History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom

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. Starting with India in 1947, independence movements took off in nearly every colony so that most had acheived independence by the 1960s with only a small handful left by the 1970.

Peace was the usual pattern, but there was at times major conflict, particularly against France from the 1790s to 1815, after which Britain would not fight another war on the European soil until World War I, with victory achieved at enormous cost. After expending enormous energy on the defeat of the First French Empire and Napoleon (1793–1815), 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 was a decisive advantage. The British were generally highly successful in their wars, with possibly the only notable exception being the American War of Independence (1775–1784).

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 its 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.

English foreign policy before 1700

In 1500 the Kingdom of England had only a modest population (3.8 million) compared to its much larger rivals of France (15 million), Spain (6.5 million), and the Holy Roman Empire (17 million). It was three times larger than its naval rival, the Netherlands, and eight times larger than Scotland. The limited budget, limited ambitions on the continent, avoidance of alliances, and the protection afforded by the English Channel from foreign invasion combined to make foreign affairs less pressing for the British government before 1688. Elite elements paid little attention to Continental affairs before the 1660s, and there was little clamour to enter the Thirty Years War of 1618–48. Historian Lawrence Stone says England "was no more than a marginal player in the European power game." The increasingly powerful Royal Navy attracted admiration, but London used it to support its growing overseas empire.

Tudor foreign policy

King Henry VII (reigned 1485–1509) founded the Tudor dynasty that lasted to 1603, and concentrated on establishing peace in England, especially against the threatened rebellions by the newly defeated House of York. Foreign affairs apart from Scotland were not a high priority. Scotland was an independent country, and peace was agreed to in 1497. Much of his diplomacy involved treaties for marriages with ruling houses in Europe. He married his eldest daughter Margaret Tudor to King James IV of Scotland in 1503. The match did not guarantee peace in the short run but did so in the long run: in 1603 James VI and I, the grandson of the marriage, united the two kingdoms under his rule. Henry tried to marry his daughter Mary to the man who later became Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, but that fell through. Henry VIII finally married her to King Louis XII of France as part of a peace treaty in 1514; Louis died after three months and Henry demanded and got most of her dowry back. The other main diplomatic success of Henry VII was an alliance with Spain, sealed by the marriage in 1501 of his heir Arthur, Prince of Wales, to Catherine of Aragon, Spain's infanta (eldest daughter of the Spanish king). When his Queen died in 1503, Henry VII searched the European marriage market for a diplomatic marriage with a large dowry for himself, but was unable to find a match.

Arthur died in 1502 and the second son married the widow in 1509, just after he became king as Henry VIII,

Henry VIII

King Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547) was one of the most flamboyant and famous of all English monarchs. In military terms, he paid special attention to expanding the English Navy, to protect the rapidly expanding merchant fleet. He also commissioned privateers from the merchant fleets to act as auxiliary warships that captured and resold enemy merchant ships. Some of his foreign and religious policy revolved around annulling his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in 1533 despite the opposition of Pope Clement VII—his solution was to remove the Church of England from the pope's authority, thereby launching the English Reformation.

In 1510, France, with a fragile alliance with the Holy Roman Empire in the League of Cambrai, was winning a war against the Republic of Venice. Henry renewed his father's friendship with Louis XII of France, and signed a pact with King Ferdinand of Spain. After Pope Julius II created the anti-French Holy League in October 1511, Henry followed Spain's lead and brought England into the new League. An initial joint Anglo-Spanish attack was planned for the spring to recover Aquitaine for England, the start of making Henry's dreams of ruling France a reality. The attack failed and it strained the Anglo-Spanish alliance. Nevertheless, the French were pushed out of Italy soon after, and the alliance survived, with both parties keen to win further victories over the French.

