The Genesis of the Establishment

The peace at the end of the Napoleonic wars yielded one of the most famous examples of leverage in world history.

There were many victors present at the Vienna conference, because so many nations had participated in the alliance against Napoleon.  There were many agendas that had to be balanced. But historians agree that one nation came after from the conference with exactly what it wanted, which in fact was the key to world mastery in the coming century, and the conditions for creating a whole new world economy.

The victors at the conference, being almost entirely continental in orientation, essentially allowed Britain to gain a military monopoly over the high seas. This amazing development, which was hardly challenged by other nations at the conference, ended a period of approximately three centuries during which the various European powers had struggled over control of the oceans in the age of sailing ships.  In the end, Britain had come out on top, having put down its last rival, which was France.

In the decades that followed, the British monopoly on the high seas turned out to be a massive boon for world economy of all nations, not just Britain.  The ability of single naval force to patrol the oceans and to keep them free of piracy, among other things, provided the stage by which world trade could explode in volume, right as the industrial age was taking off. 

For all its other drawbacks, the Victorian era (especially the latter half of the century) is regarded as a period of great liberalization and stability, with advancement of openness and prosperity broadly across society, including the rise of a large middle class in many nations. It also provided the circumstances for the rise of populist awakenings and democratically inspired revolutions across the western world.

The triumph of the British Century is due to the fact that Britain had been wise early enough after the Napoleonic wars ended to know that its military position alone, even at sea, would be insufficient to sustain this situation over the long term. Thus began a century long era in British politics and statecraft known as the Great Game, which can be interpreted as saying that they were looking for the best forms of leverage in any situation over time, to maintain their position at the top.

Not surprisingly, one of the first things, if not the first thing, that the British obtained monopoly over, in order to sustain their military power, was mastery over capital, via the formation of a new global banking system that was based on gold and centered in London.

Of course, this would also provided the means by the which the new American elite, in the second half of the century, could most easily join with their British counterparts ultimately to create a unified Anglo-American ruling class.