Unsplendid Isolation: British Foreign Policy 1763-1776
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- čas přidán 8. 04. 2023
- Between the end of the Seven Years' War and the outbreak of the American Revolution, a victorious Britain found itself dangerously isolated on the international stage. This video aims to be a short documentary, charting the failure of British diplomatic efforts to find a continental alliance, and how British strategy was re-orientated in the lead up to the American revolution.
#History, #BritishEmpire, #AmericanRevolution
Honey wake up, old Britannia just uploaded a new video
My reaction as well
You stole my thunder… To the victor goes his crown.
becoming one of my new favorite channels
Aha honey 😘
Ok, but where’s New Britannia?
The videos on different European foreign policies has seriously helped contextualtize much of what I'm learning already. Needless to say, History classes don't explain things this well in this much detail.
My history curriculum has loads of content and not enough analysis, even my teacher agrees
Well, there just is not enough time in a history class to go into much detail in high school
I hope you all enjoy this short video on British Foreign Policy in the lead up to the American Revolution. As usual all feedback/corrections are welcome - I've already caught that I say Whitehall, instead of the more correct term of St James' for the eighteenth century, early in the video. Aside from that, happy Easter to all who celebrate, Christ is risen.
Correction: Paul Langford's book cited at the end should be 'The Eighteenth Century'. Though 'The Twentieth Century' by Paul Hayes is also very good, if nothing to do with the topic of the video.
Mate, you deserve a lot more subscribers! Nice work as always!
Indeed
He is risen indeed.
Do you have a collection of more specific citations for your sources? I appreciate that you list them at the end of the videos, but is there any way to tell where specific claims are coming from?
Your Videos are all extremely Well Made. The artstyle is highly unique and the backround music is Hidden but replaces the would-be weird silence. Please let me Tell you, that what you are doing is extremly valuable for many of us and that you got a big Community behind you
I'm amazed by your ability to fit praise of Salisbury even into a discussion set before he was born, but I'm honestly not really surprised.
British people be like:
Haha, come on, I went what, 3 videos without mentioning him? You've got to indulge me every now and then.
@Old Britannia we know you sleep under duvet covers with Salisburys face on them
@@lovablesnowman Wait until you see the body pillow.
@@OldBritanniaLOL
Having always thought of this period as monarchies playing at soldiers, your videos are an eye opener. As a wargamer, Napoleonic era always seemed more dynamic, but you concisely show how much more was going on politically and diplomatically. I already commented elsewhere to advertise this video.
Almost all eras have their own piece/s of exciting drama. What we know now are just the bits that got recorded and managed to survive to be read today.
This is precisely the kind of history video I love: No flashy, unnecessary accoutrements. Just maps, information, and context. Perfect with my morning coffee. Glad I found your channel!
I've always found British history prior to the American Revolution fascinating in its own way. I didn't realize how isolated they actually were which was kind of dumbfounding.
This is really interesting. We rarely get to understand anything but the most basic context for the American Revolution and the 18th century more generally, and seeing the thought processes of the people behind those decisions really helps to get a good idea of how and why things happened the way they did.
Old Britannia, you have such a keen, articulate mind. Perhaps the wisest historian on YT. Do a video comparing the issues of the Revolution around July 4. 🇺🇸🇬🇧
As an American all I can say is, thank God for the uncharacteristic leaden footedness of English diplomacy in the period
Think about it America bankrupt France Britain oldest enemy it was worth it the Anglophones nations rule to this day
Being fair, independence would have came sooner of later. Maybe during the Napoleonic Wars, maybe after the WWs.
British*
@@DarthFhenix55 Probably during the Napoleonic times because southern colonists would have objected to increasing English efforts to abolish slavery.
@@Zarastro54 The British wouldn't kill their cash cow; much like in their colonies, they'd just get rid of the word "slavery" and call them workers while keeping them in slave like conditions.
Thank you for the info. The map in North America surprised me I never knew the British claimed so much between 1760-1776.
Your channel is great, my degree and Masters was in history and I focused a lot on the British empire in multiple modules from military history to social/economic history, so although I dont learn anything myself from your channel, it is nice to see someone who actually knows their stuff and puts effort in to these videos. There is a lot of trash or flat out lies out there on the internet when it comes to ''history'', and much of it is polticized or used as a weapon today, but its good to know real history is out there for people to discover and learn from.
I wish I had the time to make videos like this myself, maybe during the next pandemic 😂
At your level of study, you really shouldn’t be ‘learning anything new’, so why mention it?