On 30 June 1513, Henry invaded France, and his troops defeated a French army at the Battle of the Spurs – a relatively minor result, but one which was seized on by the English for propaganda purposes. Soon after, the English took Thérouanne and handed it over to Maximillian; Tournai, a more significant settlement, followed. Henry had led the army personally, complete with large entourage.
His absence from the country, however, had prompted James IV of Scotland, to invade England at the behest of Louis. The English army, overseen by Queen Catherine, decisively defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513, in which James IV and many senior Scottish nobles died.

Charles V ascended the thrones of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire following the deaths of his grandfathers, Ferdinand in 1516 and Maximilian in 1519. Francis I likewise became king of France upon the death of Louis in 1515, leaving three relatively young rulers and an opportunity for a clean slate. The careful diplomacy of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey had resulted in the Treaty of London in 1518, an early non-aggression pact among the major kingdoms of western Europe. In a significant follow-up, Henry met Francis I on 7 June 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold near Calais for a fortnight of lavish and extremely expensive entertainment.
The hope that warfare was past proved futile. Charles brought his Holy Roman Empire into war with France in 1521; Henry offered to mediate, but little was achieved and by the end of the year Henry had aligned England with Charles. He still clung to his previous aim of restoring English lands in France, but also sought to secure an alliance with Burgundy, then part of Charles' realm, and the continued support of Charles. Charles defeated and captured Francis at Pavia and could dictate peace; but he believed he owed Henry nothing. Henry had repeatedly raised taxes to pay for his foreign operations until upscale passive resistance in 1525 forced the ending of the newest tax known as the "Amicable Grant." Lack of money ended Henry's plans for an invasion of France and he took England out of the war with the Treaty of the More on 30 August 1525.

New World

Just five years after Columbus, in 1497 Henry VII commissioned the Italian mariner John Cabot who had settled in England, to explore the New World. Cabot was the first European since the Norsemen to reach parts of what is now Canada, exploring from Newfoundland to as far south as Delaware. He found no gold or spices and the king lost interest. Colonization was not a high priority for the Tudors, who were much more interested in raiding the Spanish treasure ships than in acquiring their own colonies.<

Conflict with Spain, 1568-1604

Treasure crisis of 1568

The "Treasure crisis" of 1568 was Queen Elizabeth's seizure of gold from Spanish treasure ships in English ports in November 1568. Chased by privateers in the English channel, five small Spanish ships carrying gold and silver worth 400,000 florins (£85,000) sought shelter in English harbors at Plymouth and Southampton. The English government headed by William Cecil gave permission. The money was bound for the Netherlands as payment for Spanish soldiers who were fighting rebels there. Queen Elizabeth discovered that the gold was not owned by Spain, but was still owned by Italian bankers. She decided to seize it, and treated as a loan from the Italian bankers to England. The bankers agree to her terms, so Elizabeth had the money and she eventually repaid the bankers. Spain reacted furiously, and seized English property in the Netherlands and Spain. England reacted by seizing Spanish ships and properties in England. Spain reacted by imposing an embargo preventing all English imports into the Netherlands. The bitter diplomatic standoff lasted for four years. However neither side wanted war. In 1573, the Convention of Nymegen was a treaty where England promised to end support for raids on Spanish shipping by English privateers such as Francis Drake and John Hawkins. It was finalized in the Convention of Bristol in August, 1574 in which both sides paid for what they had seized. Trade resumed between England and Spain and relations improved.

= Armada

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The Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) arose largely from religious differences; the execution of Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587 outraged Spain. War was never formally declared. Spain was militarily and financially much more powerful, and promoted a Catholic interest in opposition to England's Protestantism. The conflict saw widely separated battles, and began with England's military expedition in 1585 to the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) in support of the resistance of the States General to Spanish Habsburg rule. The English enjoyed a modest victory by "Singeing the King of Spain's Beard" in 1587 at Cádiz, the main port in Spain. The raid led by Francis Drake destroyed numerous merchant ships and captured some treasure. The great English triumph was the decisive defeat of the Spanish invasion attempt by the ill-fated Spanish Armada in 1588. After Elizabeth died in 1603, the new king made peace a high priority and ended the long-simmering conflict in 1604.

