Trafalgar and Waterloo

Britain's wars in this period stretched across two very different fronts. In North America, the American colonies declared independence from Britain in 1776, rejecting London's right to tax them without their consent. It took years of fighting before the argument was settled on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.

Meanwhile, war returned much closer to home, against France. Britain's navy met the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, commanded by Lord Horatio Nelson. The battle ended in a British victory and confirmed British naval dominance, but Nelson himself did not survive it. The land war against France dragged on for several more years before it was finally decided at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, where Lord Wellington led the British army to the victory that put an end to the fighting for good.