Battle of Trafalgar (1805)

By the early nineteenth century, Napoleon Bonaparte had made France the dominant power in continental Europe. Britain remained the principal opponent of Napoleonic France. Napoleon planned to invade Britain, but to do so he needed to control the seas around the British Isles. The Battle of Trafalgar was a direct attempt to achieve this goal.

On 21 October 1805, the British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson engaged the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar, near the southern coast of Spain. Nelson employed an innovative tactical approach — attacking the enemy line perpendicularly — which threw the Franco-Spanish fleet into confusion. The British won a decisive victory, destroying or capturing more than twenty enemy ships without losing a single British vessel.

However, Nelson was shot by a French sniper during the battle and died shortly after, knowing that the victory had been secured. His final signal to the fleet — “England expects that every man will do his duty” — became one of the most famous phrases in British history.

The Battle of Trafalgar secured British naval supremacy for the remainder of the nineteenth century and ended Napoleon's plans to invade Britain. Nelson became a national hero. Trafalgar Square in central London is named in honour of the battle, and Nelson's Column — a tall column topped by a statue of Nelson — stands at its centre as a permanent memorial.