The United States was essentially produced and maintained in its security during a period of intense Anglo-French competition. In the hundred years after 1702, the United Kingdom and France were at war for some fifty-two years. For most of the same period, the forces and Companies of the Dutch Republic were also amongst dominant sea-powers and international lenders. France and Britain maintained extensive insular and continental bases and colonies in North America, along with Spain. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, both faced competition and revolt in the Caribbean and Sargasso seas, not least during the rise of the Republic of Haiti, which successfully resisted massive French assaults between 1795 and 1804. During this competition, inspired financially and then with critical naval and military support by the Kingdom of France, the United States succeeded in their expensive rebellion against London. The USA nevertheless maintained a position of neutrality in the F...
This is a collection of personal and largely unedited observations covering the years from 2006 to now; I assert my copyright but am fine with links and footnotes. Some posts are obviously much more researched than others, and any errors are wholly mine except where I have innocently disseminated or linked to other bloggers or commentators.