Wars, Battles and Campaigns in British History
Wars, battles and campaigns in British history. This historic theme considers the small battles as well as the large campaigns in British history. The timeline and maps help to put them in context and explore them in more detail.
British history is littered with the names of famous battles and wars. When set in a chronological timeline, it seems as if Britain has been fighting a war or battle somewhere for thousands of years.
On the large scale of wars such as the Napoleonic Wars, World War I and World War II, much has been written. The smaller battles or less well known wars, had an equal impact on those involved.
Round shot that hit the Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, still lodged in the piece of timber it hit.
Majority of British Battles were fought on foreign shores
Many of these battles were fought on foreign shores and those who died in these far flung wars lie buried miles from home. The Afghan wars were fought over centuries, wars were fought in the Indian sub-continent and in the China Seas. The British have been engaged in conflict around the world for hundreds of years. Our Royal Navy, developed to become an invisible fighting force, was able to quickly move to the battleground. They kept many battles at sea and fought hard to ensure Britain was not invaded. So many well known conflicts, the Spanish Armada, the Napoleonic Wars, the English Civil War and our history textbooks of old reminding us of great battles, Waterloo and Ladysmith, of the Nile and Balaclava but what of those wars long forgotten except to enthusiasts, the Mahratta Wars, the Peninsular War or the Sikh Wars?
We will be building a chronology of British Wars and battles and putting them into context with British society at the time. If we find useful source material we will include that as well as all the intriguing aspects of this theme as we find them.
