The Making of a World Power

In 1605, England was a second-rate European power. There was neither a full-time navy, nor a standing army. For the first 30 years of the 17th century, English naval forces and military expeditions remained semi-private affairs, and campaigns against Spain and France in the 1620s and Scotland in 1639-40 were abysmal failures, due in large part to the lack of trained officers to lead them. By 1705, however, this situation had changed dramatically and England's professional army and navy were playing crucial roles in Europe and North America. British army and navy personnel, backed by well-established military and financial organizations at home and abroad, allowed the island nation to become a leading European nation state and world power. To explain this dramatic turnaround, James Scott Wheeler refutes existing scholarship that places Britain's military and financial revolutions after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He locates them earlier and, in particular, explains how they were centrally related to the mid-17th-century conflicts, both domestic and foreign.
English governments found it necessary to develop permanent professional armed forces in order to surmount the Dutch and French military threats and obstacles to the growth of English political and economic power. Because their professional military services needed immense amounts of money to pay for manpower, logistical material and armaments, the English also had to make major changes to their financial and administrative theory and practice. Most of these changes were initiated in the rather short period of time from 1639 to 1674, laying the foundations for continued and seemingly self-sustained growth over the following centuries. Offering a re-interpretation of this important part of British history, this accessible study should be of use to all interested in history, military supremacy and the foundations of empire.