Britain in 1815 was an empire of contrasts. It had just won a world war; it had just allowed its most dangerous enemy to return.[1] It had enormously powerful armed services; it was dismantling those services to save money. It was leading the world in industrialization; it was deeply in debt.[2] It was on the cusp of its greatest century; it was on the cusp of revolution. Studying this country, at this time in its history, poses some formidable challenges to historians. What kinds of questions to ask, what kinds of material to gather, and what kinds of stories to tell—these are universal historical questions. But for Britain in 1815, the stakes are particularly high: ignoring one half of any of these contrasts comes at great cost to our understanding both of Britain in that particular time, but also more generally of all the Allied powers in the aftermath of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Every member of the victorious coalition quickly discovered the major transition costs associated with the end of two decades of conflict. Whole sectors of national economies that depended on the war effort collapsed, while the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora caused a global climate catastrophe in 1816 that exacerbated the plight of farmers around Europe.
Centering veteran soldiers and sailors in studying this period can help us bridge the contradictions of the post-war world. French historians have taken the lead on this front, but there is more to say.[3] In the British case, soldiers and sailors had just helped win the world war; they had also been dramatically affected by Napoleon's return from Elba, as deployments shifted suddenly, enlistments were extended, and the campaign in the Low Countries got underway. Soldiers and sailors were the backbone of British power, but they were costly to keep in the field and at sea. Reducing the military and naval budgets was the government's priority because the services received the bulk of government spending. Soon, sailors would enforce the Pax Britannica, and soldiers would grow the British Empire to its globe-spanning peak. But not yet: in the decade after Waterloo, soldiers and sailors participated on both sides of an almost-revolution in Britain. From the Corn Law riots in 1815 through the famous massacre at Peterloo in 1819 to the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820, Britain was teetering on the brink of domestic collapse even while it seemed to be the greatest victor of the Napoleonic Wars.
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