History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom information

The history of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom covers English, British, and United Kingdom's foreign policy from about 1500 to 2000. For the current situation since 2000 see foreign relations of the United Kingdom.

Britain from 1750 to the 1910s took pride in an unmatched economic base; comprising industry, finance, shipping and trade that largely dominated the globe. Foreign policy based on free trade (from the 1840 to 1920s) kept the economy flourishing. The overseas First British Empire was devastated by the loss of the thirteen American colonies in a war when Britain had no major allies. The Second British Empire was built fresh in Asia and Africa and reached its zenith in the 1920s. Foreign policy made sure it was never seriously threatened. The Statute of Westminster granted effective independence to the Empire's long self governing Dominions in 1931.

Peace was the usual pattern, but there was at times major conflict, particularly in the wars against Napoleon's France from the 1790s to 1815. After that Britain would not fight another war on the European soil until World War I. British policy focused on achieving a conservative balance of power within Europe, with no one country achieving dominance over the affairs of the continent. This had been the basic reason behind the British wars against Napoleon, and in the view of some, Germany in World War I. The chief enemy down to 1815 was France, with its much larger population base and its powerful army. The Royal Navy gave Britain a decisive advantage. The British were generally highly successful in their wars, with the notable exception of the American War of Independence (1775–1783), where the French role was decisive.^[1]

A favoured diplomatic strategy was subsidising the armies of continental allies, such as the Kingdom of Prussia, thereby turning London's enormous financial power to military advantage. Britain relied heavily on the Royal Navy for security, seeking to keep it the most powerful fleet afloat with a full complement of bases across the globe. British dominance of the seas was vital to the formation of the British Empire, which was achieved through the maintenance of a Navy larger than the next two largest Navies combined for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, prior to the entry of the United States into World War II. The British controlled the oceans. So powerful was the Royal Navy, it needed to do little actual fighting from 1812 to 1914. Although all of the other great powers fought with their neighbours, the British Army had only one relatively limited war (the Crimean War against the Russian Empire in 1854–56). The Army mostly handled garrison duty, and did have to deal with localized insurrections and colonial conflicts in Asia and Africa.

For a capsule guide to the wars, see list of wars involving the United Kingdom.