Frederick the Great Podcast

Transcript

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Hello, I'm Alex and welcome to the life and times of Frederick the great so much has happened since the last episode. It's honestly mind boggling. To start off some news from patreon recently, steve Verdell Eva is the newest patron and I am so happy that he is supporting the show. I must also thank Rosa for being my second patron. She is in the grenadier tear and she gets special privileges for donating $5 a month. So be sure to go to patreon, half of the 1st $20 will be donated to Ukraine. Therefore, if you want to support my podcast and a good cause go to the link for the Patreon below. I am also so grateful for Zach to family for having me on his show. The sheer amount of growth due to him is incredible. I am forever grateful for that opportunity he gave me. But I must not forget my roots and I want to thank everyone who has listened to me from the very beginning and another bit of news. I might be appearing on a future episode in the wonderful podcast, the alexander standard. This is a very fun and engaging podcast that ranks the successors of another great namely alexander the Great. They rank everyone from per tikus to cleopatra the seventh. I had a school project about Philip the second alexander the great stat and I might be appearing on their podcast, which I am mighty excited about to all listening. Please please please go follow that podcast as a final reminder. Be sure to follow my social media. The links to it are in the show notes below. Also one last thing I'm getting over a cold, which is why my voice might not sound like it's normal self. Anyway, I'm sure you're all dying to get back to the main story and understand why I chose to discuss Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. Let's go all the way back to october's episode to understand why the events in this episode unfolded the way they did In the episode two months ago, we mainly discussed the politics of Sir Robert Walpole. He became the first prime minister of Great Britain in 1721, after the South Sea Company scandal brought down the previous government. While polls, government was built on its foreign policy outlook of staying neutral in european affairs. This open trade to Britain and made the nation rich Prussia, a small, sandy little kingdom on the periphery, could only dream of the amount of riches power and prestige Britain was building when Walpole was prime minister, a major achievement of Walpole was a defensive alliance between Britain and Austria, which ended the anglo french alliance, Walpole steered Britain clear from the war of polish succession in 17 33. Therefore, despite the bloody war on the continent, Britain continued to get rich off of international trade. Now onto the fun bit when Captain Jenkins presented his ear to parliament to persuade the british legislature to declare war on spain, the british public was chomping at the bit to start a war against spain, but the momentum to start war was mainly based on spanish policy to seize british shipping rather than poor old Jenkins. See when spain seizes ships, the british get angry. Although Walpole and the spanish ministry were against war, the two economies were intertwined with trade and both high ups in Britain and spain respective governments thought it would be mutually destructive. This is a similar principle to why a war between the us and china would be disastrous. Today, both nations would suffer from the trade drying up. This was during a time when economies were becoming interdependent on each other. There won't be global recessions or anything like that, but trade involving sugar, coffee, chocolate and other luxury goods would be scarce once war hits. But if we're going to talk about sugar in the 17, hundreds we must bring up the fact that labor used to make the sugar was from African slaves that died in the thousands, The trauma of branding with hot irons, transportation and disease ridden chips and the labor itself is almost impossible to fathom. Almost all major European powers relied on slavery in the 1700s. One can even argue that serfdom and feudalism are a type of slavery as well. It was a very brutal time to be alive. So anyway, Britain and spain signed the condition of pardo so that they would avoid war. The terms were that spain would stop seizing british ships While Britain would remove its fleet from the mediterranean, The British South Sea Company would also pay Spain £68,000. However, even though the convention was passed in Parliament, it was not enforced. The leash on the dogs of war had been loosened and the conflict between Spain and Britain would spark. In the autumn of 1739, Britain's Declaration of War would be published on October 23 the day after the attack on portobello and what is today, Panama, this was the first time Britain had ever plunged itself into a war with a great power without allies, both Britain and Spain expected a quick victory over their enemy. Spain