The making of a world power

"In 1605 England was a second-rate European power. There was neither a full-time navy nor a standing army. By 1705, however, this situation had changed dramatically, and England's professional army and navy were playing crucial roles in Europe and in North America. British army and navy personnel, backed by well-established military and financial organizations at home and abroad, allowed the island nation to become a leading European nation state and world power." "To explain this dramatic turnaround, Professor Wheeler refutes existing scholarship that places Britain's military and financial revolutions after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He locates them earlier and, in particular, explains how they were centrally related to the mid-seventeenth century conflicts, both domestic and foreign." "Offering a radical re-interpretation of this important aspect of British history, this readable study reaches out to everyone fascinated by history, and to anyone interested in the roots of English world supremacy and the foundations of empire."--Jacket.