No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One Andrew Lambert Publisher: Yale University Press (June 24, 2025)
Hardcover: 512 pages
ISBN: 9780300275551
How, for just over a century, Britain ensured it would not face another Napoleon Bonaparte—manipulating European powers while building a global maritime empire
At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, a fragile peace emerged in Europe. The continent’s borders were redrawn, and the French Empire, once a significant threat to British security, was for now cut down to size. But after decades of ceaseless conflict, Britain’s economy was beset by a crippling debt. How could this small, insular seapower state secure order across the Channel?
Andrew Lambert argues for a dynamic new understanding of the nineteenth century, showing how British policymakers shaped a stable European system that it could balance from offshore. Through judicious deployment of naval power against continental forces, and the defence strategy of statesmen such as the Duke of Wellington, Britain ensured that no single European state could rise to pose a threat, rebuilt its economy, and established naval and trade dominance across the globe.
This is the remarkable story of how Britain kept a whole continent in check—until the final collapse of this delicately balanced order at the outset of World War One.
Author
Andrew Lambert is Laughton Professor of Naval History at King’s College, London, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is the author of Seapower States and The British Way of War.
There was of course one more Napoleon, if I remember correctly, although he seemed as adept at auto-destruction as his uncle had been (although I am sure ringin the Solent with cannon at great expense played its part) while Lord Chelmsford and a handful of Zulu warriors between them ensured that there would be no more of that sort of thing Marrying off a princess to the King of Prussia didn't quite work out the way they might have hoped, though.