But if you wish to progress to even higher levels of scholarship, you should be concentrating entirely on new perspectives, however finely nuanced. In this fashion, you will indeed deduce something new.
Best wishes
I'd love a 7 years war video from you. It's a topic I rarely see covered or talked about but is so important in the grand scheme of things, paving the way for Pax Brittanica.
Another great addition to your historical library. You're a content creator cut above the rest.
You should make a Playlist of these videos into several playlists:
- British policy (chronological)
- the Long 19th Century (chronological)
- other powers
My new favorite channel, while many other channels focus on the same wars and topics yours not only looks at wars but on diplomacy and other factors, truly a gem
Seriously love this channel.
You guys do some amazing content. Easily one of my favourite history channels on the platform.
My favorite history channel by miles. I love every upload.
I love the detail on your video essays. After years of learning history, it is now the details that interest me the most.
I like how you changed the Union Jack in the background depending on the time period.
Splendid! A very great deal very efficiently summarized. With this calibre of content, you may give CZcams a good name.
Sir, I'm still awaiting the creation of a Patreon or some form to support you and your immensely useful, visual aids in the permeability and understanding of history.
Thank you for making these, you make history incredibly interesting.
I absolutely love every video on this channel. Not sure how you are able to keep up the quality and high frequency at the same time. Have you found a way to overcome the need to sleep?
I'd love to see a video on the Diplomatic Revolution, and Seven Years' War which followed. It was such a tremendous shift in the balance of power, one could argue it set the trends for the next two centuries of the Concert.
A proper channel that has delivered at every chance.
Simply wonderful work. I can’t say I’ve ever been disappointed by one of your videos.
@9:01 I'd love to hear more about Chamberlain's foreign policy, especially what you mention at this mark in the video. Thanks for the content, it's really good stuff!!!
Excellent production quality. The most important aspect to develop now is a list of reputable sources for each video, ideally with citations on screen throughout.
This video was thankfully very beneficial in helping to understand why the British were being so petty and tyrannical on their English brothers in the Americas. For some time, I thought it was merely due to arrogance after winning the Seven Years War in such a triumphant manner, but I wasn't fully satisfied with this. Now I see that while arrogance still likely played a role, the British needing to save face and maintain an empire likely played a very important role that isn't always emphasized.
Unsplendid isolation perhaps, but a splendid video to be sure. Thanks for making these amazing videos!
Very good work, I've been a lurker for a while but I'm now subscribed
I'd love if you could do a video focusing more on the American war of independence itself. Even as a non-american, I feel like it gets so mythologised in popular western culture that it's hard to find an accurate summary.
In particular it's the role of powers like France and Spain that I feel gets very overlooked
Extra History just did a video on the massacre of native tribes during the revolution ...I know it's only an animated video but it's quite chilling.
@@Alex-zs7gw The native tribes were committing some massacres themselves
@@georgea.567 Their land, their perogative
@@Alex-zs7gw Well not their land anymore haha
@@georgea.567 True...taken from them by extremists
This channel has a bright future imo
Could I please ask about Britain’s oldest ally in this period (Portugal)?
Did they offer any support during the War of Independence? Or would that have been suicidal for them with most of the rest of Western Europe on the opposite side?
As an Australian I found it interesting to find out that an English captain in Portuguese service, during a war between them and Spain, was Arthur Phillip (who would go on to found Sydney).
I remember reading somewhere that although Portugal remained neutral during the American War of Independence, they still sent supply vessels and even helped spy on the Spanish for the besieged British garrison at Gibraltar.
Portugal is not having a good time in the 18th century. A massive earthquake destroyed Lisbon and ended the golden age of the Portugese empire, they are losing their control of the Indian ocean to the British and the French. They still hold Brazil, but are arguably not a great power anymore.
The English Portuguese alliance is weird. We English have declared war on Portugal repeatedly, helping the Dutch take their vast Asian colonies in the 1500s and 1600s, raiding towns and ports and pirating ships during the 1600s and 1700s due to the dynastic ties to Spain, threatening war to force a ceding and annexation of African colonies in the 1800s.
We essentially helped them once against Napoleon, and otherwise bombed their ports, shot their people, and taken their stuff while saying "This is British friendship: look to Copenhagen harbour burning if you want to see British neutrality"
@@Rynewulf That’s not an accurate portrayal of the alliance over the centuries. Anyone can look up how many times each has aided the other…and Portugal wasn’t an independent state during the period where it was in conflicts with the British/Dutch.
I was just curious as to why there was a gap between the Seven-Years War and the Peninsula war… it appears as if Britain just never tried to invoke the alliance during the War of Independence. I would be curious to learn more about why/if there were any discussions about it.