had an absolutely massive series of colonies in north and south America. The beating heart of the spanish colonial empire for multiple centuries have been the silver mines in both Mexico and Peru. This silver fueled Spain's european economy as well as its trade with china. Therefore, the galleons or the massive wooden transport ships Spain used to move their silver cargo were of massive importance to the spanish economy, spanish silver back then would be like oil today. If Spain were cut off from its silver, its economy would be severely hindered. The british strategy then was to disrupt as much silver shipping as possible and most of this would be based on attacking the crucial ports in the Caribbean, the vital region of interest was Panama because of its central location and ports used for silver exports. The expedition to the Caribbean will be led by Vice Admiral vernon. Their expedition was to be expected to be a lightning strike. Like how the Japanese expected Pearl harbor to proceed. There is a quote from Richard Harding's the emergence of Britain's global naval supremacy. The war of 1739 through 1748. That that demonstrates the high British expectations. A member of parliament right at the time, quote, America, is the place where we ought to direct our chief force there. The Spaniards cannot resist us and there we may do more than make incursions we may take and hold such places as we may think to be either convenient or useful. It is what Spain cannot hinder it, is what europe cannot prevent. And by holding the places we take, we add to our own strength at the same time, that we diminish the strength of our enemy. This quote, essentially means that the spanish possessions in the Americas are weak. We must attack as soon as possible. The operation went off as planned. Vice Admiral Vernon led the expedition to the Caribbean. In the fall of 1739, he attacked and captured Portobello. This practically severed Spain's lifeline of silver shipping to europe. Meanwhile, in the american colony of Virginia, a captain named Lawrence Washington was raising militia forces to fight against Spain in the West Indies. He was the older brother of some little kid named George. I'm sure he'll be of no significance anyway. I would go more into detail about the war, but sadly, I don't have the time. In 1740, the war in the Caribbean for the British was one of missed opportunities. Vice Admiral VErnon was forced to withdraw his forces after attacking cartagena India's twice. There are other attacks that did not have their expected success and the soldiers in the Caribbean were now dying in droves of yellow fever. On top of that, the french had a strong fleet stationed in northern France in the ports of brest. It was feared that with the british flank, gallivanting in the mediterranean and the Caribbean Spain and France would coordinate a surprise invasion of Britain. But the Kingdom of France, whose foreign policy was led by a man who was 87 years old, just sat there and did nothing. Then the wild card was played in december of 17 40 Frederick, the second of Prussia old fritz had attacked Britain's ally Austria and captured the rich province of Silesia In January of 1741, the British government pledged to Maria Teresa to write to Frederick and to deploy 12,000 Danish and Hessian auxiliary troops to help her in the war, but on top of the political trouble on the continent, british prime minister robert Walpole was under the gun. There was constant criticism of the government's conduct of the war, which weakened Wall polls position. However, due to Tory division, the wigs won a majority in the house of commons. Yet wall pulls grip on power was slipping. The matters on the continent were of huge, important for british interests. See the Habsburgs still owned the Austrian Netherlands in what is today Belgium. If Austria's hold there were to weaken who else but France would step in to take it Of France with Antwerp and Austin to use as invasion ports was a terrifying proposition for Britain to stomach. Therefore, despite how overstretched they were in the Caribbean Britain agreed to accept a credit of £300,000 to the Austrians. Then in 1741, in April another bombshell exploded when Prussia won the battle of Malvern. This gave legitimacy to Frederick's cause and outside help in the name of France looked likely for Prussia, This was another blow for Britain plans for an 80,000 troops. Expedition in Italy by France were revealed during this time as well. This would leave both Austria and Britain weak in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, it looked as if Britain would once again gain the initiative. I'll let harding's book tell you what was happening. When he writes, quote On the March 25, the expedition force had captured the outer force of the lagoons of cartagena Dallas India's. The fleet was now safely anchored in the outer lagoon. The army was healthy and preparing to move into the inner lagoon and towards the city itself, vernon did not doubt