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Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World

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Examining the defining role the Royal Navy played in Britain's struggle for modernity.

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Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World: Series 1: Episode 2: The Golden Ocean

The Golden Ocean

Episode 2

Episode 2: The Golden Ocean

Series 1

BBC Two - Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World, Series 1, The Golden Ocean

How England came out of military and economic disaster to achieve global supremacy.

In a series on the Royal Navy's role in British history, Dan Snow shows how the country came out of military and economic disaster to achieve global supremacy.

Historian and sailor Dan Snow presents the second episode in this four-part series examining the remarkable story of how the country's greatest institution - her navy - has shaped her history. In The Golden Ocean, Snow charts the period from 1690 to 1759 and reveals how England - soon to be Britain - and her navy rose from the depths of military and economic disaster to achieve global supremacy. 

In 1690, France ruled the waves and the Royal Navy was in tatters. King William III had taken England into a disastrous war against the most powerful country in Europe. If England was to survive, it needed a new navy, one capable of carrying the  fight to its enemies anywhere in the world. 

To achieve this would require a national effort unlike anything that had been seen before. King William III's determination to achieve mastery of the seas unleashed a chain reaction of revolutions in finance, industry and agriculture which reshaped the landscape and created the country's first great credit boom. Fifty years before the Industrial Revolution, the Royal Navy became the engine of global change, propelling Britain into the modern world.

It had the desired effect at sea. By 1759, French forces around the world were capitulating to Britain's superior Navy. For the first time in her history, Britannia really did rule the waves.

Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World: Series 1

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Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World

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