@@scott2452 Eh, if my government really cared about the Portuguese alliance they would have tried to free them from Spanish dominance, instead of shooting, looting and pirating every Portuguese place they could find.
Honestly its more like a legal technicality that comes up in quizzes then any serious English or British connection with Portugal.
I have given up trying to guess what topic you will cover next. And I mean that as a compliment.
Great video as always!
An incredibly engaging video as always!
Having done too many papers on Bute and British politics in the 1760s and 1770s in grad school, let me offer a tip of the cap for your good work here. Let me also offer a great book on an overlooked topic from this era. More than 40 years ago, Michael Roberts did an excellent job of looking at Sir John Goodricke's important work in "British Diplomacy and Swedish Politics, 1758-1773." A fascinating book that offers a great deal of insight on the era.
Thank you, it’s always very gratifying when someone with a good knowledge of the subject compliments my work. Thank you for the source suggestion, I’ll take a look.
Another amazing documentary!
I stop all im doing when I see you uploaded a new video
How do you have 45k subs? You are so underrated
Really cool way to frame all of this with that ending.
Now, this is an interesting video about Britain's foreign policy before the American Revolutionary War!
I studied the American Revolutionary War once in detail for a tutoring job I had, couldn't have put it better myself lol
"It was then British Generalship, not British Diplomacy, that was to lose England America"
Why Howe never actually closed the noose in New York I will never friggen know
Great video. Keep it up
We don't tend to think of Britain being a colossus in the 18th century.
(Also, Britains isolation reminds me of becoming too powerful in EU4 and every other power turning their backs - but without the expensive and often underwhelming DLCs!)
The 18th century British empire was the base of what would be the Victorian era British Empire. Also the British weren't the only dominant power in Europe, their armies were inferior to the French, Russian and Prussian ones, it was their geographic position, their navy and their colonial possessions what let them adopt that policy.
What sources did you use for this? Loving the great content as always 👍
Thank you, sources are at the end of the video. Mainly Simms’ Three Victories and a Defeat and Langford’s Modern British Foreign Policy
Great video. Could I suggest the war of Spanish succession?
Will you end up making a patreon? Because these videos are great
I'm looking at setting one up yes. I've been reluctant as asking for money for what is still a new channel has always seemed like bad form, but even a small amount would help pay for image licenses. Thank you for the interest, it means a lot you're asking about it.
A wonderful video as always, Old Britannica. Just a small general question, what is the map/image representing Russia (for example at 2:40) supposed to be? Austria, Prussia and France all seem to have their country outlines, but I am hard pressed to see any geographical semblance of the Russian image.
After a few minutes of head-scratching, apparently it's a mirror image of its borders, probably something happened during editing. The islands off Estonia's coast were my hint.
@@johnhiponia3322 Ah yeah! I tried mirror-flipping the image and then it seems more clear. Seeing the Russian borders of 1770s are always a bit odd as well, with the inclusion of Estonia and parts of Finland but lacking much of modern day Belarus and Ukraine at the same time. Thank you for the clarification!
Brilliant as always 👍
Another excellent video Britannia
very interesting, I liked this video a lot!
Splendid isolation was a prelude to appeasement. They were two foreign policies that avoiding conflict over smart geopolitical strategy. This policy allowed for rivals like Germany, Japan, and Russia to grow in power without restraint.
Hey Old Britannia, didn’t you have another three part series on the British Empire, it seems to have gone? Thank you
Fire content as usual
more content, hell yeah!
Hey I love your content. May I ask how do you edit your videos?
Thank you, just with premier pro. Really wish I could say it’s a more complicated process than it really is.
It would be awesome to see a video on the contributions of France, Spain and Holland to Britain’s defeat in the American War of Independence as a result of this diplomatic isolation. Lest we forget that the French and Spanish planned to invade Great Britain if they achieved a successful outcome in the Great Siege of Gibraltar (the largest battle of the war).
Didn't know they planned to invade the UK itself. Bet that would have been a massive surprise for Bris of the time
Very interesting! Could you please give us some sources you used for this video?
At the end of the video. Mainly Simms and Langford
Great vid as always, in your opinion, what should the Empire have done regarding the 13 colonies? In one of your previous vids you noted that ultimately the Empire gave up as the cost would not outweigh a larger military investment and was impopulair at home? So I’d think some sort of diplomatic overture would have needed to be done?
