In Frank McLynn’s book, 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World, the author points to 1759 as the year that “effectively made Britain the global superpower of the eighteenth century”.
Aside the book’s conclusion it comprises eleven chapters, each pointing to a theatre where Britain bested its prime imperial antagonist, the French. In the year when the British Museum opened, French strongholds Masulipatam, Guadeloupe and Quebec all fell to the British. In the sea the battles of Lagos and Quiberon Bay saw the naval acumen of Edward Boscawen and Sir Edward Hawke shatter the invasion plans of the French.
Frank McLynn’s account of a year in the middle of the Seven Years War is polemical as well as historical. Opinion on the British Prime Minister the Duke of Newcastle, General James Wolfe, Louis XV, Étienne-François comte de Stainville and a host of others are offered throughout a book that does not fail to captivate.
Each chapter is neatly prefaced with a segment that introduces the reader to important publications released during this annus mirabilis. Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful is given a compelling explanation by McLynn. Whereas in Burke’s philosophy beauty could be approached through rationality, “the sublime lay beyond reason and defied human understanding”. “A classic example of the sublime is the horse in the Book of Job that ‘swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage’.” Burke’s thesis also argued that beauty and the sublime traverse one another: “Looking at the body of a beautiful woman, for example, is ‘like a deceitful maze through which the unsteady eye glides giddily, without knowing to fix or whither it is carried.'” And “Beauty involves love, pleasure and smallness but the sublime entails admiration, pain and greatness.”
McLynn points to William Pitt’s devotion to the war and effective decision making as key to victory in the war. He contrasts the Elder’s ability to lead with the indecision of Louis XV who allowed influence to devolve to his mistress Madame Pompadour in a period of internecine strife and trouble with the papacy and parlement.
That 1759 saw Britain utilise an ability to borrow money more easily than the French is also covered; Britain vanquished France with the aid of an unprecedented war budget. This proved pivotal in ‘New France’ and the West Indies where the French failed to reinforce their territories and were hence defeated.
Some chapters are better than others but a highlight is certainly “Wolfe at Quebec”. General Wolfe‘s death on the battlefield is surrounded by pathos that secures him a place in the pantheon of Britain’s greatest war heroes. His memoirs are cited and make for fascinating reading, whilst McLynn argues that his victory was down to a fair slice of luck as much as military skill.
Reading this book is a useful application of anyone’s time who wishes to learn more about the first ‘world war’, and become engrossed in a story that coruscates with fascinating anecdote and narrative throughout. 1759 was truly a stellar year for Britain and without the efforts of our forebears our national identity and story would have been so very different.
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