Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

It's often said that British sea power was at its pinnacle in the years following the French and Napoleonic wars.

But was this really a time when Britain ruled the waves?

And how did the rise of steam, development of international communication,

and establishment of naval air services reshape Britain's strength and strategy at sea?

Speaking to Emily Briffett for today's episode,

historian Nicholas A.M. Roger sketches out the history of the British Navy

from the early 19th century up until 1945.

So today we're going to be talking about your new book, The Price of Victory.

Now, this book comes as the final instalment of your definitive trilogy on Britain's naval history.

So I wanted to ask you, where you start with your book?

You start at the end of the French and Napoleonic Wars.

British sea power was at its apogee.

What exactly set Britain apart it in this early era?

Well, that's a good question, and it's the one I start out with the very beginning of the book,

partly because most people, I find, have a mental vision of early 19th century Britain as being the great

naval and economic power of the age, the great imperial power.

Actually, most of that hadn't happened yet.

At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain was one of the four

leading anti-French powers which had allied to fight the French, and after Waterloo, they had

definitively won. But Britain was about the same sort of level of military strength as Austria, Prussia.

So Britain wasn't, in fact, vastly dominant over the rest of the world.

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