Gave them self government like we later did with the Canadians and Australians. The colonists demands were not unreasonable and its a historical shame that we didn't give them self rule
I’ll be a bit coy here and say I want to do much more in depth research on the topic before I give an opinion.
Self-rule within the Empire, restructured into a new Imperial Federation.
@@briansheehan5256 Federation solves so many problems. In the US, the individual states are so different, but they can pretty much run themselves, with some things handled by the Central Government.
good one
For the algorithm (you should also cover the Ulster Crisis)
What about Splendid Isolation? Will you make a video about that?
I don't mean to sound dense, but was an Anglo-Spanish alliance possible or were the Bourbons too close? Also great video.
I haven't read of any approaches being made in this time period. There were opportunities previously to break the Pacte de Famille, but they never tended to amount to much.
I think Ferdinand the VI goverment was closer to the UK than other spanish kings
good job
Neat Warren Zevon reference.
Britain was always either going to lose America or be swallowed by it. Adam Smith said as much. The colonies would never accept their lack of say in the affairs of the British Empire they found themselves taxed and conscripted in, but if the American Colonies were given the representation they wanted in a hundred years the center of Empire would shift across the Atlantic, with England reduced to a mere periphery.
In the end both happened. Britain lost America in 1783 and 173 years later was finally subsumed into the American Hegemony after the debacle that was Suez.
The centre of the British empire would have always been London. The British offered and were willing to give say to the Americans and in doing so it wouldn’t have changed anything. The Americans in the timeline you are describing would not become the centre nor would they replace United Kingdom as the most important region. This would be a very different world and the chances Americans developed anywhere near as much as they did had they stayed a colony is dubious as best. Britain was swallowed up cause they lacked conviction. The issue was americas shortsightedness in the region.
@@kordellswoffer1520 De Jure perhaps it would have stayed London, but I don't see how the British could have kept America without either giving North America seats in Parliament or devolving powers to the local legislatures.
It is precisely because London was stymieing development that many colonists grew in favor of Independence. The Americans could see the near limitless potential of the North American continent and knew that if given time, it could rival Asia or Europe.
Aye, the British did lack conviction and could have likely held onto the Empire, even India, in the wake of the Second World War had they truly wanted to and been prepared to fight. But instead the Britons opted for the relative comfort America offered rather than save the Empire.
Unrelated question, but is there any reason why you deleted your old videos on the British and German empire?
I'm hoping he's just redoing the audio as he had a fairly crap microphone at the time. Some of the best videos , I don't really want to lose them
I’m working on remaking both of them. I just found the quality in terms of production value too dreadful to justify keeping up really.
@@OldBritannia Ah okay, I understand. They were still very enjoyable to watch, I hope you redo them! Thanks for the great content!
I cannot begin to imagine having all your territories in the Atlantic and then just having a large chunk of land that you have to sail around Europe, Africa and then India to get to. Talk about ineffective.
Blatant or refreshingly honest. Also the formal legal condition of a state of War imposed real constraints on the conduct of War as opposed to today's euphemisms such as "peacekeeping" or "special military operations" .
Can't wait to watch an episode, perhaps the next, on the British-American conflict.
Though true that Great Britain lost that war.. "it won its peace" thanks to British diplomacy.
I would like to hear your analysis on how each major European colonial power (ie Great Britain, France and Spain) looked at the newly arisen American state on a diplomatic level.
Old Britannia publishing 3 videos within the last month is gonna make my CZcams viewing experience much better.
Holy shit words cannot describe how much i love your videos. Made me realise Diplomacy is an art and is incredibly cool compared to just fighting wars. Please keep making videos i love this shit.
the way you flip the countries around their axis makes it a bit confusing who is who
I’ve got a coin minted by the east India company and a cool authentication card that talks about the ship wreck it was found on and besides all the history I think damn Amazon is powerful but could you imagine them having the power of the fed and the navy, marine corps included lol.
do you have an socials we can follow?
I really need to set some up, but I just don't have the time at the moment unfortunately to keep up with them.
nice
ach aye ! A MacDonald in Canada
You should collab with Apostolic Majesty. I believe y’all would make something really cool together.
This makes me want to play Empire Total War.
This was a strange time period. Britain had established herself as the main great power but had yet to solidify it. America was on her way to revolution. France was on its way to her own revolution.
The war's lesson is don't put your expedition to the headwaters of the Ohio River under the command of a 21-year-old first time officer whose only qualification is having a rich family. First, he'll screw up the expedition and start a war, and second, he'll use his hard won experience to lead a revolt. That's a lesson I'm sure we can all apply in our lives.
Which county are you from?