Stuart foreign policy

By 1600 the conflict with Spain became deadlocked during campaigns in Brittany and Ireland. James I, the new king of England made peace with the new King of Spain, Philip III with the Treaty of London in 1604. They agreed to cease their military interventions in the Spanish Netherlands and Ireland, respectively, and the English ended high seas privateering against Spanish merchant ships. King James I (reigned 1603–25) was sincerely devoted to peace, not just for his three kingdoms, but for Europe as a whole. He disliked Puritans and Jesuits alike, because of their eagerness for warfare. He called himself "Rex Pacificus" ("King of peace.") Europe was deeply polarized, and on the verge of the massive Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), with the smaller established Protestant states facing the aggression of the larger Catholic empires. On assuming the throne, James made peace with Catholic Spain, and made it his policy to marry his son to the Spanish Infanta (princess) in the " Spanish Match". The marriage of James' daughter Princess Elizabeth to Frederick V, Elector Palatine on 14 February 1613 was more than the social event of the era; the couple's union had important political and military implications. Across Europe, the German princes were banding together in the Union of German Protestant Princes, headquartered in Heidelberg, the capital of the Palatine. King James calculated that his daughter's marriage would give him diplomatic leverage among the Protestants. He thus planned to have a foot in both camps and be able to broker peaceful settlements. In his naïveté, he did not realize that both sides were playing him as a tool for their own goal of achieving destroying the other side. Spain's ambassador Count Gondomar knew how to manipulate the king. The Catholics in Spain, as well as the Emperor Ferdinand II, the Vienna-based leader of the Habsburgs and head of the Holy Roman Empire, were both heavily influenced by the Catholic Counter-Reformation. They had the goal of expelling Protestantism from their domains.

Lord Buckingham (1592–1628), who increasingly was the actual ruler of Britain, wanted an alliance with Spain. Buckingham took Charles with him to Spain to woo the Infanta in 1623. However, Spain's terms were that James must drop Britain's anti-Catholic intolerance or no marriage. Buckingham and Charles were humiliated and Buckingham became the leader of the widespread British demand for a war against Spain. Meanwhile, the Protestant princes looked to Britain, since it was the strongest of all the Protestant countries, to give military support for their cause. His son-in-law and daughter became king and queen of Bohemia, which outraged Vienna. The Thirty Years’ War began, as the Habsburg Emperor ousted the new king and queen of Bohemia, and massacred their followers. Catholic Bavaria then invaded the Palatine, and James's son-in-law begged for James's military intervention. James finally realized his policies had backfired and refused these pleas. He successfully kept Britain out of the European-wide war that proved so heavily devastating for three decades. James's backup plan was to marry his son Charles to a French Catholic princess, who would bring a handsome dowry. Parliament and the British people were strongly opposed to any Catholic marriage, were demanding immediate war with Spain, and strongly favored with the Protestant cause in Europe. James had alienated both elite and popular opinion in Britain, and Parliament was cutting back its financing. Historians credit James for pulling back from a major war at the last minute, and keeping Britain in peace.

The crisis in Bohemia in 1619, and the conflagration that resulted, marked the beginning of the disastrous Thirty Years' War. King James' determination to avoid involvement in the continental conflict, even during the "war fever" of 1623, appears in retrospect as one of the most significant, and most positive, aspects of his reign.

During 1600–1650 England made repeated efforts to colonize Guiana in South America. They all failed and the lands ( Surinam) were ceded to the Dutch Empire in 1667.

King Charles I (1600-1649) trusted Lord Buckingham, who made himself rich in the process but proved a failure at foreign and military policy. Charles gave him command of the military expedition against Spain in 1625. It was a total fiasco with many dying from disease and starvation. He led another disastrous military campaign in 1627. Buckingham was hated and the damage to the king's reputation was irreparable. England rejoiced when he was assassinated in 1628 by John Felton.