that soon they would be the masters of the place. The Spaniards had already burned or sunk their ships to hinder the progress of the army. The fall of the place would give Britain control of the galleons. Trade route Britain then began calculations of european diplomacy with cartagena is already theirs. The Duke of Newcastle wrote, quote, I lay it down, cartagena must be kept at least for the present. If kept, it must be properly garrisoned that they say, will take up to 2 to 3000 men, which makes went towards army very low. According to Harding's Count Britain's Army on the Isles amounted to roughly 28,000 men Britain had no tradition of conscription, like the Prussian canton system. So raising troops was incredibly difficult. So on May 21, when King George II of Britain was in his other realm, Hanover, he found his hand ovarian electorate in a rather weak position. Therefore, he ordered that an army must be committed to Germany. This would leave only 15,000 troops in Britain itself. Remember, this was during a time when France could muster an army of 40,000 men in a matter of a few months and if the seas were in their favor, Britain would be squashed under the foot of France. Thus the interests of Britain and Hanover began to divide if that wasn't bad enough. The army and the Caribbean continued to weaken because of tropical diseases and a lack of supplies. Vice Admiral vernon was forced to once again withdraw his troops from the third attack on cartagena India's, it was the worst case scenario for Britain France went against its ally on the continent and Austria and defeat from the spanish in the Caribbean was likely. How would Britain or hannover survive Back in episodes 24, dizzying diplomacy and episode 27 photos, it's I mentioned that an army of 40,000 French and Bavarian troops were sent along the Danube towards Vienna. I however, failed to mention that there was another French army in play on the European Chessboard France would send an army under Marshal Mai bois to make sure Hanover would stay neutral. However, logistics and Britain's influence would be heard in the center of europe. When the convention of Klan schneller, Wendorf was agreed to see Britain wanted Maria Theresa to simply recognize that Silesia was fredericks so that she could focus on their true enemy France. Therefore, when the two exhausted armies of Prussia and Austria agreed to the convention, it served Britain well, It was nearing the end of 1741 and the war against Spain was going absolutely nowhere. The opposition to all polls, foreign policy was growing in strength. Austria Britain's only major continental ally was on the brink of collapse, France was advancing its power onto german territories of the Holy roman empire, Britain was bogged down in a war with Spain, it could not decisively win and Walpole Walpole was simply old. The final straw that broke the camel's back was in 17 41 in december, when wall polls, candidate for the chairman of the elections and privileges committee was defeated by just four votes. That final stab signaled the death of wall polls. Political career. Men who would have supported him saw the tides had turned against waffle and deserted him. Waffle, grasp it straws and an attempt to stay in power. He even tried to make amends with Frederick. The prince of Wales. Sir Robert Walpole would stay Britain's prime minister until February 3, 1742, making him the longest serving Prime Minister Britain has ever had. He served a total of 20 years and 315 days as PM. He would stay active in British politics until 1744, when his health, which was never to Stellar in the first place, took a turn for the worst. Sir, Robert Walpole died on March 18, in an extremely pivotal year for Britain. What can I say of all paul's legacy after these two episodes with him? Well, he was a scoundrel, but a clever scoundrel of that. He was Britain's Otto von Bismarck that led the nation definitely for a little over 20 years. He was corrupt, but incredibly competent in parliamentary politics at that time. He led Britain through a time of growth and peace. He was truly one of history's great with that impressive legacy now behind us, I believe, I shall have to make this episode shorter than usual. How can I follow up on a political death like that? We discuss the beginning of the war of Jenkins's ear Britain's foreign entanglement in europe Britain's reaction to Frederick's invasion of Silesia and the fall of Sir robert Walpole. How can Britain steer through the heavy waters? It has ahead of them France on the rise stalemate in the caribbean and the fall of its great prime minister. Would the jacket bites make another attempt on the throne thou that Walpole is gone? What Britain, commit even more soldiers to europe? Would France and spain invade Britain and crush them once and for all, all of these questions will be answered in a future episode on the life and times of Frederick the Great I believe I shall conclude to you by saying that I hope you all have a happy new Year