The Royal Navy and the British Atlantic World, c. 1750–1820

This book foregrounds the role of the Royal Navy in creating the British Atlantic in the eighteenth century. It outlines the closely entwined connections between the nurturing of naval supremacy, the politics of commercial protection, and the development of national and imperial identities – crucial factors in the consolidation and transformation of the British Atlantic empire. The collection brings together scholars working on aspects of the Royal Navy and the British Atlantic in order to gain a better understanding of the ways that the Navy protected, facilitated, and shaped the British-Atlantic empire in the era of war, revolution, counter-revolution, and upheaval between the beginning of the Seven Years War and the end of the conflict with Napoleonic France. Contributions question the limits – conceptually and geographically – of that Atlantic world, suggesting that, by considering the Royal Navy and the British Atlantic together, we can gain greater insights into Britain’s maritime history.

• Royal Navy
• Atlantic
• Eighteenth Century
• Slave Trade
• Caribbean

“This original and valuable book succeeds admirably in its aim of connecting up the extensive but largely separate histories of the Royal Navy and the Atlantic World and will make a major contribution to both, as well as exploring various lesser-known aspects of the Navy's activities in the Atlantic.” (Martin Wilcox, University of Hull, UK)

• University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

  John McAleer

• Department of History, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

  Christer Petley

John McAleer is a historian of the British Empire. His work focuses on the British encounter and engagement with the wider world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, situating the history of empire in its global and maritime contexts.

Christer Petley is a historian with interests in Atlantic history, British imperial history, and Caribbean studies. His work focuses on the histories and legacies of slavery in the Americas, mainly on slave societies in the British Caribbean.

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