWorld SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–24650–8hardcover SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–24651–5spaperback (outsideNorthAmericaonly) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. 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Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS,England AlsobyBarryGough THEROYALNAVYANDTHENORTHWESTCOASTOFNORTHAMERICA,1810–1914 THENORTHWESTCOAST:BritishNavigation,TradeandDiscoveriesto1812 GUNBOATFRONTIER:BritishMaritimeAuthorityandNorthwestCoastIndians THEFALKLANDISLANDS/MALVINAS:TheContestforEmpireintheSouthAtlantic BRITAIN, CANADA AND THE NORTH PACIFIC: Maritime Enterprise and Dominion, 1778–1914 FIRSTACROSSTHECONTINENT:SirAlexanderMackenzie FORTUNE’SARIVER:TheCollisionofEmpiresinNorthwestAmerica THEHISTORICALDICTIONARYOFCANADA JUANDEFUCA’SSTRAIT:VoyagesintheWaterwayofForgottenDreams HISTORICAL DREADNOUGHTS: Arthur Marder, Stephen Roskill and Battles for Naval History Pax Britannica Ruling the Waves and Keeping the Peace before Armageddon Barry Gough ©BarryGough2014 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2014by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-34634-9 ISBN 978-1-137-31315-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137313157 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Gough,BarryM. PaxBritannica:rulingthewavesandkeepingthepeacebefore armageddon/BarryGough,IndependentScholar,Canada. pagescm.—(Britainandtheworld;volume14) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1. GreatBritain—History—19thcentury. 2. GreatBritain—History— 20thcentury. 3. GreatBritain.RoyalNavy—History. 4. Civilization, Modern—Britishinfluences. 5. Peace—History–19thcentury. 6. Peace—History—20thcentury. I. Title. DA530.G662014 359.00941(cid:2)09034—dc23 2014019988 To Wm. Roger Louis and to the memory of Gerald S. Graham Nowtheoldshipsandtheirmenaregone;thenewshipsandthenew men,manyofthembearingtheold,auspiciousnames,havetakenup theirwatchonthesternandimpartialsea,whichoffersnoopportuni- tiesbuttothosewhoknowhowtograspthemwithareadyhandand undauntedheart. JosephConrad,TheMirroroftheSea Englandismistressoftheseas,notbyvirtueofanyarrogantoraggres- sive pretensions, but by virtue of her history, of her geographical situation,ofhereconomicantecedentsandconditions,ofherImperial positionandexpansion.Theseconditionshavegiventhedominionof the seas to her, not by any prescriptive right, but by a normal and almost natural process of evolution; and, so long as they subsist and sheistruetoherself,theywillretainitforher. TheTimes,3February1902 QuerybytheNavyLeague:DoesBritanniarulethewaves,ordoesshe meantowaiveherrule? MrPunchontheWarpath A heaving unsettled sea, and away over to the western horizon an angry yellow sun is setting clearly below a forbidding bank of the blackest of wind-charged clouds. In the centre of the picture lies an immense solitary cruiser with a flag...at her masthead blowing out broadandclearfromthefirstrudekissgivenbythefast-risingbreeze. Then,awayfromhalfthepointsofacompass,areseentheswiftships of a cruiser squadron all drawing in to join their flagship. Some are close, others far distant and hull down, with nothing but their fitful smoke against the fast-fading lighted sky to mark their whereabouts; but like wild ducks at evening flighting home to some well-known spot,soarethey,withonedesire,hurryingbackatthebehestoftheir mother-shiptogatherroundherforthenight. ChristopherCradock,WhispersfromtheFleet Contents SeriesEditors’Preface viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xix AbouttheAuthor xxii Prologue xxiii 1 DefiningPaxBritannica 1 2 EmpireoftheSeas 19 3 AnchorsofEmpire 36 4 SurveyingtheSeas,ExpandingtheEmpireofScience 52 5 InformalandFormalEmpiresintheAmericas 79 6 ChallengesofEurope,theMediterraneanandtheBlackSea 104 7 TheIndianOcean,SingaporeandtheChinaSeas 117 8 TheImperialWebintheSouthPacific 136 9 SendaGunboat! 