The British presence in Mediterranean islands, 1793-1815

Abstract

Between 1794 and 1815 Britain occupied no less than eighteen islands in the Mediterranean, though several were very small indeed (Capraja, Lampedusa, Camino, Cerigo and Ithaca, for instance). Most were held until the wars ended, though some were given up earlier: Corsica in 1796, Elba in 1797, Minorca in 1802, Capri in 1800 and Ischia and Procida in 1809. Can any common purpose or purposes be discerned in this amazing dispersal of effort? First, there was the quest for a sovereign base from which the navy could operate to safeguard trade in the Mediterranean. Second, there was the wish to save Italy from falling into the grips of France and, when this became impossible to attempt a recovery of that peninsula in cooperation with Austria and Russia. Third, there was the determination to preserve Egypt, the route to British possessions in India and ultimately the whole Turkish empire, from conquest from Napoleon, by the occupation of strategically placed islands.