Hark, my lord, Eldest Britannica has provided for thee, rejoice!
It would be great to see foreign policy from the other European powers.
What happened to the British Empire trilogy? Issues with CZcams?
Working on a redo for that and the German series- the quality was just too dreadful for me to justify keeping up any longer
How much do you read on a daily basis? I find that reading and taking notes for an hour only yields around 10 pages of progress, certainly not enough to be able to finish 600 page books relatively quickly!
I don't really keep much track of progress to be honest. Some days it's more, some days less. I tend not to take notes really, I just underline like a maniac and scribble in the margin if I really need to, which helps. Don't worry so much about how much you read, especially with history where the prose can often be incredibly dry. Maybe don't put yourself under as much pressure to make as many notes? Though I'm certainly in no position to be dishing out advice.
@@genovayork2468 The thing is I'm not sure how to read faster without missing important points! I'd love to read faster but I don't think I'm capable at this point in my life.
You let in my inner Tigerstar with the borders of Prussia. I do not believe that Prussia had control over the region of Warmia (the piece of land that made the province of East Prussia look like it had a hook).
Can you do a vedio of tsarist Russian rule
*Britain's Empire: Supreme and Alone*
*Britain in Europe*
0:00 The Peace of Paris 1763 brought a conclusion to the Seven Years War.
0:17 Britain/London had no more allies on The European Continent (and increasingly unhappy North American colonists)
2:15 Prussian King Frederick II did not want alliance because he did not want to be dragged into more British wars.
4:27 1770 Britain vs Spain for control of The Falkland Islands.
5:57
6:16 Why should Britain ally anyway? Blue Water Strategy.
7:12 Two Power Standard. Remain strong in peace, promote strong economy.
*Britain in America*
7:50 Imperial Authority in America.
8:54 Dealing with 1 threat at a time.
9:15 "We must get the colonies in order before dealing with our neighbors" said George III. America empowered Britain economically.
9:52 Taxation CLASH.
*Britain and Bourbon France*
10:17
10:48 Frederick II comments.
11:28 Britain lays off from engaging in war with France.
11:56 Howe's Capture of New York.
12:06 British Generalship lost The Revolutionary War in North American.
Would you be interested in making a video about each nation's motivations in the War of the Spanish Succesion? Or is that not really your area of history?
Yes I’ll move onto it eventually. Glorious Revolution is really the absolute limit of the time period I’ll go back to.
@@OldBritannia that would be a great video too! William III and Louis XIV are certainly very interesting cases when it comes to their statesmanship and foreign policy
interesting
Based beyond belief channel
In the meantime, France had great diplomatic momentum as it form a ligue against Great Britain and lead a victorius naval war against its nemesis. And the american indepandance was a little episode of the bigger franco-british war. Saddly for France, all the advantage won was lost by the révolution in 1789.
France did not fight a victorious naval war. They “won” a stalemate at Chesapeake and were utterly slaughtered at the battle of the saintes
@@lesdodoclips3915 the treaty of Versaille (1883) seems like a victory to me. Stopping english monopoly of the sea, gaining territories and (brief ) independance of Scotland.
Maybe you could explain, I would be happy to learn.
There was a video of « sur le champ » about the war and the new naval dorctrine of « La Royale »
@@lesdodoclips3915 stopping any reenforcment in the americas, and gaining a stalemate at sea against Britain for a rebuilt fleet seems a victory.
France was defeated by the British on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City in 1759. This happened towards the end of the 7 years war for Britain. In 1763, the British expelled the Acadian French citizens from Nova Scotia at which time they went to Louisiana because they spoke French. Today their decendents are known as Cajuns.
0:44 How about Portugal?
Don’t disregard the fact that the American Revolution was, if it was anything, a civil war between Whig and Tory that was happening on both sides of the Atlantic. In the American colonies, blood was actually being shed over it; in the Mother Country (what we yanks once called Great Britain) it was happening in the halls of Parliament. I say this as a descendant of American Loyalists. The entire war needs to be retaught. Unfortunately, there still aren’t enough competent independent scholars willing to consider it for proper historical review. Charles Coulombe is one I would highly recommend. I might also recommend Kevin Philipps’ “Cousins’ Wars”, which is an outstanding work.
You definitely need to do the next video about the American War of Independence and the aftermath in including the 1783 treaty of Paris, and possibly the war of 1812. You should also continue the Great game between Great Britain and the U.S. from 1941-the present
The principle of one can forgive an enemy but not a friend, thus the seperate peace alienated support for Britain .
First Montemayor then Old Britannia. I am too spoiled for choice.