Huguenots

As a major Protestant nation, England patronized and help protect Huguenots, starting with Queen Elizabeth in 1562. There was a small naval Anglo-French War (1627–1629) , in which England supported the French Huguenots against King Louis XIII of France. London financed the emigration of many to England and its colonies around 1700. Some 40,000-50,000 settled in England, mostly in towns near the sea in the southern districts, with the largest concentration in London where they constituted about 5% of the total population in 1700. Many others went to the Thirteen Colonies, especially South Carolina. The immigrants included many skilled craftsmen and entrepreneurs who facilitated the economic modernization of their new home, in an era when economic innovations were transferred by people rather than through printed works. The British government ignored the complaints made by local craftsmen about the favoritism shown foreigners. Many became private tutors, schoolmasters, travelling tutors and owners of riding schools, where they were hired by the upper class. The immigrants assimilated well in terms of using English, joining the Church of England, intermarriage and business success. They founded the silk industry in England.

In terms of impact on British foreign policy, a keen new interest in humanitarian intervention, intended to prevent foreign governments from punishing people for their religious beliefs was emerging during the early eighteenth century. In large part this new sensibility was based on the happy experience of protecting Huguenots in France and taking in many refugees who became very good citizens.

Anglo Dutch Wars

The Anglo-Dutch Wars were a series of three wars which took place between the English and the Dutch from 1652 to 1674. The causes included political disputes and increasing competition from merchant shipping. Religion was not a factor, since both sides were Protestant. The British in the first war (1652–54) had the naval advantage with larger numbers of more powerful " ships of the line" which were well suited to the naval tactics of the era. The British also captured numerous Dutch merchant ships. In the second war (1665–67) Dutch naval victories followed. This second war cost London ten times more than it had planned on, and the king sued for peace in 1667 with the Treaty of Breda. It ended the fights over "mercantilism" (that is, the use of force to protect and expand national trade, industry, and shipping.) Meanwhile, the French were building up fleets that threatened both the Netherlands and Great Britain. In third war (1672–74), The British counted on a new alliance with France but the outnumbered Dutch outsailed both of them, and King Charles II ran short of money and political support. The Dutch gained domination of sea trading routes until 1713. The British gained the thriving colony of New Netherland, and renamed it New York.

William III: 1689–1702

The primary reason the English Parliament called on William to invade England in 1688 was to overthrow King James II, and stop his efforts to reestablish Catholicism and tolerate Puritanism. However the primary reason William accepted the challenge was to gain a powerful ally in his war to contain the threatened expansion of King Louis XIV of France. William's goal was to build coalitions against the powerful French monarchy, protect the autonomy of the Netherlands (where William continued in power) and to keep the Spanish Netherlands (present-date Belgium) out of French hands. The English aristocracy was intensely anti—French, and customarily supported William's broad goals. For his entire career in Netherlands and Britain, William was the arch-enemy of Louis XIV. The Catholic King of France, in turn, denounced the Protestant William as a usurper who had illegally taken the throne from the legitimate Catholic King James II, and that he ought to be overthrown. In May 1689, William, now king of England, with the support of Parliament, declared war on France.
Historian J.R. Jones states that King William was given:
:supreme command within the alliance throughout the Nine Years war. His experience and knowledge of European affairs made him the indispensable director of Allied diplomatic and military strategy, and he derived additional authority from his enhanced status as king of England – even the Emperor Leopold...recognized his leadership. William's English subjects played subordinate or even minor roles in diplomatic and military affairs, having a major share only in the direction of the war at sea. Parliament and the nation had to provide money, men and ships, and William had found it expedient to explain his intentions...but this did not mean that Parliament or even ministers assisted in the formulation of policy.

