Balancing Strategy
Sea Power, Neutrality, and Prize Law in the Seven Years' War

Balancing Strategy examines how neutrality and prize-law shaped eighteenth century maritime strategy, and the development of seapower.

Anna Brinkman (Author)

9781009425568, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 May 2024

300 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.573 kg

'This is an excellent book on several levels. Brinkman has used archives in two continents and brought the resulting material together masterfully, both as a piece of history and to contribute to a wider discussion about international maritime law and sea power.' Andrew Livsey, The Naval Review

What is the relationship between seapower, law, and strategy? Anna Brinkman uses in-depth analysis of cases brought before the Court of Prize Appeal during the Seven Years' War to explore how Britain worked to shape maritime international law to its strategic advantage. Within the court, government officials and naval and legal minds came together to shape legal decisions from the perspectives of both legal philosophy and maritime strategic aims. As a result, neutrality and the negotiation of rights became critical to maritime warfare. Balancing Strategy unpicks a complex web of competing priorities: deals struck with the Dutch Republic and Spain; imperial rivalry; mercantilism; colonial trade; and the relationships between metropoles and colonies, trade, and the navy. Ultimately, influencing and shaping international law of the sea allows a nation to create the norms and rules that constrain or enable the use of seapower during war.

Introduction
Part I. Seapower and its Relationship to Strategy and Law: Framework
1. Seapower and strategy
2. Law and seapower
Part II. The Dutch Case Studies: 3. Personalities and policies: the Anglo-Dutch context
4. Whose goods are these? The Maria Theresa and the America in the High Court of Admiralty
5. Quelling the crisis: the Court of Prize
Appeal and the fate of the Maria Theresa and the America
Part III. The Spanish Case Studies: 6. Kings and merchants: the legal, political, and domestic contexts of Spanish foreign policy
7. Forging arguments: Spanish ships in the High Court of Admiralty
8. Death comes for the ambassador: Anglo-Spanish diplomacy and the San Juan Baptista in the Court of Prize Appeal
9. Reactive foreign policy and the end of Spanish neutrality: the Jesús, Maria, y José in the Court of Prize Appeal
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]