ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a period commonly ignored and shows how it has much to offer not only in the consideration of eighteenth-century British foreign policy, but, more specifically, in the assessment of the context and consequences of interventionism. In the last fifteen years, the 1720s have received insufficient attention,3 and it is easy to see why. From the perspective of the dominant meta-narrative of British policy, namely the rise to imperial hegemony,4 the 1720s appear far less important than the midcentury years, especially the Seven Years’ War. Furthermore, from the perspective of growing problems in the imperial relationship, and the potent fracturing of the trans-Atlantic link, they appear far less important than the 1760s and 1770s. In addition, compared to the conflict of the preceding and following decades the European diplomacy of the 1720s appears inconsequential, deterring scholars from devoting sufficient attention to a period that also suffers from the more general shadowing in European history of the decades prior to mid-century.5
