The answer to the first question is a matter of history. England was
peculiarly favoured by fortune or by fate in the great struggles through
which, during a period of three hundred years, she asserted and
increased her superiority at sea until a century ago it became
supremacy. She rarely had to fight alone. Her first adversary was Spain.
In the conflict with Spain she had the assistance of the Dutch
Provinces. When the Dutch were strong enough to become her maritime
rivals she had for a time the co-operation of France. Then came a long
period during which France was her antagonist. At the beginning of this
epoch William III. accepted the British crown in order to be able to use
the strength of England to defend his native country, Holland. His work
was taken up by Marlborough, whose first great victory was won in
co-operation with the Imperial commander, Prince Eugene. From that time
on, each of the principal wars was a European war in which France was
fighting both by sea and land, her armies being engaged against
continental foes, while Great Britain could devote her energies almost
exclusively to her navy. In the Seven Years' War it was the Prussian
army which won the victories on land, while small British forces were
enabled by the help of the navy to win an Empire from France in Canada,
and to lay the foundations of the British Empire in India.
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