Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
Summary
In spite of all its other weaknesses, European administrative organisation was one of Western Europe's greatest strengths during its conquering phase. This organisation allowed Europe to be one step ahead of the other continents. The ensuing result – the divide between Europeans and ‘Others’, was due to a large extent to the triumph of State and administrative organisation, in itself a product of the Industrial Revolution. Not to be forgotten, however, was also the role played by liberty …
Jean Meyer, Le poids de l'Etat (Paris, PUF, 1983), 289Professor Jean Meyer's opinion (above) can be aptly applied to British naval history in the modern period. It was thanks to the Royal Navy's ability to create a structured administration and thus stimulate ‘cisatlantic’ commercial capitalism (to use D.A. Farnie's expression) which was, at the time, in a period of full development, that Great Britain was enabled to progressively dominate the high seas.
The author's study of the struggle during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to control the Caribbean and Atlantic coasts of Central and South America, a veritable yardstick by which to measure the level of organisation of the various European navies, has already shed light on the fact that in order to succeed in a far-distant theatre of operations, it was indispensable that the means available should match the strategic ideas.
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- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013