What was the significance of British foreign policy from 1783-1830?

Britain – Foreign Policy 1783-1830

In this course, Professor Jeremy Black (University of Exeter) explores British foreign policy from 1783-1830. In the first lecture, we think about the role of British foreign policy during this period. In the second lecture, we think about how British foreign policy influenced its relationship with Europe. In the third lecture, we think about how foreign policy was influenced by war with France from 1792-1815. Next, we think about British foreign policy after the Napoleonic Wars. In the fifth lecture, we think about how British foreign policy was influenced by the fragmentation and collapse of the Latin American empires of Spain and Portugal. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about British foreign policy in the latter part of this period and the role of ‘Liberal-Toryism’.

What was the significance of British foreign policy from 1783-1830?

In this lecture, we think about the significance of British foreign policy from 1783-1830, focusing in particular on: (i) the focus on foreign policy enabled by the relatively fewer key points of consideration in this period, when compared with today; (ii) a view that the time between the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 and the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 could be considered peace time for Britain; (iii) key crises and anxieties about war in this period, which showed it to not be this period of peace time for Britain; (iv) a further period of apparent peace from the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 to the beginning of the Crimean War in 1854, but which was not experienced as such by the British due to anxieties about further conflict; (v) the invention of the telegraph and steam ships by the latter part of the 19th century, which dramatically sped up transmission of foreign policy decisions; (vi) weather dependent international travel in this period limiting and creating uncertainty around carrying messages overseas; (vii) the establishment of the Foreign Office in Britain in 1782; (viii) a reliance in this period on the person at the decision making place to make that decision on the spot, due to limited international communication capability.