Joined Sep 2010
3,538 Posts | 10+
Somewhere in the former First French Empire
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This may be a shock to many of my fellow British historumites, but it is with reason. Let me start with showing you a bit of data:
As you can see it shows Britain's involvement in more wars then the other European powers.
There are of course reasons for this:
1. Britain's lust for colonial posessions across the globe. This lust goes hand in hand with gaining international prestige, the quest for resources and to widen Britain's global market.
2. Britain's constant involvement of continental affairs in Europe troughout history. Their obsession with keeping the balance of powers forced them into long wars with the Habsburgs, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Napoleon, Wilhelm II and eventually Hitler as well. Regarding the last person I named here we on the continent are extremely gratefull that Britain reached out his hand to rid Europe of this evil dictator, but for the rest is much to say. From British point of view this is reasonable of course because they don't want a singular strong power on the continent.
3. As a result of British need for a larger market, they did everything in their power to prevent other nations from threatening or crossing this goal. This resulted in wars such as the Crimean War and British involvement in the Seven Years War when it was threatened by France's rapid expansion in North America and India. More of such examples can be found.
Would you agree with this statement that Britain is indeed Europe's greatest warmonger or do you have a good counter argument?
As you can see it shows Britain's involvement in more wars then the other European powers.
There are of course reasons for this:
1. Britain's lust for colonial posessions across the globe. This lust goes hand in hand with gaining international prestige, the quest for resources and to widen Britain's global market.
2. Britain's constant involvement of continental affairs in Europe troughout history. Their obsession with keeping the balance of powers forced them into long wars with the Habsburgs, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Napoleon, Wilhelm II and eventually Hitler as well. Regarding the last person I named here we on the continent are extremely gratefull that Britain reached out his hand to rid Europe of this evil dictator, but for the rest is much to say. From British point of view this is reasonable of course because they don't want a singular strong power on the continent.
3. As a result of British need for a larger market, they did everything in their power to prevent other nations from threatening or crossing this goal. This resulted in wars such as the Crimean War and British involvement in the Seven Years War when it was threatened by France's rapid expansion in North America and India. More of such examples can be found.
Would you agree with this statement that Britain is indeed Europe's greatest warmonger or do you have a good counter argument?