151 10 Anti-Slavery:WestAfricaandtheAmericas 165 11 Treaty-MakingandDhow-ChasingintheIndianOcean 189 12 DarkeningHorizons 214 13 TheLionandtheEagle 233 14 TheTridentBearers:TheNavyasBritannia’sInstrument 246 15 Recessional:TheEndofPaxBritannicaandtheAmerican Inheritance 260 Notes 286 NotesontheHistoricalMaterials 316 IndexofShips 322 SubjectIndex 324 vii Series Editors’ Preface From the sixteenth century onwards, Britain’s influence on the world became progressively more profound and far-reaching, in time touching every con- tinent and subject, from Europe to Australasia and archaeology to zoology. Although the histories of Britain and the world became increasingly inter- twined, mainstream British history still neglects the world’s influence upon domesticdevelopments,andBritain’soverseashistoryremainslargelyconfined tothestudyoftheBritishEmpire.ThisseriestakesabroaderapproachtoBritish history,seekingtoinvestigatethefullextentoftheworld’sinfluenceonBritain andBritain’sinfluenceontheworld.PaxBritannicaispublishedasthe14thvol- ume in the British Scholar Society’s Britain and the World series from Palgrave Macmillan. Barry Gough’s magnum opus investigates the century of British peace from 1815, with the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, to 1914, with the out- break of the First World War. Gough demonstrates that the long nineteenth century was dominated by Britain because the country controlled the most importantmilitarypositionsaroundtheworld.TheseallowedBritaintodefend the empire, which would continue to grow throughout the century if, often, reluctantly.AttheheartofPaxBritannicawastheRoyalNavy,theworld’spre- eminentfleet,anditsgovernanceoftheworld’soceans.Thisunparalleledlevel of control also provided Britain with the opportunity to spread Christianity, commerceandcivilizationtoallcornersoftheglobe.AccordingtoGough,‘Pax was an exercise in self-disciplining statecraft where higher principles operated sidebysidewiththepursuitofprofitandtheprotectionofpower’.ThisBritish worldpeacewouldendwiththeoutbreakoftheFirstWorldWar.Thewarsig- nalledthattheBritishwerenolongerpowerfulenoughtocontrolrisingrivals such as imperial Germany and the United States. Pax Britannica is a system- atic look at how Britain,a tiny archipelago off the northwestcoast of Europe, mouldedEuropeandtheworldbetween1815and1914. Editors,BritainandtheWorld: JamesOnley,AmericanUniversityofSharjah A.G.Hopkins,PembrokeCollege,Cambridge GregoryA.Barton,theAustralianNationalUniversity BryanS.Glass,TexasStateUniversity viii Preface This book’s subject concerns a state of affairs that might never have existed, though it lived long in the hearts and minds of its practitioners that is, its policy-makers,itsadministrators,itsviceroysandgovernors,itscommissioners, anditsguardians,bothmilitaryandnaval.Itis,inessence,abiographyofan ideapossessedinthemindsofmenwhoferventlysoughttoimplementitand toensureitscontinuance. PaxBritannicahasbeenasubjectofincompletehistoricalinquiry.Attemptsto bringthewholeintoareasonablecompasshaveprovedtobeelusive.Therea- sonsareobviousbecausethelinesofinquirywereasimaginativeastheywere suggestive. Students of the history of British foreign policy have understand- ably defined Pax as an extension of British diplomatic and consular thinking, and they have connected it to a unique period of British predominance, with thestatesmanPalmerstonasitsarchetypalpractitioner.Atthetimeofitsflow- ering,theRomanmodelsuggesteditselftotheVictoriansandEdwardiansand, indeed, to all of those who did its bidding. The economic underpinnings of Paxarelikewiseofsignificance,becauseatatimewhenBritainwasthe“work- shopoftheworld”freetradewasintheascendant,astateofaffairsthatmany hopedwouldlongendurebutintheend,likemuchelse,cametoanabruptend with the intense international rivalries that characterized the late nineteenth century and brought on the deluge of 1914. But before this fateful catastro- phe,lawfultradewasseenasbeneficialtoEuropeancivilization,withBritainas example,progenitorandleader.Theempire’sexpansionwaslargelymotivated bytheenergiesofthemercantileclass.Thecommercialcommunitycreatedthe conditionsuponwhichBritishimperialpolicywasshaped.Paxrestedonfiscal strength,bankingacumenandtechniquesofstatemanagement.Italsorequired thefriendship,oratleastforbearance,ofEuropeanpowers.Britishnavalpower madeitpossible.Technologicalchangeandinnovationspeededitspossibilities andcentralizedthemeansofcommand.Itwasalsoanideawithexportvalue. Studentsofthehistoryofcolonialpolicyandcolonialexpansion,aswellasof thehistoryoftheBritishdominionsduringthisperiod,haveseentheideasof Paxechoedinlocalcircumstances. Aboveall,PaxBritannicawasanachievementofamaritimepowerfreshfrom victoryoveraprodigiousContinentalpower,France.Uponthisstateofaffairs Britain was able to influence those places around the globe that fronted onto theoceans,seasandannexes.PaxBritannica’sprogressionandachievementwas essentiallyamaritimeoneandchieflyanavalsuccessstory.Italsorequiredthe deployment of armies and other military forces, including the Royal Marines ix
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