DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - What if Napoleon didn´t over-extend himself?

**Vegeinvalge** · 06-02-2008, 03:55 PM

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Napoleon needed some means to strike back at Britain. He chose to enact the "Continental System", a Europe-wide boycott of British goods. What if instead of declaring the Continental System Napoleon had used the methods that England used against Spain in the 16th century - piracy? In the 18th century French warships had enjoyed an advantage in speed over the English. What if Napoleon had used that edge to his advantage, by commissioning fast privateers to harass British shipping? British commerce would have kept growing and more than offset the losses, as it did each other time France tried this in the 17th and 18th centuries. Mahan devotes a significant chunk of The Influence of Seapower Upon History to the shortcomings of this kind of cruiser warfare. Spain was more vulnerable to it because its commerce was in the form of heavily laden treasure ships on a few routes between the Americas and Spain, while British commerce was more diffuse.

06-02-2008, 03:55 PM	#10
Vegeinvalge Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 413 Senior Member	Originally posted by Dr Strangelove Napoleon needed some means to strike back at Britain. He chose to enact the "Continental System", a Europe-wide boycott of British goods. What if instead of declaring the Continental System Napoleon had used the methods that England used against Spain in the 16th century - piracy? In the 18th century French warships had enjoyed an advantage in speed over the English. What if Napoleon had used that edge to his advantage, by commissioning fast privateers to harass British shipping? British commerce would have kept growing and more than offset the losses, as it did each other time France tried this in the 17th and 18th centuries. Mahan devotes a significant chunk of The Influence of Seapower Upon History to the shortcomings of this kind of cruiser warfare. Spain was more vulnerable to it because its commerce was in the form of heavily laden treasure ships on a few routes between the Americas and Spain, while British commerce was more diffuse.
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