Table of Contents
- 1 Why did the French Revolution have a negative impact on the French Navy?
- 2 Why did Great Britain have the strongest navy?
- 3 What problems was France experiencing that led to the French Revolution?
- 4 How did Napoleon manage to keep the British navy so weak?
- 5 What was the French Navy like in medieval times?
- 6 What battles did the French Navy win before the Nine Years’ War?
While economics, social changes, politics, and strategy all played a role in the downfall of the French Navy, the key factor was the loss of command experience and seamanship suffered by the navy after the fall of the aristocracy during the French Revolution.
The Royal Navy was by far the most powerful of the world’s fleets. It kept the British Isles immune from invasion and was also primed to blockade enemy ports in time of war. Fundamentally, however, its purpose was the protection of trade. Any threat to Britain’s naval supremacy was a threat to the nation itself.
What problems was France experiencing that led to the French Revolution?
10 Major Causes of the French Revolution
- #1 Social Inequality in France due to the Estates System.
- #2 Tax Burden on the Third Estate.
- #3 The Rise of the Bourgeoisie.
- #4 Ideas put forward by Enlightenment philosophers.
- #5 Financial Crisis caused due to Costly Wars.
- #6 Drastic Weather and Poor Harvests in the preceding years.
What impact did the French Revolution have on the lower class?
The French revolution succeeded in obtaining great power for the lower class, creating a constitution, limiting the power of the monarchy, giving the Third Estate great control over the populace of France and gaining rights and power for the lower class of France.
Why did the British win at Trafalgar?
Why did Britain win at Trafalgar? The main reason why the British fleet won was the superior training and discipline of the crews. While most French and Spanish ships had recent experience at sea and in battle, some Spanish ships had inexperienced crews who had only served together for a few weeks.
Napoleon was quite aware of this, so he employed the strategy of a “fleet in being”-maintaining a naval force sufficiently large to keep the Royal Navy ever vigilant and requiring constant manpower and financial resources, yet never actually sending a substantial French fleet into battle when the prospect of victory remained unrealistic.
Medieval fleets, in France as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into naval service in time of war. But the early beginning of the French Navy goes back to the Middle Ages, when it defeated the English Navy at the Battle of Arnemuiden, on 23 September 1338.
Before the Nine Years’ War, in the Franco-Dutch War, the French Navy managed to score a decisive victory over a combined Spanish-Dutch fleet at the Battle of Palermo (1676). During the War of the Grand Alliance, Admiral Tourville won a decisive victory in the Battle of Beachy Head (1690, Bataille de Bévezier ).
What were the major naval bases of the French Revolution?
The major naval bases were Brest, Rochefort and Toulon. The French frigates were excellent, while their ships-of-the-line not so. In 1690 Britain for the first time established a naval superiority over France.