War from 18th Century Naval Capabilities to the War of 1812 :: essays research papers

WAR FROM 18TH CENTURY NAVAL CAPABILITIES TO THE WAR OF 1812   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The English Navy has to obviously be strong to protect an island, and had already been tested against sea powers of Spain and the Netherlands. France, which was not susceptible to an attack from the water, began to build it’s naval fleet and became a threat to the English merchant vessels. England began to realize the importance of having a strategy through an allied coalition in which their greatest contribution to the alliance would be though sea power and the four elements of the merchant marines, a struggling navy, strategic materials, and good offshore bases.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The eager French divided naval forces into two fleets: Mediterranean and Atlantic. In an effort to stop the French from maintaining trade routes, the English enacted the â€Å"Rule of 1756† which prohibited anyone from taking over the French trade routes in time of war, but would continue to subsidize the German raiders. The French tactic at sea was to try and get ahead of the superior English vessels and fire while moving forward to increase the range of each round; once the ship was disabled, the French would then flee or turn and destroy. The English preferred a straightforward approach, which sometimes meant to move within pistol range in order to increase the accuracy of their weapons. Both sides agreed that they needed to improve accuracy as well as the rate of fire. It was British tenacity as well as strong naval traditions that allowed the island country to survive and be the strongest empire that the western world had ever known.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In America the two groups of populations from England and France were not religiously yoked together. The French stood strong with Catholicism and the English were not going to be bound by the laws of the Catholic Church any longer. As far as fighting skills, the French had a leg up when it came to wilderness warfare. The French worked closely with the Indian population and learned a great deal about how to live off of the land while being employed by it as well, for example as a trapper. The English on the other hand took to the fields of the new world to become farmers, and many of them had to be taught how to shoot a weapon.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Once the idea of revolution the streets, which had spawned from texts like Common Sense, the individual new states were forced to fight independently against England.