America's Debate > Trafalgar 200 Years Later

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Logicist

Oct 22 2005, 04:21 PM

As a victory it is up there with Tours and Maratheon, as it denied Napoleon the ability to invade England.

But as far as Nelson goes, he was a great leader, but a great commander? He just sailed at them, which worked but isn't as pretty on paper as Napoleon's victories.

Victoria Silverwolf

Oct 23 2005, 02:18 AM

Well, I suppose it was "great" in the sense of having a profound effect on European history. From what little I know, it seemed to mark the end of any hope Napoleon had for invading Britain.

Should the victory be credited to Nelson, or the quality of the Royal Navy? Some of both, I would think. History tells us that Nelson had often defeated Bonaparte's ships.

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QUOTE

The four years from 1797 to 1801 were a time of spectacular success and popularity for Nelson. He ensured the defeat of the Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent near Gibraltar on 14th February 1797 and he was promoted to Rear Admiral. He defeated Napoleon's fleet in Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1st August 1798, Napoleon himself having to flee from Egypt as a refugee!

. . .

After several abortive attempts at diplomacy with Napoleon, Nelson was asked to confront the French and Spanish fleets which had managed to unite and take refuge in the harbour at Cadiz in Spain. On 21st October 1805 Nelson ordered his fleet of twenty seven ships to attack the opposing enemy fleet of thirty-three ships. As the fleets approached each other Nelson had the thirty-one flags hoisted which signalled to the rest of the fleet the famous message 'England expects that every man will do his duty'. After crippling the French flagship Beaucentaure the Victory sailed towards the Redoutable. There were groups of snipers in the rigging of this ship who proceeded to fire round after round at the deck of the Victory. Nelson was one of those hit; the musket round penetrated his shoulder, hit his lung and lodged near his spine. Nelson survived the battle, acknowledging the British victory, but he died soon afterwards.

(respectfully submitted by a fan of Horatio Hornblower)

Julian

Oct 23 2005, 03:20 PM

Does this victory merit being celebrated as one of the greatest military victories of all time?

Well, maybe not - it did not finally remove Napoleon's dominance from Europe - that honour would have to go to Wellington and his allies at Waterloo seven year later.

But it did establish British naval power as supreme for at least the next 50 years (naval losses against the US in the War of 1812 notwithstanding), which - with general military and industrial supremacy - was in turn the foundation of the British Empire and Britain's status as the sole global superpower of the 19th Century, and the first such power to have truly global reach (the only other before or since being the USA for tha past 20 years).

And in itself, it is a reasonably impressive naval victory in military terms, where a smaller force with better discipline and training, as well as superior command, beat off and vanquished a larger enemy with better ships and equipment (I have seen argued in the British school textbooks from which I learned about the battle - admittedly a possibly biased source).

Was Nelson the best or among the best naval commanders in history?
Victoria Silverwolf has noted Nelson's long string of naval victories over Napoleon's navies. I think that this, rather than the single victory off Trafalgar, is the real testament to his greatness.

Nelson, more than any other single person, pioneered the superior fighting spirit and discipline of the 19th century Royal Navy, which was no mean feat when you remember that a large proportion of the "recruits" were pressed into service against their will; in effect, they were paid slaves.

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