Empire, Technology and Seapower

Howard J. Fuller is Senior Lecturer of War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton (UK), Associate Editor for the International Journal of Naval History and the author of Clad in Iron: The American Civil War and the Challenge of British Naval Power (2007).

Introduction Part I: Palmerstonian ‘Gunboat Diplomacy’, Ironclad Technology and the ‘Declinist’ Controversy 1: The edge of naval defence 2: British decline 3: Peace-making 4: ‘Rule Britannia' 5: True, because it did not happen 6: Breastworks 7: Monitors for coastal assault 8: ‘Shock and Awe’ Part II: From the Crimean War to the American Civil War: Naval Innovation and the Anglo-French Balance of Power 9: "Naval architecture, to a great extent, must remain sheer empiricism" 10: "It is impossible now for this country to rely entirely for its defence upon its naval means" 11: "The British Lion must put his tail between his legs, and ‘Civis Romanus’ give up swaggering so loftily" 12: "They may hope for a fair share of success in at least the outbreak of hostilities" 13: "To increase his naval means, evidently for offensive as well as for defensive Purposes" 14: "If by a Stroke of the wand I could effect in the Map of the world the Changes which I could wish" 15: "The policy of substituting ships protected by heavy iron plates need not enter into the consideration" 16: "We are too rich, too industrious, too dependent on other nations, to face indifferently the prospect of a blockade" 17: "We have found a way of making men-of-war shot proof" 18: "Give us in the shortest Time good means of Defence at Home" 19: "The means by which we shall again be able to catch the bird in his own net" 20: "Not as the wisest, nor as the most economical, nor as the safest way of meeting the exigencies of the case" Part III: ‘Splendid Isolation’, the ‘Cherbourg Strategy’ and the ‘Great Armament’ Reconsidered 21: ‘Splendid Isolation’: a matter of choice?' 22: Cherbourg 23: Cronstadt 24: The ‘Great Armament' 25: The edge of naval offence 26: ’twixt sea and shore Part IV: Iron Lion or Paper Tiger? The Myth of British Naval Intervention in the American Civil War 27: "The dissolution of the Union will prove good to the world, to Great Britain, and probably in the end to America herself" 28: "We shall soon iron the smile out of their face" 29: "Is the Warrior itself a match for the Monitor? It is useless now to talk of speed and magnificence" 30: "The peril of committing the honour of this country to the assumption of an attitude, which it may be unable or unwilling permanently to maintain" Conclusion