| 1793 | The French Revolutionary Wars having begun the previous year, Britain joins Austria and Prussia in opposing France, bringing the full power of the Royal Navy to bear at sea while the Allies fight on land (1 February). |
| 1794 | In the first fleet action of the war, Admiral Lord Howe defeats the French off Ushant (1 June). |
| 1795 | Spain abandons the First Coalition and concludes a treaty of alliance with France against Britain, throwing her substantial fleet into the scales and forcing the Royal Navy to abandon the Mediterranean (19 August). |
| 1797 | Admiral Sir John Jervis vanquishes the Spanish at St Vincent (14 February), while the Channel Fleet defeats a Dutch force at Camperdown (11 October). Serious mutinies break out at Spithead (16 April) and the Nore (12 May) affecting the Channel and North Sea fleets, respectively. |
| 1798 | After fruitlessly searching the Mediterranean for the French fleet conveying Bonaparte’s army to Egypt, Nelson finally discovers it anchored in Aboukir Bay, near Alexandria, where he annihilates it, leaving the French stranded without hope of reinforcement or withdrawal (1–2 August). |
| 1801 | Seeking to oppose neutral powers’ limitations on British naval and commercial access to the Baltic Sea, the Admiralty dispatches a naval force to confront the Danish Fleet, which Nelson, albeit at significant loss to his own force, drubs at Copenhagen (2 April). |
| 1802 | After a decade of conflict in Europe, a fragile peace is established by the Treaty of Amiens, bringing an end to the French Revolutionary Wars (30 March). |
| 1803 | After French interference in the internal affairs of Switzerland and Holland, Britain refuses to evacuate Malta, as agreed at Amiens, as a counterweight to growing French hegemony on the Continent. Her declaration of war inaugurates a new series of conflicts known as the Napoleonic Wars (18 May). |
| 1804 | Irritated by Spain’s ostensible neutrality but partiality toward France, Britain seizes a Spanish treasure fleet bound from Montevideo, provoking a declaration of war from Madrid (12 December). |
| 1805 | In the most decisive naval encounter in history, Nelson confronts a combined French and Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar, capturing or destroying over half the enemy’s force and thus safeguarding Britain from invasion for the remainder of the war (21 October). |
| 1812 | After many years’ deteriorating relations between Britain and the United States over maritime rights, open hostilities break out, requiring the Royal Navy to deploy substantial numbers of frigates and smaller vessels to the western Atlantic (18 June). |
| 1814 | The Allies capture Paris (30 March), bringing an end to hostilities. |
| 1815 | Having escaped from exile on Elba, Napoleon marches into Belgium where he is decisively defeated by the Anglo-Allied and Prussian armies at Waterloo (18 June). The Anglo-American War formally comes to an end in February, the as yet unratified peace having been signed at Ghent the previous Christmas Eve. |