During the long sequence of wars that engulfed Europe between 1792 and 1815, there was one constant: whoever else might shift allegiance, Britain and France were always against each other. Britain was the wealthiest nation in Europe. France was the first to build a mass army. Those were ingredients for an entirely new kind of war.

This episode looks at how Britain became so wealthy, France so powerful military. And, along the way, it explodes a few Industrial revolution myths about the Protestant ethic, the effect of climate and British genius.

Illustration: Schematic of a Newcomen atmospheric engine, fired by coal and driven by steam. It was used above all to pump water out of mines. Invented in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen, it was the first practical device designed to use steam power to produce mechanical work.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

Last time, we looked at the developing impact of the French Revolution, but mostly from the French point of view. We saw how France slipped towards increasing violence in its politics and eventually into war. And then how, despite suffering many defeats, it also managed a surprising victory allowing it to launch a counter-invasion against its enemies.

This time, we see how Britain had to cope with developments that were similar to what happened in France, though less intense. And we see how the Pitt government reacted to them, both internally – with some pretty heavy-handed repression – and then externally - resisting being sucked into war on the continent.

Ultimately without success.

Illustration: Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie ca 1797

National Portrait Gallery 1237

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

We’re into the slide into the most destructive of the series of wars of that rocked the eighteenth century. It would be a war that had a devastating effect on most of Europe. It was also the last war between Britain and France, and by far the biggest.

But, oddly enough, in the run up to it William Pitt had worked hard, and with an apparently high degree of success, to rebuild Britain’s status as a world power and to use that status to ensure that the whole continent was at peace, and stayed that way. Indeed, apart from a certain intransigence from the Russians, the only factor that denied him complete success was the refusal of the House of Commons to back him on the last key step in his plans.

Shades of his defeats in 1784…

Although, given the slide to war, all of that effort for peace was a little irrelevant. Events way beyond Pitt's control were driving Europe towards war. They were happening in France, where the revolution was still far from over.

Illustration: The Battle of Valmy, September 20th, 1792, by Horace Vernet. This was the surprising victory of the French revolutionary forces over the Prussian, a sign of things to come…

Public domain. Published anywhere (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before 1927 and public domain in the U.S.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

The French Revolution! A turning point in the history of the world. Or so it’s frequently claimed. But in the myth-busting spirit of this podcast, this episode questions that belief, without denying that the wars to which the revolution led had a pretty dramatic impact. At least in Europe, though claiming that a European event changed the world may be a slight overreach.

It also takes a look at how Britain and France had similar developments of parliamentary systems way back in ancient history, but then the two nations diverged. Some of the aspects that made France different set up the crisis that led to the revolution. Then two lousy harvests and the hunger that followed ensured that the most oppressed sectors of society rose too, in a resentful fury that made the whole thing all the bloodier.

So don’t expect rose-tinted glasses in this assessment of the revolution.

Illustration: The Taking of the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre Houël. Public domain.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

The mid-1780s were a good time for Pitt. He’d mastered the nation’s finances and cleverly manoeuvred government spending not just into balance, but into surplus, despite spending more on the navy than before. Even the Opposition had to congratulate him. He was facing down the French and he was bringing the possessions in India more firmly under Britain’s control. Even after the king went mad, he called on his remarkable skill as a politician to make sure that, when his extraordinary luck came to his assistance once more, he could take full advantage of it.

But then an event took place over which he had no control whatsoever. The suffering people of France rose in revolt against the misery to which their bankrupt nation had condemned them. That epoch-making moment hit Pitt just as he thought he was going to be able to enjoy a well-earned holiday. 

Illustration: King George III in later life. Studio of Sir William Beechey, circa 1800. National Portrait Gallery 6250

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

Like so many good things, this one could have some fairly lousy consequences.

Just like the United States, if not quite to the same extent, Britain after the War of American Independence was pushing forward the notion of limited government. The king, while still powerful, couldn’t do just what he wanted. So while he’d campaigned hard to get his man, William Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister, it had been made clear that Pitt saw himself as his own man.

Similarly Pitt, despite a big majority in the House of Commons, couldn’t get everything his own way either. He had some wins, but he had some big losses too. Which is a good thing, if you’re not keen on any individual having too much power.

On the other hand, it was a pity that Pitt’s big losses were on a measure which might have gone a long way to fixing the relationship between England and Ireland, and on starting to reform parliament and doing away with some of its worst abuses, which was long overdue.

A pity that British parliamentarians decided that those were the issues on which to limit the power of the British government…

Illustration: Cicero in Catilinam by James Sayers, published by Thomas Cornell by 17 March 1785. Pitt is standing and speaking at the dispatch box in the House of Commons. Opposite him, the obese Fox is listening and the nearly-blind Lord North is peering at a document.

National Portrait Gallery 12236

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

Losing an Empire? Not a problem if you’re the world power Britain was in the late eighteenth century. You just have to build a new one.

In part that would come from new journeys of so-called discovery (the people in the ‘discovered’ lands didn’t think they’d been undiscovered before the Europeans showed up). The most famous of the British explorers was Captain James Cook, whose sad end showed that the process didn’t always run smoothly.

But the biggest contribution to the new Empire would come from land Britain already held, specifically in India. There, though, its power wasn’t exerted directly, but had been outsourced to the East India Company. Which led to a host of problems. A number of people tried to solve them, including Edmund Burke who attempted to impeach the Company’s first Governor General in India, Warren Hastings. But no one spoke out more forcefully for India than the MP George Dempster, who went so far as to argue for its independence.

Sadly, no one was listening.

Illustration: Thunder, lightning and smoke published by William Moore and by W. Dickie, hand-coloured etching, 22 April 1783

National Portrait Gallery D15004. Burke and Fox float overhead with impeachment as their weapon. Lord North, beaten in North America, now lost, lies in rags on the left. In the centre is Charles Francis MP, who tried to get parliamentary control over Warren Hastings, on the right, who’s rebuilding the British Empire, but this time in India. And in his own, or the East India Company's, way.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

As we emerge from the serious instability in Britain caused by the defection of the American colonies and the war that followed, and as we stand on the brink of Britain’s pursuit of a second empire to replace the first, we pause for a moment to talk about Adam Smith, a man whose ideas have rung down the centuries to today. It turns out they’re not exactly what many of his admirers might suggest. But then, from his time on, most of them have been ignored by the people in power anyway.

Illustration: Adam Smith, etching by John Kay in 1790. National Portrait Gallery D16843

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

After a period of serious instability, the fifth government in a period of a mere two years secured itself a position in which it would last for the best part of two decades. The process was a particularly curious one, since it involved what has been referred to as a coup d’état by the king against his own government. That succeeded only thanks for the clever work of the monarch, and above all of the man who would become Britain’s youngest Prime Minister ever.

Illustration: ‘Aside he turn’d for envy, yet with jealous leer malign, eyd them askance’, by James Gillray. National Portrait Gallery D12302. Fox on the right glaring at Pitt, second from left.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

While there’s much talk about the huge gains made by the American colonists, and the triumphant launching of the United States of America, far less is generally said about the effect of the American war in the mother country itself. Since Britain was also fighting France, Spain and Holland, the impact on its economy was massive, and on the political establishment if anything even more massive. Loyalty swung wildly, old allies became new adversaries, or vice versa, administrations were formed and fell in rapid succession. All this happened while in the background the latest battle was being fought between king and parliament over who would have the greatest authority over government.

Illustration: Soldiers deployed during the Gordon Riots, by John Seymour Lucas, in a painting of 1879. Public Domain

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License