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The Gunboat Diplomacy of the Government of George Grenville, 1764–1765: The Honduras, Turks Island and Gambian Incidents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Nicholas Tracy
Nicholas Tracy
Affiliation:
Canadian Department of National Defence
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Extract

In the years following the conclusion of the Peace of Paris in 1763, George Grenville possessed a reputation for his consistent demands that Britain's war-proven naval superiority should be used to strengthen British diplomacy and prevent the Family Compact reacquiring die means of endangering Britain. In a typical statement to the Commons in 1768, referring to the Grafton Government's mishandling of the Corsican crisis, he said: ‘for fear of going to war, you will make war unavoidable’. It is interesting, therefore, to examine how and for what reasons the Grenville Government used its naval resources in conjunction with diplomacy to defend British interests when they were threatened consecutively in Honduras, Turks Island, and the Gambia in 1764–5.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1974 , pp. 711 - 731
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

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31 ADM 2/1332, p. 124, Secret orders to Burnaby, 29 Sept.; and ADM 2/92, p. 173. Cf. Calendar of Home Office Papers 1760–1765, 1878–1899, no. 1474, Stephens to Sedgwick, 6 Oct.Google Scholar

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44 SP 44/231, p. 246.

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65 ADM 1/4126, no. 98; ADM 2/1332, fo. 133; and ADM 2/371, p. 517, Admiralty to Halifax, 25 Mar.

66 ADM 2/372, p. 1, Admiralty to Conway, 25 July 1765.

67 ADM 1/1836, no. 2, 22 Mar. 1765.

68 Cf. ADM 2/371, p. 520, and SP 42/65, Admiralty to Halifax, II May 1765.

69 ADM 1/1836, no. 2, Graves to Stephens, 24 Apr., et seq.; CO 267/1; and ADM 2/372, p. 2, and SP 42/65, Admiralty to Conway, 29 July 1765.

70 Cf. ADM 2/93, p. 4, Admiralty to Edgcumbe, 7 Aug.; and ADM 1/804, Edgcumbe to Stephens, II Aug.