The impact on Ireland of French maritime warfare, 1692-1713

Abstract

Historical research on early-modern Ireland bypassed the period between 1691 and 1770 for a long time. Yet this period saw the beginnings of long-term economic growth that eventually changed Irish society drastically. Although economic historians have examined the expansion of maritime trade, conducted within an imperial framework, that drove this development, little work has been done on the early part of the period, and no study has focused on the strategic impact on Irish maritime trade of French maritime warfare between 1692 and 1713 (the war of the League of Augsburg (1692-97) and the Spanish Succession war (1702-13)).