Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World: The Golden Ocean

Historian and sailor Dan Snow reveals how England - soon to be Britain - and her navy rose from 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. To achieve this would require a national effort unlike anything that had been seen before. William'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. episode 2