(June 14, 2015 at 7:10 pm)RMinimalist Wrote:Quote: And in the case of England, which was a bit more liberal than the others, it was about trade routes and global interests.
Britain always opposed whatever the top continental power might have been as a matter of policy. When they knocked off France they found themselves facing a resurgent Germany.
Britain herself might have been a little bit more liberal than the others. But prior to WWI Britain far more often than not allied her self with the least liberal fractions available in any continental power struggle. Unlike Napoleon, who brought liberal ideal and practices to the countries he subjugated, Britain fought to replace more liberal and progressives french domination that championed the ideals of enlightenment, with more backwards and repressive local hereditary monarchy that looked back wistfully at the middle ages.