Page 41 - All About History - Issue 16-14

Heroes & Villains
HORATIO NELSON

Life in the
time of Nelson

Britain in 1758
Nelson was born into a Britain just beginning
its Industrial Revolution, and only 40 years
after the Act Of Union that allied Scotland with
England and Wales. Britain’s entire population
at the time of Nelson’s birth was only about 7
million, but had grown to 9 million by the time
of his death.

The first British empire
Britain was a significant international power at
this time, controlling much of North America
and the Caribbean and establishing private
concerns like The East India Company to
Despite administer trade. Britain lost its American
colonies at the end of the American
losing his Revolutionary War in 1783. Nelson saw action
as a lieutenant aboard the HMS Lowestoffe.
right eye in battle,
The British Navy
Nelson never Britain’s Navy after the Act of Union was
wore an eye one of the largest in the world. It was still
frequently outnumbered by alliances of enemy
patch states, but was able to maintain its dominance
through superior technology, training and
tactics. It was also better funded than its
rivals, thanks to Britain’s burgeoning economy.
Life at sea
Conditions were cramped, pay was low and
discipline was strict, although Nelson enjoyed
a friendlier rapport with his crews than most
in the 18th-century Admiralty. Above all, the
hours were long: in the decade before his
death, Nelson spent a full eight years sailing
the oceans.
The Napoleonic Wars
Trafalgar was an early salvo in the Napoleonic
Wars that lasted until 1815. Napoleon
Bonaparte seized power in France in 1799 and
consolidated his country’s international power
with victory after victory, until a disaster in
Russia in 1812 and his final defeat at Waterloo.
With France finally beaten, Britain became the
world’s foremost imperial power for a century.
The Battle of Trafalgar,
Nelson’s most famous battle,
depicted in a painting

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