Editing History of the United Kingdom (section)

===Napoleonic wars===
{{Main|United Kingdom in the Napoleonic Wars}}
[[File:Trafalgar-Auguste Mayer.jpg|thumb|The British {{HMS|Sandwich|1759|6}} fires at the French [[flagship]] {{ship|French ship|Bucentaure|1803|2}} (completely dismasted) during the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. The ''Bucentaure'' also fights {{HMS|Victory}} (behind her) and {{HMS|Temeraire|1798|6}} (left side of the picture). In fact, HMS ''Sandwich'' never fought at Trafalgar; a mistake by [[Auguste Mayer]], the painter.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Auguste Mayer's picture as described by the official website of the Musée national de la Marine (in French) |url=http://www.musee-marine.fr/cartel2.php?id=55 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526163947/http://www.musee-marine.fr/cartel2.php?id=55 |archive-date=26 May 2010}}</ref>]]

At the threshold to the 19th century, Britain was challenged again by France under [[Napoleon]], in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations: the constitutional monarchy of Great Britain versus the liberal principles of the French Revolution ostensibly championed by the Napoleonic empire.{{Sfnp|James|2001|page=152}} It was not only Britain's position on the world stage that was threatened: Napoleon threatened invasion of Britain itself, and with it, a fate similar to the countries of continental Europe that his armies had overrun.

During the [[War of the Second Coalition]], Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch colonies (the Netherlands had been a satellite of France since 1796), but tropical diseases claimed the lives of over 40,000 troops. When the [[Treaty of Amiens]] created a pause, Britain was forced to return most of the colonies. In May 1803, war was declared again. Napoleon's plans to invade Britain failed due to the inferiority of his navy, and in 1805, Lord Nelson's fleet decisively defeated the French and Spanish at [[Battle of Trafalgar|Trafalgar]], which was the last significant naval action of the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of [[Berlin Decree]]s, which brought into effect the [[Continental System]]. This policy aimed to weaken the British export economy closing French-controlled territory to its trade. Napoleon hoped that isolating Britain from the Continent would end its economic dominance. It never succeeded in its objective. Britain possessed the greatest industrial capacity in Europe, and its mastery of the seas allowed it to build up considerable economic strength through trade to its possessions from its rapidly expanding new Empire. Britain's naval supremacy meant that France could never enjoy the peace necessary to consolidate its control over Europe, and it could threaten neither the home islands nor the main British colonies.
[[File:Charge of the French Cuirassiers at Waterloo.jpg|thumb|The charge of the French [[Cuirassier]]s at the [[Battle of Waterloo]] against a British [[infantry square]]]]
The [[Dos de Mayo Uprising]] at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent. The [[Duke of Wellington]] and his army of British and Portuguese gradually pushed the French out of Spain and in early 1814, as Napoleon was being driven back in the east by the Prussians, Austrians, and Russians, Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned, but when he escaped back into France in 1815, the British and their allies had to fight him again. The armies of Wellington and [[von Blücher]] defeated Napoleon once and for all at [[Battle of Waterloo|Waterloo]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muir |first=Rory |title=Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1807–1815 |date=1996 |publisher=Yale University Press}}</ref>

====Financing the war====
A key element in British success was its ability to mobilize the nation's industrial and financial resources and apply them to defeating France. With a population of 16 million Britain was barely half the size of France with 30 million. In terms of soldiers the French numerical advantage was offset by British subsidies that paid for a large proportion of the Austrian and Russian soldiers, peaking at about 450,000 in 1813.<ref>{{Harvp|Kennedy|1989|page=128–129}}.</ref> Most important, the British national output remained strong and the well-organized business sector channeled products into what the military needed. The system of smuggling finished products into the continent undermined French efforts to ruin the British economy by cutting off markets. The British budget in 1814 reached £66 million, including £10 million for the Navy, £40 million for the Army, £10 million for the Allies, and £38 million as interest on the national debt. The national debt soared to £679 million, more than double the GDP. It was willingly supported by hundreds of thousands of investors and tax payers, despite the higher taxes on land and a new income tax. The whole cost of the war came to £831 million. By contrast the French financial system was inadequate and Napoleon's forces had to rely in part on requisitions from conquered lands.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Halevy |first=Elie |title=A History of the English People in 1815 |date=1924 |volume=2 |pages=205–206, 215–228}}; {{Citation |last=Knight |first=Roger |title=Britain Against Napoleon: The Organisation of Victory, 1793–1815 |date=2013}}; {{Harvp|Watson|1960|pages=374–377, 406–407, 463–471}}.</ref>

Napoleon also attempted economic warfare against Britain, especially in the [[Berlin Decree]] of 1806. It forbade the import of British goods into European countries allied with or dependent upon France, and installed the [[Continental System]] in Europe. All connections were to be cut, even the mail. British merchants smuggled in many goods and the Continental System was not a powerful weapon of economic war.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schroeder |first=Paul W. |title=The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848 |date=1994 |pages=305–310}}</ref> There was some damage to Britain, especially in 1808 and 1811, but its control of the oceans helped ameliorate the damage. Even more damage was done to the economies of France and its allies, which lost a useful trading partner.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grab |first=Alexander |title=Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe |date=2003 |pages=29–33}}</ref> Angry governments gained an incentive to ignore the Continental System, which led to the weakening of Napoleon's coalition.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Crouzet |first=François |date=1964 |title=Wars, blockade, and economic change in Europe, 1792–1815 |journal=Journal of Economic History |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=567–588 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700061271 |jstor=2115762|s2cid=154922418 }}</ref>

====War of 1812 with United States====
[[File:Signing of Treaty of Ghent (1814).jpg|thumb|left|Signing of the [[Treaty of Ghent]] (December 1814) with the U.S. diplomats]]
Simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes and British impressment of American sailors led to the [[War of 1812]] with the United States. This was the "Second War of Independence" for the Americans, though in reality, it was never about British efforts to conquer the former colonies, but about the conquest of the Canadian colonies by the Americans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Charles Jacobs |title=The Military Heroes of the War of 1812: With a Narrative of the War |date=1852 |author-link=Charles Jacobs Peterson}}</ref> It was little noticed in Britain, where all attention was focused on the struggle with France. The British could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814. American [[frigate]]s also inflicted a series of embarrassing defeats on the British navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe. A stepped-up war effort that year brought about some successes such as the [[burning of Washington]], but many influential voices such as the Duke of Wellington argued that an outright victory over the US was impossible.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Black |first=Jeremy |title=The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon |date=2009 |author-link=Jeremy Black (historian)}} is one of the few major British studies</ref>

Peace was agreed to at the end of 1814, but [[Andrew Jackson]], unaware of this, won a great victory over the British at the [[Battle of New Orleans]] in January 1815 (news took several weeks to cross the Atlantic before the advent of steam ships). Ratification of the [[Treaty of Ghent]] ended the war in February 1815. The major result was the permanent defeat of the Indian allies the British had counted upon. The US-Canada border was demilitarised by both countries, and peaceful trade resumed, although worries of an American conquest of Canada persisted into the 1860s.