War, Public Opinion and Policy in Britain, France and the Netherlands, 1785-1815 (War, Culture and Society, 1750 –1850)

This book offers a detailed investigation of the influence of public opinion and national identity on the foreign policies of France, Britain and the Netherlands in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The quarter-century of upheaval and warfare in Europe between the outbreak of the French Revolution and fall of Napoleon saw important developments in understandings of nation, public, and popular sovereignty, which spilled over into how people viewed their governments—and how governments viewed their people. By investigating the ideas and impulses behind Dutch, French and British foreign policy in a comparative context across a range of royal, revolutionary and republican regimes, this book offers new insights into the importance of public opinion and national identities to international relations at the end of the long eighteenth century. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction: Public Opinion and Foreign Policy, 1785–1815....Pages 1-40 Britain, France and the Netherlands, 1785–1815....Pages 41-74 Public Opinion and National Identity in the Netherlands....Pages 75-105 Defending the Nation: Public Opinion and National Identity in Dutch Foreign Policy....Pages 107-145 “Canaux, Canards, Canaille”? French Public Opinion and the Netherlands....Pages 147-174 Aristocrats, Democrats, Autocrats: Public Opinion and Foreign Policy in France....Pages 175-215 Another “Other”: British Public Opinion, National Identity and the Netherlands....Pages 217-245 Behind Britannia’s Trident: British Foreign Policy and Public Opinion....Pages 247-290 Conclusion....Pages 291-304 Back Matter....Pages 305-348