England and France were at war almost continuously until 1713, with a short interlude 1697–1701 made possible by the Treaty of Ryswick. The combined English and Dutch fleets could overpower France in a far-flung naval war, but France still had superiority on land. William wanted to neutralize that advantage by allying with Leopold I, the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor (1658–1705), who was based in Vienna, Austria. Leopold, however, Was tied down in war with the Ottoman Empire on his eastern frontiers; William worked to achieve a negotiated settlement between the Ottomans and the Empire. William displayed in imaginative Europe-wide strategy, but Louis always managed to come up with a counter play.

William was usually supported by the English leadership, which saw France as its greatest enemy. But eventually the expenses, and war weariness, caused second thoughts. At first, Parliament voted him the funds for his expensive wars, and for his subsidies to smaller allies. Private investors created the Bank of England in 1694; it provided a sound system that made financing wars much easier by encouraging bankers to loan money.

In the long-running Nine Years' War (1688–97) his main strategy was to form a military alliance of England, the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and some smaller states, to attack France at sea, and from land in different directions, while defending the Netherlands. Louis XIV tried to undermine this strategy by refusing to recognize William as king of England, and by giving diplomatic, military and financial support to a series of pretenders to the English throne, all based in France. William focused most of his attention on foreign policy and foreign wars, spending a great deal of time in the Netherlands (where he continued to hold the dominant political office). His closest foreign-policy advisers were Dutch, most notably William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland; they shared little information with their English counterparts. The net result was that the Netherlands remained independent, and France never took control of the Spanish Netherlands. The wars were very expensive to both sides but inconclusive. William died just as the continuation war, the War of the Spanish Succession, (1702–1714), was beginning. It was fought out during the reign of Queen Anne, and ended in a draw.

The long 18th century: wars with France, 1702–1815

Diplomatic service

Unlike such major rivals as France, the Netherlands, Sweden or Austria, British control over their own diplomacy was erratic. Diplomats were poorly selected, poorly funded, and non-professional. The main posts were Paris and The Hague, but the diplomats sent there were more clever in dealing with London politics than they were with diplomatic affairs. King William III handled foreign policy himself, using Dutch diplomats whenever possible. After 1700, Britain built up the quantity of its diplomatic service in the major capitals, without much attention to quality. Vienna and Berlin were upgraded, but even they were ignored for years at a time. By the 1790s, British diplomats had learned a great deal by closely watching their French rivals; aristocratic exiles from Paris began helping out as well. For the first time in the French wars, Britain set up an underground intelligence service that was in contact with local dissidents, and helped shape their protests. William Pitt the Younger, the Prime Minister during much of the French Revolutionary period, was saddled with the largely incompetent Foreign Secretary, Francis Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds, from 1783 to 1791. However Pitt managed to bring in numerous strong diplomats, such as James Harris at The Hague, where he forged an alliance that with the addition of Prussia became a triple alliance in 1788. Pitt often used him as a troubleshooter in complex negotiations. Pitt brought in William Eden (1744–1814), who negotiated a difficult commercial treaty with France in 1786.

Pitt brought on board three foreign ministers with strong reputations. William Grenville (1791–1801) saw France as a profound threat to every nation in Europe, and he focused his attention on its defeat, working closely with his cousin PM Pitt. George Canning (1807–9), and Viscount Casterleagh (1812–15) were highly successful in organizing complex coalitions that in the end defeated Napoleon. Castlereagh to Canning displayed imagination and energy, although their personalities clashed to the point of fighting a duel.

Britain as a naval and maritime power

Britain's leaders realized the value of the increasingly powerful Royal Navy, and made sure that in various treaties it added naval bases and obtained access to key ports. In the Mediterranean region, it controlled Gibraltar and Minorca, and had advantageous positions in Naples and Palermo. The alliance with Portugal concluded in 1703 protected its approaches to the Mediterranean. In the North, Hanover played a role (it was ruled by the English king), while the alliance with Denmark provided naval access to the North Sea and the Baltic. Meanwhile, French maritime power was weakened by the Treaty of Utrecht which forced it to destroy its naval base in Dunkirk

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